City Council Meeting

Catherine ReadCome on down. All right, and the subject is Arbor Day. And it's great that we have Arbor Day, but every day could be Arbor Day, really, if you think about it. Whereas in 1872 the Nebraska Board of Agriculture established a special day to be set aside for the planting of trees And whereas trees can be a solution to combating climate change by reducing the erosion of our precious topsoil by wind and water Cutting heating and cooling costs Moderating the temperature Cleaning the air Producing life-giving oxygen And providing habitat for wildlife And whereas trees are a renewable source, giving us paper, wood for our homes, fuel for our fires, and countless other wood products. And whereas trees in our city increase property values, enhance the economic vitality of business areas, and beautify our community,

and wherever they are planted are a source of joy and spiritual renewal. and whereas the health of our community's trees is constantly under threat from invasive vines, infestations of insects, disease, and blight, necessitating a constant vigilance and a variety of resources to be employed in their care by all of us and whereas the city of Fairfax has been recognized as a tree city USA by the National Arbor Day Foundation and desires to continue its tree planting ways. Now therefore I, Catherine S. Reed, Mayor of the City of Fairfax, do hereby proclaim October 26, 2024 as Arbor Day in the City of Fairfax and urge all residents to actively support efforts to protect the health of our trees, preserve our tree canopy, and to plant a variety of native tree species for the enjoyment of our community and future generations.

Speaker 33council, from the entire community to enable us to help establish and expand an urban forestry program here. And every year we celebrate this with Arbor Day and redouble our commitments to making and healthier for trees and every year it seems to become even more important and so we are so grateful once again to have the opportunity to do that and the committee is very deeply grateful to the support from the staff as it has been able to provide support for this thanks again very much

Mike Fabiopublic commentAnd as an aside, on Arbor Day, trees are a renewable resource. Please keep this in mind when you talk about trails. And I thought that Marissa Peroni's comments this afternoon were very pertinent. Thank you very much.

Katie Johnsonpublic commentKatie Johnson, 101-32 Spring Lake Terrace. Trails are good, but they cannot be at the expense of our natural resources. All of the necessary connections that have been spoken about can be achieved through existing pavement, and you know that. We must improve the roads if we want to get away from cars. We must improve the roads and make them walkable. We must improve the cyclable and multimodal. We must improve the roads before we change the forest floor. It's ironic. I got a Facebook memory on Arbor Day last year that the GST vote was deferred. Again, I show up on Arbor Day as you recognize the importance of trees. That's great. And trees may be renewable, but the forests are not. that says our forests on the East Coast are failing they are failing to

Jon Stehle Jra Boy Scout, a service project that a high school team wants to do about invasives? If I want to get engaged, how do I do that, right? Think about the tactical actions that could be there so that I can roll in there. And lastly, I'd encourage you about elected officials, right? Every, right now it's two years, you got a new group up here, right? What do you want them to go through? What's the field trip they should do prior to Arbor Day, right? What should their cadence of operation be? And this plan, now that we have you, which I was a huge proponent of, and thankful for many members on this dais to help get that position funded, we want you to lean into this moment, right? Make it so this dais has to go out and do something.