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Parks, Trails & Recreation Committee – November 18, 2025 Page 4 Ms. Tucker said these are potentials. She would like there to be a hierarchy. It can outline a minimum stewardship need that would maintain the established habitat. It can also list all of the things that could be done. Those would be two different proposals with different budgets and priorities. Committee Member Loosbrock asked if there will be education for surrounding residential properties. If the parks are cleaned up, but the neighbors have buckthorn on their property, it will just spread back into the park. Ms. Tucker said there are volunteer events that will be planned and coordinated with Staff. The timing and potential needs for volunteer events will engage the community to complete positive actions in the parks. Those next steps are already funded as far as supplies, volunteer time and advertising. They can have information on hand that outlines the work that has been done, what still needs to be done and tips on how surrounding residents can help contribute to that work. There are four more years on the grant funding. Committee Member Johnson asked what Ms. Tucker would consider the group’s most successful City project and what is the history. Ms. Tucker has been with Great River Greening for eight years. She has worked with a variety of cities and volunteers. She said Great River Greening worked with the City of St. Louis Park to develop their Natural Resources Management Plan for the Westwood Hills Nature Center. It is an incredible park. It is invasive species removal in an urban park with native species establishment. She is looking forward to watching Hazelnut and Floral Parks over the next couple of years. The initial year at both parks is going really well. They have completely killed much of the buckthorn and it is not resprouting. This is a great sign. There will be continued maintenance and they anticipate long-term success. Committee Member Jacobson asked how St. Louis Park continued their efforts beyond the initial clean up. Parks and Recreation Manager Skalicky said larger cities tend to have a dedicated Natural Resources staff or larger staff in general that can be dedicated to Natural Resources projects and Natural Resources management. Committee Member Jacobson said we aren’t a large city. She asked how our small community move forward with maintaining these efforts. Ms. Tucker said as a non-profit, they don’t own any of the land they work on. Everything they do is within the timeframe of the funding they have. When the funding is gone, Great River Greening has to be complete. The project and the work completed will have to be self-sustainable or maintainable. She noted that Arden Hills has a Parks and Recreation Manager now. Community members and Public Works will be tasked with maintaining it once the grant funds run out. Great River Greening has prioritized the needs. A lot of the maintenance work will be at a low cost. That is part of the planning from the beginning. They don’t want to have something that can’t be continued once Great River Greening has moved on. There are a lot of big organizations in the City and there are potential connections the City can make to help fund and sustain these efforts.