9 January 2019

NRAC

Guests: John DeVries (United Prairie Foundation), Pat Conzemius (Wildlife Forever), Thomas ________

(United Prairie), Steve Plaza

December meeting minutes were approved (Rud made the motion, Tere seconded).

Pat and John gave powerpoint presentation about their Prairie to the People initiative.

Goal to implement prairies throughout communities; want to ‘make prairie common again”

United Prairie: founded in 2004; focus on implementing projects and harvesting seeds

Will be seeking funding (LCCMR, Heritage Funds, etc.) later; are currently focusing on building

partnerships (municipalities, PWLC, etc.)

They can research the ecological benefits of plantings (is this on a site by site basis?)

John says that Fergus Falls is very well situated to become a prairie city!

Doing a lot of projects at Chahinkapa Zoo …

Next steps: still gathering community support, identify sites, pursue funding

Steve Plaza

Shared map of Ferber Park. Some areas of that park (north end and SW nub) were tilled last year

and will hopefully be planted in the spring. Steve has been working with Aaron Larson at EOTSWCD.

He doesn’t have any say about the planting being planned at the golf course.

His high priority would be DeLagoon (about 7-8 acres) – mostly south of the soccer fields. This is

the disk golf area so pathways would be maintained for that, and the North Country Trail goes through

there as well. Craig brings up the idea of sponsorships, especially close to the soccer fields; they could

help cover some funding.

Tere asks about VanDyke and around museum. Steve doesn’t think it lends itself to prairie, and

that they use the mowed lawn for some events. Could do parts of it?

Pat asks how projects have gotten funded: Steve says that SWCD has been funding about 75%,

including buckthorn removal.

Red Sox Park: the hillside is a priority.

Steve is concerned about the maintenance; discussion of using volunteers for some work,

especially for the first three years post planting. Could use National Public Lands Day volunteers.

Erik emphasizes that Parks is most interested in reducing mowing/expenses, and Prairie to the

People is most interested in high visibility areas. Steve brings up that they would prefer to plant in low

areas so that they aren’t mowing those areas, such as along Lincoln Avenue. Jake points out that there is

currently a safety issue of lawn mowers and staff driving across lanes of traffic to reach the median.

Tere brings up recent MPR report that retention areas need to be cleaned out occasionally. It

will vary depending on what washes in and the size of the drainage area.

What can NRAC do? Perhaps education for Parks/City staff? Work with Prairie to the People?

Erik shared with our guests that FF is a Pollinator City (through PollinateMN), adopted the Mayors

Monarch Pledge, and that we are working on adding native prairie resources to the City website. Also:

we worked on getting the City permit/fee for planting prairie removed, but no luck so far.

Talked about the requirement of a sign on private plantings. Rud suggests that it would be useful to

have signage on the private and public sites that are consistent, support each other.

Mayor Schierer sent Erik and I an email about potential LCCMR funding (up to $200K), asking if this

committee would want to go for it. John says that they could provide in-kind seed for the projects that

we have talked about today. Guy says that any proposals going forth to entities like LCCMR need to go

through the City’s Legislative Committee before submitting.

John brings up that it would be beneficial to have a survey to get residents’ feelings on prairie plantings

before much more work gets done.

Next meeting: Feb. 13, 2019 @ 12:30pm in City Council Chambers.

Natural Resources Advisory Committee

10 April 2019

Present: Cathy, Tere, Guy, Jake, Rud, Craig, Karen; Dick Barsness, Master Gardener, guest

Dick talked about trees being replaced in downtown. Ash were removed last September, and the Master

Gardeners have been working on selecting new species to be planted. A Master Gardener went to the

City initially to start the conversation, and then Guy and Mayor Schierer went to the Master Gardeners’

meeting in December to discuss options.

These are the trees being considered by Master Gardeners. There are 13 spots to fill downtown. The City

will also plant other spots along the boulevards, for a total of 150 trees. All are available at Swedburgs:

1. Prairie horizon Manchurian alder.

2. Pink Flair Cherry. Non-fruiting?

3. Oak-leaf Mountain Ash. Developed in Canada. Very hardy. Has berries and white flowers. Not a

true ash. Concern about the mess created by the berries. Unknown how messy this hybrid

would be.

4. Prairie Rose Crabapple. Usually fruitless.

5. Malus Spring Snow. Fruitless.

6. Ironwood (native). Maybe as boulevard trees?

7. Serviceberry (native). Has berries. Maybe as boulevard trees? Or not because they tend to

branch out.

8. Some form of dogwood (unlikely since it is more of a shrub)

9. Norway weeping spruce. Not much is known about this one.

10. Maybe ginko? Make sure to only get male trees as the fruit on the females smell terrible.

Other concerns:

Some people had complained in the past that the large trees blocked views of storefronts and brushed

against their buildings.

Roots buckling up the sidewalk were an issue. The roots also get into the sewer pipes.

There should be a variety of species planted (not a monoculture).

City had done an online poll and selected Gladiator Crabapple (pink flowers, small reddish fruit) and

Japanese lilac (white flower).

Noted that there is an old cloth map of the original plantings at the Fergus Falls State Hospital. Guy will

look into getting that digitized and/or framed.

Karen brought up the idea of planting native prairie plants instead of trees in those spaces. The group

doesn’t think that would work and prefers trees.

Talked about Green Step Cities and how our group could maybe use it more as a way of framing our

work?

This spring, the City will create native planting at the water treatment plant. The Golf Course site needs

to be restarted because they didn’t follow the ordinance. About 8 acres were snow seeded this winter at

Ferber Park. DeLagoon … what is happening there?

Website update: Rud, Cathy, and Guy met with Lynne. She has made several changes and it looks great!

We could supply photos to her of projects and pretty things to add to the site. Anyone in the group can

send pics to Lynne Olson directly.

Next meeting: May 8th.

8 may 2019

Natural Resources Advisory Committee

Jake, Chris, Erik, Tere, Craig, Cathy, Karen, and guest Janell Miersch representing the FF Citizens Climate

Lobby

Someone asked about the golf course native planting site: they don’t want help from SWCD or the City.

Janell lives across from Lance Walvatne, and she will ask him what the status is and if NRAC can help.

Tere suggests that we go before city council again to 1) let them know that we/other resources are here

to help get more native plantings on the city properties, and 2) to again assert that we do not support

the $75 required fee for residential plantings. Guy told us at the last meeting that all fees will be

revisited sometime this year … so maybe we should connect with Guy specifically and make sure that

this fee is part of their agenda. Erik suggests that we create a 1-page factsheet to give to Guy, listing

the reasons why the fee discourages residents from creating native plantings in FF. We were told the

need for the fee was administrative costs, any follow-up enforcement, and a sign. So far, there are so

few sites registered that the admin costs are very low and Guy reported to Erik that no enforcement

action has been necessary. About the sign: should it only be required for the first couple of years? This

could be created as a pdf and homeowners could print them out, laminated, and post them. Discussed

issue again that the City should be incentivizing these types of projects, not making it more difficult.

SWCD has cost share for rain gardens in town but not native plantings – Jake will help us get a link to

that info on our website. Is the City re-doing the ordinance? If so, how do we get involved? Erik thinks

that the City has adopted Burnsville’s ordinance as our own? Erik will check with Guy …

Action item: everyone take some time to review the Natural Resources section of website and bring

comments for next meeting. Put this discussion on the agenda for June.

Lake Alice: Karen talked about the group of three students from the Alternative Learning Center who are

interested in doing a project on Lake Alice, including a flyer they will distribute to Lake Alice residents

and marking storm drains. Jake says we could all help with the flyer, including the info about cost share

for rain gardens and shoreline plantings. If they do go before the city council for buy-in, we could back

them. Craig asks if they city does any monitoring of volume of flow through storm drains – this is a

question for Matt Harrington.

Erik points out that we could still do a better job of strengthening our relationships with City leaders.

Maybe adding a council member to NRAC would help. Jake says a recent Journal article about planting

trees downtown mentioned NRAC’s involvement.

Could we have someone from Downtown Riverfront Development (Council?) come talk with us about

green practices as they develop the Dairy site? Good idea for future meeting (maybe July?).

Journal article suggestion: what is a watershed, what does that look like in Fergus Falls?

Chris asks if we will be getting a replacement City Council member on NRAC? Erik and I talked to Ben

about this but need to revisit with him about this.

Next meeting: June 12, 12:30pm in City Council chambers

Natural Resource Advisory Committee

Meeting 6/12/19

City Council Chambers

In attendance: Jake, Tere, Craig, Guy, Rud, Erik, Janelle

Meeting began at 12:30pm and concluded at 1:30

1. Approved minutes from 5/8/19 meeting

2. Janelle Miersch indicated interest in joining board. There was discussion about term limits and

Cathy’s desire to leave the board roughly 1 year ago. We should talk with Cathy and see if that

is still the case and if so, perhaps this is a good time to step down.

3. Looked at and discussed natural resource additions to City website. Overall it is much improved.

Several additions/changes were introduced. Any changes should be sent to Guy, Cathy, and

Rud. Any photos people have that they would like to include should be sent to Lynne Olson.

4. We looked at the native planting ordinance. This was taken almost word for word from

Burnsville’s ordinance.

a. It was noted that our ordinance does not mention any size of a planting. This ordinance

could apply to one plant or many. This should be addressed.

b. There is a portion in the ordinance about signage of native plantings. There was

discussion about the signage. City Council cited the need for consistent, professional-

looking signage as one of the reasons a $75 dollar fee was necessary for native

plantings. This ordinance limits the need for signs in certain location and says they are

needed only for a defined time. This may negate some need for fees. Fees will be

reassessed in August.

c. Other reasons for fees were to cover administrative costs, which up to now have been

minimal or nonexistent, but could increase if more native planting is done.

5. Briefly discussed the idea of having example native plant plantings-sun, shade, pollinator grass

mix, etc.

6. Stencils for Lake Alice storm drains was briefly discussed. An article about this from the Daily

Journal was shared.

7. It was noted that meeting minutes should be sent to Lynne Olson for posting on the website.

10 July 2019

NRAC Meeting

Present: Erik, Tere, Janell, Craig, Karen

We accepted Cathy Peterson’s resignation and welcomed Janell Miersch to the committee. We thank

Cathy for her service!

Other committee membership issues: Karen and Erik will check with Chris LeClair – is he able to continue

with us or is there someone else who could join us? Also, ask Neal at PWLC if there is someone there

who can serve from USFWS/PWLC. Erik and Karen will also pursue a new city council representation.

Janell points out that Ramsey Washington Metro Watershed District has a LEAP (Landscape Ecology

Award Program) award … it’s an incentive program, with an award segment, that acknowledges citizens

to have native planting. Karen will check on the new pollinator dollars available in MN: how might the

city of FF be able to get some of those monies?

Discussion of the upcoming changes to the fees throughout the city: we feel strongly about getting the

fee changed. Perhaps Karen and Erik should make time to sit down with Andrew Bremseth to discuss. If

we create a one-page info sheet, what are the main points? That we are working on creating native

spaces on City property (which saves money and time), education pieces, Monarch pledge, pollinator-

friendly designation, Green Step Cities, PWLC, etc. Also could include examples of what other cities in

MN are doing, such as Charles City, Iowa. Janell will start this and share with the committee.

Where do we stand with the Prairie City USA/John DeVries? Erik will inquire.

Discussion of creation of “position statements” – the question is how do we, as a committee, help the

City align their values with their policies. Example: we are a pollinator city, but we spray weeds such as

dandelions ... We need to address their fears (e.g., worst case scenarios). How do we institutionalize the

decisions so that we don’t continue to see the knee-jerk reactions that lead to conflicting practices?

First: have the $75 native plant fee removed. Talk to Guy: figure out the processes and where this

committee can have influence: how can we help the City follow through with the pledges/etc. that they

adopt? At next meeting, start looking at what topics need position statements. Look at what the

Pollinator City designation (Craig will locate), Monarch Pledge (Karen will locate), Green Steps (Tere will

locate), etc. – see what they require of the City. Erik will touch base with Guy soon to let him know we

are looking at this …

Next meeting: August 14th, 12:30pm.

Natural Resources Advisory Committee

August 14, 2019

Bringing CERT's movie The Power of Minnesota to Fergus Falls: what is our committee's role o Erik and Chris and Karen have met with Mayor Ben and Melissa Birch

(CERTS) about bring this movie to FF and having discussions around it o Talking about having it at AC4TA o Could partner with WCI, CCL o What is this team’s role? Do we want to host the whole thing? Or make

recommendations? Decision: Janell will put out feelers on partnerships, and Erik and Karen will talk to Ben and Chris W. about that (we can create the planning team).

Report on our (Erik, Janell, and Karen) meeting with Andrew Bremseth re: removing the fee for native plantings on private property o Janell created a one-page fact sheet and Erik and Janell and Karen met

with Andrew B. in July. Andrew seemed amenable to removing the fee when the fee schedule is revisited soon.

o We could propose a ‘no fee for the moment’, leaving it open to revisiting if permit numbers go up.

o We could/would have a pdf sign available online and mandate that the property owner prints and laminates it, and posts it as required by the regulation.

o Guy says that he thinks this will happen yet in August, and he does not foresee any problems. Guy will keep the NRAC informed; it will be good for someone from NRAC to be at the council meeting at which this is discussed.

o We also acknowledged that we need to work on changing the ordinance so that it lists a specific minimum area to trigger the regulations (e.g., not just one Echinachea).

Polli-nation Celebration – August 25 (Sunday) Update on Prairie to the People LCCMR grant and next steps

o There was the Prairie to the People effort – funding was sought through LCCMR. They missed it but are currently seeking other funds.

o Guy reports that the planting that they did at Ferber Park didn’t take; it was a snow seeding.

o There was also Prairie City USA – we were going to be the first Prairie City, but we don’t really know where we stand on that.

o Erik will respond to Prairie to the People and let them know that we are here to help if they decide to resubmit to LCCMR and/or other grantors.

Creating position statements o Making sure that what we do (actions on the ground) aligns with our city

resolutions, proclamations, etc.

o Point of information: the City doesn’t use pesticides. o City does spray herbicides for noxious weeds o County is using a company that GPSs where noxious weed infestations

are – this helps them target and do much more spot-spraying than broadcast spraying.

o City is interested/already discussing ways to use less herbicide in less-visible sites (like the Water Plant) and to plant more native areas. How can the NRAC help highlight these efforts?

Erik and Jake point out that spraying 2,4-D (which is mostly what they use) is maybe less effective than spraying Milestone, which has a residual that leads to having to spray less frequently.

Next meeting: September 12, 12:30pm in City Council Chambers.

Natural Resources Advisory Committee

11 Sept 2019

Present: Rud, Erik, Craig, Jake, Janell, Guy, Chris, Karen

August meeting minutes approved unanimously.

Fee schedule was adopted at last council meeting. The fee for native plantings was removed. Andrew

stated at that meeting that the NRAC members will provide on-site services as needed to alleviate city

staff time commitments (which we volunteered for when we met with him earlier this summer). Jake

will work with Amy Childers at DNR to get an article in the newspaper to encourage property owners to

consider native plantings, including the cost share program through SWCD.

City discussed this morning (?) that Prairie to the People was not successful in their LCCMR request but

they are now going for some DNR funding. Dane and Pat with United Prairie will work with Guy and the

city to select sites (they have a map showing 79 potential sites (110 acres) on private and public sites).

City has committed $36K matching funds. UP uses the numbers of $500 annual to maintain one mowed

acre vs. $100 for native planting (do we have a literature citation to support this?).

Update from Guy: Gladiator crabapples that were planted downtown this spring did not survive. They

will be replanted to try again.

Preparation for The Power of Minnesota event. It will be October 8, 5:30-7pm at Center for the Arts.

Social from 5:30-6, then the movie, some small group discussion time, followed by a panel discussion

including City of FF/Ben Schierer, Otter Tail Power/Chris Waltz, CERTs/Melissa Birch, and Citizens

Climate League/Beth Monke (all but Melissa are pending final confirmation).

Karen will ask CERTs to set up an Eventbrite registration so we have a rough headcount for

planning purposes.

Chris will work with OTP to create and print flyers to post around town.

Janell will work with WCI to see if Rick Schara would be the MC for the evening and if they can

provide financial support, with OTP, for food.

Guy will work with Lynne Olson to get a Facebook event created through the City FB page.

Karen will meet with Michael Burgraff next week to negotiate any fee for the use of the theater.

Next meeting: October 9, 12:30pm in City Council Chambers.