Parks Commission

Parks Commission Minutes April 17, 2012 7:30 PM Parks Commissioners and Staff Present: Aaron Brondyke, Lyn Munno, Emily Boedecker, Cara Robechek, Kip Roberts, Geoff Beyer Public Present: John Atyelaszek, Cheryl Fischer, Jeffrey Allen, Stephanie Lahar, Sharon Asay, Andy Perry , Deb Sargent, Louise Lucchina, Elizabeth Grupp, Jean Jolley, Barbara Smith , Nicko Rubin, Daniel Staples, Josh Schlossberg, Lucy Johnson, Andrea Proulx I. Discussion of the proposed Tower Landscape Plan at the Hubbard park Tower: A. History: Geoff gave an overview. The Parks Commission is committed to keeping views clear from the Hubbard Park tower. For that to happen, some trees need to be removed periodically. The discussion about a permaculture planting isn’t about whether or not to remove trees, but what to do in the area after necessary trees are removed. It has been proposed to replace tall trees with plantings that will not grow high enough to obscure the views from the tower, so that less clearing needs to be done in the future. As part of this discussion, the AppleCorps group proposed adding edible landscaping in the park. A design was presented at a Parks Commission meeting in May 2011, and public concerns were raised about: • Increased wildlife interactions, • The cultivated look of an orchard being out of place, • An increase in Lyme disease, and • An increase in maintenance effort needed. The Parks Commission formed two committees to address these concerns. One Committee looked at redesigning a proposed permaculture planting, the second looked at wildlife and health concerns. B. Redesign: Lyn provided details about the redesign process. The original plan proposed last year looked and felt like an orchard. Some public supported this, but many others were opposed. A committee was formed to create a plan that added species diversity, native species, and a more natural design. Committee members were: Lyn Munno, Geoff Beyers, Nicko Rubin, Andrea Proulx, Jeffry Allen, and Shawn White (many of whom are local professional or amateur landscapers). The goals were: • to protect the view from the tower by planting low growing species to reduce the need to cut the forest back significantly every 20 years or so, • to put in edible plants for humans and wildlife, • to showcase a diversity of native low growing shrubs and plants, • and to protect open space around the tower. The plan can currently be seen on the Montpelier City website at: http://www.montpelier‐ vt.org/page/441.html or can be requested from the Parks Department.  C. Health and Safety: Emily described the findings of the committee looking at Health and Safety Concerns. This committee was made up of Emily Boedecker, Josh Schossberg, and Mary Zagarins. Concerns included: Lyme disease: The committee found that Vermont is already a tick zone. White footed mouse are the best carrier of Lyme disease and barberry and tall grass are prime habitat for white footed mouse. Ticks and Lyme disease are here. A planting of this kind of edible plants is not likely to increase the prevalence of ticks or of humans encountering ticks. Bears: The committee spoke with Doug Blodgett, who works for VT Fish and Wildlife, who didn’t feel a planting of the scale proposed would be likely to increase bear‐human interaction. There are already a lot of apple trees in the forests nearby as well as beech, oak and hickory. There are already bears in the park and this is unlikely to change. Conflict with the nature of the park: Some concern has been expressed that an orchard is out of place because of the wild nature of the park. The park’s Vegetative Management Plan does designate part of the park as a natural area where only safety and trail management work can occur. However the tower area, old shelter and new shelter are already intensively managed areas (and designated as such). Also, the land where the proposed plantings occur is not actually in Hubbard Park, but on state land. D. Responses to Public Questions and concerns • Varieties of gooseberries and currants would be chosen that are not vectors for the blister rust. • There is $2500 available for the plantings from Apple Corps and The Conservation Commission, which is enough for this installation. • Maintenance will be provided by Apple Corps in the early years. However, if Apple Corps were unable to provide maintenance, this could be a good location and project for larger groups that periodically volunteer in the park. After a few years, it should not need a lot of maintenance, and even if the planting is neglected for a couple of years, it would still be attractive and could later be pruned back. There will be no chemical sprays used. • Our original agreement with the state was that we could maintain this area as we see fit as long as the green backdrop to the statehouse remains. • The pines that provide the green backdrop to the statehouse block the view from the tower as well. We will need to talk to the state about that, but that will be a future discussion. E. Motion: The Parks Commission approved the plan as proposed in its current iteration. Passed. It will be planted in the spring/ early summer. Volunteer opportunities will exist and will be posted on the website. People can also e‐mail Geoff for more information. II. Dogs in the park. The Park Commission will finalize the survey about dog/human interactions in the park and we will send this to Stephanie Lahar, who has volunteered to help us fine tune the survey before circulating it to the public. In brief: We have been hearing more about dogs in  the park that are out of control and creating perceived and real safety issues. The public is encouraged to report directly to the police any threatening dog interactions. a. Next month the Commission will review the updated survey and plan for dissemination (bridge article/paper surveys at the gates/website) III. Additional parks Business: A. Chair of Commission: Lyn Munno was unanimously elected Chair of Parks commission for the next year. Aaron was thanked for his service in this role. B. Parks Commission meetings were moved to third Thursday of each month starting in June. C. We may not have a Volunteers for Peace group this year, because there are so many volunteer groups already. Instead Geoff will try to get 1‐2 Volunteers for Peace longer term interns. D. March minutes will be reviewed in May.