Item B - Sustainability - Laserfiche WebLink

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1. Lowering costs and improving efficiencies in how we purchase and utilize paper and how we integrate the use of 30% and 100% recycled paper products into daily use. 2. Improving the ordering, printing and mailing process of City projects completed externally and through Document Services allowing lower costs and improved efficiencies. 3. Creating an efficient, consistent and cost-effective way to coordinate document imaging; scanning, storing, indexing, archiving and retrieving documents City-wide. 4. Drastically improving the cooperation and collaboration within offices and departments as we introduce more multi-function devises (which lower individual printer usage) and adding centralized document scanning. The goal is to complete the document strategy by May 2005. Waterways Study - The Eugene-Springfield Metropolitan Waterways Study is a five-year partnership with the Army Corps of Engineers that will lead to the restoration of many of our local waterways. The study will look at environmental benefits, social benefits, and economic benefits when evaluating potential projects. This is a new approach that the Corps of Engineers is beginning to do nationwide and we are one of the first to attempt such a process. Sustainable Land Management Practices - The City's natural resource staff has made significant changes in the last five years to develop sustainable land management practices. For example, five staff members are now trained in prescribed fire techniques to use this as a restoration tool in City-owned natural areas. Some of these staff members have worked with the City's Fire Department staff to carry out training exercises and we hope to use it more frequently to mimic the nalural processes that occurred in this area prior to development. Invasive Species Control - The City of Eugene has adopted new technology to managing invasive plant species in our natural areas. One example is the use of a thermal weed device that uses heat to eliminate invasive plant species without the use of chemicals. Additionally, we have begun using a hot-foam technique that is derived from sugar to eradicate weed populations. Restoration Techniques on Soil and Vegetation - Parks and Open Space Natural Resources staff applied infrared weed burning and solarization on experimental plots of land in the West Eugene Wetlands, as part of a research project staff is participating in with the University of Oregon (UO), Lane Council of Govemments and other West Eugene Wetlands partners. Funded by a $200,000 grant from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the project involves studying the impact of various site preparation techniques for wetlands restoration efforts over a five to seven-year period. Specifically, four techniques--tilling, solarizing, Sunburst infrared weed burning, and herbicide~will be applied in various combinations to 50 experimental plots of land, and data will be collected to document the effects of these techniques on plant productivity, the number and relative abundance of each species, and many functional aspects of the soil, such as carbon and nutrient cycling. The Parks and Open Space Natural Resource Maintenance crew is covering more than one-and-a-half acres of wetlands in the West Eugene Wetlands with plastic sheeting this summer in an effort to more effectively eradicate pervasive, non-native wetland weeds, such as reed canarygrass, and restore species native to this wet prairie habitat. The clear plastic covering is the final step in the innovative, non-toxic, weed control technique called solarization. Solarization is one of many techniques used by parks crews to control highly invasive weeds in Eugene's parks and natural areas.