Minutes - Environmental Policy Board - 04/19/2021

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submission, and editing. He stated that a general size of the article would be identified to ensure that much space could be set aside in each issue if the Board wants to pursue this idea. Chairperson Covart asked if the Board should start working on this or whether they should wait until it is determined whether the Council would approve the concept. City Planner Anderson commented that public education is part of the mission of the EPB. He agreed that the Board could start working on an article to begin with and the group could circle back to develop the schedule. Board Member Moore commented that it would make sense to add this to the work plan and begin on the first article and planning the list of topics to ensure that it could be prepared and ready to meet the deadlines. City Planner Anderson commented that this would also fall under his duties as City Planner under the planning and natural resources side. He stated that he could attempt to make a rough draft of the calendar with the timeline and the Board could have a future discussion to assign topics and Board Members for each article. Chairperson Covart agreed that makes sense. She stated that perhaps the Board could develop a list of topics to bring for discussion at the next meeting. She stated that perhaps promotion of Earth Day and Arbor Day would make sense. nd City Planner Anderson reported that Earth Day is April 22 and Arbor Day is the last Friday in April with May identified as Arbor Month. He stated that the Council has also passed a resolution recognizing the last Friday of April as Arbor Day and designating May as Arbor Month. He commented that this seems to fall in line with a topic for the March/April issue of the Ramsey Resident going forward. He stated that the Board could also look to do something more formally for an Earth Day/Arbor Day event going forward that could involve collaboration with the groups mentioned in the previous discussion. Chairperson Covart asked if the Board collaborated in the past with an elementary school class. City Planner Anderson confirmed that in the past the City collaborated with Ramsey Elementary to do plantings at the school property and worked with the DNR to do seedling plantings. He stated that the kids seemed to enjoy the event and it was a great way to connect kids with nature and the benefits that trees bring. He stated that a number of years ago the City partnered with Village Bank and did a planting in a park. He stated that he also created an educational video with QCTV to walk through the steps of tree planting. He noted that the City has also worked with the Anoka High School football program to complete a planting. He stated that there was not an event last year because of the pandemic and there would not be an event planned for this year due to the same reasoning. He hoped to get back to some normalcy going forward and the Board could continue to review ideas to promote plantings and educational components related to Arbor Day. Board Member Moore commented that she likes the idea of having an Arbor Day event as more of a focus. She stated that perhaps Brookside Elementary would be a good partnership opportunity for tree planting. She stated that perhaps a larger Arbor Day could be developed as well, featuring Environmental Policy Board / April 19, 2021 Page 5 of 8