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HomeMy WebLinkAbout#20 - Funding Request Friends of Sunfish Lake Park Staff Report DATE: 7/19/2022 REGULAR TO: City Council FROM: Ben Hetzel, City Planner AGENDA ITEM: Funding Request Friends of Sunfish Lake Park REVIEWED BY: Marty Powers, Public Works Director Adam Swanepoel, Assistant Public Works Director BACKGROUND: The Friends of Sunfish Lake Park is a group of volunteers who are stewards of Sunfish Lake Park. The Friends of Sunfish Lake Park are responsible for the creation and operation of the Sally Manzara Interpretive Nature Center. In addition, they host interpretive programs, public restoration events, and educational events for the public and private groups. The group is also heavily involved with habitat restoration within the park, including the expansive removal of invasive species and buckthorn. The purpose of this agenda item is to allow the Friends of Sunfish Lake Park to provide a progress update since being accepted as part of the Adopt a Park program in 2018 and request additional funds to continue their Sunfish Lake Park Restoration Program. RESTORATION OF SUNFISH LAKE PARK PROJECT: The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources has a Conservation Legacy Grant Program (DNR/CPL). A top priority of the grant program is the removal of buckthorn from the state, county, and local lands. The Friends of Sunfish Lake Park received a three year DNR/CPL grant in 2019 for $154,000 to administer the Restoration of Sunfish Lake Park. The grant required a 10% commitment ($10,000) from the City as a host organization. $9,000 of that amount is leftover. Under the 3 year grant, 40 acres has been cleared of buckthorn and some other invasive species. The Friends of Sunfish Lake Park are requesting an additional $15,000 from the City for another DNR/CPL grant in 2023 to continue buckthorn and invasive species removal on 140 acres. Completing the 140 acres would finish the Restoration of Sunfish Lake Park Project. The attached GIS shapefile outlines the 140 acres needed to be completed. A draft budget, task estimate, and timeline are also attached. ISSUE BEFORE THE CITY COUNCIL: Would the City Council like to commit $15,000 for a 2023 Conservation Legacy Grant to complete buckthorn and other invasive species removal on 140 acres in Sunfish Lake Park? PROJECT FUNDING: DNR/CPL Grant $466,500 New City Contribution $15,000 Leftover City Contribution $9,000 Friends of Sunfish Lake Volunteer Hours $22,650 (28$/hr) Total $513,150 The new City Commitment, leftover City Commitment, and Friends of Sunfish Lake Volunteer hours would establish the 10% required host commitment amount. 2 OPTIONS: 1. Approve the request for the City to commit $15,000 to the Friends of Sunfish Lake Park for a 2023 Conservation Partners Legacy Grant. 2. Deny the request for the City to commit $15,000 to the Friends of Sunfish Lake for a 2023 Conservation Partners Legacy Grant. FISCAL IMPACT: The City committed $10,000 in 2019 for a 3 year DNR/CPL grant. An additional $15,000 is being requested for another DNR/CPL grant in 2023. The total cost to the city would be $25,000. PARKS COMMISSION RECCOMENDATION The City of Lake Elmo Parks Commission recommended approval of the request at the June 20, 2022 meeting with the following conditions: 1. City funds may only be used for buckthorn and other invasive species removal. 2. The remaining balance contributed by the City must be returned to the City upon project completion. RECOMMENDATION: Staff recommends the following motion: “Move to approve committing $15,000 to the Friends of Sunfish Lake Park for a 2023 Conservation Partners Legacy Grant for buckthorn and other invasive species removal on 140 acres in Sunfish Lake Park to complete the Restoration of Sunfish Lake Park Project on condition that city committed funds may only be used for buckthorn and other invasive species removal and the remaining amount be returned to the City of Lake Elmo upon project completion.” ATTACHMENTS: 1. Friends of Sunfish Lake Progress Report 2. Phase 2 Work Plan Scope 3. Phase 2 Work Plan Cost Friends of Sunfish Lake Park Progress Report and Funding Request The purpose of this agenda topic is to review the progress the Friends of Sunfish Lake Park have made since we were accepted as part of the "Adopt A Park" program for the City of Lake Elmo, on March 18, 2018, and to request additional funds to complete our Sunfish Lake Park Restoration Project. We have served the interests of park users/community members as follows under this sponsorship: Sally Manzara Nature Center Completed the Sally Manzara Interpretive Nature Center (SMINC), Grand Opening June 2, 2018. Over 40 volunteers contributed over 2000 hours to the construction and development of SMINC to make this happen. Here are the activities that have benefited the residents of Lake Elmo during the last four years. It should be noted that no city funds have been used for the nature center. ● SMINC is open 48 hours per week for public visiting, and has special programming on a weekly basis. ● It has over 2000 sq ft of indoor exhibit and venue space, on one acre of outdoor activity and education space with special gardens, play areas, etc. ● Average recorded visitor count recently has been about 300 per month ● Average recorded volunteer time is about 300 hours per month ● We serve the entire community from preschool kids to the memory care residents of local senior residences ● We offer Summer Camp experiences for a range of ages ● Before COVID we hosted the Stillwater Schools Early Childhood Family Education ● We have provided a destination for special needs adult groups ● We organize nature walks in the Park for adults ● We offer a venue for the Lake Elmo Library readings and cooperate with the library in a story stroll array ● We provide a venue for the beekeeping community to set up an indoor observation hive and an outdoor apiary ● We have been a meeting venue for community groups from Homeowners Associations to nature-theme birthday parties and bridal showers. ● We have a naturemobile nearly ready to take exhibits and activities to preschools and nursing homes that have no busing budget ● We have a partnership with the Stillwater Schools Native American Parent Advisory Committee for meetings, events, and exhibits ● We provide internships for students which result in science presentations such as a Mammal Survey of Sunfish Lake Park ● We support a Water Quality Project to analyze the waters of the Park and educate the public on caring for the environment. ● We assumed management of the annual "Sunfish Lake Park Family Nature Day" - 150-200 visitors ● We help to publicize the "Sunfish Lake Park Project" on iNaturalist.org for recording nature observations in the Park ● We opened SMINC to provide hospitality to the bowhunters who participated in the Washington County deer population right-sizing. ● We helped with signage for navigation of the trails, and our website provides ecosystem information for identified areas of the Park. Sunfish Lake Park User Group Partnership With the recent addition of mountain bike trails to the park there were issues with safety on the trails. We formed a partnership to address these issues. We worked with the city, Minnesota Land Trust, TrailSourceLLC, MORC, Stillwater mountain bike team, nature center, behavior ecologist and users of the park to add entrance and exit trails in the park, to get approval to separate bikers from foot traffic for safety and to update signage. Future goals are to discuss winter usage and safety, improve trail flow, and fundraise for a floating boardwalk to give users access to Sunfish Lake and migratory birds and aquatic life. The user group also held one meeting to discuss developing a long range plan for the park to coincide with the city's long range planning. Let us know if this is something you would like us to work with you on. Restoration of Sunfish Lake Park DNR/CPL Grant The state of Minnesota has a Conservation Legacy Grant Program that is administered by the Department of Natural Resources. One of their priorities is to remove the invasive species Buckthorn from state, county and local public lands. Here is a DNR document that discusses why we need to remove Buckthorn. This work was called for in a City-sponsored 2015 planning document https://forestadaptation.org/adapt/demonstration-projects/city-lake-elmo-sunfish-lake- park We obtained a DNR/CPL grant for the three-year, $154,000 "Restoration of Sunfish Lake Park Project" in 2019. The grant required a 10% match from the host organization. The grant is funded by $139,000 from the State, $10,000 from the City of Lake Elmo, and $6,000 by volunteers (300 volunteer hours @ $20 per hour) organized by the Friends. We have had a tremendous response from volunteers. To date we have had over 800 recorded hours of volunteer help. The good news is that because of this we still have $9,000 of the $10,000 the city committed in 2019 to use for another grant.( $1000 was spent on supplies). Here are some of the activities we have completed in the park. ● We are administering the state grant ● We hired Stantec to manage the project ● We have met for three years on the second Saturday of the month to remove Buckthorn ● We have had three "Buckthorn Festivals" that have attracted an average of 70 people each ● We have a core group of volunteers that work solo in the park throughout the year ● We have had great cooperation from the Public Works department. Monthly we report where we have removed Buckthorn and they come pick it up. We wouldn't have the success we have had without their support ● We recently sponsored three weekends where we planted over 100 oak trees and spread native seed. Many of the trees were planted by young families as part of an Earth Day activity, total participation was over 100 people ● I, George Johnson, have committed 8 years ( until 2026) to organize volunteers and head up Buckthorn removal activities ● Included at the bottom are some pictures of a before and after Buckthorn removal and a typical volunteer picture. Next Phase of the Project Under the current project, 40 acres of the park have been cleared of Buckthorn with removal of other invasive species in some areas. The map is included below. We want to finish the project. We have completed a GIS shapefile of the park and it shows there are still 140 acres of park to complete. (carving out the lakes/ponds, and the east field). You can submit proposals for DNR funding of up to $540,000. An excel file of the draft budget, task estimate and timeline and a scope map of the park from Stantec are attached. To finish the project the funding would look like the following; • DNR/CPL $466,500 • City of Lake Elmo $15,000 new money and $9,000 left over from first grant for a total of $24,000 • Friends of Sunfish Lake Park $22,650 in volunteer hours at the new rate of $28 per hour or approximately 810 hours. We are asking that $15,000 be committed to the project for the 2023 budget and a letter from the city as land manager supporting the project. We will submit the new proposal to the DNR by mid-September and should hear back by January 2023. There is no guarantee that we will receive the grant or that we will receive the total amount. If not we will continue to submit applications until the full amount needed is funded. In summary, we are asking for a total commitment from the city of $25,000 to fund $605,500 of contracted work with almost 2,000 hours of volunteer time. And when completed we will have returned Sunfish Lake Park to its natural state. We look forward to your comments and questions. George Johnson 651-757-5610 Project Coordinator 3070 Lake Elmo Avenue Original 40 acre Phase 1 DNR Grant Typical group of Saturday volunteers Before After ^_ ^_ ^_ ^_ ^_ ^_ ^_ ^_7.7 16.2 6.5 35.7 17.5 2.519 3.4 21 5.7 5.23.3 EastUnit 93 ac West Unit 48 ac Data Sources: Stantec, Friends of Lake Elmo's Sunfish Lake Park,NADS, MNGeo 2021 color FSA ($$¯0 200 400Yards Sunfish Lake Park Oak Woodland Restoration: DRAFT Phase 2 CPL Grant Planning Sunfish Lake Park Boundary (264 ac) MN Wetlands Sunfish Hiking Trails Sunfish Bike Trails Sunfish Lake Park 2020-2023 Project Area (40 ac) Proposed Phase 2 Project Areas (118 ac) plus 36acres of Phase 1 Project Area ^_Potential Burn/Stack Locations Proposed Major Tasks Woody Debris/Selective Tree/Invasive BrushRemoval (108 ac) Basal Bark Treat Invasive Brush (34 ac) Cut/Trt Invasive Brush by Volunteers (12 ac) 6/13/22 lm 193708025 Other Proposed Tasks: Prescribed Burns (130 ac)Supplemental Seeding (140 ac)Oriental Bittersweet Control (40 ac)Herbaceous Invasives Control (50 ac) Lake Elmo Sunfish Lake Park - Proposed Phase 2 Conservation Partners Legacy Grant Scope Project Area Scope: 176 acres (140 "new" acres, and 36 acres needing additional work) General Task Acres General Timeline*Labor Cost Estimate Notes/Assumptions Alternative Funding/Resource Ideas/Scope Adjustments Woody Removal (essential task)108 Jan/Feb 2023 or Jan/Feb 2024 Contract 329,000$ $1,750/acre plus $5,000 mobilization for feller/buncher large equipment to remove invasive brush, boxelder, elm, damaged/poor condition black cherry, broken limbs, trees under oaks, large woody debris; plus $1,250/acre marking tree removals in advance of feller/buncher; follow-up stump foliar treatments and/or basal bark trts where equip cannot reach (near save trees, fencelines, wetland edges, etc) and monitoring burn piles overnight; DOES NOT INCLUDE about 22 acres in far NW area of park Scope of work for woody removal can be further refined/reduced in acres as needed to fit project cost cap for CPL grant funding, match requirement, etc. Woody removal (invasive brush control) is an essential restoration task for the park. Needs to be followed by Prescribed Burn task, at minimum. Seek partnership funding from Minnesota Land Trust. Basal Bark Invasive Brush (essential task) 34 Jan 2023 - Mar 2024 Contract 42,500$ $1,250/ac for basal bark invasive brush treatment along steep slopes, adjacent to bike trails, fencelines Essential task for invasive brush removal on slopes and near trails. Represents additional acres than what can be done w/ heavy equip. Scope/acres for this task could be reduced as needed, independently from the woody removal task.Prescribed Burns (several units) (essential task) 130 Sept/Oct 2023, 2024, 2025 Contract 65,000$ plan to burn a portion of the project area each fall (2023, 2024, 2025); approximately $22,000/year or $500/ac Essential task that needs to cover at least 35 acres of current project area, plus whatever is scoped for woody removal acres. Oriental Bittersweet Control 35 Sept/Oct 2023, 2024, 2025 Contract 15,000$ 3 treatments of core infestations in current project area; walk and spot treat or pull vines throughout 40+ acres Seek grant from MDA to supplement control for this species (awards generally capped at $5,000); contact Emilie Justen Herbaceous Invasives Control 50 May/June 2023, 2024, 2025 Contract 15,000$ 3 growing seasons of spot treatments for garlic mustard, burdock, including pull/bag/haul garlic mustard; primarily along trails Adopt a Trail Segment by hikers/bikers to keep their sections clear of garlic mustard Supplemental Seeding 140 May/June 2023 Contract 35,000$ native grass/sedge mix seeding where needed to stabilize slopes or supplement ground cover due to past invasive brush cover; patchy/targeted seeding throughout Seek funding from metro bike trail organizations w/ emphasis on trailside seeding, stabilization Proposed Grant Subtotal**466,500$ Invasive Brush Control (VOLUNTEERS)12 Jan 2023 - March 2026 In-Kind Match 22,650$ Volunteer hours at $28.00 per hour = 810 hours 4 acres per year 2023 -2025 Volunteer help could also include pulling garlic mustard and seeding City of Lake Elmo Grant Jan-23 Grant 15,000$ Grant money left over from first grant Grant 9,000$ We can apply unused grant money for the new project *Timeline is based on a September 2022 grant application and funding awarded by end of December 2022. **Grants of up to $400,000 w/ 10% non-state match. Maximum of $575,000 total project cost.