 So I'm just starting the recording now and I want to thank you all, welcome you all for joining us for this process. We're really excited about working with folks from the community and working on our climate action adaptation and resiliency plan. First off, I want to say that I'm Stephanie Chickarello, the sustainability coordinator for the town, and my pronouns are she, her and hers. So what we'd like is the first time that you speak today if you could introduce yourself and then say your pronouns, we'd appreciate that. And then you can remark or ask a question or engage in any way. So if another thing we wanted to say is that if for some reason if something happens where the meeting is hacked or zoom bombed, please feel free to jump off immediately. And that's as if anyone displays any inappropriate material or says anything really offensive feel free to immediately disconnect and then we'll reach out to you afterwards. So another housekeeping tip is just to remind you that if you are not speaking, please be sure to mute your microphone, because a lot of times we'll get background information background noise. And it really can be very distracting to people it may not sound loud to you but to everyone else, sometimes it's really amplified. So please turn off your microphones. And if for any reason during this meeting you have any kind of video difficulties, feel free to turn your video off. We'd love to see people as much as possible during this session but if for some reason you need to, because you're having some kind of unstable connection feel free to turn your video off. So, I just want to very quickly say that this process that we're doing this time creating this climate action plan is very, very, very different from the one that we did in 2005, when the town had its first developed its first climate action plan there was a very small group of individuals who worked on that and did a wonderful job for the group that we had but in retrospect now and many, you know, almost two decades later. You know, it's really great to actually have a process that is going to be incredibly much more inclusive of a lot of people within the community as it should be. So we thank you for taking the time to be part of this process. So I'm going to launch our meeting with a land acknowledgement of the indigenous folks who we are, we look to who actually were here before us and had this land before us so I'd like to make this statement of the indigenous heritage of the land. We humbly acknowledge that we stand on Nanatuck land acknowledging also our neighboring indigenous nations, the Nipmuc and the Wampanoag to the east, the Mohegan and the Pequot to the south, the Mohegan to the west, and the Abenaki to the north. And with that, I would like to turn the meeting over. Thanks Stephanie. I'm Ghazit Khaya, my pronouns are they, them. And I'm going to offer some group agreements that we can use today, just in thinking about how we can be most respectful of one another. I'm going to introduce some possible agreements as a starting point, and then through the course of this meeting and the next couple of meetings that we have together. And as we get to know each other better, we may find ones that we want to add or change. But this is just a starting point for us to be thinking about today. The first one is to really think about putting people and relationships first. So thinking in every step of the way today about how these issues affect real people and real aspects of our lives. And think about building an understanding in places where you disagree, rather than trying to win or make your own point or get your individual goals met. The second one is to really pay attention to the language that you choose. We're going to be having translation today. Thanks to Rosana in Spanish and she is going to be translating as we stop and start. So I'm not modeling that right now because she doesn't need to translate in this moment. But when another member joins us, she'll be doing that translation. And so we'll want to pause after each full thought and let her finish translating before we move on. And I also want us to be thinking about avoiding jargon or technical terms. We don't all come to this meeting with the same level of experience with these topics. And so to really think about using common terminology. The third one is to step up and step back. There's always in a group people who tend to be more quiet and people who tend to talk a lot. So we're going to encourage each other. If you're a person who does speak a lot, think about sharing less. And if you're a person who doesn't often share, think about taking the opportunity to participate in that way tonight. I also want to think about allowing for silence, even though it may be awkward at times, because in those silent spaces sometimes those quieter people may take the opportunity to jump in. The next one is keep things private and don't pry. We're really going to be working towards being able to share openly about how these issues interrelate with our lives. We want to make sure to keep what we learn about others, their families, their feelings and their finances confidential and make sure that we don't ask for more personal details. And that we let people share their needs or their wants without asking them to prove or show why those are valid. The last one is that we're hopefully going to be learning about each other's personal and cultural values as we go. And values are not the same for everyone. They're often really a reflection of people's backgrounds and experiences. So what's good for you might not be good for everyone. One of the ways that we're going to be doing this is by whenever when you have the opportunity to speak the first time to introduce yourself with your pronouns. We want to really encourage everyone to stick to talking just about your own experiences and working hard not to talk about other people's experiences. So basically considering that your version of what you think is right and wrong in the world are likely, like I said, based on your experiences and they may differ from others in the room. So be open to hearing and learning about other people's values by asking questions and not assuming that everyone shares the same values. And that's it for the agreement. My turn. Hello and my name is Steven roof. My pronouns are he him is. I am a member of the energy and climate action committee. I live in South Amherst, and I am a professor at Hampshire College in environmental science and sustainable technology. A brief reminder, I think many of you know this but the ECAC the energy climate action committee was created by the Amherst town council in February 2019 to guide town and meeting its climate mitigation and resilience goals. And the job of the ECAC is to recommend ways to reduce our communities carbon emissions and improve our ability to live in a warming changing environment. And living with that changing environment is what we mean by resiliency. The members are committed to following a holistic and intersectional approach to climate action. And in particular we are working with relevant town business and resident groups. We are engaging the public and relevant stakeholders in education planning goal setting development in the development of climate action plans with particular attention to include inclusion of underrepresented groups and environmental justice communities. And I'll pause for interpretation if that's appropriate now. We're okay for right now. So make sure to give a clear heads up when we get to that point. Okay, great. Thank you. So the goal of the ECAC is to reduce townwide greenhouse gas emissions by 25% by 2025 the year 2025 50% by the year 2030 and 100% that is to become carbon neutral. No later than the year 2050. This is a very ambitious goal and it will require everyone in town to help. And so what we have some ideas the committee has some ideas for reducing carbon emissions in town but we certainly don't have all the answers. We don't know all the challenges that community members face. But we do know that community members have positive visions for the future and creative ideas for reaching these visions. So this is why we are asking the community you community members present today and then other events for your help. So we look forward to hearing from you now hand it over to Ashwin and fellow member on the ECAC to introduce himself. Hi everyone, my name is Ashwin Ravi Kumar. I use he him pronouns and I've been living in the Pioneer Valley for a couple of years. I teach environmental studies at Amherst College. So the land use group which is what you all are all are all here to participate in focuses on development agriculture soil health and using soils to store carbon ecosystem health food sovereignty and other related issues. So in short, the purpose of this meeting from the perspective of our committee is to broaden our understanding of conservation to encompass people care and Earth care, caring for people and caring for the planet. So remember that the ECAC will make climate action and resiliency recommendations to the town council. We serve as a conduit. As far as this process goes we are aiming high and we hope to have much broader participation from all groups in town, knowing that historically town governance has had a really disproportionate level of participation from wealthier people homeowners and business owners white residents, compared to renters workers and people of color. Everyone's voice really matters in this process and our focus on environmental justice calls for a much broader approach to including people in this process. So active participation and support from the community will be essential to getting town council to accept these recommendations are proposals for dealing with climate change for having a healthy environment are stronger when they reflect the needs of people that live in Amherst. So today we would like to discuss and agree on principles to guide our subsequent decision making process, and our goal really is a process that emphasizes self organization and empowerment. So thank you so much for being here, and I'm excited to see how this progresses. Indeed, fantastic. Hi, I'm Jim Jim Newman, my pronouns are he him and his. I'm here as consultant help to the energy and climate action committee and to the town to help organize the process and do some of the running around. Although I must admit, I have a very big team that I get to work with who are all really quite fantastic. And it's great to see great to see everybody. We're going to start this process and sort of grounding landing and some of our experience of places, and especially if we're talking about land use, and we're talking about natural systems. Let's start with a question. And that question is, think of an outdoor place that you like in Amherst. And why do you like it. And as you think about that. Think about why do you go there what would make it better, what would make it better to be there what would make it better to go there. And how could it help even more than it might now. So think about that for a sec, and then share what your thoughts are about a place you really like to go outdoors in Amherst. And don't forget when you speak unmute yourself and introduce yourself. I can get us going. So it's hard to be the first one. So I'm going to be high at you say them pronouns and I live at the Brook, which is on East Hadley Road. And we have, and it's called the Brook I assume because we have a little like Brooke that goes behind our complex. And I think it's actually Fort River. It's the one that goes through graph park. And there's, there's only like a little pathway that connects it to East Hadley Road. So it's not very like used it's pretty quiet down there. I hope you don't all overtake it and spread the word. I'm just kidding. You could, you can come but it's pretty it's like nobody really goes down there. And so I really love it's of our neighbors. I really love going down there with my eight year old and the other kids. And especially we've been going more Maria is giving me a thumbs up because she's my neighbor. But yeah, we've been going down there more since the coronavirus because they closed our pool and actually it just feels like a very fancy place. But it's like, still something that we like it's sort of ours too. So that feels really special to me because there's a lot of times where I feel like, you know, all the fancy places are not really accessible. And it's one that feels really beautiful and like separate and it's always like 20 degrees cooler. So I always think about this group and like, Oh, the whole climate thing it's real like trees actually help. But yeah, I love that little spot. And I think the only thing that would make it better is if there were no bugs. Rita if you're talking you're muted. Yeah, just remind you to unmute yourself. Stephanie, you could probably do it. Hold on. Or Sean. Oh, there you go. Am I good now. Yeah, good. Thank you. Now I agree with because he like we live the same neighborhood literally across from each other. I think that living in this area and I feel like people don't know like, what is to live there. And I think that this whole entire group, I love it. And I think that we can everyone hear me. Something's on my screen. You're okay, we can hear you. Okay. I feel like I get to see more of a community based like situation. Like I think that we have like a good situation with like all the vegetables and all that other stuff, but I feel like we need to get the children more involved with. And I feel like we need to get the children more involved with like, you know, the vegetables and how to grow things. And you know what I mean? Like things like that. Totally. And do you have a different space that you really love in town? Or I did. Yeah. So I feel like. So Mill River. Is a great space. And then also I feel like also behind like where we live. I think that getting our community to get, get the kids, you know, like behind, um, you know, like behind like, um, the boulders and South Point and all that stuff. They try to say it's like the bad part of town, but it's not. And I feel like it's just like a great place and like the kids, like they love it there. They love going down there. They love pointing seas. They love building things. And that's a great place to start. Yeah, for sure. Great point. There's, there's, for those of you who don't know on East Hadley road, there's five complexes. South Point Mill Valley boulders, um, the brook and the front one. I don't know what it's officially called, but there, there's a huge community, um, and lots of kids and Rita's right there. They're really just an awesome group of kids and they could do a lot with land. New Hollister. Yeah, that's right. Yeah, there's like 15 units only. Yeah, but yeah, New Hollister. Thanks, Caitlin. I can talk since I unmuted myself. Um, so I'm Caitlin. I use she, her, hers pronouns. Um, and the first thing that came to mind for me was actually just like biking around South Amherst, um, in particular, because of all the farmland and the relatively flat areas to bike. Um, but I also really like the Amherst bike path, although I've been staying away from bike paths a little bit more, um, lately. Um, but I was thinking it would be awesome if there was like a protected bike lane on some of those roads to bike on. They actually just started a new bike lane. Yeah. That's awesome. So I'm, I'm happy to. To go my bro. I'm Dave Zomek. I work for the town. Um, my pronouns are he, him, his. Um, I'm very, I feel very fortunate to work in Amherst. Um, uh, I've lived there most of my life. I love the community. I have a, the opportunity to work with Stephanie and, and all of you and wonderful people on boards and committees. Um, my job touches a lot of different areas. Um, land use is one of them development planning, uh, things of that sort. Um, I love working on projects like bite paths, open space protection. Um, a whole range of things that, uh, we, we do every day for the town and, and work with, with wonderful folks like, uh, on this call. Um, I have many favorite places in Amherst. Um, you've already mentioned a couple of them. I love the Fort river. I love, I love rivers in general. Um, but, uh, Puffers pond is one of my favorite places, uh, to go in Amherst on a quiet morning. Um, I also watch birds a lot. So that's one of the things that kind of makes my connection to nature, um, a little bit different. And that's how I got into, uh, the work I do is through, uh, through birds and ornithology. So stop there. Um, can I say something? Please. Go for it, Marita. Right. So, um, I think for a lot of. So obviously I'm a person of color, but I think that it would be great if we can get more people, children of color to get their, uh, fishing license and things like that in this area. It's not that expensive. And to get kids to learn how to fish and to learn how to do things in nature around this area, I think it would be a very good thing. That would go. I don't have what that would look like, but I think that it would be great. That's an awesome suggestion. Yes, I would totally agree. I happen to be a fisher, fisherman myself and I love it. And it's a great way to introduce people to nature and young people to nature. Um, and we have great. Um, Exactly. And the thing is to like, even in the, in the brook too, you know, because he like, we, we have the brook, you know, right there, they. Flood the Fort River with trout. And, um, it's really. Fishing rods. Um, for children. Not the one. They're more than one. They are not the one that they live in initially. Thanks, Maria. Yeah. Okay. So I'm going to, um, I could start with me. Um, Let me just make clear to everyone that now we're going to go ahead and pause for translation. Rosanna can translate. Yeah, but Yochani is not right now in Zoom. So as soon she is going to connect, I will start to translate. OK, can she hear you? Act with me at the phone right now. Yeah, so we'll wait for you to translate to her on the phone. Yeah. Hi, I am Rosanna Salazar. I am living in Amherst, too. I am a graduate student at UMass in environmental conservation. So my pronouns are she, her, hers. Well, this is very important for me. I am doing research in the Amazon in the Peruvian Amazon in South America. And I could see how the impact of the climate change in the indigenous communities and in the rainforest, of course. And I think this is a great opportunity. This is a great work. I know Stephanie and Gassit from a previous year and they are doing a great, great work. And yeah, I think we need a real compromise with environmental issues or environmental conservations, really. And this real compromise has to be with people and with our environment, of course. And also, I am helping Johani in translation. But also, a lot of you are speaking Spanish, too. Yes. I will help here, too. Thank you. So Rosanna, do you want to go ahead and say what you just said to Johani in Spanish? And then when you're done, you can share your favorite spot. And we wanted to offer to everyone that as we pause for Rosanna to translate, that it's a good opportunity for you to reflect on what you're hearing. Think about what you might want to share next. And this is actually a really beautiful opportunity for us to slow down in a culture that often has us fighting to be the next person or the quickest one to respond. So use this time to reflect if you want to write down your thoughts or something that you might like to share. And here comes Johani. Welcome, Johani. Hola, my name is Johani. I live here in Amherst. And I'm here at the meeting because I'm interested in knowing more about the environment, about the city of Amherst. Hola, I'm Johani. I live in Amherst. And I'm here because I wanted to know a little bit more about the environment. You're speaking Spanish, so you can say it in English. Rosanna and I work together a lot. So I'm yelling English at her a lot. Just that seemed alarming to us. Hello, I am Johani. I am living in Amherst. And I am here because I am very interested in about what is happening here with environmental conservation. I wanted to know more about that. Awesome. And Rosanna and Johani, if you can both share what your favorite outdoor space is in Amherst, what you like about it, and what would make it better. Mi lugar favorito es el Part que hicieron nuevo. El de gros parte se llama de Argenio. Porque se apodó con los niños y tienen ya los niños pueden divertirse con algo. Aunque todavía no ha abierto la compa de agua. Pero por lo menos ya más divertido, sí. Tienen algo en que entretenerse. Y además es un parque bonito que podemos ir con los niños y los adultos también. OK. Johani said that her favorite place is the grove park. That is the new park. And because they can go with children and with the family. They love the park. Have a good time. And also that they have the new sprinkles that they can use for now. Me gusta. Yeah, it's not open yet. But just hoping that that will open soon and that will make it better. And Rosanna, do you have favoritos? Yeah, for me it's I think the pool is the park. The meal park. The meal park. Or which one? The park is in Noramers here. Mill River. The Mill River. Hill, the Mill River. Yeah, because it has the pools. We can go with children and have a great time next to the river. Yes. Ashwin, Mark. Oh yeah, now she's done. Yeah, Bernard. And Steve, yeah, haven't heard from you. And Rosanna, if you want to leave yourself unmuted when you're translating, then we will be very clear when you're done talking. Hi, I'll unmute myself. I'm Bernard Brennan. I'm an environmental scientist, evolution biologist by training, a turned farmer. Well, I have various connections with some of you. And I just learned with Rosanna, I've actually spent some time doing research in the Colombian Amazon. So we can talk about that later. I'll mention there's so many nice places, but I'll mention my backyard, which is the Amethyst Brook and the head of the Fort River connected to the Amethyst Brook conservation area. I love the edge effects. It brings in so much different biodiversity. I have a field, forest, stream, all together. Certainly in the heat, it's been wonderful to take my family, new puppy down there and play. But it's also connected to our farm CSA. And I've been involved in CSAs for a few decades now. And I find it's really a wonderfully fulfilling way to connect with people and the land. If there was something I worry about in the Fort River, it's pollution. Nice things are sort of, I can see the top of our watershed. And there's not a lot from here to there. But as a farmer with neighboring farms, I know there are better and worse ways to farm with different sorts of runoff. And I think we can do a lot to improve that and also do a lot of carbon sequestration. I'm going to pause you there, Bernard, for translation. And we'll try to do about half as much as that in a chunk. Did you have anything else to add, Bernard? I forgot about the translation, so sorry. I speak Spanish myself because I'm married to a native speaker. Maybe I'll just mention other connections that may be relevant to this group. I've been part, a board member of the Northeast Organic Farming Association, as well as Green America nationally. And increasingly, I'm moving from larger units to smaller, more localized units because it's a, maybe just used my personality better. But I think we can, I've moved here to Amherst very intentionally as a place with a wonderful future in a variety of different economic and environmental, social futures. I'll just say. I'll stop. Sorry. And anyone who speaks Spanish is also welcome to just speak for themselves in Spanish when they finish in English or to begin in Spanish and then follow it with English. I was just going to say. Yeah. Please. All right, I can go next. So once again, my name is Ashwin. He, him pronouns. And I live in Amherst. And I'm on the Energy and Climate Action Committee. And I too really like Amethyst Brook. I find it to be a delightful place to hike. But there's also a number of places in Amherst that I really like that I actually don't know the names of and might even struggle to really describe. I kind of know them as that place along the train tracks and that trail that I found on my bike that one time. So there's places that have names that I'm aware of and others that don't. I can do Spanish as well. So mi nombre es Ashwin. Mis pronombres son él. Y es de vivo en Amherst. Y soy miembro del Comité de Energía y Acción Climática. Y uno de mis lugares favoritos de Amherst es también como lo de Bernard Amethyst Brook. Porque me encanta caminar por allí. Me encanta ver pues la gente que disfruta del lugar. Pero también hay otros sitios que desconozco los nombres. No sé cómo se llaman. No sé exactamente dónde están. Pero por casualidad en varias instancias he encontrado estos, estas joyas realmente que tiene el pueblo. Los conozco como el sitio al costado del tren o el sitio que encontré andando en bici alguna vez. Y nada más pues. Ya, ahí lo dejo. Hi. So I understand a lot of what you're saying. My name's Manita. I go by Xixi. She, her pronouns. I review a lot of what you're just saying. And I think that for a lot of the children and all the youth in Amherst, I feel like we should do something. I'm from Amherst. I should say that I'm from Amherst. And I'm a person of color from Amherst. I'm African-American, like literally African-American. My dad, my mom's American. And I feel like that we should do something where we let you know what is going on as far as nature goes in this area. I don't know if anyone agrees with that. Definitely. Thank you so much, Maria. I'm just going to pause so Rosanna can translate. And for this portion, we're all just going to be sharing a little bit about spots that we enjoy in Amherst. But we'll definitely get to coming up with ideas of how we can work to connect all of us, including the children, to the land. Mark, going to put you on the spot. Sure. No problem. Hello, everybody. I'm Mark Wamsley. I work in Amherst at Kestrel Land Trust. Let's see. My pronouns are he, him, is. Let's see. I primarily work to conserve forest land, farmland, and park land for my job at Kestrel. And I'm going to cluster with the last couple of people. Amethyst Brook is up there. Pray well for me. Not only because Kestrel owns an abutting parcel, which has a bit of a trail loop on it that leads from Amethyst Brook, but it's a beautiful location, and it's proven to be a lifeline recently. And I'll get into that a little bit, let someone translate. Thanks. You look good. So I'll just continue where I left off. The park has really been a lifeline for me in these COVID times. Certainly if you have a car, it's so accessible for children. And when my wife and I are trying to do chores where we don't want to take the entire family into a public place like a store, one of us will split off, drop the person off, and the other one will drive my eight-year-old to Amethyst Brook and walk around for an hour and enjoy being properly socially distanced from people on the trails there. But yeah, it's been a real resource and just a wonderful place to go. And thank you again for inviting me to be on this group tonight. And I think I may be one of the last. One sec, Steve. We're just doing a translation. OK, I'll set, Steve. OK, hi again, Steve Rofir. He, him, his. And I live in South Amherst. And I think for my family, one of the favorite places is we can walk just across Southeast Street and down Chapel Road. And on to, I think it's part of the KC trail. But it crosses Little Creek, where my children like to build little structures. And then we dodge the poison ivy along the next section of trail, but then it drops into a little sand quarry that's been active for many decades, I think. But we find some very interesting things in the sand quarry once we saw snapping turtles hatching and working their way down to a pond. And the pond is our typical destination. And there, as we walk along the edge, we often see at least one or two very big snapping turtles just cruising along, along the banks, looking up at us as if they expect us to bring food. I'm not sure if they're that smart or not. But we kind of feel like they're our friends and they hear us coming, or they're always there waiting for somebody to come. It's a nice place to walk. It's quiet. It's a short walk from the house. So we're very lucky that we can do that. I'll pause you right there. Steve, did you want to continue? No, that was it. I was just finishing up there. Lovely. So I think we get Lauren gets to share. And then Stephanie share. Yes, Stephanie. Oh, Stephanie. Hi, although I don't live in Amherst, I've worked there for over 20 years. So I know it well. I'm probably there, well, until recently, there more than I was in my own home. And I think one of my favorite places is the rail trail through Lawrence Swamp and some of the hiking trails that are off Lawrence Swamp because they go deeper into wetland areas. And I used to do wetlands work for the town. So those are some of my favorite places to be. Hi, everyone. My name is Lauren. I use she, her, hers pronouns. And I am part of the consultant team working with Jim and Gazikaya. And I don't live in Amherst, but I did go to grad school there. I was a UMass grad. And I will say that I didn't get to spend as much time outside as I wish that I had while in grad school. But one place that, one outdoor place that I do really love is the cemetery downtown where Emily Dickinson is buried because it's a really peaceful and tucked away spot right next to downtown. And I helped to paint the history mural that is on the wall that you see when you walk by. Fantastic. So I will share very briefly, and again, Jim Newman, he, him, his pronouns. I do not live in Amherst. I live in Cambridge, Massachusetts, but I have spent quite a lot of time in Amherst. And I think my favorite place is at the Hitchcock Center where I did a lot of work, the back sort of quiet, cool courtyard. I just find very relaxing. There's nothing like being there with kids all over. Dave has his hand up. I just wanted to point that out. I'm not sure if he's, there we go. I think it was an old, it was a question a few minutes ago about whether we should use the formal hand raising or whether when there's pauses, we can just talk. So I just, just a protocol issue or question. So Dave, that's a great question. We can use the hand raising, but we are not looking really at the participant list. You can just wave your hand. We can see all of us. So that works pretty well. So there are some things that I was just going to translate that. Oh, okay. Great. So there's some things that have come up here, which are important. There's a lot of places. There's your important ideas. So what we'd love to do. Is to try and bring up those important ideas. So that we can think about. How do we make plans. That. Respect those important ideas. So I'm going to suggest that there are a couple that have come up. One of them is the important idea about being. Close. To really great outdoor spaces. They're local. They're close. They're personal. I think one of the important ideas was about. Farms. And. Farms and food. And, but also. The issue of runoff. And that. Farms and food are both beautiful and important. And food is extremely important. But runoff is an issue. Those are things we need to think about. How do we, how do we make that important? Can you define runoff? Oh, certainly. Thank you, Rossana. I. Because he asked me to define runoff. The term runoff. So runoff. Means is it, is a word that describes. When rain falls. Things wash off the ground. And run into rivers and lakes. And in farms. A lot of times those things carry fertilizer and other material. That are polluting. Are bad for the bodies of water. And I'd like to shout out to Stephanie on this. And the importance of wetlands. Stephanie talked about recognizing and walking through wetlands. But all, almost all of us have talked about the importance of rivers. And water. And wetlands are part of that. So, because he could I add something. Or are you waiting for the translation? Yep. Okay, Dave. One of the things I heard on this call and has been a. Consistent. Theme in, in my work with the town is. Thanks to many people who came before us. We are fortunate to have all these public spaces. Available that have not been privatized. So we have a lot of, a lot of conservation lands and parks mentioned of. Amethyst Brook and golf park and Mount Pollack's and the list goes on and on. And we have. We have thousands of acres of protected land that. Is really been protected for wildlife for. For ecology. And for nature, but also for people. And so you're right there. Okay. I think it was reflected in some of the earlier comments. Is how do we, how do we make better connections for all. The people who live in Amherst or visit Amherst. To nature through those lands. And whether it's community gardens, hiking, biking, fishing. Birdwatching. Meditation. All of these things. And I think that there are ways we can, community gardens, we can make more connections. And I think. We're not making those connections for all people in Amherst. That's my opinion that I. I just want to put out there, but, but, but it's an interest of mine to make those connections. Thanks, Dave. Did you want to add to that? One more thing we do have these, you know, we're fortunate also to have the colleges, the university, the city, the city of Amherst, the city of Amherst. The city of Amherst has been doing this work for. 40 or 40 more or more years. And so. We, we have a foundation to build on. I don't. I think there's, there's many resources. I just don't think they're reaching everybody in the same way. So how do we work together to. To make it accessible to more people. And I'll stop there. Thanks. So Dave, I think that, by the way, thank you. I think that brings us to the final point, which is the one that Merida has been making so eloquently. About. Kids and nature. And building that bridge. Sort of across all of the kids. In Amherst and around. So I just wanted to. To really build on a culture and knowledge. Of nature and, and the value of natural systems. So I just wanted to share that Merita unfortunately had to leave. Something came up, but I'm definitely going to pass. Everything on that we talk about. Great. She may have left, but her ideas remain. I mean, I would just like to translate that. I invite you now. To. Take the ideas that have come and that you think are really important. And to bring them up. What is really important about this? How can we think about. What are the important goals? What are the important goals? What are the important goals? Ecosystems and land and what. The town does. So that it meets the really important goals. What are those important goals? So I've just identified several. I. I just want to jump in with what I heard. As probably the most important. And I know Dave mentioned it is. And we, you know, we know because we work in the conservation department. That this land is all over town. And so how do we. How do we connect people to it? How do we make sure that people are getting to it and can get to it? You know, it's a, it's a interesting thing to think about. Why aren't people. Accessing it more or. What are the barriers to that access? I would also add something I saw in the negative space. That of what David alluded to around. Amethyst Brook, which is something that several of us mentioned. Is that if you have a car, it's really accessible. But the, you know, Converse of that is that if you don't have a car, it and a lot of other places are not accessible. So questions of access and. Perhaps related to. Programming for children and especially children of color. Would be things to explore around increasing and improving access. To these areas. an issue that was a little in the negative space in the vacuum that occurred to me when David said that if you have a car, it is quite accessible to Amethyst Brook and other places, this conversation is that if you don't have a car, if you don't have mobility, it is complicated to access this place of Amethyst Brook and also other places, other natural areas in Amherst. So it would be interesting to think about how we could, as a municipality, create programs of access, both for this public transit, as in coordination with programs, perhaps for young people, especially young people of color, communities of color, as Marita mentioned, to overcome this barrier. To build off of that, Ashwin, which I think is a great point. I know that, you know, we've talked a lot about the East Hadley Road sort of area of many housing complexes and I think rates of no vehicle ownership in that area are about 26%, which is really high. And all of those complexes are privately owned and are very restrictive, some more than others, in terms of what they will allow to happen at their complexes and on that land, which they claim is primarily because of liability, which is maybe up for debate. Caitlin, are you thinking about something specific like growing food or something like that? That would be a thing to say. Growing food and distributing food between our mobile market and the Amherst Survival Center, the issue of even being able to get onto that property to distribute food has come up a lot and we have faced a lot of barriers. I'm just wanting to invite Rosana or Johani, who are so busily doing the interpretation, if there's something that you wanted to share regarding what Caitlin shared or regarding other values that you've heard as we've been sharing. Yeah, well, Caitlin talked to that, that is an issue for I think for a long time, that we want to do a lot of things with those communities and there are a lot of obstacles to do this. We want to do the community gardens and we can, yes. We want access to more help, to have access for more help for the residents, but it's difficult, very difficult at this time. And also, yeah, with the Survival Center too. So there are a lot of frustrations. This is a lot of frustrations for residents that live there, that they can have access to a lot of services, or in this case, food, that they can go outside and because they are the restrictions with transportation and the issues because the pandemic. So this is a very frustrated and is that we are trying to work anyway, in any way we are doing things, but it will be very good if all the residents or all the people could help with these things, like, I don't know, talking with the owners, I don't know what could be. Mark, I bet you have some thoughts about what's important relative to this topic. Many. I've mostly been listening and I've been learning a lot. A lot of folks from communities I don't often get to hear from. So I'm being humble and taking as much in and I think it will help me. One thing that I will say, which I'm finding interesting, and I'm kind of teasing out a bit here is the idea of access to natural resources in terms of getting to a place versus having access to natural resources where you are as a community and particularly related to communities who may be disadvantaged, and the full benefits of a local array of natural resources. So I'll pause there for that, Rosanna. Is it okay if I jump in there, Kazi, or Jim? Yeah, it sounds like Mark, are you finished or did you want to continue? Okay. I'll let Dave add to it. I'm sure you can expand upon that quite a bit. I will admit it's sometimes hard for me to hold back a little bit because there's so many projects that we envision for the town that I think address some of the conversation and some of the challenges that have been articulated here, but just two very quick examples in the area that we've been talking about near East Hadley Road. Number one is I have in my mind that we would eventually make a bridge over the Fort River to connect the residents of the five complexes that Kazi mentioned earlier to conservation land and eventually that would get everyone a walking distance and a connection to Crocker Farm School and the playgrounds there. So that's one idea. Yeah, pause right there. Your honey is as excited as I am about that idea. And a much larger project which is actually farther along than a bridge is the purchase of the Hickory Ridge Golf Course to the south of East Hadley Road. So the town is moving forward with that and there's still some uncertainty but we are proceeding. So if that were to happen there would be a community-based master planning process to envision what could happen on that land in addition to solar power. A solar field will be part of that. There could be lots of things, community gardens, trails, etc. So I'll stop there. Yeah, pause right there. Before Bernard, I give you a chance to share more. I just wanted to say today that when you get to that point of having talking about that golf course, we have a very strong group of 15 community leaders who are working on this project who would be so excited about sharing lots of ideas with you. Most of us live right here and have tons of ideas and opinions about how that land could really support our community. Can I just say we're counting on you all? Thank you. Hi, so I wanted to introduce one second. Hold on just a second. She's not on the same screen. I'd just like to say everybody's doing really beautifully. Thank you. Bernard. Hi, I wanted to advocate for another idea which is maybe less goal-oriented as a mechanism and that's advocating for the judicious use of incentives and disincentives to achieve our goals like carbon neutrality. And I'll give just one of many possible examples. Direct payment to farmers for net carbon sequestered, much like SRX are done for solar. And that can be extended to conservation. I'll stop. I really appreciated that comment, Bernard, because that goes back to something else that I was thinking earlier around how so much of how we interact with the land relates to ownership of the land and how our rights really interact with ownership. As Caitlin mentioned, those of us who live in complexes with property managers have a lot less choice. And I would love to see something similar around incentives or disincentives like holding the, giving people reasons to make things more accessible or better for the earth and the people. I briefly expand on yours. Please. In addition to financial incentives, Director Knuck, one could have liability waivers. I've spent time in England where the default is yes, you can walk on the perimeter of any farmer's land because they haven't removed those liability issues. That'd be lovely to have here too. Bernard, I'd just like to chime in myself that that thought about both liability waivers and incentives and disincentives I think can apply across the board kind of like, because I was talking that there's a principle here of encouraging through a number of means the things that we want to have happen and discouraging the things we don't want to have happen. Zoning does that, but we can add accessibility, carbon management, and maybe protection of wetland to those in a very real way. I just want to acknowledge that I see that Marita is back with us and also that we haven't heard from Yohani in a little while. So if there's something either of you would like to share, please feel free. Yohani, if you want to unmute yourself, you can. Okay. Okay. For me, it would be something grandioso de que se diera ese proyecto porque yo vine aquí hace, yo tengo aquí con cinco años y cuando yo vine aquí el primer año, la comunidad yo la veía hasta más pequeña porque eran mucho nada más estudiantes. Ahora vemos mucha familia. Ahora, ahora ha crecido la familia. Por ejemplo, aquí en Southport, en casi toda la comunidad son familia con de dos, tres, cinco niños, ese niño. La población ha crecido más y somos más familia. Ahora viven más familia que estudiantes. Entonces, eso sería grandioso porque ahí se podría hacer de todo. Como empezando, por ejemplo, con el mismo caro móvil que podríamos tribuir más personas, más personas no pueden conocer actividades de temporada para los niños y para los adultos también, promocionar, por ejemplo, lo que son los vegetales, la naturaleza, la tierra, que muchísima cosa. Podemos hacer varias cosas, la actividad del pueblo, por ejemplo, para que la persona la conozca más, porque por ejemplo, la esta reunión que tengamos aquí ahora, a lo primero, yo no sabía que existía una comunidad del pueblo ni que tampoco era, por ejemplo, las reuniones de clima. Yo no ignoraba todo eso. Entonces, ahora yo lo conozco, pero hay muchas personas que no lo saben y que no saben que esto existe, por la comunicación. Porque, por ejemplo, aquí no hay centro grande, como cuando se puede juntar más personas, una comunidad más grande y un proyecto así podrían esa regarse más la voz, porque todo asistirían ahí, o sea, con un local grande y se comunicaría más y la gente se enteraría mucho, mucho más de todo lo que se puede hacer aquí y todo lo que tiene el pueblo. Yeah, Yojani, Yojani said that, well, this is great that we are here and we could talk about all these things. She came here, she is here for five years and the community was more small, smaller than now. Now, there are more families, there are families that have two, three, five children and is so she said that there are more families than before, there are more families than students, she said. But so other thing is that through the mobile market, she believes that that is a great opportunity to have more activities around and promote to take care of the land or things around that and have more activities, have more activities from the town that also is important. And she, at first, she didn't know much a lot about the climate meetings, but now she knows about this, but there are a lot of people that don't know. So she believes that the communication could be very important to spread the word so a lot of people could embrace this project too. Thank you so much, Rosana. I think that, Yojani, you identified something and we've all talked about the aspect that if people don't know about what's available or if they don't know how to get involved, then their voices will be absent. And that's something that Stephanie has continued to hear and know about this through this process is that communication is so big. I see you, Mark. And I think that maybe Marita had something to share, so I'm going to just make sure you have to just unmute yourself, Marita. Which is probably tricky on our phone. No, it's okay. Yeah. Okay, just jump in if you have something. Mark, you can go ahead. I'll mute myself here. I just wanted to pick up on a couple of comments that Jim, Bernard, and Dave had made talking about incentives and disincentives. I would hope that that level of thoughtfulness and creativity is also applied to issues of siting of renewable energy as we try and reach our carbon goals. Mark, could you, oh, sorry, could you just say briefly what siting of, I forgot the next part, siting of renewable something? Same question. Thanks, David. Sure. Certainly, renewable energy, be it solar wind, mostly solar we're talking about here, is going to be very important in meeting all of our carbon reduction goals. So there'll be a lot of pressure. I always wanted to just remind people to be conscious of not harming things that you're trying to protect. From climate change, by where you put solar panels, but also encouraging them as much as you can in creative ways, large-scale solar installations, encouraging community investment in renewable energy and solar developments, I think is also wonderful. But just, again, it's very complex, but being thoughtful, I think it's important. So, Stephanie, I see you. I just wanted to clarify once more. It sounds like it's one of those areas where there's a conflicting goal or value. I've heard other people talk about like you need the solar, but you want to not do more harm to the land by where you put the solar. Is that what you meant? Absolutely. Particularly when it comes to farmland forests, these are things that we're trying to protect from climate change with increasing solar and renewable energy development. Why threaten the things you're trying to protect? Because we need them all for our well-being going into the future. But you have it exactly right because of trying. Stephanie? So I was going to actually give a clear example of what Mark was saying, which was specifically about farmland, that the utility companies, large developers, often will purchase farmland because it's already flat, for the most part, and it's easy to put and install solar on farmland. So that was, I just wanted to have a very clear example of what we mean by when you have a conflict of the two different needs. Are you to anything you want to say? Not yet. I'm gathering my thoughts. No pressure. Sorry to put you on the spot. Other thoughts about what are important? We've identified many important qualities that we think are valuable. Other thoughts? So we've got Bernard and then Steve. I guess I'll just want to reflect a little gratitude, maybe. I've heard of interest in access to land and food and come through in several positive comments about the new mobile market. We've been talking about it for years and most of the veggies are coming off of our farm here. Incentives and community have made it a reality. So on the one hand we're doing more than we ever have, which is awesome, but I see so much room for expansion and incentives would help. So yay mobile market. Best of work. I see you, Marita. One second. Okay. Steve was going to share next, but Steve, are you all right if Marita jumps in and then you can follow? Okay, go ahead, Marita. So as I said before, like I live in the park and I am, you know, I benefit from... You're breaking up a little bit, Marita. Sometimes if you take the video off, the sound may come through better. Okay, hopefully we'll get her back. Steve, if you want to share. Yes. There's so many things that we've expressed that we like about areas and amours, the natural spaces, the recreation spaces, the farmland that provides us food. We have to be careful and very active in trying to defend those places or prepare ourselves for vast changes, climate changes, weather changes that are going to threaten those lands and those features as they are now. So climate is going to change. We've warmed up almost a degree Fahrenheit. It's likely to warm up another degree Fahrenheit in our lifetime in a decade or two and weather patterns are changing with precipitation. So there's going to be tremendous pressure on those resources for change and we're going to have to live with some of those changes, but we're also going to have to do our part to help reduce those changes by reducing our carbon emissions. Okay, one second. Go for it, Steve. I think just to conclude, we're going to have to brace for changes to those areas and do our best to help reduce those changes by controlling our carbon emissions in our community, in our country and across the world as well. Jim, quick check to you that nine minutes left. Time check. In this little space, I just wanted to thank Lauren, who's been taking notes this whole time and make sure that everyone knows that everything that's been shared here is something that we're going to have kept track of and that this is going to help us to continue into the next meeting. So thank you, Lauren, for taking notes and everyone know that this is not just going into the wind. Not at all. Very welcome. Fabulous. So we've heard about the importance of accessibility and that thought about conservation and conservation areas where you live versus conservation areas where you have to go. That's really important. We've also heard, Marita's back. We've also heard about the idea of incentivizing the things we want to have happen and disincentivizing the things we don't want to have happen. Marita, you want to try again? You might turn off your video. Yeah, hold on a second. Sorry, can you hear me? Yes. Sorry. Yeah, my phone died for a second there. So I'm trying to remember what I was responding to. While you're thanking and you can jump in, I'd like to say that there are plenty of opportunities to say more. You can talk to one of us. You can talk to your committee co-chairs, Steve and Ashwin. You can talk to Kazikaya. You can talk to Stephanie. Absolutely, more information, more thoughts. Okay, Marita, I'm just going to let Rosana translate what Jim said. Hold on to your thought. Okay, go for it. Sorry, my phone died when I was trying to respond to what you were talking about. Totally, it happens to all of us. So what's the original question? So we were talking about values and important aspects that are coming up for us when we think about the land and how we're connecting with it or not able to connect with it in Amherst. Yeah, so I think for me, since I grew up here and being literally African American, because my dad's African and my mom's American, and we have all this Native American background with us too, I think that that Amherst, first of all, I don't like it being called Amherst in the first place, but I think that what we're doing with the food resources, it's like my mom always says, oh, you want to be poor, be poor in Amherst because of like the resources that we have here. However, I think that I have a younger brother who's obviously Black, and I think that for him and like the things that he's experienced and things that my other relatives have experienced were Black males, they don't get the same resources, they don't get the same, and I don't even know how to say it, they don't get the same respect as we have, as females or as white people, and I know that my brother, he even said that he went to the same process I went to in Northampton, and he's like, I'm never going to a process ever again in Northampton or in Amherst because he said that he tried to just literally just take a seat in someone's yard and they completely denied him, and there's someone that was at the protest, like a white person at the protest and said, I don't want you on my yard, and there's a lot of people of color in Amherst and in Northampton areas who are like that, and so it's like, when we get resources from people, it's like, it's a grain of salt, and it's like, is it coming from a place of faith, it's coming from a place of, you know, they really want to help, but I feel like a lot of times too, it's like a lot of people of color who are friends of mine, they don't want to take anything because of that, because it's hurtful, but and I know, I don't, I literally have no idea how to like bridge that gap, so I don't know if you guys don't want to do that because like we really, we want to bridge that gap, but I just, I don't, we don't know how to do it. I'm so right there with you. I'm gonna just have Prosana translate that from for Yohani. I'd like to respond, Gosecaya. Okay. Like it's not easy to pretend like you're from the happy valley, and it's not really happy for a lot of us, especially if you're a queer person of color. Prosana is just still translating, Rita, you said so much important. Sorry. That was all good. Prosana, I want to make sure also that you heard the last part where Marito is saying that it's not a happy valley for all of us, especially for queer people of color. So I know that we're right at 801. I wanted to ask if everyone's willing to spend a few extra minutes together and know that if you need to head out, then we totally respect that. Marito, was there anything else you wanted to share? No, I think that's it. Thank you so much, Stephanie. I just first want to thank you, Marita, for sharing that and also to say that a lot of this when we talk about communication and how important communication is, part of communication is listening and hearing. It's not just talking. And so when we say that communication came out as a priority, I would say you're sharing and people hearing and listening is a big piece of this. And I appreciate that. Thank you. We appreciate you and that's your words. A lot of times people say they're like, take the cotton out of your ears and put it in your mouth and that goes for any group that needs to be heard. Who else is out there? Anyone else talking? That was so just important for us all to have the chance to share and I'm so grateful that Marita was able to come back in because I think we all heard really valuable things, especially from Rosana and Yohani and Marita, our community leaders. I just want to really acknowledge their part in this and especially to Rosana for all the translation. So I'd just like to also just thank everybody for being here and to say that we will have be scheduling another meeting and providing all of the notes from this to everyone. And again, get a hold of anyone. If you have more thoughts, you want to talk before we get to the next meeting. Kuzuka, what do you think about the homework question? I think it would be great to just, if Ashwin and Steve feel like they can give it very briefly, I think we could close out with a send-off of something we would love for you each to think about as we transition towards the next meeting. Sure. Oh, sorry. I can take it, Steve, if that's okay with you. Cool. So we would like to, well, again, just to reiterate, thank you all so much for your participation, especially to the community leaders and to Rosana for the translation. This has been hugely helpful from the perspective of the committee in terms of how we think about issues around land use, issues around access to natural areas, the connection between all of that and climate change, and how we can make these processes heal some of the harm that undergirds so much of these, so many of these issues in our town. So really, really appreciate it. We'd like to give you the opportunity going forward, if you're up for it, to kick a little bit of information back to us and to take this conversation out into your community. So if you could ask two or three neighbors or friends something related to these questions around land use, we're curious to know, for example, where do your friends and neighbors get their vegetables? Are people able to grow food where you live? If there's any other aspect of this conversation around how people feel around accessing natural areas, for example, ask a neighbor or ask a friend about that and let us know what they say. We'd love to hear it. I'm just going to do that in Spanish now. First of all, thank you very much for all of your participation and especially to the community leaders who have joined this meeting. It's been really uncalculably useful for us as the Energy Committee and for climate action. And well, all the contributions that you have given us helps us a lot to go ahead and think about the land use, the soil use, the connection between the climate change and the climate change. And as all of this is related to the damage that is deep down in our country and our community, in the issues of differential access, inequalities to the natural areas that we have in terms of that, a lot to think about and a lot to do really. So thank you for that. We want to say goodbye with an opportunity to go ahead with this conversation with your friends, with your neighbors, and if you have time and if you are interested, to involve more people, beyond this group in this conversation that for us is super important. And if you want, you could ask a neighbor, a neighbor, a friend, a friend, a member of the family, about where they buy or access their vegetables, their vegetables to eat, for their food. If it is possible to plant a plant, to have a garden where they live, or if it is more difficult and why, we would love to know about this. And also, if there is another issue that has arisen through this discussion, it would be interesting to also ask someone else about what they think, what is their perspective. If they have any opinion or any experience with the natural areas, if there is any positive experience or any barrier to access these areas, we would love to know about that, because all that information helps us a lot to prepare the plan and at the end of the day, implement it to achieve the goals of this process. I think I'm going to leave it there. Thank you all so much. Can I say one more thing? If you guys live in South Amherst, so one of the things that we're trying to do is to get vegetables grown in our gardens so that our community can have access to fresh vegetables. So like, Meen and Gazette and some of their neighbors have been growing fresh vegetables, so we can get our community to figure out how to actually grow fresh vegetables, to actually have access to it. And we're growing it so we can give it away to people. And so if people, if you know people that live in our neighborhood or no kids that want to learn how to grow vegetables in our neighborhoods in South Amherst, please let us know. And anyone else, really, because like I started growing tomatoes for the first time. And I started growing cucumbers and zucchini. And it's very, very easy. So like, we're trying to get kids to like, let them know how to grow vegetables and let them know how to be self-sustainable. Yeah, so. Thanks, Meen and Gazette. Well, that pro sign would translate that real quick. Okay. Sorry, that was a lot. Good. Basically come to my back, Erin. We should probably make our way. So thank you so much for everybody. We'll see you soon. Great to see all of you and meet some of you. Thank you so much. Pleasure meeting you. Thank you, everyone.