Updates

Wild Warner Minutes 02-03-2015

Present:
Marie Jacobsen, Chair
Jack Hurst
Marian Celesnik, Treasurer
Patricia Chakravorty
Mike Rewey
Blair Panhorst, Membership Coordinator
Marlene Hardick
Marcia Finger
Joan Ryan
Paul Noeldner (late), Education
Kathlean Wolf (late), Secretary

 

Blair acted as Secretary to begin the meeting.

Patricia’s introduction from the Urban Tree Alliance: She said the urban tree alliance has free trees for people to plant if they can get volunteers to commit to watering them reliably over the next 2-3 years.
They are planting oaks, Kentucky Coffeetree, sourgum, and a variety of other trees for diversification. The baby trees are 3 to 6 feet tall in 5 gallon pots and have tree protectors around them. She has talked with Charlie Romain who gave a tentative yes to the project. (Notes amended to state:) Final approval is pending.
Urban Tree Alliance selects areas where there was a low canopy cover and a 20% or lower poverty level, but some areas have mixed economic areas within them. Paul said that Kay Rutledge will want to tell us where to plant the trees. The trees will require 5 gallons of water per week for the first year but I didn’t catch the amount for the following year.
Mike Rewey wanted to make sure that we get trees that are native to Wisconsin. The trees are purchased from Possibility Place, in Illinois, and only certain ones are available, hawthorns and Hackberry are not available. The conclusion of the conversation was that WW offers sufficient volunteers to take care of 20 trees in 2015 to help replace the 80 ash trees that are being cut down.

Additional note from Kathlean: In reviewing the canopy coverage for our area on the Urban Tree Alliance webpage, http://www.urbantreealliance.org/resources/madison-forest/ , it is obvious that our area is considered to be low-canopy for two main reasons: 1. Warner Pond is water and marsh, yet on the map, it is included in canopy count rather than as an adjunct to the Lake. 2. Ball fields and the shopping area across the street combine with the water/pond factor to make it look much less tree’d than our area actually is.
However, being designated both low-income (Brentwood apartment area, Vera Court), and low-canopy gives us an advantage when it comes to remediating the insufficient replacement rate for our ash trees!

Kathlean took over note-taking at 6:15 p.m.
I. Patricia Chakravorty from the Urban Tree Alliance proposed providing trees to the park if we supply volunteers to water them. They have a variety of types of trees including trees that will fit into smaller spots. Large-growth trees to be planted wherever possible.
a. Mike Rewey requested we obtain only Wisconsin native trees, to general agreement.
b. All present voted that we would like to obtain these trees.
c. It was agreed that we would provide 10 volunteers to tend 20 trees for the pilot year of 2015.
d. Wild Warner will need to decide on what types of trees from their list of available trees we would prefer to plant.
e. Suggested that we add Urban Tree Alliance to our list of alliances. [email protected]

II. Marie stated that we need to develop consensus about the objectives for the coming year, 2015, based on Mission Statement.
a. Expanding membership and promoting awareness of both Wild Warner and of the park itself will be a major focus.
b. We will build a brochure of past achievements and activities, mission statement, and upcoming projects; membership form will be attached to the brochure.
(Amendment to notes:) Marie pulled together an informational brochure of WW for Jonathan, with the help of Jim.
c. Marie read our objectives for 2015 from the list compiled in October. Kathlean requested that we revisit this list and update it from current perspective.
d. Blair and Kathlean mentioned the similar discussion had during a meeting of the Membership Co-coordinators; the mission of Wild Warner has expanded considerably from simply advocating for the park with government agencies, to developing real outreach to the community.
e. Website integration and promotion:
i. Jonathan requests to develop a different theme for the website. He will talk to Jim about working with the web design program in more depth; this is likely to take two months.
ii. Kathlean is one of the admins on Facebook; need to be certain to integrate the webpage and the Facebook page so important information is not skipped over by those who only check one      of these two sites.
iii. Marlene noted that the blog on the Wild Warner website has become only minutes and announcements. Suggested that it become a blog again; Kathlean suggested there be separate links on the WW site to access minutes, board members, etc., so that the blog can stand alone. Marlene requested information about who is allowed to write blog posts; this question was not answered.

III. The following will be presented / completed by the March meeting:
a. Blair will develop a Wild Warner brochure for information and membership promotion.
b. Trish will have history of Wild Warner ready for the “WW info packet”.
c. Jonathan will update the website; progress report in March, updated by April meeting.

IV. Additional points:
a. Jack mentioned that Sally Swenson, City Engineer, will know by the end of February if we get the grant to evaluate / improve the condition of Warner’s wetlands. He also mentioned that Larry Palm and libraries were mentioned in the Northside News; we need to verify the nature of the proposed library projects.
b. With Earth Day on April 22nd and Arbor Day on April 28th, we need to solidify our plans for these days.
c. Jonathan is going to do a presentation about Wild Warner to students at MATC on February 10th as part of the Trio Program, and will speak with the Community Service Board about getting volunteers from the general student population. He will have student volunteers working in the park on March 28th and April 25th.
i. Suggested projects: digging holes for trees to be planted in April; canoe / kayak trash-pick-up; building bird houses, mason bee houses, etc. Bird houses require permission from Parks and also require lumber.
d. Several members left to begin the Owl Walk.
e. It was mentioned that we need to get the Wild Warner Logo in good shape for use with our alliances, including MATC.
f. Kathlean mentioned grant program to be applied for under the Wild Warner banner; will write up and present to Board members for a vote, by email, as these grants are due before the March WW meeting.

Meeting Concluded at 7:15 p.m.