I am a northside resident and want to let you know about the group I started, Rubbish Runners, to help clean up local parks and public areas. I think we have a shared interest because right now I am focusing on picking up trash in the Warner Park area.

Local runners and walkers are invited to join the newly-formed Wisconsin Rubbish Runners, a non-profit group that encourages participants to pick up trash in local parks and public areas. For more information visit http://www.facebook.com/RubbishRunners or follow us on Twitter, https://twitter.com/#!/RubbishRunnersW

If you could pass this on to your members to see if they are interested, it would be greatly appreciated.

Please let me know if you have any questions.

Thank you for your time.

Jennifer Fetterly

Without positive solutions this crime will reinforce negative attitudes about the North Side, and could impact our attempts to keep the park wild. The notion that Warner’s thickets harbor criminals, along with foxes and catbirds, has been difficult  to dispel.

Our programs have brought many young neighbors into the park, shown them respite and wonder; shielded them, however briefly, from strife outside the park; and demonstrated that the natural world is an antidote to forces that threaten civic life.

Brentwood has been a Wild Warner partner and supporter, and I ask you to return the favor, and join these neighbors in a short walk next Wednesday evening, May 16.

Jim Carrier, chair

Here is the invitation:

To all Northside Neighbors: Pleae join us to show your support.

In response to the shooting that occurred recently on Brentwood Parkway, we will have a Community Response Walk in support of our neighborhood and all the good people living here. City of Madison Police will join us on foot, bicycle, and horseback!

We will meet at St. Paul Church, the parking lot located off of Fremont at 7:00, Wednesday, May 16. The walk will leave from behind the church.

As a group we will then walk down Fremont to Trailsway, up Calypso, cross to Brentwood Parkway on Wyldewood, down Brentwood Parkway and on Trailsway and up Monterey.

We will then have some refreshments and social time in Monterey Park. Others from the Northside will be joining us. Dr. Wayne Dyer says there are only two important things to remember, either we have fear or we have love. Let’s all put some love out there.

We plan to continue this on a weekly basis.

Questions – contact Dolly O’Laughlin, President, Brentwood Village Assn. 249-8796 or the Northside Planning Council are 661-0060 ext 2.

Concern about fireworks pollution have been raised for years by Northsiders, and at least two tests were conducted, including one by R&B organizers. But the tests did not comply with scientific protocol.

Members of the city Committee on the Environment, led by Dr. Jim Bennett of UW Madison and Alder Anita Weier, proposed a study this year. The test will include samples of the sediment, plants and water. They will test for perchlorate, an oxidizing chemical in fireworks that is linked to thyroid disease, and heavy metals that give fireworks their beautiful colors.

The water will be tested before the fireworks, and one day, one week and one month after. Plants are being tested for long-term perchlorate uptake. City engineers, who will take the samples, expect that the sediment will show heavy contamination from storm sewers, streets and lawns. Nonetheless the information will help guide efforts to reduce the Northside pollution into Warner’s wetland and lagoon, and Lake Mendota.

The city appropriation will be supplemented by $2,000 grants from the Yahara Fishing Club and Golf Affect. Both the city and Wild Warner have applied for additional grants.
The additional money will allow more thorough sampling. All the money will be spent on laboratory analysis.

The council also approved a one-year contract for Rhythm and Booms, a contract that includes a requirement that organizers clean up debris on both and land and water. Some 13,000 shells are fired in less than an hour, leaving behind cardboard and other solid waste. The city spends nearly $100,000 supporting the fireworks every year, in both staff time and cash.

Wild Warner, an environmental group, testified in support of the study, arguing that the data would inform: 1) the upcoming Warner Park Master Plan, 2) DNR’s decision to rejuvenate the fishery in Warner Park, 3) the city’s decision on future fireworks displays, and 4) Northside residents who fish and play in its waters, and expect the park to be safe and healthy for humans and a wide variety of wildlife that use the park.

Click on any photo for a slide show.

Today damp snow turned Warner Park into a wonderland.

Click on a picture to start a slide show.

Here is the pertinent language in the 2012 Rhythm and Booms contract:

“3d. MFF shall be responsible for the cleanup and disposal of all debris from the Event in Warner Park, WPCRC and Lake Mendota. All debris from the event, on land and in the water, shall be removed by the Monday immediately following the Event, or the Tuesday immediately following the Event if the rain date is used. Particular attention should be made to trash and recycling can removal and paper debris throughout the park that may blow into the lagoon water, along with all firework debris on land or in the water. Failure to adhere to these cleanup responsibilities will be a default of the terms of this Agreement…”

Warner Master Plan – update and strategy – Tim
Neighborhood meetings
Businesses
Other partners

R&B
City contract for 2012. Click here for copy.
Study update – Jim
Evjue foundation and DNR grant – Jim
Park Board – Tim

DNR fishery meeting  – Jack and Jim

Open space Plan – Tim  3/14/12 Park Commissioners

Owl Walk Report – Marlene
Nature walks – Brooke
Summer program grant – Brooke and Marlene
Brochure? – Marie
Geese? – Kathie
Parks cooperation – no word

New Business and Ideas

Northside Nonprofit meeting Friday – Jim
Multi Use Trail  Position?    Dolores.
Earth Day activity? Article for April Northside News, deadline March 5?
Field Trips?
Crex Meadows for Prairie Chickens?
Wis Ornitalogical Society Convention in May at Holy Wisdom Monestary ($20)
Crane Foundation in Baraboo in spring for dancing, mating, cranes;
Wildlife rehab ceter at DC humane society?
Audubon Art Fair–Kathie?
WW tabling at Summer Farmers Market–Marlene?
Meteor shower in August?
Speakers at meetings?

The city’s Committee on the Environment asked for the study, and Alder Anita Weier, whose district borders on Warner, introduced the appropriation.

Additional funds are being sought to properly sample the water, sediment, ground and plants. Wild Warner supports these efforts, and submitted the following letter to the state Department of Natural Resources:

Wild Warner, a nonprofit advocacy group in north Madison, strongly supports the city of Madison’s application for a small Lakes Grant.

The grant will supplement a Common Council appropriation of $25,000 to study the wetland and lagoon in Warner Park for contaminates, including heavy metals deposited during 19 years of Rhythm & Booms fireworks. No one knows what contaminates exist, if any, in the sediment, water, plants, fish and other wildlife or soil of this public park and designated wetland. Nor has anyone adequately looked at the impact of  the fireworks on public health, including tens of thousands who witness the fireworks close up, and the adults and children who fish in Warner and its outlet in Lake Mendota.

Here is what we do know:

The annual city-sponsored fireworks display of 13,000 shells litters the ground, water and wetland with hundreds of pounds of paper and cardboard shell debris, unburned fuses, plastic containers and ropes that connect various rocket stages. Our group has collected a fraction of this debris, and has photos on our Web site blog here. This does not include the heavy metals that give those fireworks those great colors.

The only study of the fireworks was poorly done and tested only the water. It showed a flush of chemicals that “disappeared.” They either drained into the lake, or sank into the sediment. The city/county health department suggests that they became bound up in the sediment, and has now warned that the children in our nature programs should not come in contact with this sediment — and if they do — to wash their hands immediately.

The “shooting island” is contaminated with carbonized residue of unknown composition. Every year truckloads of sand are brought in to bunker the firework mortars. This soil, in the middle of the lagoon, is left to slough and seep into the wetland.

We know that a growing body of scientific literature shows that fireworks debris is harmful. We know that clean water is key to health of the park, its critters and its human users. We know that many citizens, including people of color, fish at the outlet of Warner Park for fish to eat. We know that the Yahara Fishing Club annually holds a 
fishing day for children in the Warner lagoon. And we know that DNR wants to restore the wetland/lagoon to the point that it can once again be a recreation fishery, and possibly contribute to the resurrection of species in Mendota.

Wild Warner exists to protect Warner Park’s natural areas and its diverse wildlife, including 115 species of birds. The Lakes Grant will supplement the city appropriation to allow a more detailed sampling to establish a baseline chemical analysis. We have asked for additional sampling immediately after the 2012 fireworks scheduled June 30, to measure perchlorates, and the level of chemical/metal spiking.

The results of this study will inform four important constituencies and events:

1) A new city master plan for Warner Park to be done this year. At the 
heart of this study is the conflict between development and preservation.

2) DNR and its plans to improve the fishery. Any decision to dredge or 
disturb the sediment should understand its quality. DNR plans to sample fish for possible contamination.

3) The city of Madison’s decision whether to continue fireworks in 
Warner, or into any other public water or wetland.

4) The citizens who use this park, who drink water from groundwater in 
aquifers below the lagoon, who fish its waters, and who expect and 
deserve safe and clean water.

Prairie Lore and Plant Stories with Dane County Parks Naturalist Wayne Pauly

In a special presentation of “Prairie Lore and Plant Stories,” Dane
County Parks Naturalist Wayne Pauly will share his tales about
prairies, their plants, and the people who have lived and worked on
the land. We’ll also have free refreshments, door prizes, and a
silent auction of a framed, original, nature-themed cartoon from
cartoonist P.S. Mueller.

Saturday, January 21

10:00 – 10:30 am: Friends of Cherokee Marsh annual member meeting
10:30 – 11:30 am: Prairie Lore and Plant Stories

Everyone is welcome at both events.

Lakeview Branch Library, 2845 North Sherman Ave. (next to Pierce’s Market)

On January 8, your correspondent visited Governor’s Island, where eagles were hunting coots,

geese were flocking in the remaining open water of Lake Mendota,

and ice crystals piled up in beautiful arrays.

At dusk, we noticed the huge nearly full moon rising over Warner Park.

Full Moon over the Meadow

Moon through the Bur Oak