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Home My WebLink About12/3/2019 Item 10, Yost Wilbanks, Megan From:Jenn Yost <jyost@calpoly.edu> Sent:Tuesday, To:E-mail Council Website Cc:Hill, Robert; Read, Chris; Combs, Ron Subject:Comments on CAP Item 10 tonight's agenda Attachments:Letter to Council Item 10 Dec 2 2019.pdf Hello Council, Please see the attached letter with my comments regarding the CAP being discussed tonight. Thank you all for your service. Best, Jenn --- Jenn Yost, Ph.D. Fall 2019 Office Hours Wed 10-12, Wed 1-3 Associate Professor of Botany Director, Hoover Herbarium Biological Sciences Dept Fisher Bldg 33-359 Cal Poly State University San Luis Obispo, CA, 93407 jyost@calpoly.edu 805-756-5869 1 December 3, 2019 Dear City Council, Thank you for your public service and for addressing important problems like climate change. I am a professor of botany at Cal Poly and my research is focused on trees and native plants of California. I also currently help coordinate the ReLeaf Grant awarded to EcoSLO to plant 120 trees in town over the next year. I have spent the last decade working with urban forest professional throughout the state. I am writing to provide input to Agenda Item 10: The Climate Action Plan and specifically Pillar 6: Natural Solutions. I think this section is incomplete and can be expanded to address a larger offset of carbon emissions. Currently Natural Solutions has three components, 1) carbon farming with the addition of compost to range lands, 2) preparation of a City Urban Forest Master Plan, and 3) tree planting. Generally, I support these three measures. Measure 1 - I encourage the City to proceed with carbon farming with caution. The application of fertilizer to rare plant communities, serpentine soils, or near wetlands would be damaging to biodiversity and should be avoided at all costs. Farm land is an excelling choice for this type of project and I encourage careful study so that we might understand the any unanticipated consequences of these actions. Measure 2 - Urban Forest Master Plan. Trees are important for cities for a diversity of reasons. However, if the urban forest is not cared for, bad interactions between humans and trees occur. To avoid this, the urban forest MUST be supported in the city budget with staff and funding for contract labor. In SLO, given our extensive City Open Space and the number of trees we have, I estimate that there is work for 4 employees running chainsaws and chippers full time. There is a lot of work to do that is currently not being done. The Master plan would help the City figure out how to manage and sustain the workforce needed for a healthy urban forest. This plan would help to articulate how Measure 3 (and others), would be accomplished and sustained. Finally, most cities that I work with have a such plan in place and it is a useful tool. Page ! of 41 Measure 3 - 10Tall: Planting 10,000 trees by 2035. This is an excellent idea and for this to be successful, the City will need to be strategic about what support you will provide in terms of staff and infrastructure. Trees both sequester carbon, but they also offset heating and cooling emissions. Additionally, trees provide many ecological benefits outside of carbon offsets making this measure all the more important. As the New York Times just reported, “shade [is] “an index of inequality, a requirement for public health, and a mandate for urban planners and designers.” https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/01/us/los-angeles-shade-climate-change.html A student of mine, Kyle Nessen, did an analyses of San Luis Obispo for a seminar I am currently teaching. In it he used LiDAR (height) data from 2013 and NDVI (greenness) from 2012 to calculate canopy cover in the City Urban Reserve. The images below are from his draft analyses. Overall the City has only 13.2% canopy cover. Page ! of 42 Even if all 6 pillars are achieved, there is a carbon gap. I propose adding the following measures to the Natural Solutions Section and in doing so, we can reduce the carbon gap. — Proposed measure 4: City Open Space - Aquire and preserve open spaces surrounding the City. Land preserved from development is the most important contribution against future carbon emissions. The City shall prioritize increasing the green belt surrounding the City via conservation easements or other methods. — The value or contribution of City Open Space can be calculated as the amount of emission you avoid by not converting that land into development (avoided land use conversion) and the avoided vehicle trips from that avoided development. These calculations could/should be done per unit area of newly acquired open space consistent with the models used by the State Department of Conservation and The Strategic Growth Council. Additionally, the City should consider open space acquisition outside the City limits to offset and mitigate for carbon emissions within the City. —- Page ! of 43 Proposed measure 5: Urban tree recycling program. Establish a program to utilize trees removed from urban environments for their highest potential economic value. This effort increases environmental benefits by diverting wood that would otherwise populate landfills and reduce greenhouse gas emissions that are released through traditional disposal processes. Co-benefits include sourcing local raw materials for construction, maximizing benefit from trees being removed, and displaying urban wood products in the community - telling the story of the City in which the trees matured. —- There are local mills such as Pacific Lumber on Prado Rd. and Deadwood Revival on South Higuera St. that could participate in these efforts. Thank you again for leadership on this front. I look forward to seeing the plan developed and carried out. Best, Jenn Yost, Ph.D. Associate Professor of Botany Director, Hoover Herbarium Biological Sciences Dept Cal Poly State University San Luis Obispo, CA, 93407 jyost@calpoly.edu 805-756-5869 Page ! of 44