City of Columbia, Missouri

Meeting Minutes

Tree Board

City Hall

Wednesday, November 15, 2023

5:00 PM

Conference Room 1B

I. CALL TO ORDER

The meeting was called to order at 5:01 PM.

City Staff present: Danielle Fox, John Townsend, and Steve Fritz

Guests from Ridgeway Neighborhood Association: Pat Kelly, Leszec Vincent, and

Katherine Speichinger

Guest presenter: Jessica Hardesty Norris, Biohabitats

6 -

Present:

Excused:

Jacob McMains, Samuel Wright, Stephen Bybee, Patricia Quackenbush, Sloane

Scott and Max Miller

1 - Michael Kyd

II. INTRODUCTIONS

III. APPROVAL OF AGENDA

A motion was made to approve the agenda.

6 - McMains, Wright, Bybee, Quackenbush, Scott and Miller

1 - Kyd

Yes:

Excused:

IV. APPROVAL OF MINUTES

A motion was made to approve the minutes of the last meeting.

6 - McMains, Wright, Bybee, Quackenbush, Scott and Miller

1 - Kyd

Yes:

Excused:

V. COMMUNITY FORESTRY GRANT

Wright welcomed guests from the Ridgeway Neighborhood Association and talked about

the Tree Board goal of planting trees in underserved parts of the community. Fritz talked

about the timeline of the project and presented a conceptual planting plan for the

Ridgeway neighborhood. Kelly spoke about the history of the property and the importance

of greenspace for the community. She then invited the board to the January neighborhood

association meeting. Quackenbush asked if the city had looked into federal programs to

assist with protections for the site, as most of it occurs in floodplain. The Tree Board

briefly discussed next steps and will continue the discussion at their next meeting.

VI. REPORT ON NATURAL RESOURCES INVENTORY

Norris gave a presentation to the board about the 2022 NRI. The focus mainly surrounded

different land cover classes, but specifically canopy coverage. The new data was

compared to the previous NRI data collected in 2007. Fox shared where information could

be found on the City's website and talked about how the information can be used when

making management decisions in the future. Townsend spoke about the technical

elements of the interactive map online. Quackenbush asked if raw data was available to

the public. Townsend said typically not, but agreements had been made in the past.

McMains commented on how valuable this information will be for establishing canopy

goals for the city.

VII. TREE BOARD BUDGET

The board discuss the budget for the new fiscal year. Bybee suggested a sponsorship for

next year's Missouri Community Forestry Council conference. Quackenbush suggested

combining funds from travel training and sponsorship as the conference is being held

locally this year. Scott suggested attending and potentially sponsoring the Ridgeway

Funday. Fritz was asked to order more Tree Board stickers for outreach.

VIII. WORK CALENDAR

The board talked about next steps for the planting project and grant. Bybee offered to

write the proposal for the application process and asked Fritz to share relevant

information. They then discussed exploring the process of establishing a city tree fund.

Both items will be on the agenda for the next meeting.

IX. REPORT FROM LIAISON

No report was given due to time constraints.

X. GENERAL COMMENTS BY PUBLIC, MEMBERS AND STAFF

McMains spoke to the group about the outreach event at the farmer's market. He

commented on the positive response and people interested in purchasing Tree Board

merchandise.

XI. NEXT MEETING DATE

The next meeting will be December 20th.

The meeting was adjourned at 6:50 PM.

XII. ADJOURNMENT

A motion was made to adjourn the meeting.

6 - McMains, Wright, Bybee, Quackenbush, Scott and Miller

Yes:

1 - Kyd

Excused:

Members of the public may attend any open meeting. For requests for accommodations related to

disability, please call 573-874-CITY (573-874-2489) or email CITY@CoMo.gov. In order to assist staff in

making the appropriate arrangements for your accommodation, please make your request as far in

advance of the posted meeting date as possible.