Wood Chopperers and Haulerers Needed

Jake Anderson sends along an invite to help cut up downed trees in Woodland Park this Sunday, November 28th beginning at 8 AM.

The conceptual designs of a parking lot at Woodland Park is featured under the 8.10.10 Packet & Minutes.


http://www.mymonona.com/pages/city_government/committees/download_includes/export_file.php?id=82


Volunteers will get to take home the firewood for free (except for the sweat equity).

Think eight of the clock in the ante meridiem is too dang early? Me too. Come by anytime in the morning and help out.

The Monona Parks and Recreation Department is looking for volunteers on Sunday, November 28th starting at 8:00 am to help clear branches and cut the downed trees at Woodland Park into free firewood. We need people that have chainsaws to cut the wood into firewood and people to help haul the wood.

Jake Anderson, alder Scott Munson, yours truly, and other likely suspects (including an anonymous former alder now in the witness protection program) will be on hand. Brings your hands and join in.

***

Your questions anticipated & answered: What the? and why the?

Why not just leave the downed trees in the park? Wouldn't that be more natural?

Not all trees are created equal. These are not trees that just fell down. The city has been cutting down the black locusts mainly and some other invasives that take over and outcompete the oak trees. Removing the invasive trees is part of the effort to restore the park to an oak savanna/oak woodland.

Read the 2006 the Woodland Park ecological evaluation and restoration plan.
"OK, I get why you cuts the trees down, but why not just leave them in situ?" 
 
There is a lot of this downed timber and that makes us very uneasy about continuing to do the annual prescribed burns in the park that help keep down the other invasives. Oak trees need fire. Many of theses trees have been cut in the past year (including this past summer). Too much fuel left on the ground would burn for a long, long time.
 
Did you know this area used to be predominantly prairie, including oak savanna?
 



From WDNR: Data created by Robert W. Finley - 1976 Professor of Geography Emeritus, University of Wisconsin Center System. Digital Data prepared by Maribeth Milner, and Steve Ventura UW-Madison. Wisconsin Transverse Mercator NAD83(91). Map created by Nina Janicki, 1999, DNR GIS Services Section. This data layer is included in DVGISlib, a part of the DNRView extension to ArcView. DNRView makes it easier to use and share DNR geographic data. Trained ArcView users can obtain DNRView from the appropriate regional contact listed in the "GIS" Datasharing" section. The data on this map are available on a cost of resources basis from WDNR, GIS Services Section. See the "GIS Datasharing" section. Visit http://www.dnr.state.wi.us/org/at/et/geo.



This map was distributed in the Ecological Landscapes handbook.

Thanks to former alder Peter McKeever for raising these questions (the guy always has been a professional trouble maker), so we could provide answers before knickers become knotted.

Woodland Park Update

You may have noticed a couple things going at lately at Monona's Woodland Park. First and most obvious, the city has allowed the Monona Drive contractor to use part of the front grassy area as a staging area. This use actually dovetails nicely with the Woodland Park restoration plan. The overall goal is to re-establish an oak savanna.

The grassy area was seeded with some variety of yard grass a few years ago (let's not go into the who, how, and why that happened because I'm not sure of the details and it's in the past). The plan is to seed that area with native wildflowers and wild grasses and the grass needed to go. We will also be reseeding that part with a native grasses and flower mix that will have some showy colors all year long. To see the planned mix go to:
http://www.prairiemoon.com/seed-mixes/madison-wisconsin-mixed-height-prairie-seed-mix/

The city also recently completed some forestry mowing as part of our management plan to restore Woodland Park to an Oak Savanna. The park is “overstocked” with black cherry’s, shagbark hickory, box elder, black locust etc that have been “out-competing” the oaks for sunlight and not allowing the oaks to re-sprout because of these other species. (My observation, however, was that many black cherry and shagbark hickory trees were left in place where they were not out-competing the oaks.)

We will be replanting oaks next year in the section that is currently covered in rocks from the Monona Dr project.  We eventually hope to do the back side of the park that borders the ALNC property in the same type of native grasses/wildflowers.

I posted numerous photos of the forestry-mowing results and the construction staging area on photobucket. It may not look pretty right now, but it will give oaks a chance to flourish.

Actually, I believe our wonderful restoration contractor Driftless Land Stewardship LLC did the forestry mowing.



All of this work follows the city council-approved management plan. See it here:

http://www.mymonona.com/pages/parks_recreation/parks_open_space/details.php/50/parks_services/woodland%2Bpark%2Bplan/

This photo shows the opened areas around several oak trees. Note the lack of spreading branches.

This oak tree at the ALNC has grown up in an open area.

This photo shows the classic potato chip bark of a black cherry tree.

My friend the red-tailed hawk of Woodland Park perched on his water tower.

Monona Woodland Park Success over Garlic Mustard

Over the past several years, the city of Monona has expended funds to plan and implement the restoration of Woodland Park to an oak savanna and oak woodland. Woodland Park Plan The first job has been to attack the invasives, especially garlic mustard. The city hired a contractor to spray while volunteers executed a prescribed burn and other volunteers did hand-pulling. Volunteers have been working on the invasives for the past 10 years or so.

I went over to the park today to check out the garlic mustard and plan this year's garlic mustard pull. Well, we will not be doing an organized effort this year, because there is simply very little garlic mustard anywhere in the park. I pulled about one lawn bag full and you could probably pull another one or two out of there if you were diligent, but that's about it unless I missed something. This is really an amazing success story. The picture shows what the park looked like circa 2006 - almost solid garlic mustard along both sides of the trail.

Of course, you can never really eliminate garlic mustard, but we can try controlling it with burns and hand-pulling I think. I am well aware that it can come back quickly and vigilant monitoring is still needed.

Invasive Species - Garlic Mustard (Alliaria petiolata) - WDNR

The city crew has also cleared the second Indian mound at Woodland Park (they did the other mound a couple years ago). It looks good. Now that it's cleared off, you can see some runoff damage in one spot that has been done over the years (decades? centuries?. Don't know what you can do about that.

More on the Monona Budget

First, the Monona City Council will hold a public hearing on the proposed budget next Monday, November 17 at 7:30 p.m. in the Media Room of the Library. Feel free to show up and offer your comments on specific items or overall priorities on stuff you like or stuff you can't stand.

The new police traffic safety officer is attracting a lot of interest and I plan to do a separate post on that issue and the police/dispatch budget.

The budget is largely a status quo budget (except for the added officer). For a more detailed discussion of the overall budget go to my earlier posts: Monona Budget Proposed by Mayor Kahl and Monona Budget Meeting. To see the budget itself go to: Proposed 2009 Budget.

This past week's budget meeting covered the Library, Parks, Police and emergency communications, and all the general government areas. A general observation: we have solid to truly exceptional staff in all these areas.

For the first time ever I do not plan to put in an amendment asking for more library funding. I know, I can hardly believe it myself. The library will receive a 2.23% increase from the property tax levy, but the Director and Board believe we can not only operate within that budget but improve our operations. This confidence is partly due to the capital funding that the council approved for 2008 and 2009 that will fund collection expansion and also to grants the library is receiving, but the real reason to have this confidence is the exceptional staff led by Demita Gerber. The Board adopted her proposal for increased hours and the creation of a deputy director position to ensure smooth operation now and to plan for succession.

In Parks and Rec, which includes the parks, rec programs, the outdoor pool, and the community center, there are not a lot of changes. P&R Director Jake Anderson has some excellent programming ideas and ways to generate more revenue by creative fee structures. He proposes a some fee increases, but also structural changes at the CC and Pool. Many of the fee changes serve to make the fee structure more rational with different fees for different CC rooms and different amounts of time. At the pool, Jake proposes to offer pool rentals beginning at 6:30 p.m on Saturdays and Sundays instead of 8:30 p.m.

As previously mentioned, we are also planning to buy new floating docks for the Winnequah Trail and Tonyawatha boat landings.

I have a high comfort level that Jake will successfully carry out city policies with creative doggedness. He's planning a couple more movie nights and a concert in the park. He's developing a program for dogs-in-the-park (to-scare-the-geese). The program, BTW, does not require an ordinance change or much funding. And he is engaged on Woodland Park, is pursuing implementation of the professionally developed plan that we paid for, and is flexible in developing the plan based on new information. Along with many others, I have championed restoration work in Woodland Park. At long last, I do not feel like I personally have to make sure that the action plan does not just sit on a shelf (and Jake, if you are reading this post, don't get the wrong idea; I'm still paying attention!).

***

The most noteworthy part of the discussion on general government operations (using the term broadly) is debt service and use of the fund balance. The good news is that our debt service will decrease next year by about $200,000. That decrease is essentially locked in. The bad news is that Moddy's (Moodys.com) threw cold water on the idea of using more of our fund balance. My thought was (and still is) that we should use some of the fund balance to hold down this year's levy increase. I really doubt that using another $60,000 and having a 17.5% reserve will actually impact our future rating.

Garlic Mustard Pull Saturday May 17 at Woodland Park

Like the title says, we are pulling the garlic mustard tomorrow morning, May 17 at 10 a.m. at Woodland Park in Monona. Meet at the Aldo Leopold Nature Center (Aldo Leopold Nature Center - Home) large parking lot or just head up to the top of the hill and look for the evil weed (not that evil weed). In an hour or so we will be able to make a dent in what is a much smaller infestation than even last year.

The weather is supposed to be pretty decent in the morning, but we'll be pulling baring a downpour.

If you are really motivated you can join the ALNC work group at 9 a.m. to yank some weeds over there as well.





WDNR page on Garlic Mustard

Prescribed Burn at Aldo Leopold Nature Center

Here are some photos taken by my son Tyler Wood from the prescribed burn at the Aldo Leopold Nature Center (Aldo Leopold Nature Center - Home) today. We also plan to do a prescribed hurn in Woodland Park late this coming week, weather permitting.

ALNC Burn Photos

Sunday April 20, 2008.

More ALNC Burn Photos

Spraying Garlic Mustard in Woodland Park

Driftless Land Stewardship LLC was back in Woodland Park this past week spraying the Garlic Mustard. the city's contracted invasive species. The adjacent photo shows the area sprayed overlaid on a slightly dated aerial map. They will be back in the next week or so to complete the spraying.

They also "recommend burning it late-April or even early May. Doing so will allow for many more seeds to germinate prior to the burn (rather than after the burn). We're also seeing much greater impact to second year plants with late season burns (even though we were very thorough, there will be missed plants [under leaf litter, human error], plants that recover form the herbicide, etc.). "

The regular crew of volunteers will do the prescribed burn. Check out Savanna Oak Foundation, Inc. for more information on prescribed or controlled burns.

Driftless also reported that they "expect a few more years of intensive treatment while we deplete the seedbank but there is already a marked reduction since treatment began. Last year's follow-up (Rx burn and/or pulling) to our spraying was very apparent (i.e. I noticed no seed stalks). Nice job."

Volunteers will also be doing our annual garlic mustard pull. It is tentatively scheduled for May 10. Details to follow. There is plenty of garlic mustard to go around.

Monona Parks Five-Year Capital Plan

Parks 5 Year Capital Draft Plan after the June 12, 2007 Parks Board Meeting

The Parks Board passed its recommended 5-year capital plan for the parks (the Board also passed plans for the Community Center and Outdoor Pool). The emphasis is on refurbish and rehab with an occasional significant new item.


2008
Playground equipment - Oneida $20,000
Wood/rubber chips $20,000
Wood/rubber chips $10,000 dedicated to Dream Park
Picnic tables & Benches
& trash/recycling cans $5,000
Parking lots $15,000
Skatepark $30,000
Pagoda $5,000
Lagoon snow-blower $2,000
Refurbish Youth baseball diamonds $10,000
Woodland Park restoration $5,000
Total $117,000

2009
Playground equipment - Arrowhead $20,000
Wood/rubber chips $20,000
Picnic tables & Benches
& trash/recycling cans $5,000
Parking lots $15,000
Schluter Beach Bathroom Remodel $25,000
Woodland Park restoration $5,000
Ice skating rink $60,000
Total $150,000


2010
Playground equipment – Blue/Kiddie Park $20,000
Wood/rubber chips $10,000
Picnic tables & Benches
& trash/recycling cans $5,000
Parking lots $15,000
Shelter #1 Replace Restroom $50,000
Woodland Park restoration $5,000
Winnequah Park Trail $40,000
Total $145,000


2011
Playground equipment $20,000
Wood/rubber chips $10,000
Picnic tables & Benches
& trash/recycling cans $5,000
Parking lots $15,000
Maywood Park Trail $20,000
Woodland Park restoration $5,000
Total $75,000


2012
Playground equipment $20,000
Wood/rubber chips $10,000
Picnic tables & Benches
& trash/recycling cans $5,000
Parking lots $15,000
Total $60,000

Woodland Park Wildflowers and Other Stuff

While walking through Woodland Park yesterday, the following native wildflowers were observed (some have already bloomed and the pictures are from the Internet, not Woodland Park): jack-in-the-pulpit, wild geraniums, trout lily, Solomon's seal, Solomon's plume, Columbine, white trillium, rue-anemone, white and red baneberry, bloodroot, toothwort, blue cohosh, and mayapple.

Solomon's plume is present in impressive numbers, wild geranium and jack-in-the-pulpit are also quite numerous. You can see rue-anemone especially right along Monona Drive at the south end of the park (bloom is off now).

These plants are "coming back" because the repeated prescribed burns, spraying and pulling of garlic mustard and the burning of the buckthorn have really opened up a lot of areas. The invasive competitors are knocked back and the sunlight is getting through so that these wildflowers have a chance to compete.

Progress report. We've had a lot of success attacking the garlic mustard and we really whomped the second-year plants, but there is still a lot first-year growth that is more obvious by this time of year. Fire has also killed a lot of smaller buckthorns, but one of the next major tasks will be to attack the buckthorn in a systematic way.

The immediate next task is to stop mowing the northwest corner and see what comes up. In all likelihood, none of what comes up will be much good and we will need to spray that area. It's going to look ugly for a couple years, but eventually we can end up with a beautiful oak savanna.

Other garlic mustard update. As part of the Parks Volunteer Day organized by Jessica Ace and Lisa jo VonAllmen, a major bite was taken out of the garlic mustard in our other city parks. Peter Sobol and his family (and others?) pulled GM from a number of parks, including Winnequah and Maywood. Peter also contacted the Lake Monona Sailing Club and they pulled garlic mustard from Stone Bridge Park as part of their stewardship.

I would also like to thank the volunteers who came out for the garlic mustard pulls at Woodland Park: Mary O'Connor, Peter McKeever, Heather Gates, Molly Crossen, Karen Turino, and Pat Howell.