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Hi, everyone.
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We'll get started here in a couple minutes and let
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folks trickle in.
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All right, welcome everyone to our third climate
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conversation session. I'm Leah
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Kelleher and I'm one of two communication Specialists
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with the city's climate initiatives Department. My counterpart
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Emily Sandoval is behind the scenes
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running the show tonight in the
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next hour or so. We'll explore an area
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of climate work called natural climate Solutions.
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And we'll hear from those leading our community-wide cool Boulder
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campaign.
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Before we get started. I'd like to draw everyone's attention
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to the Q&A function that will be using to receive
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an answer questions tonight. So throughout
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the presentation you can submit questions
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by pressing the little Q&A icon at
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the bottom of your screen, which will open a window
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where you can type in your question and submit it
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whenever you so please and feel free. Like
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I said to submit questions as they come up,
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Now throughout the presentation.
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will be
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This presentation sorry is going to be recorded and
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will be accessible on our website. And now
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I'm going to turn it over to two of
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my colleagues Brett can Karen and Rella Abernathy so
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they can introduce themselves Brett rella.
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Good evening everyone. My name is Brett. Kin Karen. I'm
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one of the clean leading senior policy
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advisor here for the city's climate action
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Department.
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Hi, and I'm really Abernathy. I also work
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for the climate initiatives department on the natural
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climate Solutions team with Brett.
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Well, we're really excited to have everybody here tonight. And I just
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want to give you a little bit of an overview of what we're going to cover. So we're
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gonna go down through four major action
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areas that we are working on in this
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cool Boulder natural climate Solutions work.
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Starting with our work around biodiversity and
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pollinator protection absorbent Landscapes our
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connected canopy urban forestry work and then
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some of the really fun and exciting citizen science
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that we've been working on as well and then we'll round
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out to talk about the sort of partnership context of this
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whole piece but to get a started I wanted to introduce our
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city manager in area who has a special welcome for
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all of us.
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In Boulder, we recognize that climate change is not just
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happening. It's intensifying and accelerating.
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Together our community has been working side by
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side to protect our natural resources build more
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resilient community and lead and sustainability
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for over a century.
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Climate and resilience work is at the core of
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what we stand for as an organization and there are
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so many examples of this across the city departments.
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From water utility capturing methane from our
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Water Resources recovery facility to our open space that's
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working hard to restore the health of our soils or a
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transportation department who is always looking for low
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or no emission Mobility Alternatives. This is
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truly a Citywide responsibility.
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Also know that how we anticipate and prepare
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for the worst impacts of the climate crisis is on
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our minds as is how do we protect and identify those
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that are most vulnerable amongst us?
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To secure a safe environment and a safe future for all
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of our community. We must redouble our efforts to address the
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climate crisis and prepare for inevitable change. The city
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of Boulder takes this responsibility very seriously. The
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good news is that we know what we need to do. We
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need to cut greenhouse gas emissions by half
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by 2030. We need to rapidly transition from
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fossil fuels to better renewable sources of
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energy.
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We need to protect our forest and undeveloped lands
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to absorb carbon and heat we need to transform our
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cities through walkability and electrified Transit.
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We should change our Behavior so that we all lead more efficient climate-friendly
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lives and create an environment that
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limits extraction and generates less waste thanks
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to you our community. We know
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that those Solutions are within reach.
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Okay. Well, we thought it would be sort of
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appropriate since we're talking about essentially living
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systems ecosystems natural climate solutions that we
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be out and about in the community as much as possible for
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this presentation. So let's just start up with some of
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our really iconic landscapes for our
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next piece.
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Good evening, dear Boulder Community.
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We are so excited to have you here this evening to join us
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in a conversation about this new area of
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climate action. We called natural climate Solutions.
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There's so much to discuss but I think maybe we just
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wanted to start by recognizing that this whole
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area of work really grows out of a long Legacy of
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our communities connection to its Living World our
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love of its beauty our our nourishment
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from all of its health and its vitality
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and the ways that we've worked in many ways to
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be on the Leading Edge of trying to understand what it takes to take
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care of these places in ways that they can take care of us.
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Climate change is a reality that we are going to
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have to live with with increasing regularity just
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in the last decade in the Boulder area alone. We've
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experienced historic flooding.
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Multiple extreme weather events unlike those we've typically
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seen and of course numerous fires some
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burning right down to our doorsteps at times
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and in places that we never thought would be at fire risk.
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So that's the bad news. We are going to have to prepare ourselves for
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the increasing intensity and frequency of climate
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change impacts.
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The good news is that we can work with
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the Living World in ways that not only improve our
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resilience to those kinds of disruptive forces.
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but that ultimately are a part of helping to
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stabilize climate through the very important climate
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buffering effects that living systems have
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an example in our own recent experience are the
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spring fires that took place right outside here in Boulder.
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I'm standing in fact in front of the fire scars
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from the end car fire this spring now, you'll
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notice that that Forest is not completely destroyed and
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that's not a coincidence. It's because of years of
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careful forestry activity that had reduced the
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fuels that had thinned up branches that had created us
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condition in which fires could move through those Landscapes improving
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actually the health of those ecosystems
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and reducing risk of fire later on
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so there are ways that we can start working with
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living systems in numerous ways. And that's what we're about to start talking
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about.
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So let's
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talk a little bit about what natural climate
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Solutions are.
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First and frankly most fundamentally. It's recognizing that
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we are a part of a larger Living Community. All
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of which actually has a vested interests
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in a healthy stable dynamic system.
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And so really in the most fundamental sense
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natural climate Solutions is turning towards the living world as an
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ally in this effort.
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It's more specifically it means working with the
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different types of living systems that are around
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us riparians in Greenways Urban forests. Not
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of natural force Parks grasslands agricultural
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systems. And of course all the Aquatic systems as
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well intersected, by the way, in almost all
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cases by the carbon that flows through them which
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we can help augment through compost and Mulch and
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biochar into to work with those systems not
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only to draw carbon out of the atmosphere but use
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that carbon in ways that actually create some of those
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life support services that we really need more shade more
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stormwater absorption more clean nutrient
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dense food more biodiversity to keep
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all of those pieces in place that help keep that system going.
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And I think that this this for this this
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graphic tries to also encapsulate that climate action
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is no longer just about that sort of carbon emissions
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management piece it now as we've we've said
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that there's going to be climate change we have
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to prepare to adapt and be resilient to that and we
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have to do all of that in ways that are Equitable especially
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to Serve and Protect those who are most vulnerable into
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those who have not historically been served as well by
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our systems.
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So let's talk a little bit about how natural climate Solutions have
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emerged in why this is the kind of classic Smoking Gun
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sort of causation slide that you'll see between fossil fuel
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combustion and and Atmospheric emissions.
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So the pink line is the amount of
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CO2 that's in the atmosphere and as you can see it was
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going along. So we're a little less than 280 parts
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per million up and through about the mid
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1800s and then suddenly it starts to take off.
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Well at about that time and this is the blue line.
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Not the Blue Line in Boulder elevation line, but the blue
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line of in this case fossil fuel consumption starts to
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really take off. And so we see these two these two lines matching
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very closely. I think well, there you go climate change
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is being driven by this Burning of fossil fuels
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what we've started to realize more recently though is that in addition
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to that that's certainly a positive factor, but it's not
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the only cause that in fact one of the causes that's
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been taking place for quite a long time is the
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actual degradation of living systems the release of
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carbon from the terrestrial systems themselves. In
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fact in a recent analysis that came out these
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scientists projected that something like a third
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to a half of all the excess carbon that's in the atmosphere actually
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came from Land disturbance and
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land degradation. So it's really these two forces
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that we have to be working with to start stabilizing climate
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as you can see these curves match very
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closely together because of course as we had more
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fossil fuels we could degrade more land more efficiently essentially
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and that's contributed to that release of
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living system carbon.
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So we've seen this actually the power
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of living systems in ways that we haven't actually I
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think completely connected to this is the classic the the
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Gathering of the data about atmospheric carbon
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that comes from the Mauna Loa observatory in
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Hawaii. And by the way, one of our community members is actually
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the daughter of Charles Keeling who collected all
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this data and so it's it's kind of an interesting part of
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our own legacy, but what you know, mostly we look at that sort of
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upward curve, but what we don't notice so much is that
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zigzag? What is that zigzag? That's literally the respiration of
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the planet and that until we started tipping this
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system a little bit too much by putting fossil fuels in
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that system are living systems were pulling down. In fact
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more carbon each year than they were releasing and
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it's been because of that tipping through fossil fuel consumption and
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land degradation that we tipped it up until now the land
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and the oceans can't keep track with that. So
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what's important to note here is that the atmosphere
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is not simply
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A geochemical machine that's governed solely
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by CO2 in and CO2 out. It's actually
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a biologically mediated dynamic in
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which the carbon cycle is an important factor, but
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also the water cycle and the terrestrial energy
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cycle and we're starting to realize that we need to be managing
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for and with those Cycles in addition to
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the carbon cycle. If we not only want to stabilize climate, we
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actually want to address a whole series of other challenges.
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We're facing whether it's the biodiversity crisis the lack
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of clean water and and healthy soils
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and a whole bunch of others.
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So really what we're looking at and what Boulder is
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I I'm proud to say really a part of a sort of Leading Edge
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of work is how do we start to look at restoring that
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something like 50% of the global
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terrestrial system that we have degraded literally the the
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planet is operating at something like 50% of
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the photosynthetic capability that it had about
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a thousand years ago and that we need to get that back because
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when we do that has a huge potential to
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stabilize climate.
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This is confirmed in many ways by the recent analysis that
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the ipcc the intergovernmental panel on
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climate change released. In fact in analysis that came
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out in 2017 and 18. It said that over a third of
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all the climate action that we have to accomplish in the next decade could
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be done through working with these natural climate Solutions. And
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what's kind of interesting and in a way sort of
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exciting about this is that we're starting to realize that
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Carbon isn't necessarily a problem unto itself.
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It's where we've put carbon and in fact, we need to put carbon back
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into these living systems to enhance their
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capability of providing these kind of climate stabilizing in
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other services.
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So I think you're gonna see that tonight in this kind of campaign sort
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of a strategy of starting to work with the living world. And that's why
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we've created the cool Boulder campaign. So we really connect this
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work to our own lived experience. And and
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I think we'll say over and over through. This is this is
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not a city campaign. This is a community campaign because
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there's no way that the City by itself could actually as an organization
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accomplish this without the sort of Brilliance and the
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amazing abilities that our community can bring to this
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So we've identified three living systems that
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we're really focusing on initially as a part of this work
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one is of course our forest our Urban forest in particular.
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They're going to be critical to providing that shade and canopy and
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cooling a second is biodiversity in the pollinator
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Pathways because as all the Leopold said
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like we need all those pieces to be a part of this very intricate system
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that keeps that robust ecosystem going and
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finally to really enhance the ability of living
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systems to absorb not simply carbon, but
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also water and energy in ways
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that start to create those stabilizing factors.
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So we'll be talking more about the connected canopies
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work. We'll be talking about this pollinator Pathways and
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other work that we're doing the absorbent Landscapes. And
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also we'll talk a little bit about this really fun
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and exciting Community science efforts that we've
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been launching the first one around Urban heat mapping. We'll hear
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more about that and the really amazing work that
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our Community Partners have been doing about creating high quality
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compost moving into biochar and other factors like
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that. I just want to emphasize again and
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again, though.
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This is a Community Partnership. And there are already we this cool
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Boulder was first launched just this April and there's
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already almost 30 Community Partners who
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signed on who are taking the lead in various ways in this work.
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So I want to turn it over now to our colleague
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Rella Abernathy and others to start talking about how
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we're really leading this biodiversity and pollinator Corridor
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work.
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I'm really Abernathy and I'm a senior college just at the city of Boulder
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and the climate initiatives Department natural climate
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Solutions team. I'm out today with Andrea Montoya
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here at the gas growth historic neighborhood to
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learn about how we can transform Urban spaces
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into high quality connected Habitat to support
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our native insects birds and other wildlife.
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So, why does it matter what we plant in our cities and
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how does this help to reduce the impacts of climate change?
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And interconnected and Inseparable issue the
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same magnitude and importance as a climate crisis is the biodiversity
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crisis.
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Although biodiversity decline is a significant
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challenge. The solution is literally in
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our own hands and people here in Boulder are bringing our community together
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to create Solutions.
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So what is biodiversity did decline all about and
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how does it relate to the climate crisis?
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Biodiversity encompasses all life and all
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organisms on Earth each of these organisms interacts with
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the others in an intricate Web of Life and this
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forms ecosystems of communities of organisms interacting with
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each other in the non-living parts of our environment.
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We can look at how these ecosystems function at different
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scales from local ecosystems to the global scale.
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The problems that arise from the smallest scale can create tipping points
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that can lead to Domino or cascading impacts that
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can shift Global Systems.
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All life on Earth including us is reliant on
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ecosystems.
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They provide the air we breathe from Tiny phytoplankton
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in the oceans to Giant trees and ecosystems
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provide our food. Clean. Our water decompose waste
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provide pest control and regulate our climate.
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As a climate warms and we have more extreme weather events
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ecosystems are impacted.
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The earth's climate has been relatively stable during the time organisms of
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evolved and some are not doing well as temperatures increase
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if organisms can migrate to
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a place they can survive they're doing it. If they can't
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they're populations can crash either locally or even globally
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and the intricate interactions between organisms
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within ecosystem communities is
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shifting.
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As an ecosystem's function is altered. It impacts
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the climate since healthy soils sequester carbon
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hold water and regulate climate at both
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a local angle. Scale. This creates a vicious cycle
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between climate change and biodiversity decline.
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The biggest threat to ecosystems is a way we manage
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Our Land by degrading it and fragmenting ecosystems.
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This Dynamic around and change this vicious cycle to
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a virtuous cycle by using practices that heal
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the land and our ecosystems and preserving contiguous
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natural areas and creating connected habitat.
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An example of the importance of Land Management to biodiversity
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and climate are our Wetlands healthy Wetlands
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contain some of the highest stores of carbon or the
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most productive habitats on Earth acting as nurseries to
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plants and animals and they moderate and buffer storms
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and flooding and the clean and filter or water.
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The city's mosquito program understands the potential
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of wetlands as pest control and specialized ecologists
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who are contracted for the mosquito program conduct the
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biodiversity surveys to learn about the conditions increase populations
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of mosquito predators and reduce the impacts
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of mosquito control products.
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City staff also learned from experts when samples are
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taken with special aquatic Nets it reveals a rich
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variety of Life composed of insect Predators, like baby
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damselflies beetles and bugs.
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And we also know that adult dragonflies are important
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mosquito predators and these
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dragonflies then become food to animals like this fledgling red-winged
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blackbird.
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Agriculture is one of the leading drivers of biodiversity loss.
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We need systemic change to feed people.
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Well at the same time addressing biodiversity decline
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by changing the way we farm and using practices
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that build healthy and Disturbed soils and bring life back
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to Farms. The city has a history of developing sustainable
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agricultural practices and promoting local food
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production. Just last week the city's partner.
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The advice Foundation was here in Boulder Gathering data
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on 20 local farms both City and County
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Agriculture properties as well as private Farms as part
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of their 1,000 Farm initiative where they're
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learning how farming practices affect soil carbon and water soil
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Health the biodiversity events experts and
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plants the nutritional value of food and increasing profit
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for our hard-working Farmers. This research will
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provide a roadmap for farmers who grow different types of crops on
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different types and sizes of farms Across the Nation to help
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them learn from successful regenerative farmers.
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Last week the dices scientists held a science night
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at Golden hope Farm to show our community how this data
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is being collected and how it will be used.
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It makes me feel hopeful that there's so much
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on the ground action to restore the health of our planet.
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I know that many of us feel that we can't do anything as individuals that
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will really make a difference.
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But when more and more people take action and not only
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makes a true ecological impact, but it inspires others to
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join in the way that we manage our yards and
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green spaces can create safer spaces for people
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and Wildlife.
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But can also protect our creeks and waterways from toxic runoff. We
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can all make a difference by learning together and building relationships with
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each other and with nature it can start by
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taking out some grass and planting a native shrub or some native grasses or
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flowers. Andrea can tell you how you can get
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involved.
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Hi, my name is Andrea Montoya and
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I live in the historic Costco neighborhood where I
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started several years back a project
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called building a pollinator Corridor. It
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started from my understanding that native
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Beast species were in great decline. Not
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the honey bees that were imported here long ago, but
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the bees that evolved here.
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And then I learned that the reason that these bees
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are in great decline is because habitat
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is in great decline. We're losing numbers
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of species of native plants year after
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year because of lawns.
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I looked around my neighborhood and I noticed a
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couple of things one. We have tremendous beautiful flower
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gardens in each yard, but they're separated by
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large spaces. And another thing I noticed were these small
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pocket parks that we had were the only thing
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growing with sod and I knew our community could
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do better.
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I started a project called building pollinator
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habitat and found other neighbors
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were also very interested in improving our
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local habitats by planting plants that
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are native to our area. We could attract native
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insects that evolved with them that
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we could improve our own ecosystem right
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here in our own neighborhood.
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It turns out that the city of Boulder was also interested
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in this project and in the last year in
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particular, we've joined together in creating
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a wonderful program called the
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pollinator. Advocacy program.
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the pollinator advocacy program is a program that
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was developed in conjunction with the Horticultural team
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at the Butterfly Pavilion to develop a
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program that brings community members together to learn
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about how to build maintain and
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grow these beautiful pollinator habitats habitats
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that support all of our native
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insects and songbirds
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it's free. You can join us anytime during
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the next session that will be
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starting sometime in the spring or early summer what this
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program offers is an in-depth view
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of how to build these habitats everything
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from what goes into the soil how you
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maintain the court how you maintain your habitat how
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to grow the plants which plants to
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choose how to group them.
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intimidating at first and a lot of people come
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into it saying I have no idea what to do, even
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though I've been a gardener for years, but after weeks
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of being together sharing our group Knowledge Learning and
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studying what the Horticultural team from Butterfly
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Pavilion has brought to us and what we've learned on
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our own we bring it together and synthesize it
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to build a beautiful program of people working together
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achieving this goal of building not
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only habitat in our own yards, but
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in our broader
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Isn't she amazing? I can tell you every bit
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is amazing as she seems and in fact, you could be hanging out with Andrea.
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So that was the biodiversity and
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and pollinator Pathways elements of our work. We're going
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to now talk a little bit about the absorbent Landscapes where
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I get to introduce another one of my heroes a couple
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of years back the our open space and Mountain parks department
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really realized that we needed to start focusing on soil
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Health much more extensively. And so we've created a new
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position in the city of Boulder to really focus on soil health
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and have hired an amazing soil scientists named
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Lauren Cole who's going to tell you a little bit more about absorbent landscapes.
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Soils are they figurative and literal Foundation of
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terrestrial ecosystems? And so when we have healthy
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soils, we have a wide array of
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ecosystem benefits that come along with it every drop that
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falls on the ground whether it's from irrigation or
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rain or snow. We want to make sure that water is going into the
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soil profile and percolating down rather than running off
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Overland onto our streets into
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our creeks and rivers healthy soils also produce
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healthy plants that are resilient and plants
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I could go on and on about the benefits of plants, right
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but plants provide food for us, they provide
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habitat and food for wildlife. They provide evaporative
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cooling on hot days and wind breaks during
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the winter. So having healthy soils and healthy plants goes hands
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in hand.
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Healthy soil is also help with better nutrient
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cycling. So carbon and phosphorus and
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nitrogen that are cycling through the soil is enabled
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by those soil microorganisms. And without them.
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We don't have that cycling of nutrients healthy soils
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also are less prone to erosion via
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wind or rain.
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So when we get a big rain event or big wind event
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if we have healthy plants holding that soil in place. It's not
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going up the air or into our water. So we have cleaner air
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and cleaner water. Now it open space. We're doing a lot
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of different things to improve our soil Health on that 16,000 Acres.
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We're minimizing soil disturbance,
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so reducing or eliminating tillage increasing plant
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diversity. So we're not just having a big field of one
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type of grass we want form. So we want shrubs. We want trees keeping
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a Living Root in the soil all year round
517
00:26:54.100 --> 00:26:57.500
if we have bare ground because there's no plants that soil
518
00:26:57.500 --> 00:27:00.400
can blow when we get those big wins in March.
519
00:27:01.100 --> 00:27:04.400
We also want to incorporate livestock where it makes sense and where it's appropriate
520
00:27:04.400 --> 00:27:08.000
because they are how these ecosystems evolved in
521
00:27:07.100 --> 00:27:10.500
this area. So we're doing a bunch of different things
522
00:27:10.500 --> 00:27:13.200
on open space to incorporate those principles the biggest
523
00:27:13.200 --> 00:27:16.400
thing being bringing in compost and that
524
00:27:16.400 --> 00:27:19.700
helps in a couple of different ways one recycling nutrients
525
00:27:19.700 --> 00:27:20.700
from the city.
526
00:27:21.500 --> 00:27:24.200
Back onto our aglands, right? So we have
527
00:27:24.200 --> 00:27:27.300
that nutrient cycling. I was talking about earlier. We're also bringing in those
528
00:27:27.300 --> 00:27:30.700
essential plant nutrients in organic matter that soil microorganisms
529
00:27:30.700 --> 00:27:31.900
need to support plants.
530
00:27:32.900 --> 00:27:35.500
We're also looking at ways of increasing plant diversity.
531
00:27:35.500 --> 00:27:38.500
So planting trees planting shrubs and
532
00:27:38.500 --> 00:27:41.700
also reseeding fields to get more diversity of different types
533
00:27:41.700 --> 00:27:44.100
of grasses and different types of Forbes that
534
00:27:44.100 --> 00:27:47.100
are more resilient to our changing climate and while I'm working at
535
00:27:47.100 --> 00:27:50.200
a big scale at open space these principles can also be carried over
536
00:27:50.200 --> 00:27:53.100
to our Urban Parks our homes and our green
537
00:27:53.100 --> 00:27:53.500
ways.
538
00:27:54.100 --> 00:27:57.100
And so that's why it's so important to have different Community Partners to bring
539
00:27:57.100 --> 00:28:00.700
into these efforts. This is a Citywide effort and this
540
00:28:00.700 --> 00:28:03.300
is something everyone can benefit from and everybody
541
00:28:03.300 --> 00:28:06.100
can contribute to I wanted to introduce you to one of
542
00:28:06.100 --> 00:28:09.200
our most important Community Partners Dan mashup Eco
543
00:28:09.200 --> 00:28:12.200
cycle eco-cycle has been a leader in this space
544
00:28:12.200 --> 00:28:16.300
for a long time from efforts like our backyard carbon
545
00:28:15.300 --> 00:28:18.400
farmer project to being a
546
00:28:18.400 --> 00:28:21.300
key partner in helping the city and county figure out
547
00:28:21.300 --> 00:28:24.600
whether we can develop a local high quality compost resource.
548
00:28:25.600 --> 00:28:28.700
Dan is here to introduce Eco Cycles latest initiative, which
549
00:28:28.700 --> 00:28:31.300
is looking at developing community-based composting both
550
00:28:31.300 --> 00:28:34.600
in the city of Boulder and around Boulder County. Welcome, Dan.
551
00:28:35.700 --> 00:28:36.300
Thank you, Lauren.
552
00:28:37.300 --> 00:28:40.200
My name is Dan Mage. I work for ecos cycle. I'm the
553
00:28:40.200 --> 00:28:43.300
compost and carbon Farm director and I'm standing
554
00:28:43.300 --> 00:28:46.400
in front of our new Heritage static
555
00:28:46.400 --> 00:28:49.700
piles compost system that we just installed for Longs
556
00:28:49.700 --> 00:28:52.400
Gardens. This is part of an initiative to
557
00:28:52.400 --> 00:28:55.600
create a distributed compost system
558
00:28:55.600 --> 00:28:58.400
rather than having to ship
559
00:28:58.400 --> 00:29:01.300
it long distances and then ship compost back.
560
00:29:01.300 --> 00:29:04.200
We're gonna we're gonna see what can we do to create
561
00:29:04.200 --> 00:29:08.400
a distributed community-based circular compost
562
00:29:07.400 --> 00:29:10.600
system here in Boulder. The first
563
00:29:10.600 --> 00:29:14.100
two of these bays are active composting systems.
564
00:29:13.100 --> 00:29:16.700
And then the last two are storage
565
00:29:16.700 --> 00:29:19.400
of our more carbonacious dry Woody stuff
566
00:29:19.400 --> 00:29:22.700
down here underneath the shed is is
567
00:29:22.700 --> 00:29:25.600
our aeration system. So we have a we have a solar
568
00:29:25.600 --> 00:29:28.100
powered blower. What we're trying to do
569
00:29:28.100 --> 00:29:31.800
is create Landscapes that absorb carbon water
570
00:29:31.800 --> 00:29:35.200
and provide pollinator habitat
571
00:29:34.200 --> 00:29:36.300
for our native pollinators.
572
00:29:37.200 --> 00:29:40.300
In order to do that, we need good soil to plant
573
00:29:40.300 --> 00:29:44.100
those plants in so essentially we need compost to
574
00:29:43.100 --> 00:29:46.900
provide that life force for
575
00:29:46.900 --> 00:29:49.400
these trees for their entire lifetime and for
576
00:29:49.400 --> 00:29:51.500
and for the pollinator plants as well.
577
00:29:56.800 --> 00:29:59.800
So that's the two of
578
00:29:59.800 --> 00:30:02.400
the three areas that we've been working in so far
579
00:30:02.400 --> 00:30:06.100
the the biodiversity pollinator Pathways the
580
00:30:05.100 --> 00:30:09.400
absorbent Landscapes. Now we've
581
00:30:08.400 --> 00:30:11.800
there's been as we all know it's been getting hotter and
582
00:30:11.800 --> 00:30:14.400
as it gets hotter and it will continue to get warmer. We're
583
00:30:14.400 --> 00:30:17.100
gonna need to have everything that our dispose of to try to bring
584
00:30:17.100 --> 00:30:20.500
those temperatures down and one of those critical areas is around our
585
00:30:20.500 --> 00:30:23.800
Urban canopy trees are an amazing source of
586
00:30:23.800 --> 00:30:26.500
not only shade and cooling but they're also essentially
587
00:30:26.500 --> 00:30:29.600
Nature's huge heat pumps. They literally
588
00:30:29.600 --> 00:30:32.500
through the process of evapot transpiration take energy
589
00:30:32.500 --> 00:30:35.200
to turn that water liquid into a water
590
00:30:35.200 --> 00:30:38.700
vapor and send that off into the atmosphere as a convective heat
591
00:30:38.700 --> 00:30:41.300
and it basically transfers a huge amount of energy
592
00:30:41.300 --> 00:30:44.500
up into the atmosphere much of it that actually even leaves we need
593
00:30:44.500 --> 00:30:48.100
more of that as we're moving into this period so a
594
00:30:47.100 --> 00:30:50.200
big area of our activity in this coming
595
00:30:50.200 --> 00:30:53.500
year and years will be around growing out our Urban
596
00:30:53.500 --> 00:30:56.200
Forest canopy. You might say well Boulder didn't
597
00:30:56.200 --> 00:30:56.500
have
598
00:30:56.700 --> 00:30:59.100
When we were I mean when it wasn't originally a place that
599
00:30:59.100 --> 00:31:02.700
had a little interest. Well, we live in constructed Landscapes these
600
00:31:02.700 --> 00:31:05.800
days and as we start to deal with these increasingly
601
00:31:05.800 --> 00:31:08.200
intense sort of Dynamics, we're going to find have
602
00:31:08.200 --> 00:31:11.200
to use all means that are disposal including the Living World to help
603
00:31:11.200 --> 00:31:14.300
support us in that way. And that means not just planting trees in our
604
00:31:14.300 --> 00:31:17.200
local urban areas, but also planting them
605
00:31:17.200 --> 00:31:20.200
out into these areas to shade our drylands area. In
606
00:31:20.200 --> 00:31:23.500
fact, this these pictures the ones on top are from tree plantings
607
00:31:23.500 --> 00:31:26.800
that the dry lands agreecology Center put together out just
608
00:31:26.800 --> 00:31:29.400
north of town here to start creating swales and
609
00:31:29.400 --> 00:31:32.500
other mechanisms to shade and cool and keep that moisture
610
00:31:32.500 --> 00:31:35.200
in our grounds. We have very ambitious targets. We
611
00:31:35.200 --> 00:31:38.300
want to be planting something like 20,000 trees in the
612
00:31:38.300 --> 00:31:41.800
next eight or nine years. We want to be capturing 50,000 tons
613
00:31:41.800 --> 00:31:44.200
of carbon into these plant things and we
614
00:31:44.200 --> 00:31:47.500
want to be reducing temperatures, especially in some of our most vulnerable areas
615
00:31:47.500 --> 00:31:50.800
by as much as five to ten degrees. Now, we have
616
00:31:50.800 --> 00:31:53.300
a tremendous forestry team in our
617
00:31:53.300 --> 00:31:56.400
city and we are so grateful to have Kathleen Alexander and
618
00:31:56.600 --> 00:31:59.200
Gel and Alan and many others doing that but as you
619
00:31:59.200 --> 00:32:02.600
may know our public forests are only about 15
620
00:32:02.600 --> 00:32:05.600
to 20 percent of the trees in our community. The other
621
00:32:05.600 --> 00:32:08.500
hundreds of thousands are actually on our private lands.
622
00:32:08.500 --> 00:32:11.200
So we need to have ways that we can actually engage all of
623
00:32:11.200 --> 00:32:14.400
us in support all of us to be doing that important forestry work
624
00:32:14.400 --> 00:32:17.900
that will grow out our canopies. And so we're really excited that
625
00:32:17.900 --> 00:32:20.200
there's a new initiative in town
626
00:32:20.200 --> 00:32:23.900
called the tree trust run by the play foundation and
627
00:32:23.900 --> 00:32:26.500
one of the leaders of that effort Josh
628
00:32:26.500 --> 00:32:29.300
Moore in a local arborist is here to tell you just a little bit more about trees.
629
00:32:32.700 --> 00:32:35.900
Hi, I'm Josh Morin. I'm
630
00:32:35.900 --> 00:32:38.400
a local arborist here in Boulder County
631
00:32:38.400 --> 00:32:42.200
Colorado with we love trees. I also
632
00:32:42.200 --> 00:32:46.100
serve as the chair of the tree tender advisory
633
00:32:45.100 --> 00:32:48.700
committee to support this Grassroots
634
00:32:48.700 --> 00:32:52.400
campaign to help people
635
00:32:51.400 --> 00:32:54.500
in our local community to learn about trees
636
00:32:54.500 --> 00:32:57.800
that they can support our Urban Forest canopy
637
00:32:57.800 --> 00:33:00.200
in Boulder. You know, I think
638
00:33:00.200 --> 00:33:03.500
we all recognize that as a species. There's so
639
00:33:03.500 --> 00:33:06.600
many things the trees do for us and we
640
00:33:06.600 --> 00:33:10.200
have a vested interest in supporting treats.
641
00:33:11.500 --> 00:33:14.500
Survival of our species in many ways depends
642
00:33:14.500 --> 00:33:17.400
on the ecosystems. The trees are major players
643
00:33:17.400 --> 00:33:20.400
of not to mention everything else
644
00:33:20.400 --> 00:33:23.300
that we rely on trees for in terms.
645
00:33:23.700 --> 00:33:26.100
Of survival or even just finding a cool place
646
00:33:26.100 --> 00:33:29.300
to park during the day one actionable item that
647
00:33:29.300 --> 00:33:33.000
you can do is get involved in a program like the
648
00:33:32.400 --> 00:33:33.600
tree Trust.
649
00:33:34.400 --> 00:33:38.600
Where we run training programs like tree tenders, you
650
00:33:37.600 --> 00:33:40.400
know any way that you can get into
651
00:33:40.400 --> 00:33:43.800
relationship with trees and plants. Maybe it's
652
00:33:43.800 --> 00:33:46.200
just finding a small tree or
653
00:33:46.200 --> 00:33:49.300
shrub to plant on your property and starting there.
654
00:33:51.300 --> 00:33:54.400
So I'm delighted to report that
655
00:33:54.400 --> 00:33:57.300
just as with the pollinator Advocate training program
656
00:33:57.300 --> 00:34:00.400
that just launched and will have another cycle of that. This next
657
00:34:00.400 --> 00:34:03.200
spring. We will have another cycle of the
658
00:34:03.200 --> 00:34:06.100
tree tenders training program that will launch this fall. So for those of
659
00:34:06.100 --> 00:34:09.700
you who are really inspired to work with trees and want to get more knowledge and
660
00:34:09.700 --> 00:34:12.300
more capability. We're building essentially a cohort of
661
00:34:12.300 --> 00:34:15.600
people who can support other people in the community to actually
662
00:34:15.600 --> 00:34:18.400
tend trees on these private grounds. So stay tuned for
663
00:34:18.400 --> 00:34:21.500
that through the the cool Boulder website.
664
00:34:22.300 --> 00:34:25.400
So the third the fourth area that I wanted to just touch
665
00:34:25.400 --> 00:34:28.500
on tonight because it's just been so much fun already. Is this
666
00:34:28.500 --> 00:34:32.300
kind of community science work that we've been doing and some
667
00:34:31.300 --> 00:34:34.200
of you hopefully not only heard about
668
00:34:34.200 --> 00:34:37.800
but hopefully even participated in there was over a hundred people that participated
669
00:34:37.800 --> 00:34:41.600
about three weeks ago in the National
670
00:34:40.600 --> 00:34:43.400
Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
671
00:34:43.400 --> 00:34:46.800
sponsored heat mapping initiative. So we had folks going
672
00:34:46.800 --> 00:34:49.400
out with thermometers in cars running routes. We
673
00:34:49.400 --> 00:34:52.100
had people out in strollers. We had people on bikes we had people
674
00:34:52.100 --> 00:34:55.500
walking on the the bike pass Gathering data to
675
00:34:55.500 --> 00:34:58.200
start to build a comprehensive heat map for our
676
00:34:58.200 --> 00:35:01.400
community so that we'll know where our problem sites are
677
00:35:01.400 --> 00:35:04.300
and we'll also know what the difference is in temperature
678
00:35:04.300 --> 00:35:07.800
are between an area that say has 25% canopy closure
679
00:35:07.800 --> 00:35:10.200
and an area that has 10% and therefore we
680
00:35:10.200 --> 00:35:13.700
can start to predict how much we can reduce temperatures by adding
681
00:35:13.700 --> 00:35:16.300
to those canopies. So we'll be continuing to
682
00:35:16.300 --> 00:35:19.600
do that heat mapping work each summer. There
683
00:35:19.600 --> 00:35:21.900
are also going to be other opportunities to get involved.
684
00:35:22.200 --> 00:35:25.700
Community science activities will be doing pollinator surveys next
685
00:35:25.700 --> 00:35:28.500
spring will be starting to look at doing land condition
686
00:35:28.500 --> 00:35:31.200
assessments so that we can see the change of our lands over
687
00:35:31.200 --> 00:35:34.800
time, especially as these climatic conditions start to change. I'd like
688
00:35:34.800 --> 00:35:37.400
to actually introduce one of the amazing graduate students who's
689
00:35:37.400 --> 00:35:40.400
been working with us this year along with the team of four that
690
00:35:40.400 --> 00:35:43.400
have come from the cued Masters in the environment program
691
00:35:43.400 --> 00:35:46.900
Adam Hall who helped to lead our Urban heat
692
00:35:46.900 --> 00:35:47.900
mapping program for the summer.
693
00:35:49.900 --> 00:35:52.200
Extreme heat kills more people than any other
694
00:35:52.200 --> 00:35:55.700
weather event in the United States and that impact is not distributed.
695
00:35:55.700 --> 00:35:58.100
Evenly he much like other extreme weather
696
00:35:58.100 --> 00:36:01.900
events disproportionately affect low-income and bypass
697
00:36:01.900 --> 00:36:04.700
communities. So it's really important to understand where that
698
00:36:04.700 --> 00:36:07.600
heat is localized where we finding those pockets
699
00:36:07.600 --> 00:36:10.300
of heat. This effort was really to find the
700
00:36:10.300 --> 00:36:13.700
hottest areas of Boulders so that the city and it's Community Partners
701
00:36:13.700 --> 00:36:16.000
can take action like tree planting to try and cool
702
00:36:16.200 --> 00:36:16.700
those areas down.
703
00:36:17.400 --> 00:36:20.500
It's really critical that we had the volunteers participating in
704
00:36:20.500 --> 00:36:23.600
this event because we weren't been able to drive all those routes ourselves.
705
00:36:24.200 --> 00:36:27.200
I think a lot of them signed up because they're aware of this issue of
706
00:36:27.200 --> 00:36:30.400
extreme heat, but then to actually, you know experience it on this day
707
00:36:30.400 --> 00:36:34.000
and then to be thinking about it while they're out there collecting their data particularly
708
00:36:33.400 --> 00:36:36.400
for those who are walking and biking because they
709
00:36:36.400 --> 00:36:39.200
could really feel it. You know, they weren't in that cool AC of their
710
00:36:39.200 --> 00:36:42.400
car. They were out there. We asked them to go to parking lots and
711
00:36:42.400 --> 00:36:45.400
stand in the middle of a parking lot for five minutes until they could get that temperature
712
00:36:45.400 --> 00:36:48.200
reading. So it was cool to hear them have that
713
00:36:48.200 --> 00:36:50.500
experience. I remember one woman in particular.
714
00:36:51.500 --> 00:36:54.400
Came running back to our tent was just so excited because she recorded
715
00:36:54.400 --> 00:36:57.500
a hundred and one degrees and she broke a previous record that he
716
00:36:57.500 --> 00:37:00.300
held. So just getting people to think about this differently thinking
717
00:37:00.300 --> 00:37:03.200
about why certain areas of the city are hotter than others and just
718
00:37:03.200 --> 00:37:06.600
seeing their excitement and getting that real-time data was really
719
00:37:06.600 --> 00:37:06.800
cool.
720
00:37:07.700 --> 00:37:10.300
We are putting together a boulder heat Watch Team
721
00:37:10.300 --> 00:37:13.500
through the cool Boulder campaign and it's Community Partners and
722
00:37:13.500 --> 00:37:16.600
we're hoping that that heatwatch team can become you know Community leaders
723
00:37:16.600 --> 00:37:19.200
on the issue of urban heat. We have plans next summer
724
00:37:19.200 --> 00:37:22.600
to do more of a qualitative analysis of heat. So this Heroes,
725
00:37:22.600 --> 00:37:25.200
you know focused heavy on the on the quantitative data, you
726
00:37:25.200 --> 00:37:28.300
know getting those temperature regions. But another side of this is really important
727
00:37:28.300 --> 00:37:31.600
is how does heat directly affect people and getting people stories
728
00:37:31.600 --> 00:37:34.500
out and then for the walking and biking
729
00:37:34.500 --> 00:37:37.000
activity that we designed we actually have in the
730
00:37:37.300 --> 00:37:40.300
works working with local school districts to get that activity as a
731
00:37:40.300 --> 00:37:44.200
part of local science curriculums. So getting a lot of students involved hopefully
732
00:37:43.200 --> 00:37:46.500
thousands of students involved out there collecting he
733
00:37:46.500 --> 00:37:47.800
data and thinking about these issues.
734
00:37:49.800 --> 00:37:52.400
Yeah, it's big shout
735
00:37:52.400 --> 00:37:55.300
out to Adam. By the way. So the NOAA program
736
00:37:55.300 --> 00:37:58.300
is in its third summer. So we were a part of a cohort of
737
00:37:58.300 --> 00:38:02.200
I think 17 cities and counties around the country and because
738
00:38:01.200 --> 00:38:04.300
of Adam he developed a whole new
739
00:38:04.300 --> 00:38:07.800
sort of low cost heat
740
00:38:07.800 --> 00:38:10.300
sensing system that you could put next put on
741
00:38:10.300 --> 00:38:13.400
to yours your phone and it enabled us to open up this heat
742
00:38:13.400 --> 00:38:16.200
mapping activity to a whole bunch more people than those who
743
00:38:16.200 --> 00:38:19.600
just normally drive so big shout out to Adam that whole system
744
00:38:19.600 --> 00:38:22.300
is now being tried out in other communities around the
745
00:38:22.300 --> 00:38:25.500
country and it was just so much fun to watch elementary school kids
746
00:38:25.500 --> 00:38:28.300
come up to the tables even some as early in
747
00:38:28.300 --> 00:38:31.300
the six am shifts and take those those govy devices with their
748
00:38:31.300 --> 00:38:34.300
phones out there and gather that data. So again, we'll be doing that again next
749
00:38:34.300 --> 00:38:34.500
summer.
750
00:38:35.400 --> 00:38:38.400
So in addition to that sort of one day Blitz of
751
00:38:38.400 --> 00:38:42.400
heat mapping we've worked with a various departments
752
00:38:42.400 --> 00:38:45.600
across the the city to also stand up
753
00:38:45.600 --> 00:38:48.300
a whole stationary heat sensor Network. So
754
00:38:48.300 --> 00:38:51.700
we have now I think 60 plus heat sensors out
755
00:38:51.700 --> 00:38:54.300
in various places. This is also a partnership
756
00:38:54.300 --> 00:38:57.700
with another CU Department Laura D's
757
00:38:57.700 --> 00:39:00.300
lab up there and Megan Hayden who've helped us to map out
758
00:39:00.300 --> 00:39:04.500
where to put these sensors and when when NASA
759
00:39:03.500 --> 00:39:06.300
and JPL heard that
760
00:39:06.300 --> 00:39:09.900
we were actually gathering this really high quality temperature data.
761
00:39:09.900 --> 00:39:12.300
They said we need that. There's actually a
762
00:39:12.300 --> 00:39:15.600
satellite on the International Space Station called the Eco stress
763
00:39:15.600 --> 00:39:18.300
satellite that has a hundred meter resolution. So
764
00:39:18.300 --> 00:39:21.100
that's not you know, a football field Square type and they want
765
00:39:21.100 --> 00:39:24.600
to be able to get that down to a narrower sort of vision so
766
00:39:24.600 --> 00:39:27.500
they can have higher quality data, but they needed high quality on
767
00:39:27.500 --> 00:39:30.400
the ground data to do that. And we said well we might have that so
768
00:39:30.400 --> 00:39:33.100
I wanted to give you a chance to hear a little bit from these
769
00:39:33.100 --> 00:39:35.100
NASA scientists who've been working with us on that.
770
00:39:37.700 --> 00:39:40.500
So you can stress as a is a thermal radiometer
771
00:39:40.500 --> 00:39:43.400
that's been flying on the International Space Station since it's
772
00:39:43.400 --> 00:39:46.200
a sense of our 2018 and what we
773
00:39:46.200 --> 00:39:49.700
derive from ecustress is something called the land surface
774
00:39:49.700 --> 00:39:52.700
temperature. So it's the temperature you'd feel
775
00:39:52.700 --> 00:39:55.400
if you actually touch the surface of something and
776
00:39:55.400 --> 00:39:58.100
it's not the air temperature you'd feel as a human.
777
00:39:59.200 --> 00:40:02.400
From from this data, what we can do is we can
778
00:40:02.400 --> 00:40:05.600
actually quantify the temperature of surfaces in
779
00:40:05.600 --> 00:40:09.200
different environments such as the urban environment. However,
780
00:40:08.200 --> 00:40:11.200
the the current native resolution of
781
00:40:11.200 --> 00:40:14.700
Eco stress is it is around 70 meters especially resolution.
782
00:40:14.700 --> 00:40:18.100
So that's you can think of a small field
783
00:40:17.100 --> 00:40:20.400
or football field. And what
784
00:40:20.400 --> 00:40:23.400
we really want to do is get down to what we call street level
785
00:40:23.400 --> 00:40:26.300
temperatures which are temperatures, you know,
786
00:40:26.300 --> 00:40:29.600
30 meters or last we can actually quantify differences between
787
00:40:29.600 --> 00:40:32.600
temperatures of streets and a small
788
00:40:32.600 --> 00:40:35.400
parking lot. This is mostly to help with with
789
00:40:35.400 --> 00:40:38.300
City officials to help with mitigation and heat reduction
790
00:40:38.300 --> 00:40:41.100
and Remediation efforts in the cities.
791
00:40:41.100 --> 00:40:44.500
What we can do is is some statistical modeling
792
00:40:44.500 --> 00:40:47.300
to try and shot what we call sharpen that data
793
00:40:47.300 --> 00:40:50.100
down to higher resolutions. For example, if you have a
794
00:40:50.100 --> 00:40:53.100
highway and you have some trees like most of trees on the
795
00:40:53.100 --> 00:40:56.500
left and on the right, you can really see this difference between
796
00:40:56.500 --> 00:40:58.700
a hot high of a and then it's
797
00:40:59.300 --> 00:41:02.300
Up next to the highway and maybe comes to the residential area. You can really see these
798
00:41:02.300 --> 00:41:05.600
differences that allows you then to quantify the effect
799
00:41:05.600 --> 00:41:08.300
of various trees on the
800
00:41:08.300 --> 00:41:11.300
land surface temperature and then you can think about
801
00:41:11.300 --> 00:41:14.200
how much water do you have available? How much money do you
802
00:41:14.200 --> 00:41:17.300
have available? And where do you want to plan trees? What
803
00:41:17.300 --> 00:41:20.600
kind of trees do you want to plant? And what would be the effect on the
804
00:41:20.600 --> 00:41:22.000
population for a certain area?
805
00:41:22.700 --> 00:41:26.200
Hopefully if we can build a robust model, we
806
00:41:25.200 --> 00:41:28.800
could at some point just make lens of
807
00:41:28.800 --> 00:41:31.600
his temperature measurements from space and then
808
00:41:31.600 --> 00:41:34.200
say something about the air temperature
809
00:41:34.200 --> 00:41:37.600
in a certain region, which then would go further
810
00:41:37.600 --> 00:41:40.600
into like are there certain neighborhoods that are consistently
811
00:41:40.600 --> 00:41:44.100
hot or at a certain neighborhoods that are consistently better off
812
00:41:43.100 --> 00:41:46.400
and who's the demographic that lists
813
00:41:46.400 --> 00:41:49.300
there. And what's the impact on the society in this
814
00:41:49.300 --> 00:41:50.200
these regions?
815
00:41:50.900 --> 00:41:53.900
And so these the air temperatures measurements you
816
00:41:53.900 --> 00:41:57.000
guys are making are very useful to us and to improve
817
00:41:56.300 --> 00:41:59.000
on on modeling and going from
818
00:41:59.200 --> 00:42:01.100
the land to the air temperatures.
819
00:42:03.400 --> 00:42:06.500
Isn't that exciting that we
820
00:42:06.500 --> 00:42:10.300
can be doing work in our community? That's literally up
821
00:42:10.300 --> 00:42:13.600
at the space station. And you know, it's just another one
822
00:42:13.600 --> 00:42:16.000
of these ways that it illustrates.
823
00:42:17.300 --> 00:42:20.400
The unique contributions that we can make as a
824
00:42:20.400 --> 00:42:23.300
community for a whole series of different reasons. And so I
825
00:42:23.300 --> 00:42:26.300
want to just close out this section by talking about the importance of
826
00:42:26.300 --> 00:42:29.500
community volunteers and and Community organizations that
827
00:42:29.500 --> 00:42:32.100
are already doing this work and one of those
828
00:42:32.100 --> 00:42:35.300
organizations some most of you know this but isn't it amazing that Boulder was
829
00:42:35.300 --> 00:42:38.600
one of the first communities in the country to actually have a curbside
830
00:42:38.600 --> 00:42:41.100
recycling program. Well, that was of course
831
00:42:41.100 --> 00:42:44.800
Eco cycle and this amazing cohort of volunteers at
832
00:42:44.800 --> 00:42:47.300
the time that have persisted year after year
833
00:42:47.300 --> 00:42:50.300
decade after decade and create a not only an amazing sort
834
00:42:50.300 --> 00:42:53.200
of circular economy around materials, but are also working in this
835
00:42:53.200 --> 00:42:56.000
other area like compost and biochar and others. So I want
836
00:42:56.200 --> 00:42:59.100
to just give Marty Mage from yika cycle a chance to talk about
837
00:42:59.100 --> 00:43:02.100
some of the great work that they're doing around soils carbon and
838
00:43:02.100 --> 00:43:02.900
carbon farming.
839
00:43:04.600 --> 00:43:07.600
Hi, I'm Marty Mage. I'm the deputy director
840
00:43:07.600 --> 00:43:10.300
at ecocycle and ecocycle is
841
00:43:10.300 --> 00:43:13.500
a homegrown Boulder County nonprofit organization
842
00:43:13.500 --> 00:43:16.600
founded in 1976. We made
843
00:43:16.600 --> 00:43:19.600
Boulder one of the first communities in the nation to offer
844
00:43:19.600 --> 00:43:22.600
curbside recycling to its residents and we are
845
00:43:22.600 --> 00:43:25.700
now one of the oldest and largest nonprofit recyclers
846
00:43:25.700 --> 00:43:28.200
and zero waste organizations in the US and we
847
00:43:28.200 --> 00:43:31.000
have now an international reputation as a
848
00:43:31.700 --> 00:43:34.900
leader and innovator in resource conservation. Our mission
849
00:43:34.900 --> 00:43:37.400
is to innovate Implement and
850
00:43:37.400 --> 00:43:40.400
advocate for local and Global zero Waste
851
00:43:40.400 --> 00:43:44.200
Solutions to foster a more regenerative Equitable
852
00:43:43.200 --> 00:43:47.500
and climate resilient future ecocycle
853
00:43:46.500 --> 00:43:49.200
is proud to be a part of the cool
854
00:43:49.200 --> 00:43:52.400
Boulder program. And one of the many ways we're partnering in
855
00:43:52.400 --> 00:43:55.500
the effort is by engaging our network of more
856
00:43:55.500 --> 00:43:58.900
than 1,000 volunteer Eco leaders the voluntary
857
00:43:58.900 --> 00:44:01.500
Eco leader network has long been the backbone of
858
00:44:01.500 --> 00:44:04.200
eco-cycle and how we are able to create.
859
00:44:04.500 --> 00:44:07.400
Change these volunteers go through a series of trainings with
860
00:44:07.400 --> 00:44:10.100
us at ecocycle to become the local person in the
861
00:44:10.100 --> 00:44:13.400
know and a resource for all things. They're a waste so
862
00:44:13.400 --> 00:44:16.300
that they can turn around and share their zero waste
863
00:44:16.300 --> 00:44:19.700
knowledge with their social networks in their neighborhoods or
864
00:44:19.700 --> 00:44:22.300
in their workplace their clubs and places of worship.
865
00:44:23.500 --> 00:44:26.400
They are superpower is that they are helping to create change right
866
00:44:26.400 --> 00:44:28.400
where they live and everywhere. They go.
867
00:44:29.500 --> 00:44:32.500
Our Eco leaders code deeply about natural resources and
868
00:44:32.500 --> 00:44:35.500
climate and they want to do everything they can to both
869
00:44:35.500 --> 00:44:38.500
mitigate climate change and to adapt our communities
870
00:44:38.500 --> 00:44:41.700
to be more resilient in the face of climate change in
871
00:44:41.700 --> 00:44:44.800
2018. We engage this network in a three-year
872
00:44:44.800 --> 00:44:47.700
pilot program to help with what we call Our Community
873
00:44:47.700 --> 00:44:51.100
carbon farming campaign where volunteers trial
874
00:44:50.100 --> 00:44:53.900
the use of compost and other compost
875
00:44:53.900 --> 00:44:56.300
products in their backyards applying these to their
876
00:44:56.300 --> 00:45:00.300
soils to determine whether we can use urban Landscapes
877
00:44:59.300 --> 00:45:02.500
particularly yards to help draw
878
00:45:02.500 --> 00:45:05.600
down and sequester carbon safely and
879
00:45:05.600 --> 00:45:06.800
beneficially in the soil.
880
00:45:07.700 --> 00:45:10.200
Now that we've closed out the carbon farming trial that
881
00:45:10.200 --> 00:45:13.500
three-year period has come to a close these volunteers are
882
00:45:13.500 --> 00:45:16.500
ready to share what they've learned with the whole community and it
883
00:45:16.500 --> 00:45:19.200
ties in beautifully with what the cool Boulder program is trying
884
00:45:19.200 --> 00:45:22.200
to do Eco leaders are ready to
885
00:45:22.200 --> 00:45:25.500
share what they know about carbon farming on Urban Landscapes to
886
00:45:25.500 --> 00:45:29.000
build healthy soils for the sake of creating absorbent Landscapes.
887
00:45:28.500 --> 00:45:31.500
These volunteers are also lining up to help
888
00:45:31.500 --> 00:45:34.400
with cool Boulder projects like heat mapping throughout
889
00:45:34.400 --> 00:45:37.500
the community and for helping to generate and distribute
890
00:45:37.500 --> 00:45:41.100
compost that they themselves generate for
891
00:45:40.100 --> 00:45:43.500
the purposes of sharing with their neighbors and
892
00:45:43.500 --> 00:45:46.300
networks. The goal of the cool Builder program is
893
00:45:46.300 --> 00:45:49.400
that it truly be a community-based effort and the
894
00:45:49.400 --> 00:45:52.200
engagement of the eco-cycle Eco leader network
895
00:45:52.200 --> 00:45:55.800
is a great way to really make change with trained
896
00:45:55.800 --> 00:45:58.800
community members working backyard by backyard
897
00:45:58.800 --> 00:46:00.600
and neighborhood by neighborhood.
898
00:46:02.700 --> 00:46:06.100
You know,
899
00:46:06.100 --> 00:46:09.400
we we could have picked almost any of
900
00:46:09.400 --> 00:46:12.900
the almost 30 local community organizations
901
00:46:12.900 --> 00:46:15.400
that are participating in this effort
902
00:46:15.400 --> 00:46:18.300
to tell another remarkable story just
903
00:46:18.300 --> 00:46:21.400
like this. There's there's a whole bunch that that we
904
00:46:21.400 --> 00:46:24.100
wanted to bring in but just because of time couldn't I did
905
00:46:24.100 --> 00:46:27.200
want to actually call on another organization that some of you might not have heard
906
00:46:27.200 --> 00:46:30.100
about wildlands restoration volunteers and some of
907
00:46:30.100 --> 00:46:33.400
the amazing work that they're doing now and helping us. Look at piloting here
908
00:46:33.400 --> 00:46:36.500
in the Front Range around some of the absorbent Landscapes efforts.
909
00:46:36.500 --> 00:46:39.500
This is Morgan Crowley from the wildlands restoration
910
00:46:39.500 --> 00:46:39.900
volunteers.
911
00:46:44.900 --> 00:46:47.500
My name is Morgan Crowley. I am
912
00:46:47.500 --> 00:46:50.600
the habitats and invasive species program
913
00:46:50.600 --> 00:46:53.700
manager for wildlands restoration volunteers. We
914
00:46:53.700 --> 00:46:56.700
focus on doing ecological restoration projects primarily
915
00:46:56.700 --> 00:46:59.600
that engage volunteers with our Land
916
00:46:59.600 --> 00:47:01.500
Management Partners all over the state.
917
00:47:02.500 --> 00:47:05.200
Our work takes us from like the
918
00:47:05.200 --> 00:47:08.500
Prairies all the way up into high Alpine environments
919
00:47:08.500 --> 00:47:11.600
doing work that can be anything from collecting native
920
00:47:11.600 --> 00:47:15.000
seeds to removing invasive species improving
921
00:47:14.800 --> 00:47:18.200
Trails for sustainability closing
922
00:47:17.200 --> 00:47:20.300
old four-wheel drive roads, and then,
923
00:47:20.300 --> 00:47:24.200
you know doing a lot of restoration following floods and wildfires our
924
00:47:23.200 --> 00:47:26.400
projects can range from like an
925
00:47:26.400 --> 00:47:29.700
afternoon, maybe collecting native seed nearby to
926
00:47:29.700 --> 00:47:32.800
an urban center. And those are a little bit more accessible and open
927
00:47:32.800 --> 00:47:36.200
to families and younger volunteers to
928
00:47:35.200 --> 00:47:38.300
anything from like three or four days in a
929
00:47:38.300 --> 00:47:41.200
Backcountry setting moving rocks and that are a
930
00:47:41.200 --> 00:47:43.000
bit more Technical and physically demanding.
931
00:47:43.500 --> 00:47:46.700
One of the things that I'm really most excited about in partnering
932
00:47:46.700 --> 00:47:49.100
with cool Boulder is you know, I think we're trying to
933
00:47:49.100 --> 00:47:52.200
find some opportunities to bring some of our what WRV has
934
00:47:52.200 --> 00:47:56.000
been doing with wet Meadow restoration kind of more in western, Colorado. We're
935
00:47:55.100 --> 00:47:58.400
going to try to bring that to the Front Range. So
936
00:47:58.400 --> 00:48:01.200
to give you a little bit of a background in what we've
937
00:48:01.200 --> 00:48:04.700
been doing out west WRV initially became
938
00:48:04.700 --> 00:48:07.500
involved with this kind of work back in
939
00:48:07.500 --> 00:48:11.100
2014, when we were invited to partner with the Gunnison
940
00:48:10.100 --> 00:48:13.200
climate working group to try to
941
00:48:13.200 --> 00:48:16.800
address critical habitat loss for the federally threatened
942
00:48:16.800 --> 00:48:19.100
Gunnison Sage browse. So they
943
00:48:19.100 --> 00:48:22.400
had brought in this stream restoration expert Bill
944
00:48:22.400 --> 00:48:25.400
Z Dyke who developed these real Innovative methods
945
00:48:25.400 --> 00:48:29.200
for restoring and reversing erosion in dry
946
00:48:28.200 --> 00:48:31.700
or air Landscapes. So that's pretty
947
00:48:31.700 --> 00:48:34.800
much all of Colorado Okay, so people commonly
948
00:48:34.800 --> 00:48:37.600
call them the next structures because they're
949
00:48:37.600 --> 00:48:40.600
named for Bill and the structures themselves are
950
00:48:40.600 --> 00:48:43.100
mostly really simple and
951
00:48:43.500 --> 00:48:46.300
Relatively small rock structures, which is
952
00:48:46.300 --> 00:48:49.300
great because that makes them very well suited for volunteer work.
953
00:48:49.300 --> 00:48:53.400
They're designed to do a variety of things from stopping erosion
954
00:48:52.400 --> 00:48:55.100
from advancing slowing down
955
00:48:55.100 --> 00:48:58.300
water and trapping sediment so that
956
00:48:58.300 --> 00:49:01.200
they can build eroded creek beds back.
957
00:49:02.100 --> 00:49:05.500
So these structures really work to retain moisture in the landscape?
958
00:49:06.200 --> 00:49:09.600
We run probably 200 to 250 volunteer
959
00:49:09.600 --> 00:49:12.500
events every year all of these opportunities are
960
00:49:12.500 --> 00:49:16.900
are easy to find on our website wlrv dot
961
00:49:16.900 --> 00:49:19.300
org, you know, especially now
962
00:49:19.300 --> 00:49:22.400
when there are so many challenges facing us and really
963
00:49:22.400 --> 00:49:25.600
give people a way to concretely give back and and bring
964
00:49:25.600 --> 00:49:28.000
some more hope into the picture.
965
00:49:29.900 --> 00:49:33.700
Now I
966
00:49:33.700 --> 00:49:36.900
was just talking to Morgan today. So we are actively working
967
00:49:36.900 --> 00:49:39.500
now to look at bringing some of those projects
968
00:49:39.500 --> 00:49:42.500
over onto the Front Range which there haven't been many done so far
969
00:49:42.500 --> 00:49:45.500
and there'll be lots of volunteer opportunities
970
00:49:45.500 --> 00:49:49.300
for those who want to get out and actually do some good hard,
971
00:49:48.300 --> 00:49:51.200
but very rewarding work out there in
972
00:49:51.200 --> 00:49:54.700
the landscape. So I just want to close this by
973
00:49:54.700 --> 00:49:56.000
by saying again that
974
00:49:57.400 --> 00:50:01.300
Cool Boulder is fundamentally a community centered
975
00:50:00.300 --> 00:50:03.400
campaign and it's it's
976
00:50:03.400 --> 00:50:06.400
success is based on and
977
00:50:06.400 --> 00:50:09.600
will depend on all of us as community members
978
00:50:09.600 --> 00:50:12.400
mobilizing the things that we know how to do the
979
00:50:12.400 --> 00:50:15.500
resources that we have the new capacities or skills
980
00:50:15.500 --> 00:50:18.200
that we're going to learn through this there's just so much
981
00:50:18.200 --> 00:50:21.300
to be done so many plants that need to be grown so much
982
00:50:21.300 --> 00:50:24.100
compost that needs to be made so much biocharge to
983
00:50:24.100 --> 00:50:27.400
be created and distributed that we need everybody to
984
00:50:27.400 --> 00:50:30.200
be in this process. And so here just some of the organizations that
985
00:50:30.200 --> 00:50:33.300
have already signed onto the cool Boulder effort. You can find out
986
00:50:33.300 --> 00:50:36.700
more about their efforts at all. The different links that
987
00:50:36.700 --> 00:50:39.300
are here. You can also go to the cool Boulder website
988
00:50:39.300 --> 00:50:42.300
and learn more about the activities that are involved in what each
989
00:50:42.300 --> 00:50:45.800
of these organizations is leading. So just want to say we we welcome
990
00:50:45.800 --> 00:50:48.700
we invite we encourage we could all everything
991
00:50:48.700 --> 00:50:51.600
we can to get all of you involved because there's just I
992
00:50:51.600 --> 00:50:55.100
think a sense of rewarding fulfilling and
993
00:50:54.100 --> 00:50:57.300
hopeful work to
994
00:50:57.400 --> 00:51:00.100
Done in this cool Boulder area. So thank you Leah.
995
00:51:02.200 --> 00:51:03.100
Thanks, Brett.
996
00:51:04.500 --> 00:51:06.600
And we'll just jump to the next slide here.
997
00:51:09.700 --> 00:51:12.400
So there are a number of ways
998
00:51:12.400 --> 00:51:15.200
that folks can engage with and learn
999
00:51:15.200 --> 00:51:19.000
more about all of the Cities climate work
1000
00:51:18.400 --> 00:51:20.200
including cool Boulder.
1001
00:51:20.900 --> 00:51:23.300
As mentioned there are
1002
00:51:23.300 --> 00:51:26.500
a variety of opportunities for folks get involved
1003
00:51:26.500 --> 00:51:29.700
directly with cool Boulder. We recommend checking
1004
00:51:29.700 --> 00:51:32.200
out the cool Boulder website. There's a
1005
00:51:32.200 --> 00:51:35.700
link right here that you can can explore
1006
00:51:35.700 --> 00:51:38.800
and and read more about opportunities and
1007
00:51:38.800 --> 00:51:39.400
sign up.
1008
00:51:43.100 --> 00:51:43.900
next slide
1009
00:51:45.100 --> 00:51:45.400
Perfect.
1010
00:51:46.500 --> 00:51:49.300
There's also a project a really fun project. We've
1011
00:51:49.300 --> 00:51:52.400
been piloting for a while now.
1012
00:51:53.200 --> 00:51:56.600
Called our audio collage where we've asked folks from
1013
00:51:56.600 --> 00:51:59.400
the community to share visions of
1014
00:51:59.400 --> 00:52:02.900
hope. So tell us what a climate resilient
1015
00:52:02.900 --> 00:52:06.500
Boulder could look like in 2030 2035
1016
00:52:05.500 --> 00:52:08.300
and paint us a
1017
00:52:08.300 --> 00:52:11.700
picture of that. It's been a really fun way to hear from our community and
1018
00:52:12.800 --> 00:52:16.000
Had also recommend checking out the first
1019
00:52:15.500 --> 00:52:18.200
audio collage that we put together some months
1020
00:52:18.200 --> 00:52:21.800
ago. We're not gonna play it now, but it's available
1021
00:52:21.800 --> 00:52:24.200
on our website and you can see a link
1022
00:52:24.200 --> 00:52:24.500
below.
1023
00:52:26.200 --> 00:52:27.000
next slide
1024
00:52:31.300 --> 00:52:34.600
There's also a number of frequent, you know,
1025
00:52:34.600 --> 00:52:37.300
bi-weekly and weekly resources that you
1026
00:52:37.300 --> 00:52:40.400
can stay up to date with what we're doing.
1027
00:52:40.400 --> 00:52:43.400
So the first is a newsletter that goes
1028
00:52:43.400 --> 00:52:44.300
out every two weeks.
1029
00:52:45.200 --> 00:52:48.200
And you can sign up for that on our website. I also
1030
00:52:48.200 --> 00:52:51.500
recommend checking out our city Newsroom where
1031
00:52:51.500 --> 00:52:55.600
Emily and I and other folks from departments
1032
00:52:54.600 --> 00:52:59.100
put up stories. Every department
1033
00:52:58.100 --> 00:53:01.700
has news going out and
1034
00:53:01.700 --> 00:53:04.300
we sure have a have a ton these days.
1035
00:53:04.300 --> 00:53:07.900
The other thing is our climate initiatives
1036
00:53:07.900 --> 00:53:10.600
Department web page, which is a great place to
1037
00:53:10.600 --> 00:53:14.100
find resources Services All
1038
00:53:13.100 --> 00:53:16.400
climate-related City staff.
1039
00:53:18.200 --> 00:53:18.900
next slide
1040
00:53:21.600 --> 00:53:24.300
and then of course, you can connect with us via
1041
00:53:24.300 --> 00:53:27.700
email with questions or by phone using
1042
00:53:27.700 --> 00:53:30.300
those two resources.
1043
00:53:34.100 --> 00:53:34.600
slide
1044
00:53:41.100 --> 00:53:45.900
and that concludes the formal presentation now,
1045
00:53:44.900 --> 00:53:48.000
we'll start our Q&A and
1046
00:53:47.600 --> 00:53:50.500
I'll pass it along to Emily.
1047
00:53:51.600 --> 00:53:54.200
Well good evening everyone and thanks for sticking around to the
1048
00:53:54.200 --> 00:53:57.500
presentation. My name is Emily Sandoval as Leah mentioned.
1049
00:53:57.500 --> 00:54:00.700
I'm the other Communications person supporting tonight's event
1050
00:54:00.700 --> 00:54:03.300
and we want to invite you now to use that
1051
00:54:03.300 --> 00:54:07.400
Q&A tool which some of you are already figured out to start
1052
00:54:06.400 --> 00:54:09.300
this conversation, right? We'd love to hear what
1053
00:54:09.300 --> 00:54:12.300
your thoughts are any questions you might have they're already
1054
00:54:12.300 --> 00:54:15.500
some really great ones in there. So I'd love to start. Maybe this
1055
00:54:15.500 --> 00:54:19.100
is a question for you and Brett arella which is specifically
1056
00:54:18.100 --> 00:54:23.100
related to HOA policies. So lots
1057
00:54:21.100 --> 00:54:24.300
of folks in our community live
1058
00:54:24.300 --> 00:54:27.600
in HOAs, and sometimes those bylaws can limit
1059
00:54:27.600 --> 00:54:30.200
what types of plants people can plant whether they can
1060
00:54:30.200 --> 00:54:34.000
even get rid of their lawn. I wonder if you can share some of
1061
00:54:33.600 --> 00:54:37.000
what the city is doing to address those challenges.
1062
00:54:39.500 --> 00:54:43.500
I can I can start and then you can answer some
1063
00:54:43.500 --> 00:54:44.100
more Brett.
1064
00:54:44.600 --> 00:54:47.300
Luckily, the state has already done something. So there are
1065
00:54:47.300 --> 00:54:50.500
state laws that have been passed and
1066
00:54:50.500 --> 00:54:53.100
I think starting back maybe about 2013 or
1067
00:54:53.100 --> 00:54:53.600
so.
1068
00:54:54.200 --> 00:54:57.700
And a couple others that have strengthened those
1069
00:54:57.700 --> 00:55:01.600
or an HOA cannot tell a resident
1070
00:55:00.600 --> 00:55:03.500
within that community that they
1071
00:55:03.500 --> 00:55:06.400
they can't put water wise
1072
00:55:06.400 --> 00:55:07.800
plants or take out grass.
1073
00:55:08.500 --> 00:55:11.300
So that would pertain to your the
1074
00:55:11.300 --> 00:55:14.600
property in your yard, and there's new
1075
00:55:14.600 --> 00:55:19.000
bills that are encouraging HOAs
1076
00:55:17.000 --> 00:55:20.200
to add
1077
00:55:20.200 --> 00:55:24.900
more water wise and climate friendly plantings. And
1078
00:55:24.900 --> 00:55:27.000
so there are some tools and it's always
1079
00:55:28.800 --> 00:55:32.100
Good to know, you know that there are certain statutes
1080
00:55:31.100 --> 00:55:34.900
that protect us to be able to you know,
1081
00:55:34.900 --> 00:55:38.100
improve the landscape so that they're more appropriate the
1082
00:55:37.100 --> 00:55:40.400
city is knows that this is an issue in
1083
00:55:40.400 --> 00:55:43.800
hoos. And so we've been working with various
1084
00:55:43.800 --> 00:55:46.500
ways and the community there are
1085
00:55:46.500 --> 00:55:49.500
some already doing great things and taking out grass and putting
1086
00:55:49.500 --> 00:55:49.700
in
1087
00:55:50.800 --> 00:55:53.700
Plants in the native plants
1088
00:55:53.700 --> 00:55:56.300
into the common areas. So we'll be
1089
00:55:56.300 --> 00:55:59.900
pursuing that more and be working more with HOAs
1090
00:55:59.900 --> 00:56:02.700
to make sure that we have the resources
1091
00:56:02.700 --> 00:56:06.400
people need the information the plants even if
1092
00:56:06.400 --> 00:56:09.300
they have the hire labor, we're all
1093
00:56:09.300 --> 00:56:12.100
so working on that to make sure that people are trained and
1094
00:56:12.100 --> 00:56:14.500
know how to take care of those types of landscapes.
1095
00:56:15.800 --> 00:56:18.300
Yeah, in many ways similar to where we were in
1096
00:56:18.300 --> 00:56:21.500
energy 10 or 15 years ago where we're just starting
1097
00:56:21.500 --> 00:56:24.500
to get a sense of what are the things that need to be done. We
1098
00:56:24.500 --> 00:56:27.400
need to quantify the benefits of those and the costs
1099
00:56:27.400 --> 00:56:30.700
and be able to start to have practices and
1100
00:56:30.700 --> 00:56:33.600
policies that we are really confident can
1101
00:56:33.600 --> 00:56:36.500
actually deliver the benefits that are needed. So we're in the
1102
00:56:36.500 --> 00:56:40.000
midst right now of doing an analysis of different landscape types
1103
00:56:39.300 --> 00:56:42.500
and the kinds of water impacts. They have the types
1104
00:56:42.500 --> 00:56:45.000
of Maintenance impacts that they have so those will be
1105
00:56:45.600 --> 00:56:48.100
sort of references that we can use for those. Hoa's that are
1106
00:56:48.100 --> 00:56:51.500
interested in moving that direction. I think what we'll likely be doing is starting with
1107
00:56:51.500 --> 00:56:54.700
the HOAs that are really ready to move and start taking new
1108
00:56:54.700 --> 00:56:57.500
steps. There's a lot of work right now with HOAs around
1109
00:56:57.500 --> 00:57:00.300
fire risk reduction. For example, in fact, if you're in
1110
00:57:00.300 --> 00:57:03.500
an HOA that hasn't had a chance to do that kind of fire risk reduction,
1111
00:57:03.500 --> 00:57:06.100
please contact the fire department because we want to make sure
1112
00:57:06.100 --> 00:57:09.400
that we get you folks in thecube for that kind of work as well. So as
1113
00:57:09.400 --> 00:57:12.200
well as said there are changes that are being made they're not
1114
00:57:12.200 --> 00:57:15.100
as fast as some of us would like to see but I think we are moving in that direction.
1115
00:57:17.300 --> 00:57:20.200
Right. Thanks for that question. Just as a
1116
00:57:20.200 --> 00:57:23.500
reminder. If you have questions go ahead and open up that Q&A tool
1117
00:57:23.500 --> 00:57:26.100
and type that in that's probably the easiest way
1118
00:57:26.100 --> 00:57:27.200
to get a hold of us.
1119
00:57:28.100 --> 00:57:32.100
Okay. I've got a specific question around unused Parcels
1120
00:57:31.100 --> 00:57:34.300
within our city and our community
1121
00:57:34.300 --> 00:57:38.000
and some requests for assistance specifically, how
1122
00:57:37.100 --> 00:57:40.600
can you help improve the unused and baron Parkland
1123
00:57:40.600 --> 00:57:42.400
at the Boulder Meadows Mobile Home Park.
1124
00:57:43.200 --> 00:57:47.400
Yeah, that isn't an area that we know has significant issues
1125
00:57:47.400 --> 00:57:50.500
because of past flooding and also it has
1126
00:57:50.500 --> 00:57:53.500
canopy issues in terms of being able to to get
1127
00:57:53.500 --> 00:57:56.100
enough canopy to cool those areas. One of the things
1128
00:57:56.100 --> 00:57:59.700
we're moving towards is kind of a neighborhood by neighborhood analysis
1129
00:57:59.700 --> 00:58:03.100
of these climate risks and climate
1130
00:58:02.100 --> 00:58:05.400
Solutions. And that's one of the areas that
1131
00:58:05.400 --> 00:58:08.200
we're looking quite closely at so I would
1132
00:58:08.200 --> 00:58:11.500
say if you're in an area and you think that there's significant opportunities in
1133
00:58:11.500 --> 00:58:14.500
that area that you and your neighbors could move towards working
1134
00:58:14.500 --> 00:58:17.200
on that would be the kind of thing that we would love to have you
1135
00:58:17.200 --> 00:58:20.200
kind of get in touch and start to think about as a community how
1136
00:58:20.200 --> 00:58:23.500
you can start working towards that as well as said we are
1137
00:58:23.500 --> 00:58:27.400
looking at ways that we can start trying to bring more resources financial
1138
00:58:26.400 --> 00:58:29.400
and otherwise to support these kinds
1139
00:58:29.400 --> 00:58:32.200
of efforts be a little patient with us. Like
1140
00:58:32.200 --> 00:58:35.300
we're about four months out of the gate just getting started here
1141
00:58:35.300 --> 00:58:38.400
part of the ballot an issue that we have. This fall will
1142
00:58:38.400 --> 00:58:41.800
determine whether we have additional resources that we can actually put towards
1143
00:58:41.800 --> 00:58:42.800
these kinds of activities.
1144
00:58:43.200 --> 00:58:46.000
But it is something that we're committed to in the long term. We're not going to
1145
00:58:46.100 --> 00:58:49.300
get this all done in a year or two. We see this is at least a 10
1146
00:58:49.300 --> 00:58:49.800
year campaign.
1147
00:58:51.100 --> 00:58:53.800
And you know I can add that. We we know that.
1148
00:58:55.100 --> 00:58:58.100
With these situation for folks who live in mobile home parks and
1149
00:58:58.100 --> 00:59:01.900
and BHP properties and other and
1150
00:59:01.900 --> 00:59:02.100
rentals.
1151
00:59:02.900 --> 00:59:05.300
That I mean people may not
1152
00:59:05.300 --> 00:59:08.100
have the resources or the permission from their
1153
00:59:08.100 --> 00:59:11.700
landlord to make these changes. And so we and
1154
00:59:11.700 --> 00:59:15.200
people in the community are really focused on making
1155
00:59:14.200 --> 00:59:18.100
sure that everybody has access to the
1156
00:59:17.100 --> 00:59:20.200
plant materials and the information they need
1157
00:59:20.200 --> 00:59:23.100
to help transform these types of landscapes.
1158
00:59:23.900 --> 00:59:26.300
Yeah, just to build on that a little bit. We were just
1159
00:59:26.300 --> 00:59:29.200
on the phone today talking about whether or not
1160
00:59:29.200 --> 00:59:29.800
we could help.
1161
00:59:31.200 --> 00:59:34.900
Accelerate the development of a vision that Congressman
1162
00:59:34.900 --> 00:59:37.500
naguse had around the Colorado Conservation Corps
1163
00:59:37.500 --> 00:59:40.600
a CCC and whether we could get young people,
1164
00:59:40.600 --> 00:59:43.800
especially young people from less advantage to
1165
00:59:43.800 --> 00:59:46.800
areas into training programs where they would have the basic skills
1166
00:59:46.800 --> 00:59:49.100
so that we could deploy them as teams out to do some of
1167
00:59:49.100 --> 00:59:52.300
the Hazardous fuels reduction or plantings or
1168
00:59:52.300 --> 00:59:55.800
the things that need to be done to bring these areas into greater
1169
00:59:55.800 --> 00:59:57.100
ecological productivity.
1170
00:59:59.900 --> 01:00:02.200
Yeah, and I think there's a question
1171
01:00:02.200 --> 01:00:05.500
here that sort of related which may be really you can answer there's this.
1172
01:00:06.300 --> 01:00:09.100
This knowledge that maybe Lawns are not the right thing to be
1173
01:00:09.100 --> 01:00:12.700
planting in our private areas. But is there
1174
01:00:12.700 --> 01:00:15.400
a list or a list of resources that you can provide
1175
01:00:15.400 --> 01:00:18.400
of what types of plants should
1176
01:00:18.400 --> 01:00:21.300
go in their place? Can we use some of this time to
1177
01:00:21.300 --> 01:00:23.300
educate folks on what those plants might be?
1178
01:00:24.500 --> 01:00:27.300
Yeah, again a place of just a little patience. We hope there's
1179
01:00:27.300 --> 01:00:31.400
been a bunch of work on this the state forestry. The
1180
01:00:31.400 --> 01:00:34.200
other associations have
1181
01:00:34.200 --> 01:00:37.300
been putting out lists, but the lists aren't well aligned yet.
1182
01:00:37.300 --> 01:00:40.200
So one of the issues that one of the things we're working on this
1183
01:00:40.200 --> 01:00:43.400
fall is to start trying to bring convening so that we can especially have for example
1184
01:00:43.400 --> 01:00:46.800
fire adapted or fire suitable vegetation.
1185
01:00:46.800 --> 01:00:49.600
Certainly the pollinator Advocate
1186
01:00:49.600 --> 01:00:52.300
training program is a great place to learn about what kinds of
1187
01:00:52.300 --> 01:00:55.400
plants are well suited for that and then we're also going to be looking at
1188
01:00:55.400 --> 01:00:58.400
the the most appropriate types of tree species
1189
01:00:58.400 --> 01:01:01.700
and others to be using as we're looking at a dry drier and
1190
01:01:01.700 --> 01:01:02.700
hotter future.
1191
01:01:04.400 --> 01:01:07.800
And there are quite a few lists to available on the
1192
01:01:07.800 --> 01:01:09.200
city's website if you go to.
1193
01:01:10.500 --> 01:01:14.600
Be bolder not the CU Boulder, but bee
1194
01:01:13.600 --> 01:01:17.500
Boulder like the insect.org and
1195
01:01:16.500 --> 01:01:19.600
you click on pollinator Pathways there.
1196
01:01:19.600 --> 01:01:23.600
There's a whole list of resources that you
1197
01:01:23.600 --> 01:01:26.000
can find about plants that are good for
1198
01:01:26.900 --> 01:01:29.300
landscaping in in our in
1199
01:01:29.300 --> 01:01:30.600
our climate native plants.
1200
01:01:31.200 --> 01:01:34.400
And there's also it's a little harder to find. I
1201
01:01:34.400 --> 01:01:37.000
think if you scroll down at the bottom on that page, there should be
1202
01:01:38.300 --> 01:01:41.200
A link to sustainable Landscapes and
1203
01:01:41.200 --> 01:01:45.600
that tells you how if you're going to have grass how you can manage it organically
1204
01:01:44.600 --> 01:01:48.300
and sustainably and that's important because
1205
01:01:47.300 --> 01:01:50.300
if we are going to have grass we need
1206
01:01:50.300 --> 01:01:53.400
it to be safe for our community, but it can also have a
1207
01:01:53.400 --> 01:01:56.600
cooling effect and it can store carbon
1208
01:01:56.600 --> 01:01:59.300
and so it's really important if we're going
1209
01:01:59.300 --> 01:02:01.300
to have grass that we manage it appropriately.
1210
01:02:04.200 --> 01:02:06.700
That's great. So I just put a link to that in the chat.
1211
01:02:08.500 --> 01:02:12.000
That page be bolder.org and the pollinator
1212
01:02:11.600 --> 01:02:12.800
Pathways information.
1213
01:02:14.200 --> 01:02:17.100
There's a lot of great information on our website and we can dig into that and provide
1214
01:02:17.100 --> 01:02:17.400
a bit more.
1215
01:02:19.900 --> 01:02:22.200
Moving I guess staying with this topic
1216
01:02:22.200 --> 01:02:25.500
for a little while. Is there a way for us to better incentivize landlords
1217
01:02:25.500 --> 01:02:28.700
to participate in particular recognizing that rental housing
1218
01:02:28.700 --> 01:02:33.100
stock is a big portion of our residential makeup
1219
01:02:31.100 --> 01:02:33.700
here in our community.
1220
01:02:35.200 --> 01:02:39.100
Yeah, that's a great question again what we're
1221
01:02:38.100 --> 01:02:42.900
kind of looking to the work we've done for 15
1222
01:02:41.900 --> 01:02:44.600
years around energy and
1223
01:02:44.600 --> 01:02:47.500
how we worked with the the landlord
1224
01:02:47.500 --> 01:02:50.400
and the community around that sort of providing
1225
01:02:50.400 --> 01:02:53.200
incentives there. So I think we're looking to do
1226
01:02:53.200 --> 01:02:56.300
something similar on the natural climate Solutions
1227
01:02:56.300 --> 01:02:59.500
vegetation side. We're early stages around that
1228
01:02:59.500 --> 01:03:02.500
but I think that that is a place where we do need the
1229
01:03:02.500 --> 01:03:05.300
private sector Community to step forward and I
1230
01:03:05.300 --> 01:03:08.500
think the are I would say that our our partners
1231
01:03:08.500 --> 01:03:11.200
for a clean environment Folks at the county are starting to work
1232
01:03:11.200 --> 01:03:15.400
with the commercial property owners, and they're creating new Urban landscape
1233
01:03:14.400 --> 01:03:18.200
incentive programs for that sector. We're
1234
01:03:17.200 --> 01:03:20.200
still in the early stages of looking at
1235
01:03:20.200 --> 01:03:23.400
how we could translate that kind of thing into the residential sector as
1236
01:03:23.400 --> 01:03:23.500
well.
1237
01:03:25.900 --> 01:03:28.200
And then we have another question sort of
1238
01:03:28.200 --> 01:03:31.100
like how to question which is I get
1239
01:03:31.100 --> 01:03:34.200
it. I hear a lot about the need to plant trees, but I'm not hearing enough
1240
01:03:34.200 --> 01:03:38.300
about where to plant those trees. Do we have advice
1241
01:03:37.300 --> 01:03:40.400
or resources for folks
1242
01:03:40.400 --> 01:03:43.200
which have been due to help them guide, you know, if they want
1243
01:03:43.200 --> 01:03:45.500
to take the leap into planting trees where they should do it.
1244
01:03:46.800 --> 01:03:49.600
Yes, so I would just say that we're really
1245
01:03:49.600 --> 01:03:52.500
gearing up for a Big Spring around the tree
1246
01:03:52.500 --> 01:03:55.500
planting peace and getting all the key pieces in
1247
01:03:55.500 --> 01:03:58.200
place and one of those is the tree trust and the tree tender training
1248
01:03:58.200 --> 01:04:01.500
program. So there's gonna be a whole bunch of resources that are coming online
1249
01:04:01.500 --> 01:04:04.300
this fall through the tree trust and the tree
1250
01:04:04.300 --> 01:04:07.900
tender program for exactly that kind of thing. So stay
1251
01:04:07.900 --> 01:04:10.100
tuned around that we're a little
1252
01:04:10.100 --> 01:04:13.200
bit early, but by this by later this fall, I think we'll have a lot of
1253
01:04:13.200 --> 01:04:14.400
those resources in place.
1254
01:04:16.600 --> 01:04:17.500
That's exciting.
1255
01:04:18.900 --> 01:04:21.300
Okay, Switching gears a little bit. I want
1256
01:04:21.300 --> 01:04:25.300
to talk a bit about Equity concerns and recognizing
1257
01:04:24.300 --> 01:04:27.700
this is sort of a new Focus for the city. Can
1258
01:04:27.700 --> 01:04:30.100
you talk a little bit about the ways in which we're trying to make this
1259
01:04:30.100 --> 01:04:33.600
accessible to everyone whether that be language or
1260
01:04:33.600 --> 01:04:37.100
ability to come to a meeting like this. This is
1261
01:04:37.100 --> 01:04:39.900
clearly a community effort. How are we involving the entire community?
1262
01:04:43.300 --> 01:04:46.900
Well, there's multiple places to start. I think there's there's Equity
1263
01:04:46.900 --> 01:04:49.800
issues in terms of who is bearing
1264
01:04:49.800 --> 01:04:52.400
the initial impacts of climate change
1265
01:04:52.400 --> 01:04:55.200
first and worst, which is often the lower
1266
01:04:55.200 --> 01:04:58.500
income parts of our community or the piece of people who are not in
1267
01:04:58.500 --> 01:05:01.600
the as I mean, you can see it in our own Community the amount of
1268
01:05:01.600 --> 01:05:04.500
tree canopy that there is on Mapleton Hill is much
1269
01:05:04.500 --> 01:05:07.600
higher than it is out in Soldier the boulder a
1270
01:05:07.600 --> 01:05:10.200
mobile home park. So we need to be starting to look at
1271
01:05:10.200 --> 01:05:13.600
where these areas are that are most vulnerable. So we're doing a special
1272
01:05:13.600 --> 01:05:17.100
analysis right now to look at that heat vulnerability index
1273
01:05:16.100 --> 01:05:19.700
that's part of what we've been mapping through this fall. So
1274
01:05:19.700 --> 01:05:22.500
there's the who's most impacted. There's also
1275
01:05:22.500 --> 01:05:25.300
who has the opportunities that these types
1276
01:05:25.300 --> 01:05:28.500
of actions bring forward. I'd like relative to talk a
1277
01:05:28.500 --> 01:05:31.600
little bit about the work that we've started to do with latinx landscaping
1278
01:05:31.600 --> 01:05:34.400
companies to start helping them position themselves to
1279
01:05:34.400 --> 01:05:36.600
provide a lot of these new types of services.
1280
01:05:38.600 --> 01:05:41.400
Yeah, and this is something that we really need
1281
01:05:41.400 --> 01:05:44.600
Community Partners to be working with us on
1282
01:05:44.600 --> 01:05:47.500
because we need multiple perspectives and
1283
01:05:47.500 --> 01:05:50.500
ways of communicating with people some of this information
1284
01:05:50.500 --> 01:05:53.100
that's coming top down can be
1285
01:05:53.100 --> 01:05:56.400
difficult for anyone in the community to have access
1286
01:05:56.400 --> 01:06:00.100
to so people who aren't used to coming to meetings like this and
1287
01:05:59.100 --> 01:06:02.600
getting information from City
1288
01:06:02.600 --> 01:06:05.100
organizations or academic or institutions are
1289
01:06:05.100 --> 01:06:06.100
in a nonprofits.
1290
01:06:06.800 --> 01:06:09.500
Need to be able to have ways of the
1291
01:06:09.500 --> 01:06:12.800
information's accessible to them. So we've been having multiple
1292
01:06:12.800 --> 01:06:15.700
conversations with
1293
01:06:18.900 --> 01:06:21.300
about of what like Brett
1294
01:06:21.300 --> 01:06:24.300
said let next Landscaping Community, but we're
1295
01:06:24.300 --> 01:06:27.800
also working with Boulder housing partners and flows
1296
01:06:27.800 --> 01:06:31.000
at CU Environmental Center who are
1297
01:06:30.800 --> 01:06:33.800
represented mainly by committee members
1298
01:06:33.800 --> 01:06:36.500
who live in subsidized housing or low-income
1299
01:06:36.500 --> 01:06:40.000
housing so that we can make sure that people all economic
1300
01:06:39.600 --> 01:06:42.300
and social demographics have
1301
01:06:42.300 --> 01:06:45.500
access information, but we're exploring some new ideas
1302
01:06:45.500 --> 01:06:45.800
of
1303
01:06:47.100 --> 01:06:51.000
of really creating new methods
1304
01:06:50.200 --> 01:06:53.400
of communicating with people in the
1305
01:06:53.400 --> 01:06:56.300
in Boulder and it goes Way Beyond just
1306
01:06:56.300 --> 01:06:59.200
translating things into Spanish which we need to
1307
01:06:59.200 --> 01:07:00.800
do in our doing or
1308
01:07:02.500 --> 01:07:05.400
or having interpreters if people don't come
1309
01:07:05.400 --> 01:07:09.100
and aren't interested. So we're really trying to learn what but everyone
1310
01:07:08.100 --> 01:07:11.700
in the community needs and
1311
01:07:11.700 --> 01:07:14.500
how people can get involved so that we can all
1312
01:07:14.500 --> 01:07:17.500
share our ideas and that's how
1313
01:07:17.500 --> 01:07:20.400
we're going to come up with the best Solutions. So like Brett said,
1314
01:07:20.400 --> 01:07:23.500
this is all a slow process. We're trying new things
1315
01:07:23.500 --> 01:07:26.400
that so these typically don't
1316
01:07:26.400 --> 01:07:29.600
do and communities often aren't connected
1317
01:07:29.600 --> 01:07:32.300
as much as they need to be to be
1318
01:07:32.300 --> 01:07:35.300
able to take on this large amount of effort that we
1319
01:07:35.300 --> 01:07:38.500
have to to do but when we have people all working and
1320
01:07:38.500 --> 01:07:41.500
talking together, that's when we come up with solutions that can
1321
01:07:41.500 --> 01:07:41.500
work.
1322
01:07:46.500 --> 01:07:49.400
That's great. And thanks for that question. I will say from
1323
01:07:49.400 --> 01:07:52.800
a Communications perspective part of our job for me. And
1324
01:07:52.800 --> 01:07:54.700
for Leah is to make sure that we are.
1325
01:07:55.500 --> 01:07:58.500
Presenting this content in a way that is as relatable
1326
01:07:58.500 --> 01:08:00.800
as possible to the most people. So I really appreciate the
1327
01:08:01.600 --> 01:08:04.900
the attention to that specific issue good.
1328
01:08:04.900 --> 01:08:08.400
Yes, the terrific
1329
01:08:07.400 --> 01:08:10.600
graduate student team we've had from CU has
1330
01:08:10.600 --> 01:08:13.600
been a real advocate for this and and really asking
1331
01:08:14.300 --> 01:08:17.700
That cool Boulder bring Equity considerations
1332
01:08:17.700 --> 01:08:20.100
more to the front of this and so
1333
01:08:20.100 --> 01:08:23.200
we are in the midst of working on a set of equity
1334
01:08:23.200 --> 01:08:26.600
principles and sort of practices that will become sort
1335
01:08:26.600 --> 01:08:29.600
of guiding to the cool Boulder
1336
01:08:29.600 --> 01:08:32.200
efforts and we've started an initiative to start reaching out
1337
01:08:32.200 --> 01:08:35.600
to all the partners within cool Boulder to have conversations about
1338
01:08:35.600 --> 01:08:38.500
how we integrate Equity through their best
1339
01:08:38.500 --> 01:08:41.400
practices as well. So it's a it's an ongoing
1340
01:08:41.400 --> 01:08:44.300
process. I think it's something we have to keep talking
1341
01:08:44.300 --> 01:08:47.400
about we have to keep checking ourselves about but I again, I
1342
01:08:47.400 --> 01:08:48.500
really appreciate the question as well.
1343
01:08:49.500 --> 01:08:52.300
and one more thing I might add to is that our partners
1344
01:08:52.300 --> 01:08:56.200
are actively working and these areas so Andrea
1345
01:08:55.200 --> 01:08:58.300
Montoya who's leading the
1346
01:08:58.300 --> 01:09:01.500
pollinator Advocate training this really thinking
1347
01:09:01.500 --> 01:09:05.300
about this from a perspective of ensuring that
1348
01:09:05.900 --> 01:09:08.300
that people who live in areas where
1349
01:09:08.300 --> 01:09:11.500
they don't have a yard or they only have a you know
1350
01:09:11.500 --> 01:09:14.300
don't have access to land how they can be involved too
1351
01:09:14.300 --> 01:09:17.400
or how you can take a small rented space
1352
01:09:17.400 --> 01:09:21.700
around the mobile home or and a
1353
01:09:20.700 --> 01:09:23.500
small apartment where
1354
01:09:23.500 --> 01:09:26.900
you can get space or you know, using pots
1355
01:09:26.900 --> 01:09:29.000
or whatever you have accessible to you so
1356
01:09:29.100 --> 01:09:32.300
that you can be part of this because every little bit counts and
1357
01:09:32.300 --> 01:09:33.200
it all adds up.
1358
01:09:33.800 --> 01:09:36.400
And it's really important for our community to really join
1359
01:09:36.400 --> 01:09:37.800
together every level.
1360
01:09:39.600 --> 01:09:42.000
Yeah, I just want to bring this back. I mean part of the reason
1361
01:09:42.200 --> 01:09:45.300
I wanted to sit in my own backyard was just how much I've learned from
1362
01:09:45.300 --> 01:09:48.300
my partner Emily in this last few years about
1363
01:09:48.300 --> 01:09:52.000
how much more life we can bring into our
1364
01:09:51.800 --> 01:09:54.600
experience even in very small
1365
01:09:54.600 --> 01:09:58.700
places. Like our yard was entirely Turf when
1366
01:09:58.700 --> 01:10:01.800
we first moved in and it was a green lovely spot, but
1367
01:10:01.800 --> 01:10:04.200
there wasn't actually very much life and over the last couple
1368
01:10:04.200 --> 01:10:07.700
of years as we've been planting pollinator plants and experimenting with
1369
01:10:07.700 --> 01:10:10.500
different things. The number of native bees. The
1370
01:10:10.500 --> 01:10:13.600
number of dragonflies number of things that are just moving around
1371
01:10:13.600 --> 01:10:16.900
doing their jobs all day long. It's really remarkable. And
1372
01:10:16.900 --> 01:10:19.500
as well as said it may seem small, but
1373
01:10:19.500 --> 01:10:22.500
when these start to get connected together, they're very important
1374
01:10:22.500 --> 01:10:25.900
part of building the capacity these living systems and
1375
01:10:25.900 --> 01:10:28.400
the intrinsic resilience of living systems is truly
1376
01:10:28.400 --> 01:10:31.500
remarkable. It's the place that I probably find my greatest hope
1377
01:10:31.500 --> 01:10:34.700
when I think about what has to be done to kind of create to
1378
01:10:34.700 --> 01:10:35.900
stabilize the world that we're living in,
1379
01:10:36.700 --> 01:10:39.100
That's great. So we've got a
1380
01:10:39.100 --> 01:10:42.100
number of questions coming in. Some of them are really big. Some of
1381
01:10:42.100 --> 01:10:45.000
them are a little bit more. Yes or no. So let's go with one of the yes or no
1382
01:10:45.400 --> 01:10:48.400
ones, but Emily I want to just take I saw
1383
01:10:48.400 --> 01:10:51.200
that there's a somebody who wants to talk about see yourself
1384
01:10:51.200 --> 01:10:54.400
and I'm gonna say I'm okay. I'm gonna try to go deeply into see
1385
01:10:54.400 --> 01:10:57.100
you South but I would say this I think
1386
01:10:57.100 --> 01:11:00.200
we all have a responsibility to start
1387
01:11:00.200 --> 01:11:03.400
trying to become more literate about how the
1388
01:11:03.400 --> 01:11:06.700
living systems around us work and how they
1389
01:11:06.700 --> 01:11:09.500
interact with and effect the environment
1390
01:11:09.500 --> 01:11:12.200
that we live in we all have work to do there
1391
01:11:12.200 --> 01:11:15.900
and there's a lot that isn't yet known about the degree
1392
01:11:15.900 --> 01:11:18.800
to which certain actions can stabilize something
1393
01:11:18.800 --> 01:11:21.400
can absorb water. We're trying to set the
1394
01:11:21.400 --> 01:11:24.600
the processes in motion to learn more about that. We're not
1395
01:11:24.600 --> 01:11:27.500
the only interest that are at play
1396
01:11:27.500 --> 01:11:30.900
here and there are development is just there are there academic
1397
01:11:30.900 --> 01:11:33.900
interest there are so I think we have to start bringing
1398
01:11:33.900 --> 01:11:36.400
these issues forward and having them be
1399
01:11:36.400 --> 01:11:36.700
a
1400
01:11:36.700 --> 01:11:39.200
The conversation it's not going to be easy. It's not gonna
1401
01:11:39.200 --> 01:11:42.300
get resolved in the single issue that's on the
1402
01:11:42.300 --> 01:11:45.400
table land use is the favorite contact sport in
1403
01:11:45.400 --> 01:11:48.300
Boulder. So, of course, you know all kinds of things are going to get packed into
1404
01:11:48.300 --> 01:11:51.200
that. But I think what I'm excited about is to see
1405
01:11:51.200 --> 01:11:54.700
that we are starting to talk about how these capabilities of
1406
01:11:54.700 --> 01:11:58.100
living systems and what affects them are an intrinsic
1407
01:11:57.100 --> 01:12:00.100
part of how well we'll be resilient to the
1408
01:12:00.100 --> 01:12:04.400
Future. So I'm excited that people are motivated to
1409
01:12:04.400 --> 01:12:05.300
start having that conversation.
1410
01:12:07.300 --> 01:12:10.300
Thanks Brett. That was one of the juicier questions. I was going to say but thanks
1411
01:12:10.300 --> 01:12:12.600
for hitting it right there.
1412
01:12:15.300 --> 01:12:18.700
Questions specifically do we
1413
01:12:18.700 --> 01:12:20.300
have results yet for the heat mapping project?
1414
01:12:22.300 --> 01:12:25.300
That we don't yet. Um, we will get
1415
01:12:25.300 --> 01:12:28.200
those back from Noah probably in the
1416
01:12:28.200 --> 01:12:32.500
next two or three weeks Adam Hall's gonna set up an
1417
01:12:31.500 --> 01:12:34.300
opportunity for folks who've been a part
1418
01:12:34.300 --> 01:12:37.500
of that in others who are interested to come and see that data. There
1419
01:12:37.500 --> 01:12:40.700
are some really cool ways that they'll help us visualize that data and
1420
01:12:40.700 --> 01:12:43.300
then we have that whole other set of data that
1421
01:12:43.300 --> 01:12:46.300
we're collecting from the stationary sensors. We won't take
1422
01:12:46.300 --> 01:12:49.200
those down until October and it's gonna
1423
01:12:49.200 --> 01:12:52.500
be a sort of iterative process to to learn how to use all that
1424
01:12:52.500 --> 01:12:55.500
but I think by I'd say probably mid to
1425
01:12:55.500 --> 01:12:58.800
late October watch for some calls and
1426
01:12:58.800 --> 01:13:01.100
invitations to come in and take a look at that
1427
01:13:01.100 --> 01:13:04.100
data together and then that'll actually help us think about what we want to
1428
01:13:04.100 --> 01:13:07.800
do. Next year is Adam said we want to do some more story based
1429
01:13:07.800 --> 01:13:11.100
and qualitative work. Well, we all want to keep in developing
1430
01:13:10.100 --> 01:13:13.600
the information we're gonna need to figure out how to manage heat
1431
01:13:13.600 --> 01:13:14.100
in our community.
1432
01:13:16.500 --> 01:13:19.100
Great. This is a question that I've heard a lot
1433
01:13:19.100 --> 01:13:22.200
that I think might be on a lot of folks Minds that I'd love to get you
1434
01:13:22.200 --> 01:13:25.600
both to address and the question is Colorado is
1435
01:13:25.600 --> 01:13:28.900
a semi-era desert with limited Water Resources. Hence
1436
01:13:28.900 --> 01:13:32.300
historically Short Grass Prairie ecosystems trees
1437
01:13:31.300 --> 01:13:34.200
need increased water to grow. So how do
1438
01:13:34.200 --> 01:13:37.400
we address this will 20,000 trees create their own water cycle
1439
01:13:37.400 --> 01:13:38.200
and increase water.
1440
01:13:39.700 --> 01:13:39.800
Etc
1441
01:13:40.700 --> 01:13:41.700
Yeah, really good question.
1442
01:13:42.900 --> 01:13:45.200
So for one thing I think it's important
1443
01:13:45.200 --> 01:13:48.900
to recognize we use a lot of water in Landscapes
1444
01:13:48.900 --> 01:13:50.300
right now to grow turf.
1445
01:13:50.800 --> 01:13:53.800
That's a very water consumptive form of
1446
01:13:53.800 --> 01:13:54.600
land use.
1447
01:13:55.300 --> 01:13:58.100
And there's there's a lot of good things about Turf. I'm not trying to
1448
01:13:58.100 --> 01:14:01.200
knock Turf exactly but to say if we're starting to talk about
1449
01:14:01.200 --> 01:14:04.700
can we add trees? Probably we can't just add an
1450
01:14:04.700 --> 01:14:07.400
ad unless we're rebalancing but part
1451
01:14:07.400 --> 01:14:10.400
of it is can we start to create more balance in
1452
01:14:10.400 --> 01:14:13.400
our Landscapes where more of that Water Resource is
1453
01:14:13.400 --> 01:14:16.100
going to trees and shrubs and other things that are
1454
01:14:16.100 --> 01:14:21.600
creating shade now, I think that there's a emergent area
1455
01:14:20.600 --> 01:14:23.600
of knowledge about how living
1456
01:14:23.600 --> 01:14:26.600
systems do actually cycle water and
1457
01:14:26.600 --> 01:14:29.100
to start creating more of that kind of
1458
01:14:29.100 --> 01:14:32.700
moisture cycle that comes back and so I don't
1459
01:14:32.700 --> 01:14:36.000
think it's as simple as a zero, you know as an arithmetic
1460
01:14:35.200 --> 01:14:38.200
type of Peace, we these systems can
1461
01:14:38.200 --> 01:14:41.400
rebuild hydrology and hold more water. One
1462
01:14:41.400 --> 01:14:44.300
of the things that we have to do is to figure out how we're
1463
01:14:44.300 --> 01:14:47.400
going to manage Landscapes to hold water because
1464
01:14:47.400 --> 01:14:50.300
part of the reason we have things like the martial far is that our
1465
01:14:50.300 --> 01:14:53.100
Landscapes are basically dehydrated and so
1466
01:14:53.100 --> 01:14:54.900
we're gonna have to start to look for the
1467
01:14:55.200 --> 01:14:58.300
Is that we cycle water and hold water and that's going
1468
01:14:58.300 --> 01:15:01.800
to involve all kinds of different sort of strategies and plants a
1469
01:15:01.800 --> 01:15:03.600
lot of which is still something that we're learning.
1470
01:15:05.500 --> 01:15:08.000
And I think the other thing that we we have to think about
1471
01:15:08.000 --> 01:15:08.900
besides.
1472
01:15:09.500 --> 01:15:12.800
Having a community where people are safer from
1473
01:15:12.800 --> 01:15:15.200
from dying from
1474
01:15:15.200 --> 01:15:17.400
heat related illnesses.
1475
01:15:18.600 --> 01:15:21.200
Is it cities are artificial environments? There's
1476
01:15:21.200 --> 01:15:24.000
no question about that. So we're trying to
1477
01:15:24.600 --> 01:15:27.100
really wild areas as we can to provide
1478
01:15:27.100 --> 01:15:30.300
spaces for insects and
1479
01:15:30.300 --> 01:15:34.500
birds to be able to have populations
1480
01:15:33.500 --> 01:15:35.100
that they can.
1481
01:15:36.800 --> 01:15:39.800
In some safe spaces, you know, especially when
1482
01:15:39.800 --> 01:15:42.600
we're having all these extreme weather events and corridors
1483
01:15:42.600 --> 01:15:45.900
so that they can travel through not only
1484
01:15:45.900 --> 01:15:48.700
to crossbreed and
1485
01:15:48.700 --> 01:15:51.500
you know creates healthy populations of insects and
1486
01:15:51.500 --> 01:15:54.300
birds but also because they're moving is a good solder
1487
01:15:54.300 --> 01:15:57.200
and moving up an elevation. They're moving North. So we need
1488
01:15:57.200 --> 01:16:00.700
to ways that cities are just barriers for animal movement
1489
01:16:00.700 --> 01:16:02.600
migration. We need waste for them to get through.
1490
01:16:03.600 --> 01:16:06.100
But the other thing we need to remember is that we
1491
01:16:06.100 --> 01:16:08.200
in these extreme weather events include flooding.
1492
01:16:08.900 --> 01:16:11.800
And so besides trying to keep the city cooler for
1493
01:16:11.800 --> 01:16:14.000
people to live and be able
1494
01:16:14.100 --> 01:16:18.200
to survive. We also need the storm water benefits
1495
01:16:17.200 --> 01:16:18.700
of trees.
1496
01:16:19.300 --> 01:16:22.900
So and it's a lot to balance. I mean it's not
1497
01:16:22.900 --> 01:16:25.400
we're not going to we're not going to turn cities back into
1498
01:16:25.400 --> 01:16:29.000
Short Grass prairies, but we can try
1499
01:16:28.100 --> 01:16:33.100
to balance the benefits from native
1500
01:16:31.100 --> 01:16:34.200
plants that can can
1501
01:16:34.200 --> 01:16:37.800
help sustain populations of native
1502
01:16:37.800 --> 01:16:38.300
wildlife.
1503
01:16:38.900 --> 01:16:41.100
While protecting our public and making it
1504
01:16:41.100 --> 01:16:44.800
safer for our public and also thinking about things like, you
1505
01:16:44.800 --> 01:16:47.300
know Wildfire, I mean besides Wildfire but
1506
01:16:47.300 --> 01:16:50.300
also flooding in some of the other issues that we're going to be coping
1507
01:16:50.300 --> 01:16:53.400
with in the future. There's another good resource
1508
01:16:53.400 --> 01:16:57.300
by the way around the trees piece is a fantastic article that
1509
01:16:57.300 --> 01:17:00.800
Michael Bronner from harlequin's wrote in the Colorado Gardener
1510
01:17:00.800 --> 01:17:03.100
this spring and I think we've republished it
1511
01:17:03.100 --> 01:17:06.700
or with his permission used published it again in the
1512
01:17:06.700 --> 01:17:09.200
cool Boulder blogs. So it has
1513
01:17:09.200 --> 01:17:12.100
a lot of great information about the types of trees that are
1514
01:17:12.100 --> 01:17:15.300
well suited here. I'm not sure there's so
1515
01:17:15.300 --> 01:17:18.400
much about the planting methods there, but
1516
01:17:18.400 --> 01:17:21.400
it has a lot about the appropriate tree species.
1517
01:17:21.400 --> 01:17:24.500
I think one other thing I just say is that this also starts
1518
01:17:24.500 --> 01:17:28.200
to really point back to why wherever possible
1519
01:17:27.200 --> 01:17:30.900
we need to be looking for those native plant
1520
01:17:30.900 --> 01:17:33.200
species that we can bring back into these
1521
01:17:33.200 --> 01:17:36.500
systems because those are generally pretty well adapted for these
1522
01:17:36.500 --> 01:17:38.800
kinds of dry Cycle System.
1523
01:17:38.900 --> 01:17:41.900
That we live in and they actually also have many
1524
01:17:41.900 --> 01:17:44.000
many more Associates in terms
1525
01:17:44.200 --> 01:17:47.500
of the things that they support. I mean relevant you probably know the statistics but
1526
01:17:47.500 --> 01:17:50.600
like a single chokecherry supports like dozens and
1527
01:17:50.600 --> 01:17:53.200
dozens of dozens of different insects. Whereas some
1528
01:17:53.200 --> 01:17:56.200
of these exotic species that we bring that are beautiful what they just
1529
01:17:56.200 --> 01:17:58.600
nothing was evolved to actually use them.
1530
01:17:59.500 --> 01:18:02.600
Yeah, we should make a big plug for shrubs shrubs are
1531
01:18:02.600 --> 01:18:05.600
so important especially drugs. So we're you know,
1532
01:18:05.600 --> 01:18:09.000
there aren't that many native trees that provide the
1533
01:18:08.100 --> 01:18:11.500
kind of shade and services. We need in urban areas,
1534
01:18:11.500 --> 01:18:14.200
but shrubs are wonderful, and they
1535
01:18:14.200 --> 01:18:17.900
are adapted for this area support Wildlife sequester
1536
01:18:17.900 --> 01:18:20.300
carbon. They just can't say enough about
1537
01:18:20.300 --> 01:18:23.200
shrubs. Everybody needs to put more stress in
1538
01:18:23.200 --> 01:18:25.300
their yards and our common spaces.
1539
01:18:27.200 --> 01:18:29.900
Thanks for the shrub shoutouts Rella. That's great.
1540
01:18:31.300 --> 01:18:34.200
There are so recognizing that we have about 10 minutes left
1541
01:18:34.200 --> 01:18:37.800
and we might go a little bit over given the questions that we have. I want
1542
01:18:37.800 --> 01:18:40.500
to connect to here that are related to mostly how
1543
01:18:40.500 --> 01:18:44.500
the city is collaborating with itself. Right? So question specifically
1544
01:18:44.500 --> 01:18:47.900
about the transportation department and the planning department. The
1545
01:18:47.900 --> 01:18:50.400
one related to the transportation department is whether or
1546
01:18:50.400 --> 01:18:53.900
not the city is looking into types of pavement besides
1547
01:18:53.900 --> 01:18:56.100
black asphalts that as we all
1548
01:18:56.100 --> 01:18:58.600
know if we walked or biked on them lately get really hot in the summer.
1549
01:18:59.400 --> 01:19:02.100
Any knowledge about some of the work that we
1550
01:19:02.100 --> 01:19:06.500
might be doing there. Yeah, actually, we got a call not
1551
01:19:06.500 --> 01:19:09.500
long ago from our transportation department who have
1552
01:19:09.500 --> 01:19:13.100
a new Transportation planner that came in from La. It's really
1553
01:19:13.100 --> 01:19:16.600
kind of fascinating. There's a crossover with NASA here too in La
1554
01:19:16.600 --> 01:19:19.300
they've done some experiments with NASA where they've looked at
1555
01:19:19.300 --> 01:19:22.200
the heat signature of Pavements that
1556
01:19:22.200 --> 01:19:25.600
they paint with a lighter colored material from space and
1557
01:19:25.600 --> 01:19:28.200
we're able to actually see that heat signature from
1558
01:19:28.200 --> 01:19:31.600
space. It's so dramatic and so we are starting to explore what
1559
01:19:31.600 --> 01:19:35.100
kinds of alternative surfacing colors we
1560
01:19:34.100 --> 01:19:37.800
might be able to use. There's also cool roof
1561
01:19:37.800 --> 01:19:40.200
strategies, which are very important these kinds of
1562
01:19:40.200 --> 01:19:43.300
things where you you can't maybe change vegetation, but
1563
01:19:43.300 --> 01:19:46.700
you can change the surface characteristics are going to be a really important piece.
1564
01:19:46.700 --> 01:19:49.400
So we are starting to look at those and and there
1565
01:19:49.400 --> 01:19:52.300
are some techniques that have been developed through the smart surfaces
1566
01:19:52.300 --> 01:19:55.300
Coalition and others that I think will start to see more and more
1567
01:19:55.300 --> 01:19:58.200
of what was the second. Oh,
1568
01:19:58.200 --> 01:19:59.200
well, I would
1569
01:19:59.300 --> 01:20:02.300
Just a second one yet. So that's fascinating and creative and very
1570
01:20:02.300 --> 01:20:05.300
interesting. Glad I got that question. The second one is from
1571
01:20:05.300 --> 01:20:07.000
Paul and he wants to know.
1572
01:20:07.900 --> 01:20:10.900
What we're doing on the planning side of thing. Well, it's
1573
01:20:10.900 --> 01:20:13.500
through codes to make our buildings more
1574
01:20:13.500 --> 01:20:16.300
energy efficient or zero carbon and I
1575
01:20:16.300 --> 01:20:19.400
assume also codes related to the landscaping around new buildings
1576
01:20:19.400 --> 01:20:19.800
as well.
1577
01:20:20.700 --> 01:20:23.100
Yeah, we're going into a whole process of sort of
1578
01:20:23.100 --> 01:20:27.300
re um, reviewing our codes
1579
01:20:26.300 --> 01:20:29.800
around the heat issue. Our planning
1580
01:20:29.800 --> 01:20:32.100
departments got a new set of
1581
01:20:32.100 --> 01:20:35.200
really really talented planners that are starting to look at the
1582
01:20:35.200 --> 01:20:38.800
heat Dynamics pervious versus impervious surfaces
1583
01:20:38.800 --> 01:20:41.100
are really big issue the Albedo or
1584
01:20:41.100 --> 01:20:45.000
the Lighter dark of these surfaces are really big issue how buildings
1585
01:20:44.100 --> 01:20:47.300
are oriented to shade or not shade each
1586
01:20:47.300 --> 01:20:50.100
other is really sort of so there's a whole new set of
1587
01:20:50.100 --> 01:20:53.500
kind of planning tools that the GIS.
1588
01:20:55.100 --> 01:20:58.200
Companies sree that's built the software's that most
1589
01:20:58.200 --> 01:21:01.500
planners use has come out with so we can start to look at the urban form
1590
01:21:01.500 --> 01:21:05.100
in relationship to temperature. It's it's pretty
1591
01:21:04.100 --> 01:21:07.100
new like the last year or so. In fact,
1592
01:21:07.100 --> 01:21:10.600
we're one of the beta test sites for that local or nationally. So
1593
01:21:10.600 --> 01:21:13.400
I'd say again emergent field relatively new
1594
01:21:13.400 --> 01:21:16.300
but our our planners are really starting to take the
1595
01:21:16.300 --> 01:21:17.100
lead in some of that work as well.
1596
01:21:18.600 --> 01:21:20.500
And the other thing was landscape.
1597
01:21:22.100 --> 01:21:25.900
And one of the ways that we can get the community supporting
1598
01:21:25.900 --> 01:21:28.200
these changes is to start getting
1599
01:21:28.200 --> 01:21:30.300
these Landscapes out there. So people can see them.
1600
01:21:30.900 --> 01:21:33.700
You know people have these ideas about what's
1601
01:21:33.700 --> 01:21:36.100
appropriate for landscaping what brings a real estate
1602
01:21:36.100 --> 01:21:39.600
values up that are may not
1603
01:21:39.600 --> 01:21:42.400
even where are not true anymore, you know.
1604
01:21:42.400 --> 01:21:46.300
So what we need to do is start showing people this
1605
01:21:45.300 --> 01:21:48.200
new aesthetic that's appropriate for
1606
01:21:48.200 --> 01:21:51.200
where we live and it's filled with life get people to think that it's
1607
01:21:51.200 --> 01:21:54.300
great to have insects in your art. It's great to have Birds who
1608
01:21:54.300 --> 01:21:57.800
eat the insects in your yard and really start changing that
1609
01:21:57.800 --> 01:22:01.000
that perspecting you
1610
01:22:00.200 --> 01:22:01.200
look like.
1611
01:22:03.900 --> 01:22:06.200
So there's one question that I'm kind of
1612
01:22:06.200 --> 01:22:09.000
itching to ask you both and we might invite some of our
1613
01:22:09.400 --> 01:22:12.900
partners too. But it's a question essentially asking
1614
01:22:12.900 --> 01:22:15.700
are we able to make a difference are we
1615
01:22:15.700 --> 01:22:18.100
naive to think that we can come back climate issues of the
1616
01:22:18.100 --> 01:22:21.700
Front Range? There are naturally occurring issues. Like we're a floodplain.
1617
01:22:21.700 --> 01:22:24.500
It's also super dry here a lot of the time it's windy
1618
01:22:24.500 --> 01:22:28.500
and then there are man-made issues like fracking development Etc.
1619
01:22:28.500 --> 01:22:31.400
And we're not that resilient to
1620
01:22:31.400 --> 01:22:34.500
change in climate yet. It seems
1621
01:22:34.500 --> 01:22:37.200
like we're swimming Upstream against Mother Nature assist this
1622
01:22:37.200 --> 01:22:40.100
person. What's the point of all this can we
1623
01:22:40.100 --> 01:22:42.700
actually make a difference would love to hear your thoughts?
1624
01:22:43.400 --> 01:22:46.300
Well, well, I'd like to tee you up to talk
1625
01:22:46.300 --> 01:22:49.400
about Doug. Tommy's work in a second, but I'll take a swing to
1626
01:22:49.400 --> 01:22:50.000
start so.
1627
01:22:52.100 --> 01:22:52.500
You know, I think.
1628
01:22:53.500 --> 01:22:56.400
It is overwhelming in many ways
1629
01:22:56.400 --> 01:22:59.300
at times especially when we see the increased frequency
1630
01:22:59.300 --> 01:23:02.400
of these dramatic events happening to us
1631
01:23:02.400 --> 01:23:03.500
and all around us.
1632
01:23:04.400 --> 01:23:07.700
And you know, we we live in a system that has been slow
1633
01:23:07.700 --> 01:23:10.200
to respond. And I think in my
1634
01:23:10.200 --> 01:23:12.900
opinion still is too slow in responding.
1635
01:23:13.600 --> 01:23:16.400
But I think we're starting to see that as the
1636
01:23:16.400 --> 01:23:19.400
realities of this situation really sink in.
1637
01:23:20.100 --> 01:23:23.400
We're gonna have more resources available to do
1638
01:23:23.400 --> 01:23:26.300
larger scale work and we saw this already
1639
01:23:26.300 --> 01:23:29.700
with the passage of the inflation reduction act. There's we
1640
01:23:29.700 --> 01:23:32.600
got a billion and a half dollars put in there for urban forestry. That's
1641
01:23:32.600 --> 01:23:35.400
that's almost 10 times over whatever has
1642
01:23:35.400 --> 01:23:38.300
been in what it was ever invested in urban forestry before.
1643
01:23:39.100 --> 01:23:43.100
So I think it's really now incumbent on us to start developing the strategies
1644
01:23:42.100 --> 01:23:45.600
and testing them at smaller scales
1645
01:23:45.600 --> 01:23:48.100
so that we can start to think about moving them to larger scales. And
1646
01:23:48.100 --> 01:23:51.100
as to whether that's possible, I would
1647
01:23:51.100 --> 01:23:55.400
just remind us that you know in 1933. We
1648
01:23:54.400 --> 01:23:57.500
had a vast area in the
1649
01:23:57.500 --> 01:24:00.700
middle of our country that was literally blowing away the the
1650
01:24:00.700 --> 01:24:03.500
soils from the Great Plains were going
1651
01:24:03.500 --> 01:24:06.000
we're blowing out literally into the Atlantic.
1652
01:24:06.600 --> 01:24:09.900
And we mobilized our society
1653
01:24:09.900 --> 01:24:12.300
in ways that we'd never imagined before
1654
01:24:12.300 --> 01:24:15.700
and we stabilized that whole geography in
1655
01:24:15.700 --> 01:24:19.000
the course of about 10 to 20 years. We can
1656
01:24:18.500 --> 01:24:21.500
do amazing things even in arid Landscapes.
1657
01:24:21.500 --> 01:24:24.000
And in fact, I would just remind us that the landscape that we see
1658
01:24:24.300 --> 01:24:27.300
around us is is not necessarily the
1659
01:24:27.300 --> 01:24:30.300
landscape that was here before the set. I
1660
01:24:30.300 --> 01:24:33.400
mean this landscape has been changed so much by our presence
1661
01:24:33.400 --> 01:24:36.600
that we don't even know. I think what it's full potential could
1662
01:24:36.600 --> 01:24:39.500
be if we actually really enabled all
1663
01:24:39.500 --> 01:24:42.400
of its integrative forces to
1664
01:24:42.400 --> 01:24:45.600
be brought back to there. So I would just say I think there's examples in
1665
01:24:45.600 --> 01:24:48.400
the past of what we can do and then and then there's examples that
1666
01:24:48.400 --> 01:24:51.100
we're already doing right now so and even write down to
1667
01:24:51.100 --> 01:24:54.000
what your backyard can contribute so well, I was
1668
01:24:54.100 --> 01:24:57.700
just thinking about the kind of what doug tell me says about the importance of backyards.
1669
01:24:58.500 --> 01:25:01.100
Yeah, I mean don't tell me who if you guys
1670
01:25:01.100 --> 01:25:04.100
haven't seen him. Look him up on the web and here's some
1671
01:25:04.100 --> 01:25:07.400
of his his talks. He's an entomologist and back East that
1672
01:25:07.400 --> 01:25:10.700
even though their climates different the principles remain here
1673
01:25:10.700 --> 01:25:13.800
about how we can we have 40 million Acres
1674
01:25:13.800 --> 01:25:16.200
of irrigated Turfgrass in this
1675
01:25:16.200 --> 01:25:20.100
country and he talks about how we can make that a homegrown National Park just
1676
01:25:19.100 --> 01:25:22.500
by starting to change it. But as
1677
01:25:22.500 --> 01:25:24.200
far as hope goes I mean
1678
01:25:25.100 --> 01:25:28.700
We're in a difficult situation. I think there is no question for
1679
01:25:28.700 --> 01:25:30.500
anyone who's paying attention to know that.
1680
01:25:31.400 --> 01:25:34.600
The question is do we give up or do we try you
1681
01:25:34.600 --> 01:25:37.200
know, and I hear people talk about this. It's called
1682
01:25:37.200 --> 01:25:40.700
difficult. Hope which means you know, if your optimistic
1683
01:25:40.700 --> 01:25:43.200
you may think oh, everything's going to be okay. Someone else is going
1684
01:25:43.200 --> 01:25:46.100
to do it you do nothing or if you're pessimistic you just give
1685
01:25:46.100 --> 01:25:46.900
up and don't try.
1686
01:25:47.600 --> 01:25:50.300
So we're in that place space of difficult. Hope
1687
01:25:50.300 --> 01:25:53.400
you do the right thing and you try everything you can when you're not sure what
1688
01:25:53.400 --> 01:25:56.600
the outcomes going to be but we still have to try we owe
1689
01:25:56.600 --> 01:25:59.200
it to our children and we and we owe it
1690
01:25:59.200 --> 01:26:02.300
to ourselves. So no it's gonna take a
1691
01:26:02.300 --> 01:26:05.100
lot of vision from a lot of people and we're gonna have
1692
01:26:05.100 --> 01:26:08.300
to get out of our complacent spaces and try as hard
1693
01:26:08.300 --> 01:26:11.600
as we can but there's so many rewards and just
1694
01:26:11.600 --> 01:26:14.200
in the people that we've all had that but
1695
01:26:14.200 --> 01:26:17.200
you know the opportunity to meet with and who are
1696
01:26:17.200 --> 01:26:20.800
doing so many things. I think most people don't know how
1697
01:26:20.800 --> 01:26:23.800
much is happening across our community across
1698
01:26:23.800 --> 01:26:26.900
our country across the world. So there's
1699
01:26:26.900 --> 01:26:29.500
a lot happening and there are we're in
1700
01:26:29.500 --> 01:26:31.700
the difficult situation, but that doesn't mean we don't try
1701
01:26:33.200 --> 01:26:36.000
Well, thank you that was inspiring and kind of what I needed to
1702
01:26:36.300 --> 01:26:36.800
hear some days.
1703
01:26:38.700 --> 01:26:41.000
There's a lot of questions in here. I'm not sure we're going to be able to
1704
01:26:41.200 --> 01:26:44.500
get to all of them, but one just popped in from ml Robles
1705
01:26:44.500 --> 01:26:47.200
who happens to be a planning board member. So all
1706
01:26:47.200 --> 01:26:50.600
those questions about planning and codes. I
1707
01:26:50.600 --> 01:26:53.200
think got this person's wheels turning
1708
01:26:53.200 --> 01:26:54.300
a bit another asking
1709
01:26:56.600 --> 01:26:59.300
what are the resources that we can provide to
1710
01:26:59.300 --> 01:27:02.100
planning word to change sort of the business
1711
01:27:02.100 --> 01:27:05.100
as usual thinking right? So one of the issues that they run up against
1712
01:27:05.100 --> 01:27:08.700
is that parking lots and building codes do
1713
01:27:08.700 --> 01:27:12.000
not allow previous or alternatives to asphal
1714
01:27:11.400 --> 01:27:15.300
or concrete much less talking about Albedo. How
1715
01:27:14.300 --> 01:27:16.600
can we add a more systemic level?
1716
01:27:17.900 --> 01:27:22.200
Under the things that we control help integrate
1717
01:27:20.200 --> 01:27:23.500
some of these issues more into
1718
01:27:23.500 --> 01:27:25.000
our processes and our rules.
1719
01:27:26.200 --> 01:27:29.900
I just think we need to be doing as many different pilot projects
1720
01:27:29.900 --> 01:27:32.700
as we can and carefully gathering information about
1721
01:27:32.700 --> 01:27:35.700
what works and what effects they have so that
1722
01:27:35.700 --> 01:27:39.600
we can start to build the right policies to
1723
01:27:39.600 --> 01:27:42.700
make these sorts of changes. It's it's a in some
1724
01:27:42.700 --> 01:27:45.400
ways. It's a very old field in some ways. It's a pretty new field. And
1725
01:27:45.400 --> 01:27:48.000
so I I totally agree and I
1726
01:27:48.500 --> 01:27:51.500
appreciate that question. Like what can we do? What policies should
1727
01:27:51.500 --> 01:27:54.200
we change? I just there are some things that maybe
1728
01:27:54.200 --> 01:27:57.600
we could propose now, I would be a little reluctant for
1729
01:27:57.600 --> 01:28:00.300
us to start trying to be heavy-handed in terms of pushing a
1730
01:28:00.300 --> 01:28:03.500
bunch of policy until we've tried things on the ground and really
1731
01:28:03.500 --> 01:28:06.900
found out what works and that's kind of how we approach the energy systems
1732
01:28:06.900 --> 01:28:09.100
change 10 years ago. We started with two
1733
01:28:09.100 --> 01:28:12.900
texts in a truck. Literally that was the name of the first program and then, you
1734
01:28:12.900 --> 01:28:15.200
know, it evolved into the whole Energy Smart program and things
1735
01:28:15.200 --> 01:28:18.400
I think we're on a very similar trajectory in this work. I would just
1736
01:28:18.400 --> 01:28:21.400
call out that of course the you know, the the update
1737
01:28:21.400 --> 01:28:24.000
to the comprehensive plan is coming up in a couple of years that's going
1738
01:28:24.100 --> 01:28:25.800
to be an extremely important moment.
1739
01:28:26.100 --> 01:28:29.900
our community to think about what sorts of both vision
1740
01:28:29.900 --> 01:28:32.400
and practical actions do we need to take to live
1741
01:28:32.400 --> 01:28:35.200
into this future not the future that we were living in because that
1742
01:28:35.200 --> 01:28:37.400
one's gone, but to the one that we're going to be living into
1743
01:28:38.800 --> 01:28:41.200
Yeah, I think the comprehensive plan is so important. I
1744
01:28:41.200 --> 01:28:44.500
was actually in the companies of planning department for a
1745
01:28:44.500 --> 01:28:47.900
number of years and it's not just about code even though
1746
01:28:47.900 --> 01:28:50.100
that's an important part of it. But this is about
1747
01:28:50.100 --> 01:28:53.600
our vision for how we're going to manage our community into the
1748
01:28:53.600 --> 01:28:57.500
future. And this is a really pivotal update. So
1749
01:28:56.500 --> 01:28:59.400
what I you know, what I would
1750
01:28:59.400 --> 01:29:02.400
hope to see or our us as us as
1751
01:29:02.400 --> 01:29:05.700
a city government the community all of
1752
01:29:05.700 --> 01:29:08.800
us taking risks and trying something new. We're
1753
01:29:08.800 --> 01:29:11.100
not cities aren't organized to be on the
1754
01:29:11.100 --> 01:29:14.300
front lines doing all this work and communities aren't either
1755
01:29:14.300 --> 01:29:17.500
but we're going to have to do it. So we need to have visions
1756
01:29:17.500 --> 01:29:18.900
of new ways that we're going to
1757
01:29:20.200 --> 01:29:23.700
Figure out what we can do and then start working on it and it's
1758
01:29:23.700 --> 01:29:26.300
probably something none of us could even Envision right now
1759
01:29:26.300 --> 01:29:29.300
know exactly how it's going to turn out. But if
1760
01:29:29.300 --> 01:29:32.200
we're all talking to each other and really taking, you know,
1761
01:29:32.200 --> 01:29:34.000
trying some new ideas we can probably
1762
01:29:35.200 --> 01:29:38.200
Do some pretty great things in the next next decade.
1763
01:29:39.200 --> 01:29:43.500
I just want to call out to the we we aren't doing this alone. I'm
1764
01:29:42.500 --> 01:29:45.100
so delighted and
1765
01:29:45.100 --> 01:29:48.700
proud that we're connected to a network
1766
01:29:48.700 --> 01:29:51.400
of over a hundred cities and counties across the country who
1767
01:29:51.400 --> 01:29:54.800
are just starting to develop similar sorts of natural climate solution
1768
01:29:54.800 --> 01:29:57.300
strategies who are sharing notes with each other who
1769
01:29:57.300 --> 01:30:00.500
are doing pilot projects together. Some of
1770
01:30:00.500 --> 01:30:03.200
the folks who are on the call tonight are graduate students that
1771
01:30:03.200 --> 01:30:06.300
are actually placed out there working with some of those communities. We need those
1772
01:30:06.300 --> 01:30:09.300
systems online to so I think we just
1773
01:30:09.300 --> 01:30:12.600
have to learn and try and refine as
1774
01:30:12.600 --> 01:30:15.500
quickly as we can and and fortunately we're
1775
01:30:15.500 --> 01:30:16.100
not doing this alone.
1776
01:30:18.900 --> 01:30:21.400
So organizing we're at seven. I understand if
1777
01:30:21.400 --> 01:30:24.300
folks need to hop off rela and Brett.
1778
01:30:24.300 --> 01:30:27.400
Do you want to take a few more questions? Do you want to take some
1779
01:30:27.400 --> 01:30:31.400
of these offline? What's your preference? Let's definitely take
1780
01:30:30.400 --> 01:30:33.300
the questions that came in and we'll try to do our best
1781
01:30:33.300 --> 01:30:36.300
to respond to all of them. Maybe we could take just a couple more questions.
1782
01:30:36.300 --> 01:30:39.200
I know that some of us have families that
1783
01:30:39.200 --> 01:30:40.000
haven't seen us all day.
1784
01:30:41.200 --> 01:30:41.700
exactly
1785
01:30:43.600 --> 01:30:46.300
So there's a lot in here that I would categorize as like
1786
01:30:46.300 --> 01:30:49.400
good ideas things. We should be exploring those ones. I'm Gonna Leave off the
1787
01:30:49.400 --> 01:30:52.200
table for now and I will get back to you based on
1788
01:30:52.200 --> 01:30:55.200
those ideas. But I have a question in here
1789
01:30:55.200 --> 01:30:58.200
about what are we doing to share our learnings with other
1790
01:30:58.200 --> 01:31:01.000
cities? And how are we taking those learnings from
1791
01:31:01.200 --> 01:31:04.100
other cities and applying them here? Yeah. So some of
1792
01:31:04.100 --> 01:31:07.200
you may know Boulders been an active part of What's called the urban
1793
01:31:07.200 --> 01:31:10.200
sustainability directors Network. So it's originally started
1794
01:31:10.200 --> 01:31:13.300
15 years ago. It's just a few sustainability directors and our
1795
01:31:13.300 --> 01:31:16.200
past director. David Driscoll is a part of that little Cadre of 12 or so
1796
01:31:16.200 --> 01:31:19.300
people. It's now a network of over 250 cities
1797
01:31:19.300 --> 01:31:22.500
and counties across North America. And so they have different
1798
01:31:22.500 --> 01:31:25.300
sort of focused groups from zero waste energy stuff
1799
01:31:25.300 --> 01:31:28.500
and we helped to launch a whole new Focus
1800
01:31:28.500 --> 01:31:31.400
area around natural climate Solutions, which is become one
1801
01:31:31.400 --> 01:31:34.300
of the most popular working groups in that
1802
01:31:34.300 --> 01:31:37.200
Network and literally there are over a hundred cities and counties that
1803
01:31:37.200 --> 01:31:40.200
are following that work about 40 or
1804
01:31:40.200 --> 01:31:43.300
50 or actively participating in this kind of Exchange.
1805
01:31:43.500 --> 01:31:46.900
Ideas and this joint so we're part of that Network. There
1806
01:31:46.900 --> 01:31:49.800
are some other networks around urban forestry relis
1807
01:31:49.800 --> 01:31:52.200
amazing work around pollinator protection is connected
1808
01:31:52.200 --> 01:31:55.100
into a whole bunch of other places rather than any networks that
1809
01:31:55.100 --> 01:31:56.200
you'd want to note that were part of
1810
01:31:57.400 --> 01:32:00.000
Uh, yeah. I mean
1811
01:32:00.100 --> 01:32:03.700
we we do work with other cities on a
1812
01:32:03.700 --> 01:32:06.900
regular basis. They're formal networks as well as informal networks
1813
01:32:06.900 --> 01:32:09.000
for called all the time can't stay on top
1814
01:32:09.100 --> 01:32:12.300
of the the calls and questions coming in from
1815
01:32:12.300 --> 01:32:15.200
other cities and it's it's so important
1816
01:32:15.200 --> 01:32:18.300
because that's one reason it's so important for the community to talk
1817
01:32:18.300 --> 01:32:21.300
to us and for you to talk to each other and for
1818
01:32:21.300 --> 01:32:24.100
the cities to be talking to each other because when you
1819
01:32:24.100 --> 01:32:27.300
hear these ideas, you know, you just gather them up and start
1820
01:32:27.300 --> 01:32:30.100
whole new programs and you can do that whether you're a person
1821
01:32:30.100 --> 01:32:33.400
in the community or you're a staff
1822
01:32:33.400 --> 01:32:36.100
member or whoever you are and we're
1823
01:32:36.100 --> 01:32:39.500
really interested in this co-production model of working
1824
01:32:39.500 --> 01:32:42.500
with stakeholders in the community City officials
1825
01:32:42.500 --> 01:32:45.300
researchers so that we can get this work
1826
01:32:45.300 --> 01:32:48.300
moving as fast as possible. So we're
1827
01:32:48.300 --> 01:32:51.400
we'll be doing more of that work over the coming
1828
01:32:51.400 --> 01:32:54.100
year and months reaching out
1829
01:32:54.100 --> 01:32:57.000
to the community working with researchers trying to
1830
01:32:57.400 --> 01:33:00.400
Layer out the best ways we can move the quickest and
1831
01:33:00.400 --> 01:33:03.400
most efficiently we're going to make mistakes because we're
1832
01:33:03.400 --> 01:33:06.700
trying things but we're going to make successes too.
1833
01:33:06.700 --> 01:33:09.900
And we need everybody to be involved. So we just invite everyone
1834
01:33:09.900 --> 01:33:12.900
now to join us through cool
1835
01:33:12.900 --> 01:33:15.500
Boulder and the different organizations there
1836
01:33:15.500 --> 01:33:18.100
who are working and work with your
1837
01:33:18.100 --> 01:33:22.200
neighbors. Join our programs Community science get to know people. It's
1838
01:33:21.200 --> 01:33:24.000
all if we get to know each other we can get a lot
1839
01:33:24.300 --> 01:33:27.100
done and it's not just a city. Of course who's a part
1840
01:33:27.100 --> 01:33:30.100
of these networks. I just want to keep noting that we're not the center of this.
1841
01:33:30.100 --> 01:33:33.900
It's really about the community. So whether it's the amazing
1842
01:33:33.900 --> 01:33:36.400
networks that eco-cycle has through its work
1843
01:33:36.400 --> 01:33:39.400
or the Wild and restoration volunteers or you
1844
01:33:39.400 --> 01:33:42.300
know, any number of the organizations are connected into their
1845
01:33:42.300 --> 01:33:45.300
own networks, and I hope that believe that they'll be bringing things
1846
01:33:45.300 --> 01:33:47.800
back into our community from those networks of action, too.
1847
01:33:49.300 --> 01:33:52.800
Sort of like the way the trees are communicating underground so
1848
01:33:52.800 --> 01:33:55.400
are the cities so the communities well, let's
1849
01:33:55.400 --> 01:33:58.900
leave with I think one really helpful action-oriented question,
1850
01:33:58.900 --> 01:34:01.100
which is if you don't have a lot of money or time to
1851
01:34:01.100 --> 01:34:03.700
do yard work, what's one action that you should be taking?
1852
01:34:05.900 --> 01:34:09.100
Well, I'll throw something out relevant welcome
1853
01:34:08.100 --> 01:34:09.300
years.
1854
01:34:11.600 --> 01:34:14.200
Planting a tree or shrub or even just a
1855
01:34:14.200 --> 01:34:18.300
few native pollinator plants and and tend
1856
01:34:17.300 --> 01:34:20.500
to it. I mean, it's it's a relationship
1857
01:34:20.500 --> 01:34:23.500
that once you started you got to stay connected
1858
01:34:23.500 --> 01:34:26.400
to it. But I've watched again what my
1859
01:34:26.400 --> 01:34:29.500
partner Emily has done in our front yard, like there's so much life
1860
01:34:29.500 --> 01:34:32.300
now out there and even just a few plants you'll be
1861
01:34:32.300 --> 01:34:35.400
you'll be surprised who shows up you do
1862
01:34:35.400 --> 01:34:38.300
that little Act of saying hey, I got a
1863
01:34:38.300 --> 01:34:41.900
little extra room here. Welcome come on in. So I say
1864
01:34:41.900 --> 01:34:44.300
even starting small like that. You'll be surprised where
1865
01:34:44.300 --> 01:34:44.800
it'll lead you.
1866
01:34:46.700 --> 01:34:49.500
And in volunteer through the
1867
01:34:49.500 --> 01:34:52.500
different organizations that are doing this work and through
1868
01:34:52.500 --> 01:34:55.300
Coop Holder will be over the winter.
1869
01:34:55.300 --> 01:34:58.400
When we have some time to catch our breath and get the structure in
1870
01:34:58.400 --> 01:35:02.600
place with our partners. They'll be more and more opportunities to
1871
01:35:01.600 --> 01:35:04.300
learn. You know, when I'm hearing
1872
01:35:04.300 --> 01:35:07.400
reports back from Andrea people are learning
1873
01:35:07.400 --> 01:35:10.200
so much when they're just out there. It's just not a matter of doing the
1874
01:35:10.200 --> 01:35:13.300
work that needs to be done too, but it's a matter of learning together
1875
01:35:13.300 --> 01:35:17.000
and trying new things and then taking those ideas home or
1876
01:35:16.200 --> 01:35:19.300
sharing them. The most important thing to do
1877
01:35:19.300 --> 01:35:22.400
is talk to people about the changes that we need because people
1878
01:35:22.400 --> 01:35:25.500
tend not to talk about it. And that's one of our problems I
1879
01:35:25.500 --> 01:35:26.700
think is a society.
1880
01:35:29.700 --> 01:35:32.300
Yeah, great. Looks like some people are fired
1881
01:35:32.300 --> 01:35:35.400
up in the chat. They've got some suggestions of
1882
01:35:35.400 --> 01:35:39.000
their own small actions add up and I
1883
01:35:38.100 --> 01:35:41.400
think one of our goals tonight was really to not only
1884
01:35:41.400 --> 01:35:44.100
inform but also Inspire, so I'm glad to see that some of
1885
01:35:44.100 --> 01:35:48.000
you are ready to take out your shovels
1886
01:35:47.200 --> 01:35:50.600
maybe and dig a few holes in your yard this weekend. That's pretty
1887
01:35:50.600 --> 01:35:50.900
exciting.
1888
01:35:51.800 --> 01:35:55.000
And with that, you know, I I recognize we
1889
01:35:54.100 --> 01:35:57.800
didn't get to everyone's questions Leah pointed
1890
01:35:57.800 --> 01:36:00.500
to our website that'll be a place for us to
1891
01:36:00.500 --> 01:36:03.200
be circling back with those questions that we weren't able
1892
01:36:03.200 --> 01:36:06.600
to get to tonight. It's also where you can access the recording and
1893
01:36:06.600 --> 01:36:09.400
then we'll also provide a little written recap of what we discussed tonight
1894
01:36:09.400 --> 01:36:12.100
that you can share with your friends and neighbors. Of course, we want
1895
01:36:12.100 --> 01:36:15.400
this information to spread and we've got
1896
01:36:15.400 --> 01:36:18.200
all your emails because you're registered to resume so we'll try to get that to you
1897
01:36:18.200 --> 01:36:21.400
directly as well. I just prepared something
1898
01:36:21.400 --> 01:36:24.500
for Saturday September
1899
01:36:24.500 --> 01:36:27.400
24th is the older bee Festival.
1900
01:36:27.400 --> 01:36:32.200
That's that's been mainly for
1901
01:36:31.200 --> 01:36:34.000
children over the last several years,
1902
01:36:34.400 --> 01:36:37.200
but this year we're gonna have some cool Boulder cables where you can come and
1903
01:36:37.200 --> 01:36:40.100
you can talk to pollinator Advocates and you can talk to our
1904
01:36:40.100 --> 01:36:43.900
partners. You can learn about trees so and
1905
01:36:43.900 --> 01:36:46.500
share your ideas. So we'll have some interactive things for
1906
01:36:46.500 --> 01:36:49.700
you to come and give us
1907
01:36:49.700 --> 01:36:51.500
ideas about what you'd like to do meet.
1908
01:36:51.700 --> 01:36:54.300
People and that's really important is having
1909
01:36:54.300 --> 01:36:57.700
that interaction in person so we can really talk to
1910
01:36:57.700 --> 01:36:58.800
you and hear what you have to say.
1911
01:37:00.700 --> 01:37:01.600
excellent, Central Park
1912
01:37:02.500 --> 01:37:05.700
Central Park, September 24th. We'll see you all in person. Not
1913
01:37:05.700 --> 01:37:06.200
over Zoom.
1914
01:37:06.900 --> 01:37:09.400
That sounds great. Well, thank you everyone for coming. Thank
1915
01:37:09.400 --> 01:37:13.200
you so much Brett, Rella Leah for your expertise shared
1916
01:37:12.200 --> 01:37:15.200
tonight and stay tuned. This is
1917
01:37:15.200 --> 01:37:15.700
just the beginning.
1918
01:37:16.700 --> 01:37:19.900
Thanks everyone. Thank you everyone. Have a
1919
01:37:19.900 --> 01:37:20.100
nice night.