Water Pump Station Restoration Site

In the 5 year plan, the Shoreland Group proposed multiple possible restoration expansion sites, all sensitive to the interests of a handful of neighbors who have voiced a preference to not have additional expansion between their home and the lake.   Given the vast amount of waterfront area available in the area, finding alternative areas that serve our efforts was easy.

The Parks Advisory Board recommended authorization for the second restoration site to be located between the water pump station and the lake, across from Webster Stanley Elementary School.  In addition to not being located immediately near a residential home, this property site also serve the function of helping to filter a site where untreated stormwater is pumped directly into the lake.

Below are photos of the planned site prior to any work.

Pump Station side from road by Webster Stanley Elementary

Side view of shore area that will be transformed into a healthy, native environment

Pump Station site from water view

1st Annual Native Plant Sale

In May 2015, the Shoreland Group partnered with local urban farm Growing Oshkosh for a plant sale fundraiser, helping to raise funds for the installation of our second bed.  The sale featured natives grown in Omro, WI, just 10 minutes from Oshkosh, including Butterfly Weed, Nodding Pink Onion, native Asters, and more.

The sale was a great success, thanks to the great planning and entrepreneurship of our partner UW Oshkosh Students and the friendly host team from Growing Oshkosh.

Overall, hundreds of plants were purchased for plantings throughout yards in the Oshkosh area, helping to reintroduce native plants and their benefits into the urban landscape.  More importantly, the sale offered the opportunity to talk about the importance and benefits of native plants and of our efforts of shoreland restoration.  The response and support was tremendous, with the Oshkosh community continuing to demonstrate their support for the restoration of our vulnerable shores.

Growing Oshkosh at work!  (photo courtesy of GO)

The plant sale resulted in sufficient funds to cover 60% of the costs of the new bed, along with providing about 80 native plant plugs at no cost.  The Shoreland Group provided a thank you donation of $50.00 to support the work of Growing Oshkosh.  We look forward to the 2016 sale!

A special thanks to Dani Stolley and crew from Growing Oshkosh, the students that helped deliver, set up and sell plants, Justin Mitchell for organizing the event and coordinating the purchase and delivery of plants, Marshland Aquatic Native Plants for the great price on plants, and to the broader community for all of their support.

UW Oshkosh / Webster Stanley Elementary Collaboration

For the Spring 2015 Semester, Shoreland Restoration chair Justin Mitchell will be leading a group of engaged UW Oshkosh students on a semester-long shoreland restoration management project, including a native plant sale, a community presentation to the local Master Gardeners organization, a native plants of Wisconsin education day with Webster Stanley Elementary School, and a full workday for the installation of a second restoration bed.

The collaboration is part of Dr. Paul van Auken's UW Oshkosh Sociology Quest III course, seeking to connect students with real-world community programming that addressed a shared community problem - specifically the identified water quality and shoreland management concerns cited by the city's contracted assessment of Miller's Bay.

Millers Bay water in 2015.  Glowing green algae highlight the need for 
improved management all along Lake Winnebago, including along 
Oshkosh municipal shore zones.

Fourth grade students from Mrs. Schmidt's 4th grade Webster Elementary class will learn about issues of water quality and the roles that plants play in helping to protect and clean water.  The students will also each grow a native Lupine plant from sprouted seed that they will take home to plant when the weather permits.

New plot design concept, seeking to blend a natural prairie with a partially-designed garden
appearance.  Feedback from three of the Parks Advisory Board suggested that they did not like the
naturalized appearance achieved in the original installation, prompting the Shoreland Group to create
this design model.  

Why Native Plants

"Why Native Plants" is an excerpt from Urban & Suburban Meadows". Doug Tallamy, entomologist and author, highlights the importance of native plants and the native plant/ native insect connection for sustainable landscapes.

Why Native Plants Matter

Restoring native plant habitat is vital to preserving biodiversity. By creating a native plant garden, each patch of habitat becomes part of a collective effort to nurture and sustain the living landscape for birds and other animals.

Over the past century, urbanization has taken intact, ecologically productive land and fragmented and transformed it with lawns and exotic ornamental plants. The continental U.S. lost a staggering 150 million acres of habitat and farmland to urban sprawl, and that trend isn’t slowing. The modern obsession with highly manicured “perfect” lawns alone has created a green, monoculture carpet across the country that covers over 40 million acres. The human-dominated landscape no longer supports functioning ecosystems, and the remaining isolated natural areas are not large enough to support wildlife.

Menominee Park Shoreland Restoration Site Photo, by Mandy Mitchell, 2014

Native plants are those that occur naturally in a region in which they evolved. They are the ecological basis upon which life depends, including birds and people. Without them and the insects that co-evolved with them, local birds cannot survive. For example, research by the entomologist Doug Tallamy has shown that native oak trees support over 500 species of caterpillars whereas ginkgos, a commonly planted landscape tree from Asia, host only 5 species of caterpillars. When it takes over 6,000 caterpillars to raise one brood of chickadees, that is a significant difference.

Unfortunately, most of the landscaping plants available in nurseries are alien species from other countries. These exotic plants not only sever the food web, but many have become invasive pests, outcompeting native species and degrading habitat in remaining natural areas. 

Creating A Habitat for Endangered Species

Wisconsin is home to over 230 endangered and threatened species of animals, insects and plants.  According to the Wisconsin DNR, 80% of the endangered species in our state utilize shoreland habitat for all or part of their lives.  The destruction of their natural home habitats is what has led to these species to become endangered and potentially extinct from our state.

By restoring shoreland habitat to its natural state, we slowly create an environment that may someday serve as habitat for these endangered species, helping to protect and rebuilt their populations.

A few key elements to a success restoration include use of native plants, elimination of any pesticide or herbicide usage, and sufficient area to successfully create a habitat with sufficient food, space and reproductive protection.

Purple Milkweed (Asclepias purpurascens), a native to Winnebago County, was last observed here over 10 years ago. 

William C. Taylor. USDA SCS. 1989. Midwest wetland flora: Field office illustrated guide to plant species. Midwest National Technical Center, Lincoln. Provided by USDA NRCS Wetland Science Institute (WSI)

Fall 2014 Native Seed Harvest

Neighborhood youth joined us for a late October native seed harvest.  We collected two sets of seeds: a collection of low and medium growth plants and a second collection of high growth plants.  Both sets are native to the area, thrive there, and are excellent plants to achieve the goals of a restoration site.  The taller harvested seeds will be spread by the pump station building in spring 2015.

An estimated 250,000 seeds were harvested in the 3 hour session on an absolutely beautiful fall day.

Seeds will be stored over winter, and undergo a cold treatment in the early spring of 2015.

In April/May 2015, we will look to dig up some of the highly beneficial and healthy tall native plants at the request of the parks board and neighbors.  These plants will be transplanted to a small plot by the pump station near Webster Stanley Elementary School.

The seeds that we harvested will both be started as plants, as well as spread throughout the new plot and in bare areas in the established bed.
We harvested many of the cone flower seed heads, the wild quinine seeds, vervain seeds, milk weed seeds, and a dozen additional native plant species.

Overall, we probably harvest about 2% of the seeds at the thriving bed.


While working, over 10 couples stopped and commented on the beauty of the site.  Like the campaign to achieve an organized and transparent plan, members of the community overwhelmingly support and appreciate the work that we're doing to improve the park and the Winnebago Lakes System.

We will look to facilitate a meeting in partnership with city parks staff in early December 2014 to determine the next steps for spring 2015.  We will be looking to organize a large-scale transplant day that moves about 200-300 plants from the current bed south to the Pump Station bed.

Menominee South Neighborhood Association is also waiting to receive guidance and direction from the parks staff, as the group is planning to complete work on shoreland restoration in the neighborhood.

In addition to harvesting seeds, the group picked up garbage throughout the plot and from nearby locations.

City staff has been given the go-ahead to complete a mowing of the existing bed, which should facilitate spreading of the seeds.

UWO ERIC Supports 5-Year Plan

Today, the UW Oshkosh Environmental Research and Innovation Center (ERIC) provided a letter of support for the Menominee Park Shoreland Restoration 5-Year Plan, stating:

"This plan addresses important environmental impacts including reduction of pollutant loading from urban areas, increasing native shoreland plants to increase stormwater infiltration and decrease erosion, and promote selective wildlife at Menominee Park. Not only does this project improve stormwater infiltration, the vegetation deters geese from loafing along the shoreline and in nearshore water, which has been shown to negatively affect water quality."

Wild Ones Fox Valley Chapter Endorses Plan

This week, Wild Ones Fox Valley Chapter provided a letter of support for the shoreland restoration project and the 5-year plan.  According to Wild Ones:

"The plan for the Menominee Park Shoreland Restoration project generates and protects clean water, supports aquatic life, sustains the fragile water’s edge, deters unwanted animals, buffers extreme weather, supports pollinators and songbird life, is less costly to maintain, and provides beauty, interest and biodiversity."

Onterra Biologist Encourages Support for Restoration

Onterra, the firm responsible for the initial Miller's Bay assessment, provided a message of support for the current shoreland restoration efforts.  The Onterra Report concluded:

“Miller’s Bay shoreline is incredibly poor and provides no aesthetic, habitat, or buffering value to the bay. Turf maintenance along the bay’s shoreline leads to increased runoff of nutrients, sediments, and other pollutants to Lake Winnebago, while providing appealing loafing grounds to nuisance levels of Canada geese.”

Shoreland restoration was a recommendation made in the report, which can be viewed here.

On Wednesday, October 8, 2014 8:29 AM

City of Oshkosh Parks Department Staff and Common Council Members:

In June 2010, the Miller’s Bay, Lake Winnebago Aquatic Plant Management Plan finalized.  Within that plan, we recommended that the City of Oshkosh restore at least a portion of the Menominee Park shoreline to a more natural shoreland for several reasons:

·         Increased pollutant buffering (filtering) capacity of a natural shoreline over that of a shoreline composed of maintained turf grass.

·         Increased wildlife habitat value of a natural shoreline over a urbanized shoreline.

·         To act as a goose deterrent by reducing available loafing area in the park.

·         To bring the City in line with its own vision and resource management plan by buffering impervious surfaces near waterways and protecting sensitive resources such as water and shorelands.

Since the Miller’s Bay plan was finalized, the USEPA has released the results of the 2012 National Lakes Assessment.  Natural shoreland destruction was found to be the greatest factor degrading our lakes within the State of Wisconsin and nation.  Restoring shorelands to a more natural condition works to reverse that impact.

Finally, I was pleased to see that the City had moved in the right direction by allowing the restoration to occur.  The City set an excellent example for area residents, Winnebago shoreline property owners, and area municipalities by moving forward with the restoration.  By removing the restoration, the City would set an incredibly poor example and take a step backwards in its management of Miller’s Bay and Lake Winnebago.

Sincerely,

Tim Hoyman, CLM

Aquatic Ecologist

Onterra, LLC

City's Sustainability Advisory Board Endorses Restoration Plan

The city's Sustainability Advisory Board formally approved the Menominee Park Shoreland Restoration 5-year plan, adding, "The Oshkosh Sustainability Advisory Board strongly recommends that this plan be adopted for the health, vitality, and economy of Lake Winnebago and the City of Oshkosh."

Menominee Park Area Shoreland Restoration 5-Year Plan

The proposed Menominee Park Area Shoreland Restoration 5-Year Plan (2014-2019) is available online here.  The Final Draft is expected December 10, 2014.