01-08-2025 Workshop Packet - Laserfiche WebLink

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GG-12 POLLINATOR HABITAT RESOURCES GG-13 REGULATION OF HARMFUL SUBSTANCES AND PRODUCTS Metro Cities supports continued funding for state programs to assist cities with building and increasing capacity for urban forest management, meeting the costs of preparing for, and responding to, catastrophic urban forest problems and preventing further loss and increasing canopy coverage. Specifically, direct grants to cities are desperately needed for the identification, removal, replacement, and treatment of trees related to management of emerald ash borer (EAB). Metro Cities supports direct grants and/or aid payments to local governments for reimbursement and retroactive relief to homeowners for treatment or removal, transporting and disposal of wood waste containing ash tree material. Recent declines in the abundance of pollinator insects, such as bees and butterflies, have been identified by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization as a threat to food security, as these insects are an important method of plant pollination. According to the US Fish and Wildlife Service, the main threats facing pollinators are habitat loss, degradation, and fragmentation. Pollinators lose food and nesting sites they need to survive when native vegetation is replaced by roadways, manicured lawns, crops, and non-native gardens. This can have added detriment to pollinators that migrate. Research has shown that increasing habitats can create the conditions for these insect populations to recover. Converting traditional grass lawns has been identified as one way to increase pollinator habitat. The Minnesota Legislature created the Lawns to Legumes program, which provides grants to private homeowners to convert traditional lawns to pollinator friendly landscape. The program also funds demonstration neighborhoods, which are pollinator programs run by local governments and nonprofit organizations. Metro Cities supports state funding to programs such as Lawns to Legumes that create pollinator habitat on both public and private lands. In metropolitan regions where most cities share boundaries with other cities, local bans of harmful drugs and substances such as synthetic drugs, which have been found to be dangerous, do not eliminate access to these products unless all cities take the same regulatory action. Metro Cities supports statewide regulation and prohibition of products or substances in circumstances where there is evidence that products present a danger to anyone who uses them, where there is broad local support for a ban and where corresponding regulatory issues have regional or statewide significance. In addition, the Legislature should provide for the regulation of products that are known to damage water quality, sewer collection, and storm and wastewater treatment systems, not just at the treatment and infrastructure maintenance levels, but at the consumer and manufacturing levels, through accurate labeling of products, public education, and recycling and re-use programs. 19