Stakeholder Meeting

March 2018

Lebanon Hills Regional Park

Natural Resources Management Plan

Topics

1. Project Process

2. Background

3. Landscape Context

4. Landform

5. Vegetation

6. Water Resources

7. Wildlife

8. Rare/Unique Natural Features

9. Sneak Peak into Methods

10. Process Revisited

11. Your Questions and Feedback

LEBANON HILLS REGIONAL PARK NATURAL RESOURCES MANAGEMENT PLAN

Date Tasks Phase

August 2017 Project start Initiation

September-

December 2017

• Research & findings

• Existing conditions

• Stakeholder meetings

Research &

Findings

January-February

2018

• Public Open House

• Planning Commission, County Board

January-March

2018

• Issues and opportunities

• Develop approaches, priorities, and recommendations

• Stakeholder meetings

Concept

Develop-

ment

April-May 2018 • Additional field work

• Draft Plan

• Pubic Open House, Planning Commission, County Board

June-August 2018 • Final Plan

• Public review (30 days)

Public

Review

August-October

2018

• Plan adoption Plan

Adoption

Purpose of the NRMP

To develop comprehensive goals,

approaches, strategies and work plans to

reverse the downward trend in the quality

of the natural resources and to restore

diverse and sustainable natural

communities within the recreational

context of the park.

Lebanon Hills Regional Park

Oldest park in the system

• First properties acquired in 1967

Largest park in the system

• 1,869 acres

Most visited park in the system

• Over 635,000 visits in 2016

Why Manage the Resource? Integrate Two Visions for Parks.

Dakota County Parks

Mission Statement:

To enrich lives by providing high quality

recreation and education opportunities in

harmony with natural resource

preservation and stewardship.

Natural Resources Management System

Plan

Vision:

The water, vegetation, and wildlife of

Dakota County parks, greenways, and

easements will be managed to conserve

biodiversity, restore native habitats,

improve public benefits, and achieve

resilience and regionally outstanding

quality, now and for future generations.

Why Manage the Resource? 2015 LHRP Master Plan

Vision:

Balance recreational use of the park

with natural resource stewardship.

Guiding Principles:

1. Be an urban natural retreat

2. Be a great outdoor recreation

experience

3. Be a resilient natural place 4. Be a greenway destination

5. Be a park with a strong sense of place and community

6. Be a flagship for the County park system

7. Be a four-season recreation area

• Ecological conditions have been significantly altered and degraded over the last century and a half

• Most natural areas have been converted to other land uses (agriculture, urban, industrial, roads, etc.)

• Since statehood, Dakota County has lost about: • 85% of its wetlands • 99% of its prairies and savannas • 80% of its original forests (the “Big Woods”)

• The natural land that remains is fragmented and scattered Streams were channelized, dams built, wetlands drained

• Many ecological processes, which have developed for thousands of years, have become disrupted, disturbed, altered, and/or suppressed

• Fire • Flooding • Grazing • Predation • Regeneration and recruitment • Nutrient cycling • Energy flow

Why Manage the Resource?

Topography Landform

Surficial Geology Landform

Soils:

Drainage

Class Landform

• Upland soils are predominately well-

drained (red, yellow, green)

• Hydric soils (wetlands and lakes) are

poorly drained (purple, blue)

Ecological Context

Presettlement vegetation

of Dakota County

• Large grazers common (elk & bison) • Influenced vegetation

• Landscape-scale effects

• Keystone species of historic landscapes lost • Loss of biodiversity reduces stability and resilience of natural systems

Historic wildlife Landform

Landscape Context Landform

• Adjacent Land Use

MCBS Biodiversity Vegetation

Land Cover & Land Use Trends Vegetation

Land Cover Mapping Results Vegetation

Land Cover Mapping Results Vegetation

Examples of Cover Types Vegetation

Native Prairie

Overgrown/Aforested

Old Field

Slightly Overgrown

Savanna

Lake (foreground) and mixed

pines and overgrown savanna

(background)

BUCK POND RESTORATION

Crotalaria

sagitalis

Special concern

Rattlebox Prairie

Sceptridium oneidense

Sceptridium dissectum dissectum

Rare Plants

Crotalaria sagitallis

“Rattlebox”

Rare Plants:

Grapeferns,

Rattlebox,

and orchids

Herbarium

specimen

Downy

rattlesnake

plantain

Sceptridium multifiduum

Wetlands Water

Resources

Wetlands Water

Resources

Sedge Meadow

Lag Wetland

Wet Meadow

invaded by RCG

Cattail Marsh

2017 Subwatershed Assessment Water

Resources

2016 Aquatic Invasive

Species Action Plan Water

Resources

Curly leaf

pondweed

Eurasian

water milfoil

Ecological restoration is the process of assisting

the recovery of an ecosystem that has been

degraded, damaged, or destroyed.

• Intentional science-based activity

• Accelerates the recovery of an ecosystem

with respect to its health, integrity, and

sustainability

• Attempt to return an ecosystem to its historic

trajectory

• Determine historic conditions that existed

prior to degradation

• Put the ecosystem back on a trajectory

similar to its historic one

• Long-term commitment of land and resources

• Requires thoughtful deliberation

• Develop collective decisions

• Gain consensus among stakeholders

• Careful and systematic planning

• Monitored approach

Photo by Scott Hagen

Ecological Restoration. What Is It, and How Do We Achieve It?

Wildlife Studies/Monitoring WIldlife

• Surveying turtles with hoop nets

• Found Blanding’s, painted, and snapping turtles

• Other herps found: smooth green snake, milk snakes and

tiger salamanders

• Small mammal surveys initiated in 2017

Wildlife Surveys

Species of Local Conservation Interest Rare Natural

Features Common Name Scientific name SGCN* State Status

Animals

Red-shouldered Hawk Buteo lineatus x MN Special Concern

Lark Sparrow Chondestes grammacus x

Acadian Flycatcher Empidonax virescens x

Blanding's Turtle Emydoidea blandingii x MN Threatened

Big Brown Bat Eptesicu fuscus x

Milk Snake Lamptopeltis triangulum

Franklin's Gull Leucophaeus pipixcan x

Fisher Martes pennanti

Red-headed Woodpecker Melanerpes erythrocephalus x

Northern Long-Eared Bat Myotis septentrionalis x MN Special Concern

Fed Threatened

Smooth Green Snake Opheodrys vernalis x

Tri-colored Bat Perimyotis subflavus x

Horned Grebe Podiceps auritus x

Purple Martin Progne subis x

Virginia Rail Rallus limicola x

Cerulean warbler Setophaga cerulea x

Forster's Tern Sterna forsteri x

Golden-winged Warbler Vermivora chrysoptera x

Bell's Vireo Vireo bellii x

Plants

Lily-leaved twayblade Liparis lilifolia

Rattlebox Crotalaria sagittalis MN Special Concern

White wild indigo Baptisia lactea MN Special Concern

*SGCN - Species in Greatest Conservation Need. 93

species in the ecoregion.

PRAIRIE-FOREST CONTINUUM

From The Tallgrass Restoration Handbook, edited Stephen Packard and Cornelia F. Mutel. Copyright © 1997 Society of Ecological Restoration.

Reproduced by permission of Island Press, Washington, D.C.

Primarily determined by fire frequency. Top sketch fire frequency is high (2-5 years), second sketch is medium (3-7 years)

third sketch is about every 9-10 years, and bottom sketch it is infrequent (20 or more years). Frequent fire prevents trees and

shrubs from dominating.

UPCOMING RESTORATION: SAVANNAS AND WOODLANDS

Restoration Project Example: Oak Savanna

Forestry Mowing, Hot-saw

Forest/woodland restoration technique

Current Natural Resources Restoration Projects

UPCOMING RESTORATION: SAVANNAS AND WOODLANDS

Specific Restoration Examples

Mitch Miller, 2015

Volunteers

Date Tasks Phase

August 2017 Project start Initiation

September-

December 2017

• Research & findings

• Existing conditions

• Stakeholder meetings

Research &

Findings

January-February

2018

• Public Open House

• Planning Commission, County Board

January-March

2018

• Issues and opportunities

• Develop approaches, priorities, and recommendations

• Stakeholder meetings

Concept

Develop-

ment

April-May 2018 • Additional field work

• Draft Plan

• Pubic Open House, Planning Commission, County Board

June-August 2018 • Final Plan

• Public review (30 days)

Public

Review

August-October

2018

• Plan adoption Plan

Adoption

Process, revisited

QUESTIONS OR COMMENTS

Project Manager: Joe Walton

Joseph.Walton@co.dakota.mn.us

952-891-7507

Project Webpage: https://www.co.dakota.mn.us/parks/Planning/NaturalResources/Pages/leba

non-hills-management-plan.aspx

Questions