AGENDA #5e
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TO: |
Mayor and Town Council |
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FROM: |
Bill Letteri, Public Works Director |
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SUBJECT: |
Follow-up Report on Merritt Pasture Maintenance |
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DATE: |
November 6, 2006 |
The purpose of this report is to provide follow-up information about the Town’s Merritt Pasture Vegetation and Maintenance Plan in response to questions raised by the Council during review of the Morgan Creek Trail Conceptual Plan at its October 9, 2006 meeting.
On June 22, 2002, the Town Council received a staff report on the Town’s Merritt Pasture Vegetation and Maintenance Plan. Attachment 1 is a copy of this report to the Council. Attachment 2 is a copy of the Town’s Merritt Pasture Vegetation and Maintenance Plan. Attachment 3 is a copy of a map of Merritt Pasture that accompanied the Vegetation and Maintenance Plan.
On April 6, 2004, Town staff met with Council Members Greene and Ward along with a neighbor of Merritt Pasture to discuss the status of maintenance activities proposed in the 2002 Vegetation and Maintenance Plan. At that time there were four areas of the plan identified as worthy of additional attention by staff. These included: bush hogging of overgrown sections of the pasture identified as zone 4 on the pasture map, forest restoration in the Morgan Creek Resource Conservation District (RCD), protection of areas with significant milkweed populations, and removal of invasive species. Attachment 4 is an email from Curtis Brooks, the Town’s urban forester, to those attending the April 6, 2004 meeting, recapping how these issues would be addressed.
In early August of 2006, Council Member Ward requested that the staff update him on progress being made to address the issues raised during the April 6, 2004 meeting. Attachment 5 is an email to Council Member Ward updating him on the status of Merritt Pasture maintenance activities as of late summer of this year.
The 2002 Merritt Pasture Vegetation and Maintenance Plan included a number of recommendations for specific improvement projects, such as gate repairs, that could be done quickly and a number of recommendations on more general issues, such as scheduling bush hogging, that would require the ongoing attention of Town staff to adequately implement. In the 2004 follow-up meeting with Council Members Greene and Ward, four primary ongoing maintenance issues were identified and discussed. The status of each of these issues is as follows:
Bush Hogging:
Areas of zone 4 that had begun to transition from pasture to woody plants, including numerous invasive multiflora roses, were delineated in the field and bush hogged in the fall of 2004 to restore them as part of the pasture. In September of this year these areas were once again bush hogged to prevent woody plants from being able to re-establish themselves in the pasture. During this September 2006 maintenance work, all areas of the pasture that were not previously mowed for hay and that are intended to remain as pasture were also bush hogged.
Forest Restoration in the Morgan Creek Resource Conservation District:
In the spring of 2004, wooden stakes were installed in the pasture to delineate a strip approximately 130 feet wide adjacent to Morgan Creek that is intended to be allowed to re-naturalize with woody species. This area has not been mowed for hay in the last two years. During the maintenance work in September of this year a section of this area was inadvertently bush hogged where the stakes delineating the boundary of the restoration area were gone. This area will be re-staked prior to any future maintenance work. In the next few years, as woody plants establish themselves the edge of the restoration area will become increasingly evident and wooden boundary markers may no longer be needed.
Milkweed Preservation Areas:
In the spring of 2004 three separate areas of the pasture were identified as having significant populations of milkweed. These areas were delineated with closely spaced metal fence posts and have not been mowed for hay in the last two years. These areas are mowed once a year in mid-winter. They are scheduled to be mowed again in February of 2007. Since these areas have been put on this special mowing schedule the milkweeds have flourished and their population density appears to be increasing.
Removal of Invasive Species:
In areas of the pasture accessible to bush hogs, recent maintenance efforts have been successful in suppressing invasive species. In addition to the suppression of a significant population of multiflora rose, eleagnus and privet have effectively been prevented from spreading. Along the wooded edges of the pasture, careful bush hogging has also been able to control some of the invasive vines, notably wisteria and Japanese honeysuckle, that frequently grow from these sunny edges into the canopies of the adjacent trees.
In sections of the Merritt Pasture property that are currently dominated by dense stands of young pines and hardwoods, suppression of invasive species has been less successful. Particularly in portions of zone 5 well established populations of invasive species, mostly vines, are a continuing challenge. These areas are inaccessible to bush hogs and therefore control measures involve significant ongoing hand labor. The staff had hoped to utilize supplemental support from North Carolina Department of Corrections crews for some of this work, but Town access to this labor resource has diminished significantly in the last few years. We anticipate that supplemental labor support from the North Carolina Department of Corrections may also be limited again in 2007 and believe that other labor resources for this work may need to be identified. We will reevaluate the invasive species problem areas and possible resources this winter and determine what efforts could be considered to better suppress invasive species.
