The Nederland Board of Trustees approved moving forward with grants for waste diversion and composting during a regular, virtual meeting on July 6, 2021, at 7 p.m. The Board also swore in a new police officer and approved a Rights of Nature resolution.

Waste Diversion grant

Sustainability Coordinator Garrett McDaniel presented the Front Range Waste Diversion Projects Grant. A group of volunteers have been working on identifying programs that could be developed using this grant, including educational programs, creating waste diversion bins for special events, and establishing a hazardous material dropoff location at Public Works. The Front Range Waste Diversion (FRWD, or “Forward”) program provides grants and technical assistance to Front Range communities to increase recycling, composting and waste reduction.

These programs still need to be evaluated by the Sustainability Advisory Board, which met after the Trustees, so a full application was not being submitted to the Board for review at that time. The grant is due July 13, 2021. Town staff seek confirmation from the Trustees that they support applying for these funds.

The current three-year strategic plan identifies the goals of data collection and analysis of municipal solid waste, including organics and recycling and non-municipal solid waste, focusing on construction and demolition debris. The FRWD program collects funds from an increase in user fees at Front Range landfills to provide grants and technical assistance to Front Range communities to increase recycling, composting, and waste reduction.

McDaniel said the grant would allow for a series of places to bring materials. The Board approved a motion to move forward with the grant.

Composting Grant

McDaniel also introduced a grant from the USDA Community Compost and Food Waste Reduction Project Cooperative Agreements. This grant would be used to purchase compost for local community use.

Working with members of the Sustainability Advisory Board (SAB) and its zero-waste subcommittee, this group has determined a community compost pickup event would be a beneficial service for area residents. The USDA Office of Urban Agriculture and Innovative Production awards cooperative agreements through an annual competitive process. These agreements assist local and municipal governments with projects that develop and test strategies for planning and implementing municipal compost plans and food waste reduction plans.

Implementation activities increase access to compost for agricultural producers, improve soil quality, and encourage innovative and scalable waste management plans that reduce and divert food waste from landfills. For more information, see https://www.farmers. gov/ manage/ urban/ opportunities. Boulder County is already participating in USDA’s program at https://www.bouldercounty.org/ news/ bouldercounty wins-competitive-usdafundingto promote-comm-unity-compost-andwaste reduction.

McDaniel said the grant is for a composting event. It is extremely expensive to run trucks up here and businesses can’t participate. It would be a daily pick up. The plan is for volunteers to go to businesses and see what they need and how we can help with that.

Trustees said there are three breweries in town, so they should start utilizing the local workforce to bring in their waste. They liked the idea of reaching out to businesses and approved moving ahead with more outreach.

Trustees decided not to apply for the grant at this time.

New Officer

The Board swore in new Police Officer James Niehaus. Officer Niehaus has been with the Nederland Police Department since March 22, 2021.

He came from Louisville and graduated from Nederland High School. He also has a master’s degree. He said that when the opportunity arose to come back to Nederland he wanted to go somewhere he cares about.

Rights of Nature

Gary Wockner, director of Save the Colorado, who is leading the fight against Gross Dam expansion, introduced the Rights of Nature resolution. This resolution has been brought forward by Save The Colorado, which is promoting Rights of Nature in Colorado and across the Colorado River basin.

Establishing “Rights of Nature” is a fast-growing component of environmentalism and environmental law in the United States and across the planet. The proposed resolution, “Rights of Nature for the Boulder Creek Watershed in Nederland,” would establish Nederland as a world leader in this field, and give local citizens an opportunity to provide input to the Nederland Town Board on behalf of Nature, according to Wockner.

He continued: “Because this nonbinding resolution does not create any new law, it won’t be challenged by any higher-level government or entity pre-empting Nederland’s local authority. The resolution will, however, begin a friendly community-wide conversation about how Nature’s voice and needs can be included in local decision-making for the benefit of local citizens and the economy, all of which is reliant on the beautiful natural environment that drives Nederland’s quality of life.”

The resolution is moving forward in Nederland under the direction of Trustee Alan Apt. It was unanimously passed by the Sustainability Advisory Board on May 5, 2021. More information and resources about “Rights of Nature” can be found on Save The Colorado’s website: http://savethecolorado.org/rightsofnature/

Trustees said it is a good step in the right direction. It fits in with 2030 initiatives and what the Town has been doing. Most Board members supported moving ahead with the resolution. However, Trustee Julian Taylor asked whether a watershed can be a person: does it have standing?

Taylor had four problems with the resolution, the primary being that of assigning rights, which nature doesn’t have. Nature doesn’t need rights, he said. Humans assign rights to humans. It is between humans. “I will be voting no,” he stated.

Mayor Kristopher Larsen said the Board has received unanimous comment in favor of the resolution, and the Board approved the resolution with Taylor’s dissent.

The next Nederland Board of Trustees meeting will be virtual on July 20, 2021. For more information, go to https://nederlandco.civicweb.net/ Portal/ MeetingInformation. aspx?Org=Cal&Id=391.