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Orange County Commission for the Environment Meeting Summary November 11, 2019; 7:30 pm Southern Human Services Center, 2501 Homestead Road, Chapel Hill Present: Bradley Saul (Chair), Carrie Fletcher, Bill Ward, Jim Eichel, Laura Doherty, Lynne Gronback, Kim Piracci, Jody Eimers Absent: Alan Parry, Matt Crook, Jeremy Marzuola Staff: David Stancil, Christian Himi, Brennan Bouma, Wesley Poole I. Call to Order— Saul called the meeting to order at 7:35. II. Additions or Changes to Agenda—No additions or changes to the agenda were requested. III. Approval of Draft Minutes from August 12th & September 9th, 2019—Both previous meeting minutes were presented for approval. Motion of approval made by Ward, seconded by Piracci; all in favor, none opposed, motion passed. IV. OWASA Forest Management a. Himi introduced Ruth Rouse, Planning and Development Manager for Orange Water and Sewer Authority, whom presented on OWASA's new Forest Management policy, procedures and"Guiding Principles". b. Interest was portrayed by Eimers for future discussions involving forest health and forest management. V. Natural Heritage Areas Inventory-Update a. Himi and Stancil discussed recent effort to organize an update and complete re- inventory of the Orange County Natural Heritage Areas, which was quickly discovered to be of regional interest. Future partnerships with Durham, Chatham, and Wake Counties as well as contained municipalities and private, non-profits as maybe a funding and research possibility. b. Saul discussed support of the CfE toward the BOCC toward NHA funding and potential research assistance. c. Bouma reminded CfE that on the afternoon after the Environmental Summit, the Botanical Gardens have been booked for a discussion of the NHA update by interested parties. VI. Project Scoring for 1/a cent Climate Mitigation Tax a. Bouma presented a rubric scoring sheet for scoring individual projects for possible funding for the new tax. Projected tax income in 19/20 fiscal year is $470,000 and five projects were slated into the rubric for the CfE to score on an individual level prior to the meeting and proceed to consensus in session.