The Volunteer Instruction Guide was updated for the fall 2025 Bike Census. Please see attached

The Land and Water team met for their monthly October meeting on Friday, October 24th, 2-3 PM. This month, the team discussed ongoing research around the usage of gray water in Illinois and other states' plumbing systems, the new map locating the milkweed planting locations, current and ongoing MOU requests, the status of the maintenance of the Florida Orchard Prairie, and green stormwater infrastructure controls on campus. Attached below are the agenda minutes, which show the details of what was discussed during the meeting. The meeting recording is available to watch in the meeting minutes. 

September 2025 photos of the Florida Orchard Prairie have been added to the box folder.

The iCAP Engagement Team met on Thursday, October 2nd, from 4pm-5pm via Microsoft Teams. First, the team reviewed and refined this year's priorities, then moved into a discussion on ways to share these initiatives with the campus community in a digestible way.

The meeting minutes are attached.

Email from Jacob Benjamin:

All,

Last week was the conclusion of the bike retrieval period for abandoned bikes.  We got three claims in the 11th hour, which was good. I’ll begin organizing the leftovers this week, with help from my staff. We are critically low on some used parts, so this is fortuitous timing.

Elsewhere, I have two new staffers starting this week—just in time for October!

The numbers:

Visitors: 94
Sales: $1,319.25
Bikes (refurb): 1 for $100
Memberships: 24 for $720
Tires/tubes: 28 for $153

Thanks!

From Aaron Madrid:

Afternoon all,
Thank you for your time today. I just wanted to recap a few action items and next steps from our call. 
1. Aaron will reach out to the parent who emailed in and offer to have a conversation and see if we can find some additional solutions for their student.

2. Aaron will coordinate meeting between geofence team, operations team, and Sarthak to discuss parking locations outside of bike racks in the coming week(s)
3. Gameday Geofence Activation
    a. Geofence will activate as a "No Parking Zone" 4 hours ahead of kick-off.
    b. Geofence will transition to a "No Ride Zone" 2 hours ahead of kick-off.
    c. Geofence will deactivate 90 minutes after the conclusion of the game.

I think this will position us to ensure we're maximizing the access for the community to gameday activities while reducing the number of errant vehicles.

Let me know if there are any questions or concerns regarding the items we discussed on our call today.

Email from Jacob Benjamin:

Last Wednesday was Bike To Work Day! It was a success. Had good weather and good turn outs at the stations I visited.

Light The Night is tomorrow evening. Should be good weather—if warm—for that, too!

We are busy but it’s not mayhem anymore—that’s a plus!

We are low on used tires, as is common this time of year. I’ll roll over to the Urbana shop to see if they have any to spare.

The numbers:

Sales: $1,735.35
Bikes (B-a-B): 1 for $50

Memberships: 38 for $1140
Tires/tubes: 31 for $286

Alma Mater attendees: Bike to Work Day is TOMORROW MORNING!

C-U Bike to Work Day is tomorrow – Wednesday, September 10!  This is a reminder that you pre-registered to stop at the Alma Mater welcome station (southeast corner of Green & Wright Streets), which will be open from 7-10 AM.  Sarthak Prasad is your station manager.

Tell a friend that they can still register for Bike to Work Day today at cuBikeMonth.org or tomorrow on-site – 16 welcome stations will be open across Champaign County!

The weather looks great – dry, and temperatures between 60-75F.  Tag any photos with us on Facebook at “C-U Bike Month.”  Enjoy the ride!

The Tree Campus Advisory Committee met to review the overall program and committee membership. 

• The new Campus Landscape Architect, Bridgette Moen, joined the committee. 
• Team members discussed potential additions to the committee, including students, faculty, and staff.
• Justin Vozzo shared a status update on the tree grant.
  • Picking up several trees - 90 planted total this year
  • Ryan is heading up the F&S side, Stirling is helping to manage the contracts
  • Justin is hosting some tree plantings across the state, Urbana and in Macomb
  • Two events each spring and fall for next tw o years
• The South Arboretum Woods rehab has several plants being added, and there are student employees funded by the SSC.
• The Red Oak Rain Garden (RORG) is doing another plant installation this fall, and works with volunteers. They also installed interpretive signage.
• The Urban Wood Reuse program is going well.  The new mill is here, and they are working to hire more students.
• The Committee began reviewing the goals in the 2024 Tree Care Plan.
  • The Tree Keeper Inventory is complete for F&S, and it is still in progress for the Arboretum. 
    • There is also the ARC GIS inventory - which pulls from Tree Keeper
    • Ongoing to keep it up to date
    • Tree surgeons are responsible for logging them into the system
    • Assistants are responsible for logging the stump removals - the sub-foreperson goes in to remove it and change it to open or vacant site
    • When it is removed it is no longer counted in the inventory
    • When a new tree is planted - working with the vacant sites and updating those, planning and potential planting spots and adding the new tree in there
    • We need to identify opportunities to update the existing inventory
      
      • Longer-term - should do an update - including the diameters of the trees - should update that, changes over time
      • Might need to be a tree expert - how to appropriately update it regularly - tree health - arborist or someone who knows a lot about trees
      • Potentially it could be through dendrology - students could potentially do DBH measurements and baseline health questions
      • ​​​​​​​​​​​​​​Justin is working on developing an arboriculture class, could do some tree inventory as part to that class 
    • ​​​​​​​Set a goal in 2025 Tree Care Plan to develop a comprehensive plan for handling tree inventory updates: get a plan together for how to do a regular update and comprehensive update.