Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Conservation And Outreach topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Grand Island board invites Grand Island Nature Alliance to present habitat certification; plans producers meeting and will share $8.5M state funding notice
Summary
Board members agreed to invite Diane Evans of the Grand Island Nature Alliance to present a habitat certification program in January, discussed organizing local producers in 2025, and noted a New York State $8,500,000 funding opportunity for farms.
Speaker 2, a board member, opened a local Grand Island board meeting at 10:06 a.m. and said Diane Evans of the Grand Island Nature Alliance has asked to present a habitat certification program encouraging native plantings and environmentally sensitive property care: "The Grand Island Nature Alliance, is looking to start a habitat certification program." Speaker 2 told members January would likely be the best time for that presentation.
The board member said the program would promote planting native species and adopting environmentally sensitive practices for gardens, yards and properties, and invited the group’s opinion on scheduling the presentation. "She would like to come and present, to this board," Speaker 2 said, and members present indicated they were interested in hearing the proposal in January.
Speaker 2 also said the group needs to re-engage local producers and suggested organizing a public meeting in 2025 to bring together hobby and commercial farms on Grand Island to discuss unmet needs and next steps. "We're gonna have to organize a meeting ... calling all Grand Island producers," Speaker 2 said, and suggested the meeting would help identify items waiting with the zoning committee that may be holding people up.
The board member noted that a prior collective organization, Grand Island Farms Inc., has been dissolved as a 401(c)(3) entity, which affects prior organizing structures and may affect how the board reaches producers. Speaker 2 said they would attempt to post the New York State funding announcement to social media while on vacation: "there is $8,500,000 available to support, farms in New York." The board did not adopt any formal policy or commit specific funding during the session.
The matter of the habitat-certification presentation and producer outreach was left for follow-up; Speaker 2 said January would likely be the month to schedule the Nature Alliance presentation and that the board will plan a public producer meeting in 2025 to gather input and identify priorities.
