[wisb] Re: Off-topic: Milw. County audit of parks
- From: "Kevin" <dkkearns@xxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <wisbirdn@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 4 Jan 2010 20:46:39 -0600
While I am not from Milwaukee and travel there infrequently so have no true
idea of the parks conditions, I am familiar with the parks in Neenah,
Watertown, Madison, and Green Bay. All of the parks in these cities, which
include playgrounds, public swimming pools, soccer/baseball/football fields
in addition to the parks that have returned to or remained "in a natural
state", are in a sorry state indeed. I had to laugh at the irony of county
parks director Sue Black saying they might let them return to a natural
state as this will eventually mean infestation by Buckthorn, honeysuckle,
Garlic Mustard, Teasel, phragmites, reed canary, vetch and on and on and on
to include about 500 different invasives that will overwhelm the neglected
parks. These parks will then become breeding grounds for increased
infestations of invasives and will only serve to limit any form of control
that might be underway.
When I moved to Neenah almost seven years ago, I began clearing a 35 acre
park (Wilderness park) of Buckthorn, Honeysuckle, GM, and about 15 other
invasives that accounted for about 95% of the vegetation in the park. This
park is not an anomaly, but is rather a normal state for most of the "wild
or natural" parks found in any city in Wisconsin. Too avoid jumping up and
down on a soapbox, I will only say it is due exclusively to two factors - 1)
whining about high cost of taxes, but 2) not doing anything to help your
community. As the volunteer coordinator of Neenah, I can attest first hand
to lack of altruism present today and will be the first to say that nobody
cares enough anymore to actually help if it is too difficult. Now I know
that on WisBird there are several hard working volunteers, Betsy Abert being
one of them. But this group is the exception.
I guess what I am trying to say is that unless the people of Milwaukee care
enough to volunteer their time to improve their park system, it might be
better to allow the county to make a short term fix by selling off some
prime real estate. All of the playgrounds and buildings need maintenance,
the lawns for frisbee or sports need weekly mowing, trees need pruning to
remove deadfall, and a hundred other projects require money to accomplish
what needs to be done. For some perspective, I was talking with our city
forester/parks manager this summer and I asked him why he doesn't make more
use of volunteers to save on costs especially with budget shortfalls. He
told me that he can't count on volunteers anymore to show up when they say
they will, or to even volunteer in the first place. So he has to pay several
crews for the summer projects which ultimately uses money that could be used
for actual park improvements instead of just maintaining a certain level.
Respectfully, and with no fingers being pointed,
Kevin Kearns
Neenah
-----Original Message-----
From: wisbirdn-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:wisbirdn-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]On Behalf Of betsyacorn@xxxxxxx
Sent: Monday, January 04, 2010 3:17 PM
To: wisbirdn@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [wisb] Off-topic: Milw. County audit of parks
I don't intend this to be a firebrand politicized argument, but I thought
this would be very important reading for those of us in the birding
community here and around the state who recognize the value that dedicated
open
space plays in maintaining the habitat in what remains of the Milwaukee
area
flyways. I am particularly worried when I read the recommendation that
parkland be let go of here. An article from today's Journal Sentinel is
below.
http://www.jsonline.com/news/milwaukee/80633172.html
As I spend a solid amount of time birding the local parkland along the
Lake Michigan shoreline, and see that a healthy and well-wooded lakefront
it
is critical particularly on fallout days, I am moved to act.
I won't drag this out for the list, but if anyone would like to know what
actions are being taken to protect county parklands here, please
backchannel me and I will be happy to explain.
Betsy Abert, So. Milwaukee, SE Milw. Co.
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