12-12-2005 Council Packet - Laserfiche WebLink

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I 1 \ In general, the she's natural resources have been degraded due to past land uses. Howevn ’, opportunities exist to increase die aesthetic and cmservation valiKS associated with this developmenL Th^ opportunities and associated recommendations are provided below. For^ Preservation - While the quality of the onsite forests is not high, they still have value as wooded habitat (especially the remnant stands of MapleoBasswood Forest) and they provide visual screening. The site plan illustrates home placement generally in the old field areas (but outside of the primary viewshed Am Watertown Rood). The plan shows the loss of some forest due to road construction, lot grading, utility installation, and stormwater pond constructim; however, the two stands of Maple-Basswood Forest would be preserved. This is important given that thew are the highest quality native plant communities on the site, and they are located in the northeast portion of the site, identified as part of a medium-quality, regionally significant ecological resource. Rroommendations for additional forest preservation include: • Place the stormwater management pond along the western edge of the southern wetland area. This would sig nifi can tly reduce the loss of forest resulting from pond construction and stormwater ptye installation. Mitigatioo for this recommended wetland alteration is discussed under the Wedand sectiona below. • Pull homesites and lot grading out of the site forests to the extent possible to preserve more contiguous fbrest cover. Plant trees around these new homes and adjacent to the existing forest to create wooded lots over time. Minimize site grading by working widi existing site contours to the extent possible. This may entail custom grading of lots, rather than lot-wide grading. Forest Enhancement - Due to the poor quality of the existing forests, there are opportunities to improve the ecological health of preserved forest areas and enhance their aesthetics for site residents and the surrounding community. Our recommendations for fbrest enhancement include: • Remove all ixm-native woody vegetatkw (e.g., mostly common buckthorn). This should be done in a manner sensitive to the forest (e.g., use band tools rather than mechanized equipment; perfbrm cutting during frozen conditions to protect site soils; do any follow-up foliar spray in a manner that protects native plants, etc). • Remove all non-native or invasive herbaceous vegetation (e.g., reed canary grass, garlic mustard) • Rqdaoe cut buckthorn areas with appropriate, local ecotype native vegetation. This may include upland ahtubs (e.g., wild plum), wetland edge shrubs (e.g., red-twig dogwood), and native grasses a^ wildflowers. • Plant appropriate, local ecotype native trera, shrubs, grasses, and wildflcwers to restore native Maple-Basswood Forest in strategic locations. This can be done to envelop newly graded lots (to create a wooded lot over time), provide additional visual screening, or expand the preserved fbrests, making larger blocks of contiguous canopy cover. The gr eatest ecological benefit from this fbrest restoration would be in the northeast portion of the site, to expand the medium-quality, regiorially significant ecological raource identified there. Wetland Prraervation - While the quality of the on-site wetland is not high, it still has value and performs important ecol^cal services (e.g., infiltration, evapotranspiratioii, filtration, floodwater storage, etc.). Based on the site plan, some wetland alteration would occur in order to construct a stormwater pond. Recommendations fbr wetland preservation iiKlude: • Aa mentioned previously, place the stormwater management ponl along die western edge of the southon wetland area. This would avoid impacts to the slightly more diverse portions of the ♦ Provide opportunities fbr stormwater inliltratioo(roofrunofr, driveway lunofr, etc.) to reduce the size of the stormwater pond (which will minimize wetland aheratioo). MOfSSii lisas 3ofS MadCnnon llitl