Department of Natural Resources Report for the Ice Age Trail Alliance Board of Directors’ January 2020 Meeting 1/15/2020 Bureau of Parks and Recreation Management GENERAL PROGRAM UPDATE • State Park Director Ben Bergey has taken a new position as Regional Manager with Minnesota DNR’s Division of Parks and Trails Team. His last day will be February 14th. • DNR is still reviewing best way to update statewide trail plans and coop trail plans and we continue to work with our coop partners on development, maintenance and planning and are constantly reprioritizing maintenance • DNR, IATA and NPS have stared drafting a new triad agreement • DNR plans to hire 4 recreation liaisons to be stationed around the state including a fulltime position that will assist with IAT and NCT. Cameron Bump has taken a new position outside of the Department and his recreation liaison position was added to the planned recreation liaison recruitment. Parks moved from 5 district model to 6 district model and we just finished interviews for the 3 district supervisors. Park Manager hiring is complete and there are still plans to do a ranger recruitment. • The recreation stakeholder group will have its fourth meeting in January to further discussion on state wide collaboration on recreation management, recreation planning and recreation outreach and education. • The program continues to successfully work through a law enforcement transition with the bureau of law enforcement. Chief Warden Todd Schaller has retired and Casey Krueger is the new chief warden. Staff continue refining enforcement policies, procedures, working through questions and challenges and preparing for the peak 2020 season. • A new volunteer database development is underway for implementation in 2020. This new database will be available to all volunteers as well as friends and key partners for use in posting volunteer opportunities and recruiting volunteers. • Potawatomi Tower update – expected to have a final report from the engineering firm hired in the coming weeks with a possible decision from the department regarding the tower. o Considering the tower is still closed, DNR would like to discuss the potential movement of the rock to the actual terminus – whatever the Alliance would like to do here 1 • Parks & Recreation Management Program will begin drafting a new strategic plan over the next year. • DNR will be assessing damage related to high water on the great lakes – expecting damage from fall winter and more from spring at nearly all of the great lakes park and forest properties. • Polk county is working on wrapping up the master plans on the Stower Seven Lake State Trail and the Cattail State Trail. We have received no timeline on when they may start the planning process on the Gandy Dancer State Trail. • A winter timber sale is planned for Potawatomi – Property Manager Erin Brown-Stender provided the corresponding “Partner Letter – Potawatomi Timber Harvest” and “Harvest area – IAT in green”. The red portions of the map show the harvest areas with the red and green portions showing the IAT harvest areas. Exact dates are still unknown as they are being planned around weather. • Knowles Nelson Grants will be reviewed by the State Building Commission in mid- February and awards are expected to be made around the end of February or beginning of March. • Stewart Tunnel on Badger State Trail near Verona is closed while short- and long-term options for repair are being assessed – reported 4x4 ft limestone chunk fell from ceiling in August, which initiated the closure • Bearskin State Trail had visual inspection issues with 7 of the 17 trestle bridges, 1 of the 7 bridges is closed to motorized traffic and we will know more in the next few weeks on plan for repair or reroute • Mountain Bay State Trail has a bridge that is pulled off the abutments, caused by a motor vehicle on 117 (below bridge) hitting and pulling it off. Both - One mile section of trail and HWY 117 directly below the bridge are closed. County is working on a bike, ped and snowmobile reroute which will need approval by town board. • Winona Connector project has started construction. Current issue is the railroad is trying to get DNR to pay them $100,000 for their inspection and oversight of the project. Project is 2.9 million in construction. Phase one of this project will connect Winona to Buffalo County and the Great River State Trail, by way of the Old Wagon Bridge in Aghaming Park on Latsch Island MASTER PLANNING Direction from NRB: all master plans are to be updated (NR 44-compliant) by the end of 2024; FY18 Target = 65% of department-managed fee and easement acres under approved MP; Actual = 66.2%. 2 Completed regional plans • Northern Lake Michigan Coastal: August 2018 NRB • Superior Coastal Plain, Northwest Lowlands, Northwest Sands: February 2019 NRB Active Plans • Western Prairie Regional Plan – The draft Regional Plan was presented to the public for review and comment during November-December 2019. A summary of the input received is posted on the DNR planning webpage for WP Ecological Landscape. Presently, the department’s planning team is drafting final updates to the regional plan. We anticipate presenting the plan for NRB approval in spring 2020. (Beth Kienbaum lead planner, Savannah Ernzen) • Blue Mound State Park Master Plan – The public had the opportunity to comment on recreation and natural resource management alternatives for the master plan in late 2019. Alternatives included: management options for nonmotorized trails within the park and connections through the park to other trail systems. Specifically, the management alternatives discussed options for the park’s project boundary, camping, cross-country skiing, mountain biking, snowmobiling and forest and grassland management. The Management Alternatives Document is available on the website, and a summary of the input received has been posted to the BMSP Master Plan website. The Department is now forming the draft master plan. The public will also be given the opportunity to review the draft plan, anticipated release in Spring 2020. (Phil Rynish lead planner) • Northeast Sands Regional Plan –Plan was presented for NRB approval late October and was tabled. The Board directed staff to look more closely at unresolved issues related to forest management on the Pine-Popple Wild Rivers property. The department conducted additional analyses and the proposed plan was revised. The plan will be presented to the NRB at the January meeting (Jan 22). (Yoyi Steele lead planner) o Only minor non-motorized trail changes are proposed in this plan. A new primitive walking trail is proposed on the Pine-Popple Wild Rivers for scenic viewing of Breakwater Falls. Issues to be addressed: closure of several sections of forest roads, proposals for ATV use and a bicycle trail, forest/park division of land (Peshtigo/Gov. Thompson), and a unique network of trails on the Potato Rapids Flowage Unit of the Peshtigo River State Forest that currently allow recreational uses including hiking, biking, horseback riding and snowshoeing. The allowed trail uses will remain the same. However, a portion of the trail system has been discovered to impact both a prehistoric archaeological site and an early European settlement. This area (14.7 acres) is proposed to be closed to trail uses. • Southwest Savanna Regional Plan - In spring 2019, the department initiated planning with a public involvement process. The input received is summarized in the Public Scoping Input Summary posted on the DNR SW Savanna Ecological Landscape webpage. Presently, the department’s planning team is drafting the regional plan. The public will be given the opportunity to review the draft plan, which we anticipate being 3 released in early 2020. We anticipate presenting the plan for NRB approval in summer 2020. Badger State Trail, Military Ridge State Trail and Sugar River State Trail are included in this project – which have sections that overlap with the Ice Age Trail. (Savannah Ernzen lead planner, Phil Rynish) • Sauk Prairie State Recreation Area Master Plan was approved by NRB in October. • Central Sand Plains – The department engaged the public at a scoping meeting in Adams, WI on August 28. The comment period for public scoping of planning issues to consider ran through September 27. The planning team is now in the plan development phase. (Yoyi Steele lead planner) Anticipated upcoming plans • The department is initiating a revision to the 2005 Rib Mountain State Park master plan. The department will host a “kick-off” open house meeting to present information about the planning process, the park and the broader region, and to gather initial public input. The meeting will be on January 29th from 5 to 7:00 p.m. at the D.C. Everest Middle School in Weston. • Central Sand Hills – The department is continuing its development of background information for this regional plan. We anticipate finishing our pre-planning data gathering in early 2020 and posting a series of summary documents describing the region and properties in February 2020. We plan to hold an initial public “kick-off” meeting in late February or early March to gather input on the properties and their future management, regional ecological and recreation needs. (John Pohlman lead planner) • Western Coulee and Ridges, North Central Forest and Central Lake Michigan Coastal are likely next after the two Central Sand ELs. FEMA UPDATE • Staff continue to make significant progress on FEMA projects. Trail repairs are expected to be made by early summer 2020 while some other property damage may not be repaired until 2021 (Pattison Dam). MARKETING UPDATE • 2020 marketing and outreach events o OutWiGo Snow will be held February 1, at Willow River. The event will showcase all types of winter recreation and we are asking all partners to participate, attend and promote the event.