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, <br /> PC Exhebit J •y 3 <br /> Elizabsth and Ken Weir <br /> 1262, Hunter Drive <br /> Medina, MN 55391. <br /> Mayl2th, 2015 <br /> Dear Orono Planning Cammissioner: <br /> As neighbors who understand a property owner's wish to develop land, our interest is#o <br /> preserve the ecological integrity of Mr. Dayton's 19-acre remnant of Big Waods to the greatest <br /> extenf possible, while having it accommodate some development. In Orono's natural resource <br /> inventory in the Minnesota Land Cover Classification Survey, Mr. Dayton's woods are classified <br /> as high quality. Mr. Dayton cared for and managed his woodland for the many years he lived <br /> there. <br /> Prior to pionaer times, the land cover of our region was all Big Woods, with its cool, shady and <br /> damp understory that supports specialized species af bircts, woodland flowers and amphibians. <br /> Mr. Dayton valued his woods and, when we first moved here, he taught me to icientiiy the red- <br /> shauldered hawk,the great-horned and barred owls and the pileated woodpeckers that nest in <br /> the woods and that depended upon the integrity of an unbroken canopy. He knew the songs of <br /> the great crested flycatcher, the wood thrush and#he red-eyed vireo. <br /> The prairie that he created out of raw farm Iand is loveiy and an achievement, but it is not native <br /> to the area, and it requires ongoing maintenance to prevent it from reverting to woodland. <br /> While we appreciate that in the preliminary plat application the praposed cul-de-sac is slightly <br /> less intrusive into the woods, and lots eight and nine are droppeci a little further South, the <br /> woodland will still be drastically fragmented by the proposed plan, Lots eight ancf nine's <br /> driveways parallel, in close succession,the cleared utility easement along the propetty's <br /> Northern border and the Northern neighbor's driveway cut. These three cleared linear cuts will <br /> effectively eliminate the hoped-for canopy and understory continuity with the woodland to the <br /> North. <br /> With tree felling far the long, looping driveways, the home sites, the primary sep#ic sites and the <br /> signiffcant thinning af woodland understory for lawns, this ecologically valuable component of a <br /> woodland remnant will be opened up to sun anc!wind and will become warmer and drier and will <br /> no longer support the native woodland bird, plant and amphibian life, which is becoming <br /> uncommon in our area thro�gh habitat loss. <br /> Mr. Stickney spoke at the previous Planning Commissian meeting af wanting lots to be unseen <br /> from the prairie. This is impractical to achieve for six winter months of the year and, by not using <br /> more of the prairie along the southern woodland edge, it is forcing an intrusive development of <br /> an �ncreasingly rare woodland resource. <br /> We note that Mr. Stickney does not include the existing farm track to the immediate South of the <br /> woodland in his development boundary. This is unfortunate. If that boundary could be dropped <br /> Southwards to include the already cleared and compacted soils of the track, it could serve as a <br /> driveway to access lots eight and nine, disturbing less woodland to the North.Also, in my <br /> experience, homeowners seek long views; by dropping the houses eight and nine South, and <br />