City of Boulder, CO Inside Boulder News, 20 Apr 2018

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From YouTube: Inside Boulder News - April 20, 2018

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This week on Inside Boulder News: Boulder's Climate Lawsuit, Tulips on Pearl Street, and National Volunteer Week.

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This week on inside for the news, Boulder joins other Colorado communities and the fight against climate change costs. There is Stapleton boulders, Pro, Street mom will tell you how city staff keep these flowers blooming each and every year and get involved find out what volunteer opportunities. The city has to offer.

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Welcome to inside Boulder news your source for all things: Boulder I'm, Jonathan, Daniel, the city of Boulder joined the boulder and San Miguel counties this week on a joint lawsuit against two oil companies to recover climate change costs. These Colorado communities have demanded that the companies pay their fair share of the cost associated with climate change impacts. In the past there have been similar climate lawsuits made in coastal areas like California and New York City.

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This lawsuit, however, is the first made by a city in the landlocked state on April 17th, the city of Boulder, along with Boulder and San Miguel counties made an important announcement during a climate rally in front of the bull Dirk Amy courthouse today.

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We're partnering together to bring a lawsuit against two fossil fuel companies, Suncor and Exxon Sun.

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Corn Exxon Mobil or two of the world's largest contributors to climate change and have been particularly active in Colorado. So, of course, us operations are based in Denver and it supplies about 35 percent of the state's gasoline and diesel fuel demand. While Exxon is the largest investor owned fossil fuel producer in history, the.

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Two companies that are named in this lawsuit have caused us harm by knowingly producing damaging product products, fossil fuels that have contributes substantially to climate change. The.

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Idea there is to not restrict their business practices but to recognize that they should in fact step up and pay their fair share to the cost that we are bearing at the local level. Over.

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The next three decades, these three Colorado communities will face at least 100 million dollars in costs related to the impacts of climate change caused by the use of fossil fuel products. Now.

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Is really the right time, as we have recognized that many of these fossil fuel companies have known about the dangers of their actions for over 50 years, and so, as we start to really think about those costs and how we, in those costs into our budgets, it was really critical for us to understand this issue of accountability. It.

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Is unknown how long the case will take city staff anticipates? It will take a few years for the process to play itself out the law firm, taking the case, earth rights. International is doing the work pro bono. We.

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Are taking on some of the world's largest and most politically powerful corporations, but we have so much at stake and we are confident that the courts will agree with us it's time for climate accountability.

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For more information on the lawsuits, please visit the website. Seen on your screen this week, Boulder celebrated national volunteer appreciation week with the over 6,000 volunteers. There are in the city, we spoke to a McCain, the city's volunteer and program manager. To talk about the countless of volunteer opportunities. The city has to offer Boulder City Council declared the week of April 16th through the 20th as national volunteer appreciation week.

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We had over 6,000 volunteers last year donating eighty eight thousand hours, which translates to about two million dollars as.

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Just a small token of boulders, thanks to its volunteers, the city offered a variety of community tours for each city volunteer and a.

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Guest one of the things we've learned with the volunteers and then speaking with them is they appreciate the lunches they appreciate the dinners, but what they really love is getting to learn and get to be with city staff. That's a big reward for them for.

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The city volunteerism is one of the perfect opportunities for community engagement. It.

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Gives us an opportunity to have the community participate through boards commissions, advisory groups, working groups working alongside us to in delivering programs in operations, and so we're able to work with them to understand what their needs are, but at the same time then they're understanding how the city works and how they can contribute to help make it impact the.

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Largest volunteer programs are in open space and mountain parks, Parks and Recreation, and the library the city's volunteer cooperative, however, is expanding. How the city is working with volunteers across different organizations.

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We've created a volunteer cooperative strategic plan that we also released last week. It really outlines how we can start working with skilled volunteers, so, for example, I had a community member who was looking to get involved with the community, and she had really great graphic design. Skills and I was in need of somebody to help me put do the graphic design for a strategic plan and she she helped us out on it. Whether.

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It's participating in community cleanup, they are helping out on a big city project. No task is too big or too small to roll up your sleeves and get involved to make a difference in your community. We.

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Love our volunteers: even we love our community members. It's a great way for city staff to get to know the community that they're serving in a different way for.

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A full list of the city's volunteer opportunities. Please visit the website. Seen on your screen, the city's nature challenge is back for its third year in partnership with Boulder County and the wild Foundation. The city invites you to take the challenge and show boulders biodiversity to the world. The city nature challenge is a competition between 65 different cities, where residents are encouraged to gather pictures of plants, animals and fungi over a four-day period, using the free, app I naturalist, available on iPhone and Android. The.

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Competition is essentially who can get the most wildlife and plant data during that.

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Time period, the city nature challenge comes from an action item in the city's resilience strategy to put science in the hands of citizens, residents.

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Are really are our most powerful partner when it comes to observing our natural surroundings, they're out and on the ground, and they can help us do that in a really meaningful way to.

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Participate in the challenge, all you have to do is download the I naturalist, app to your phone and snap pictures of anything related to nature and upload it to the app you can also visit I, naturally, on your desktop and check out what others are posting.

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It's allowed to subtract some rarities that we've been seeing in Boulder County, and it also just allows you then, to look at how wildlife might be moving throughout the city. There.

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Will be a total of two grand prices, one for the individual who sees the greatest number of different species and one for whoever has the largest number of uploads. It's.

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A really meaningful way for residents to help us understand the open spaces and as well as kind of the urban ecosystem. So this really helps us kind of create this map of what's going on in the city when it comes to plants and wildlife.

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You can take the challenge starting April 27th through the 30th. A free kick off event will get things started on April 27th from 4 to 7 p.m. at foothills, community park, guided hikes and naturalist, demos, food trucks and more will be available. Please visit City nature, challenged org for more information, there's no better indication of spring and Buller than the beautiful tulips that bloom each year in boulders, Pearl, Street mom, the malls known for its spectacular tulip displays attracting tourists and locals alike, but these popular flower beds require much maintenance.

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So we spoke to the team who keep the magic of the tulips alive. There's lots of sounds smells and sights to experience. They're, not Pro Street mom, but nothing beats the tulips that have bloomed each and every year. Here, for the last three decades, the.

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Flower beds have been around for 30 years, and the Parks and Rec Department has been maintaining the area since it was established. Every.

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Spring and summer stock planted thousands of flowers, including 6,000, annuals, for a varied mix throughout the seasons, more than 15,000 tulip bulbs were planted this year, which were imported from across the seas.

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We get the tulip bulbs from Holland through a company, Schwartz and company our representative. He personally brings them over on a cargo ship in the fall rents, a box truck and delivers them throughout the United States. But.

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The tulips long journey to pro stream ah doesn't stop just there Parks and Rec staff for countless hours, maintaining these beautiful flowers alive. We.

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Go through each bed and we will hand aerate the beds which allows to break up the winter snow compaction hand aerating in between the bulbs allows oxygen nutrients and water penetration, not.

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Only do residents enjoy the blooms along Pro Street, but area gardeners can also enhance their gardens because of these plantings. We.

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Have a program with the city, the tulip bulb giveaway which happens in August, and it is first-come, first-served basis and all the citizens and whoever wants to come. Get the bulbs from the previous year are able to get the bulbs and.

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Their reason why Pro Street Mall continues to bloom with tulips each and every year is simple. Generally.

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Bring a smile to everybody's face and keeps everybody happy.

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Thank you so much for joining us on this week's edition of insightful the news. If you have pictures news tips or events you like to see, featured we love to hear from you connect with us on Facebook and Twitter. You can also sign up 3c video updates right in your inbox. Just go to Boulder channel 8 comm in click on subscribe have a good week.