NEWS
The second meeting of Wild Warner will be on Tuesday August 24, 6-8 p.m., at St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, 2126 N. Sherman Avenue, Madison. Come in the back, in the basement.
(A planned potluck has been canceled)
Here are the minutes of our organizational meeting
Minutes of First Wild Warner Meeting on Tuesday, July 27, 2010
Minutes prepared by Marie Jacobsen
Wildwarner’s first session was a success. Fourteen people attended with much enthusiasm and shared their knowledge about the park and its wildlife. Wild Warner members have already had a major impact since August of 2009 when neighbors started to review what the “Neighborhood Plan” was for Warner Park; Wild Warner evolved out of these efforts. Some of the successful organizing by concerned neighbors during the past year includes: changes to the neighborhood plan concerning the park, halting the goosekill, getting a parkswatch monitor as part of the Parks Department system, restoration of the back meadow, installation of a bluebird trail with eight bluebird houses in the park, an education program that begins at Sherman Middle School in September, four nature walks held over the summer, and the launching of our website. As a result, the parks commission, the Parks Department, and our alderperson are now consulting Wild Warner as regards environmental issues in our park.
We started the meeting with a sharing session of why people attended. There were endless concerns and great ideas. Here are some of them:
-Concerns about management policies. Philosophical changes of how the park is being seen. (neighborhood park vs. county park)
-Maintenance of dog park area
-Exploration of conservancy status in the park’s back area
-Pesticide usage
-Keeping critters healthy and safe: interest in ecological connections/land bridge between different areas (Lakeview Park)
-Restoration of natural vegetation
-Lowering of lake levels
-Acquiring Neighborhood Association status
-Developing and protecting a regional tree canopy
-Serious concerns with water quality, conservation, fishing quality (spawning ground). Water quality of lagoons
-How Rhythm and Booms affects the park
-Reducing the square footage of pavement in the park
-Retention ponds
-Geese issue
-Halting the reduction of wooded areas
-Planting more trees
-Shoreline of lagoon needs to be addressed (restore natural vegetation)
-Reduction of mowed areas
-Connecting of lands around park for wildlife habitat movement, specifically a “bridge” over Northport Drive (Route 113) to tie Lakeview park to Warner.
-Get designated wetland status
-Developing a master plan for Warner Park that protects the animals and vegetation
-Educating people about Warner’s flora and fauna
-Developing a diverse organization that reflects our neighborhood
Our second part of the evening included developing a mission statement. We threw some ideas out and pulled together a committee to fine tune our working draft. We’ll approve a final mission statement at our next meeting. Dolores, Tim and Jim will head up the committee. This is what we have pulled together so far: “Wild Warner’s mission is to preserve, protect, and expand the natural ecosystems and wildlife of Warner Park for future generations.”
Officers and structure was the next topic. People liked the idea of having subgroups. The group decided initially on the following officers/positions/committees for right now:
-Meeting Coordinator (Dolores Kester)
-Webmaster Coordinator (Jim Carrier)
-Parkwatch Coordinator (Sandy Rezvani
-Action Coordinator
-Education Coordinator (Trish O’Kane)
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