ECOLOGIAL RESTORATION
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AT CEDAR LAKE POINT BEACH (AND BEYOND)
Prior to beginning the ecological restoration process at Cedar Lake Point Beach, most of what glistened from the shorelines and woodlands were shards of broken glass bottles and shreds of weed entwined candy wrappers. Thanks to a responsive volunteer community who showed up some three years ago to plant some 300 seedlings donated by the Cedar Lake Park Association, we are on our way towards creating a more diverse and healthy habitat for all. 0.7% of MPRB $100million invested in Natural AreasThere's a lot to celebrate about our city parks. Once again, an annual rating organization Trust for Public Land (TPL) ranked Minneapolis parks as one of the top (#2) in the nation. www.tpl.org/parkscore The ratings are based on a series of criteria, three of five of which acreage, access, and equity score well are largely thanks to the park planners and civil leaders at the turn of the 19th century who designed and built the system. MPRB scored exceptionally well with the two other criteria as well, investment and amenities. As a follow up, I reached out to the research contact at TPL to better understand how MPRB scored a perfect score of 100 in investment criteria. The details were about quantity; the $317 of investment per capita, which included public and private donations. But I am also interested in the quality of those investments, especially in the context of the park board's mission that begins by stating, ". . . to permanently preserve, protect, maintain, improve and enhance its natural resources, parkland, and recreational opportunities for current and future generations." Based on the Natural Areas Management Plan Phase II and updated estimates, environmental services operates with an estimated $700 thousand of a $100 million budget (0.7%). So while the gross "investment" quantity may look impressive to any and all of us patting ourselves on the back about our commitment to parks, it seems relevant to recognize the vast bulk of those investment dollars are going to a lot of places other than preserving, protecting, maintaining, improving or enhancing natural resources. How else can we explain that the Environmental Services staff can manage no more than one-third of the some 1,200 acres of our park system's Natural Areas? Environmental needs continue to be unmetIt seems safe to say that with just one-third of natural areas under the care and management of park board staff resources, that at minimum some additional $1.5 million is needed to reach a baseline level to manage unmanaged areas. Where might that come from? Two general options might be move it from another area under the park board or increase the income from private or public sources; or a combination of both new and shifts are options too. While I'm not wishing to get lost in the weeds of financials, a not so easy task is trying to sort through some classifications to reconcile where the park board spends the bulk of its funds. The data reported to there TPL says about $50 million is in programming. Figures like that don't easily translate to the MPRB budget book. That document shows about $25 million in recreational programming, but other programming figures don't appear. I am no accountant, and it sure would be helpful to sit down and have some things better explained. I am of the mind that I am not alone looking for the Park Board Budget for Dummies book so it is more possible to understand why there are so many unmet needs to manage natural areas that are rooted in the park board's core mission. Park Stewards address unmet environmental needsThere is no argument that Park Stewards and their volunteers are incredibly valuable resources to address the many unmet needs to manage our natural areas. According to a review of a series of the Park Board's volunteer impact reports, some 86 environmental sites were cared for by more than 6,000 volunteers, accounting for some 27,000 hours valued at nearly $1 million in 2022. (Year 2023 report data were not broken out by environmental versus recreational resources volunteers.) https://www.minneapolisparks.org/volunteer-and-give/outstanding_volunteers/ Environmental Services Park Stewards and their corps of volunteers step in to help for a lot of reasons. But a key driving reason I have many mention is that they see a perilous need and have concern for the further degradation of natural areas, the loss of wildlife, and the decay of places taking place due to the neglect of managing invasive plants. And Buckthorn is the primary culprit. MPRB Volunteer VisioningAs we approach the season of growth and abundance, the park board is in the midst of developing a Volunteer Visioning plan, considering ways for the park board and the local communities to best work together. I have been trying to communicate the opportunities for the park board staff to be more open and sharing with their plans and efforts so that we may better collaborate. There are too many examples to go now, but I have tried to share with park board staff and my park commissioner Elizabeth Shaffer that we have many opportunities to improve upon our working relationship.
For example, academic research studied and reports that Buckthorn eradication and ecological restoration is most effectively accomplished by park stewards and volunteers as compared to by park staff and contractors. Meanwhile, the process of hiring a contractor to eradicate invasives from the woodlands north of Cedar Lake is in process. To this point, representatives from the Cedar Lake Park Association nor area park stewards have been asked to be engaged in the process. We hope our attempts to address this issue gain some attention and traction so the park board staff and park stewards may work successfully and collaboratively on this need in unmanaged natural areas.
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March 2024
AuthorI'm Steve Kotvis, volunteer Park Steward for the Minneapolis Cedar Lake Point Beach peninsula who has a newfound love of restoring this natural area and more. I'm learning as I go, and enjoy sharing that with those who have an interest. I'm also a photographer, so the photos in this blog are mine unless otherwise labeled. |