11/20/2019 Environmental Board Minutes

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Enivonmental Board Minutes November 20, 2019 Page 2 DRAFT MINUTES III. APPROVAL OF MINUTES: Ms. Andrzejewski made a MOTION to approve the September 25, 2019 Meeting Minutes. Ms. Kaufman supported motion. Motion carried 6 - 0. IV. OPEN MIKE Mr. Sullivan declared Open Mike at 6:40 p.m. Open Mike closed at 6:41p.m. V. ACTION ITEMS – No Action Items VI. DISCUSSION ITEMS A. Woolens Park Wetland Restoration and Banking Credits, Jason Husveth Mr. Asleson introduced Jason Husveth, owner of Critical Connections Ecological Services, and he discussed the wetland resortation and banking credits. Mr. Husveth shared a power point with the history of the wetland restoration project. Mr. Husveth has worked with the Anoka Sandplain since the 1990s and has focused work to incentivize and justify ecological restoration of very important wetlands. He worked on the Lino Lakes Natural Resources Assessment and Comprehensive Plan and recommendations for the city to develop a wetland mitigation process to be followed by future developers. Mr. Husveth reviewed the abundance of wetlands across the city and the potential impacts and opportunity to identify high quality and unique habitat, such as Woolens Park. He shared a series of maps to show the amount of wetlands, the areas that are suitable for development, new rare plant detections, aerial photos, wetland credit area maps, and rare plant locations. Mr. Sullivan asked whether the Nature’s Refugee project had come back through the Environmental Board and noted the board’s concerns about how the developer’s would pump water. Mr. Asleson responded that the project had not come back to the board yet. Mr. Husveth said the Wetland Banking Application for Woolan’s Park was completed in 2010, which earned the city credits for restoring an existing wetland. This process also manages evasive plants and trees by using seeds from the original seed bank. The Wetland Banking Plan for Woolens was approved in 2014 and the implementation stage went through 2018. The park is still undergoing restoration and management. Ms. Kaufenberg asked what type of herbicides are being used. Jason acknowledged the recent scrutiny about using Roundup.