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80 Mr. Freihammer explained the City worked with Neel and was pretty good most of 81 the time but he thought Neel got very careless at the end trying to wrap the project 82 up. 83 84 6. No Mow, Less Mow May Discussion 85 Environmental Manager Ryan Johnson introduced Mr. Russ Henry, owner of 86 Minnehaha Falls Landscaping, who made a presentation on the No Mow/Less Mow 87 May conservation initiative. 88 89 Mr. Johnson acknowledged the City received a comment from Mr. Fester, who was 90 in support of No Mow May. 91 92 Mr. Johnson asked the Commission to discuss this and consider options for No 93 Mow/Less Mow May and provide recommendations to the City Council. 94 95 Building Official David Englund summarized the complaints the City received in 96 May of 2022 regarding No Mow May. 97 16, 98 Member Collins asked what a food forest is. 99 100 Mr. Henry explained the definition of food forest to the Commission. He noted this 101 includes berries and an entire world of edible plants. He explained he will send 102 links to the City regarding starting a food forest. He noted there is also a seventh 103 step in the trajectory, the love forest, a term utilized to add some of the Minnesota 104 peak ecosystems succession trees onto the property allowing them to grow up 105 which stays as the underlayer. 106 107 Chair Ficek inquired about the cutting and general rule of never cutting more than 108 one third. He asked if someone does participate in the No Mow May and their grass 109 grows ten to fifteen inches, whatever to get back down to the five inches, assumed 110 this is done in layers, what is the proper way to do this if the person wanted to get 111 down to the five inches. 112 113 Mr. Henry thought most people will mow it all down at once but the proper way 114 would be to mow athird at atime over aperiod of time. He indicated aperson does 115 not want to mow more than twice a week because of compaction and overgrazing 116 of the plants. If it has gone No Mow for all of April and May the person would 117 want to mow once at the tallest setting of the mower the first or second week of 118 June and then maybe go to every other week mowing. He explained there are 119 municipalities that have adopted managed natural landscapes. 120 121 Chair Ficek asked if "good time Charlie" and dandelions were bad for bees. He 122 noted this is what Mr. Fester indicated in his comment to the City. 123 124 Mr. Henry begged to differ with Mr. Fester, in fact, food is important so if an animal 125 chooses to eat from something, and animals have an innate wisdom and know when Page 3 of 8