Title
RESOLUTION AUTHORIZING COOPERATIVE SERVICE AGREEMENT WITH THE UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE FOR RESTORATION AND WILDLIFE DAMAGE MANAGEMENT ACTIVITIES
Body
Summary and Background Information:
A presentation regarding restoration activities including wildlife management, specifically prairie dogs in the Second Creek Open Space was provided by staff for City Council at the April 8, 2019 study session. In a subsequent City Council meeting, the restoration and specifically the management of prairie dogs was discussed during public comment and City Council directed staff to complete additional research on the restoration project. Staff met informally with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the United States Department of Agriculture and contracted with Smith Environmental and Engineering for additional evaluation of the Second Creek Open Space conditions resulting in the attached report. Smith Environmental and Engineering provides comprehensive environmental engineering and consulting services and the project manager for this project is an environmental scientist specializing in wetlands and regulatory permitting.
The Smith Environmental report gives information about the ecological sites present in the Second Creek Open Space as well as the soil types. Vegetation (and lack of vegetation) is discussed and a section on black-tailed prairie dogs is included before the restoration recommendations. Smith acknowledges that black-tailed prairie dogs are an important species but also that they can have negative effects on a landscape, especially one that has a history of disturbance, as the study area does. It is noted that in areas where many nonnative or undesirable species of vegetation occur (as is the case in this area) the presence of prairie dogs can lead to a weedy or nearly barren site and that has occurred in the Second Creek Open Space.
There are several restoration recommendations including determining goals, a timeline, budget an...
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