Executive Council Meeting

Conservation Commission Headquarters, Auditorium

June 9, 2016

10:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m.

Minutes

Welcome & Introductions –Casey Jo Kellner welcomed everyone to the meeting, and the following were in attendance: Sarah Crocker, Jon Skinner, Gene Brunk, Sarah Crowder, Chuck Conner, Cindy Garner, Brett O’Brien, Dean Alberty, Jennifer Behnken, Ron Lumb, Martha Clark, Gayle Fry, John Ebeling, Scott Skopec, Josh Behounek, Matt Parkins, Austin Lampe, Mike Fleischhauer, Mike Walsh, Jenifer Trump, Stacy Armstrong, and Russell Hinnah.

Minutes Read and Approved – Caseyasked if anyone had changes to the minutes from the April 17, 2016 meeting minutes. Martha Clark made a motion to accept the minutes as presented with corrections. John Ebelingseconded the motion. The minutes were approved.

Treasurer Report – Brett O’Briensubmitted the following Treasurer Report:

  • Regular share (savings)-$10,253.19
  • 02 Northwest-$0.01
  • 03 Northeast -$0.01
  • 04 Central-$2,261.08
  • 05 St. Louis (Christmas club) $1,518.68
  • 07 Southwest- $376.52
  • 77 East Central $ 2,582.98
  • 76 Square CC- $2,484.03
  • 75 Regular checking-$35,020.06
  • Total of all accounts - $54,496.56

-Brett reported that he has worked up the invoices to get to Russell for the MDC contract.

-The latest expense came from the poster contest advertisement in the teacher online newsletter for $900.00.

Old Business

Update: Items of Statewide Interest – Group

  • Trees are infrastructure. There was discussion on possibly doing a presentation at the annual conference on how to communicate trees and what catch phrases to use. The public doesn’t understand the true meaning of infrastructure. We need to deliver a lot of technical wording but make it public friendly.
  • The Springfield region has been seeing a lot of volcano mulching lately. The region has created a poster from the publication Mulch: Tree Care Basics. The poster addresses issues of volcano mulching. The idea is to place this poster near mulch bins at stores or green houses that sell trees and create pamphlets to pass out as well. The group did discuss having banners created for contractor areas. Ron Lumb made a motion to support the project and proceed further with the southwest region completing the poster. John Ebeling seconded the motion; motion carried. There were suggestions put on the floor on what to change or add to the posters and pamphlet for the region to consider. Dean Alberty made the motion to fund $200.00 to create examples to bring back to the August meeting. Austin Lampe amended the motion to $500.00. John Ebeling seconded the motion; motion carried.
  • Tree topping was mentioned. Companies are asking for a handout to give to landowners. MDC staff mentioned there are two publications: Kindest Cut and Don’t Top Your Tree. There was discussion on the floor about doing a mail out with those publications. Josh Behounek volunteered to put together a cover letter explaining why the landowners are receiving this letter and include the brochures with the letter. Josh Behounek made the motion to spend $100.00 for mailing out the anti-tree topping materials. Gene Brunk seconded the motion; motion carried.
  • Russell Hinnah followed up with the urban planting that was mentioned last meeting. He reported it was difficult to google the company. There wasn’t much out there. Their website does not mention they will cut down trees. The most we know is the company is reforesting vacant lots that they city owns and cut down the trees in 10-12 years to boost urban wood products. Casey mentioned for the group to be aware of this. At this point, it is a little pre-mature for MCFC to get involved. This topic will be removed from the agenda until further notice.

Update: 2017 Conference Planning – Springfield Region

The planning team reported that the conference will be March 7th – 9th at the Ramada Oasis in Springfield, Missouri. The education committee has been reaching out to bigger keynote speakers. The committee is hoping to have everything ready to present at August meeting. They are also looking into having MDC host a pre-conference event Tuesday morning, free of charge. There was discussion about hosting another 5K. Casey mentioned she would run it by the committee.

Update: Plant More Trees Initiative – Mike Walsh, on behalf of Tom Ebeling

Mike reported that last Friday Tom submitted a TRIM grant through MDC for the following improvements:

Extended hosting/maintenance

Creation of a “public” organizations (so individuals can plot trees without username/account)

Ability to upload/import existing shape files and spreadsheet information (i.e. existing inventory data)

Ability to see planting site on google street view

Update: Champion Tree Fund – Mike Walsh

Mike reported that they held a work day on May 14th. The tree injections did not take longer than four minutes each. Everything went great and the landowners were very appreciative. Mike also reported there is a Champion Blue Ash in Booneville that could use a work day. Josh Behounek will send an email to Mike about it.

New Business

Coordination of Legislation Day in April of 2017

  • Suggestion was made to put this item on December’s agenda to organize and partner with Conservation Federation of Missouri (CFM)

2016 – 2017 Strategic Plan Development & Implementation

The strategic plan was presented to the group. Scott asked if anyone had any questions. The discussion led to a few suggestions:

Requested that Josh define membership. Scott mentioned that Josh has already completed this through survey monkey. There was some discussion on a board of directors and membership structure.

Change strategic plan from yearly back to two years to coincide with officer term of service.

Martha Clark made the motion to approve the strategic plan as presented. Ron Lumb seconded the motion; motion carried.

Review At Large Member List (Appendix B)

The At Large Member list was handed out. The following changes were made:

Jim Rocca – Change to an honorary lifetime member

Remove Bridging the Gap from the list

Change to Liaison

  • NRCS State Forester
  • Missouri Forest Products Association
  • Missouri Parks and Recreation Association
  • United States Forest Service
  • Missouri Invasive Species Task Force
  • Missouri Forest Resources Advisory Council
  • Midwestern ISA
  • Society of Municipal Arborist

Stay At-Large Members

  • University of Missouri
  • MODOT Roadside Management
  • Past Chairperson
  • Current Chairperson
  • Vice Chairperson
  • Treasurer
  • Forest ReLeaf of Missouri
  • Missouri Consulting Foresters
  • Federated Garden Clubs
  • Gene Brunk – Charter Member
  • Heartland Tree Alliance
  • Utility Arborist Association

John Ebeling made the motion to approve the amended at large member list. Ron Lumb seconded the motion; motion carried.

Officer Nominations

  • President – Scott Skopec
  • Vice President – Austin Lampe
  • Treasurer – Brett O’Brien

Martha Clark made the motion for the nominative ballot to become elected. Ron Lumb seconded the motion; motion carried.

Spring/Summer CityScape – Brett O’Brien

Brett O’Brien passed around a copy of the Spring CityScape. Scott will write a small article about himself since he is the new MCFC chair for the Summer CityScape.

2016 – 2017 Missouri Arbor Day Poster Contest for 5th Grade

Jacob McMains should have the finalized curriculum in August to present. During September and October we will run four banner ads for the contest through MSTA. Casey is working on the administrative side of things, challenging each region to get ten new schools to participate. The launch date will be after Labor Day.

2018 Conference Update

Sarah reported that she had spoken with Kyle Monroe. At the last meeting it was discussed about hosting the 2018 conference in Hannibal. With there being some moving parts within the NE region of MDC, Kyle’s work duties are going to be altered. With that mentioned, they are looking into hosting the annual conference in Hannibal for 2019 or 2020. The 2018 conference will be held in either Kansas City or Central regions.

Program Reports

Communications Committee

  • No Report

Education/Outreach Committee

  • No Report

Membership Committee

Josh Behounek reported that Constant Contact is currently running the group $35.00 per month. There are 944 email contacts listed in Constant Contact which are broken down into regions. Casey requested the committee to come up with a list of things we could share. Examples: event notices, job notices, etc. Suggestions were made to: include guidelines on items that can be sent out, include a sign-up on the website and have copies of sign-up sheets at local meetings. Casey will send Sarah the link so she can forward on to the state meeting email list. Another suggestion was to send another sign-up out to those who aren’t currently in Constance Contact.

Articles of Incorporation and Bylaws Review

  • Addressed in New Business

Strategic Plan Review

  • Addressed in New Business

Areas of Need Task Force

  • Addressed in Old Business

Missouri Arbor Award of Excellence Committee

  • No Report

Liaison Reports

Utility Arborist Association – No Report

Missouri Department of Conservation – Russell Hinnah

  • FY16 TRIM Grants are currently being paid out.
  • FY17 TRIM Grants are currently being submitted.
  • The FY17 online TRIM process is not working. The Department is looking into redoing the system with an outside company.

Forest ReLeaf–Mike Walsh submitted the following report:

Project CommuniTree:

We’ve had a busy spring at the nursery and containerized more than 23,000 trees, shrubs, and wildflowers. Most of the species are off to a great start with the exception of Flowering dogwood and Willow oak, which have proven difficult to grow over the years. We have distributed more than 3,600 trees and shrubs this spring. We have also given away many hundreds of native wildflowers for planting projects. Look for program announcement in late-August to early-September depending upon the weather.

Priority ReLeaf

We have awarded more than 100 15-gallon trees this spring to planting projects in the St. Louis Metro area and Joplin. We have major plans to focus our Priority ReLeaf projects this fall replacing ash trees in financially underserved areas in St. Louis. We received the largest private grant in the history of the organization this year for solely that purpose.

Tree Sales:

We netted more than $8,500 in tree sales this spring, which also included native wildflowers. We participated in the Shaw Nature Reserve Plant sale and made almost $1,700. We have big plans for fall sales with our 7- and 15-gallon nursery at full capacity. We plan to have our catalog mailed out and online by the end of August-September.

Other Updates

We hired a summer intern who is enrolled at in the Horticulture program at St. Louis Community College-Meramec.

We secured a grant to establish a ½ acre prairie in our new expansion area and are seeking funding for a pollinator demonstration garden as well. Special thanks to Cuivre River EC for helping us remove numerous cottonwood trees to get the prairie project underway.

Our FUNdraiser, CommuniTree Jubilee, held last weekend, raised over $35,000 for Forest ReLeaf. Lisa Allen served as a guest speaker, as did Eric Hadley of the Ferguson/Florissant Schools Little Creek Nature Center. The next fundraiser will be ArborMeisters on September 17th at the nursery.

Forest ReLeaf recently eceived two significant grants to assist the City of St. Louis with reforestation after ash tree removal. Work will commence in Ward 1, the first area targeted for ash removal.

Tom Ebeling is working on refinements to the Plant MOre Trees tool and will continue to reach out to organizations and groups to encourage them to add their projects to the map. A new TRIM grant was submitted last week that, if funded, will make it easier for the general public to plot tree plantings. Tom will share details during the meeting.

Mo. Dept. of Transportation – Stacy Armstrong gave the following report.

  • Earth Day was held April 2nd on the Capital lawn. They handed out seedlings from MDC State Nursery.
  • Missouri Invasive Species Task Force will ask for a Liaison representative.

Mo. Forest Products Association- No Report

University/Extension –No Report

Missouri Parks & Recreation Association – Jan Neitzert/Gary Gates – No Report

Federated Garden Clubs –Gale Fry gave the following report.

The president from the Garden Club has challenged them to encourage the public to plant 5,000 trees. With the numbers that have already been planted. They are expecting to exceed that number. A suggestion was made for Plant MOre Trees to plot those planted. Gayle will send the information on where these trees are being planted to Mike Walsh.

NRCS State Forester – Nate Goodrich – No Report

SMA – No Report

MWISA – No Report

MOFRAC – Gene Brunk gave the following report.

The group met June 8th discussing MU’s urban forestry program. The university will not be offering the program this year. The Agri-Dean has resigned due to some embezzlement charges. They will maintain the Bachelor of Science in Forestry but will combine other degree areas to get an Environmental Science Program. Hank Stelzer is unsure on where things are going. The group suggested MCFC write a letter expressing the importance of the degree program. Josh will follow up with Hank to see who we should write a letter to.

Region Reports & Volunteer Hours

  • Kansas City – Chuck Conner reported the region held a EAB workshop. There were 47 arborists present. Heartland Tree Alliance reported they have had several work days, mainly pruning. They planted 40 tree and are working on getting volunteers back. No volunteer hours to report.
  • Northwest – Martha Clark reported their region has been working on their tree value sign project. Out of 44 signs, there are 31 left over. The region also reported they participated in MDC Arbor Day event as well as City of Savannah’s. The region had a total of 22 volunteer hours.
  • Central –The region reported they haven’t had a meeting since the last MCFC meeting. Gene has been going to several meetings with reported 18 volunteer hours alone. The region has been hanging price tags around Columbia and will participate in various festivals. The region had a total of 34 volunteer hours.
  • Northeast –No Report
  • East Central/St. Louis–No Report
  • Southwest – The region reported they met in April and have been completing their Arbor Day poster events. They have been having really good attendance with planning the conference. They reported a total of 75 volunteer hours including Joplin.

Adjournment – with no further business, the meeting was adjourned.

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