06/27/2001 Env Bd Packet - Laserfiche WebLink

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• 4. Most of the upland converted to farmland is now changing again to residential housing resulting in further loss or fragmentation of woodlands and native grasslands due to conversion of vegetative cover to lawns and pavement. Information obtained from the City's Handbook for Environmental Planning and Conservation Development (Braurer & Associates, 1999) defined the present cover types as follows: • Developed Land - lands converted for human uses other than agriculture constitute approximately 23 % of the land surface of the city • Agricultural Land- all lands cleared of native vegetation for crop or forage production including fallowed fields and freshly tilled soils. The largest cover type in the city, covering 28 %. Forested Communities - largely deciduous forest type ranging from drier oak savanna to sugar/black maple - basswood association cover approximately 16% of the city. White pine is a minor component. Most of the forests have been fragmented due to agricultural clearing and residential development. Wetlands- wetlands associated with larger lakes, streams, and depressional features constitute approximately 19% of the cover type. Tamarack occur at Rondeau Lake and at a site along highway 35W near the junction with Lake Drive Open Water - lakes, streams, creeks, drainages, and detention ponds cover 3,000 acres or about 14% of the area of the City. Lino Lakes contains 16 lakes and two tributaries spaced throughout the city. The lakes and National Wetlands Inventory delineated wetlands comprise 8,670 acres or approximately 41 % of the City's total land area. Peltier, George Watch, Amelia, Rondeau, Marshan, Rice, Wards, Sherman, Cedar and Wilkerson are classified as Natural Environment Lakes • Upland Prairie Remnants - upland prairie vegetation was once an important cover type in the city, occupying drier ridge tops and integrating with oak savanna and mesic forest communities. Very little remains of this cover type. As the habitats have been altered from their pre - settlement condition, the composition of the native fauna has also been changed. Species groups currently "losing ground" due to urbanization include grassland birds (such as meadowlarks, bobolinks, and bluebirds) and mammal species (such as fox squirrels and ground squirrels), forest interior species ( particularly birds such as scarlet tanagers and wood thrush), colonial waterbirds (herons and egrets) which depend on undisturbed terrestrial or aquatic nesting sites, amphibians dependent on fish free wetlands with high water quality, and wide ranging species such as Blanding's turtles whose sandy upland nesting sites have been degraded and disconnected from associated wetlands. Formerly common birds such as American bittern and Northern harrier are now mostly gone from the City.