Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAbout06-12-17 PARC �SpU T11 d U d W PEACE r 1865 OFFICE OF THE CITY CLERK KAREEMAH FOWLER,CITY CLERK PARC COMMITTEE JUNE 12, 2017 4:20 P.M. Committee Members Present: Randy Kelly, Dr. David Varner, Oliver Davis, Mick Perry (citizen member) Committee Members Absent: John Voorde Other Council Present: Regina Williams-Preston, Gavin Ferlic, Karen White, Jo M. Broden, Tim Scott Other Council Absent: None Others Present: Aladean DeRose, Bob Palmer, Graham Sparks Presenters: Aaron Perri, Gary Harrington Agenda: Leeper Park Pond Update-Aaron Perri, VPA Director& Dr. Doug Morris Committee Chair Randy Kelly called to order the PARC Committee meeting at 4:20 p.m. He introduced members of the committee and notified the committee of Dr. Doug Morris' absence. Committee Chair Kelly then gave the floor to the presenters. Leeper Park Pond Update-Aaron Perri, VPA Director& Dr. Doug Morris Aaron Perri, Executive Director of Venues Parks&Arts, stated, I thought it would be important to talk about the Leeper Park Duck Pond because it has been heavily discussed in many ways and in many parts of the community, and I thought it would be best to discuss that here. Mr. Perri passed out a few hand-outs to the Committee and Council members. Copies of the hand-outs can be accessed through the City Clerk's Office. Mr. Perri went on, We have been undertaking, since last September, a project to re-imagine the ' 1 entire set of Riverfront Parks and Trails. We've had discussions previously about those various projects. That process has been happening for about eight(8)months. One (1) concept that we reasonably discovered was the elimination of the Leeper Park Duck Pond. The consultants we've hired for this project, SmithGroupJJR,have brought to our attention that it is no longer a best practice to have this type of ecosystem. There has been quite a lot of research. I have here with me today Gary Harrington who is our Naturalist,but I'll start out by hitting some of the high- 455 County-City Building-227 W.Jefferson Boulevard•South Bend,Indiana 46601 Phone 574-235-9221 •Fax 574-235-9173•TDD 574-235-5567•www.SouthBendfN.gov JENNIFER M.COFFMAN ALKEYNA M.ALDRIDGE JOSEPH MOLNAR CHIEF DEPUTY/DIRECTOR OF DEPUTY/DIRECTOR OF POLICY ORDINANCE VIOLATION CLERK OPERATIONS points of the discussion. We know the Leeper Park Duck Pond is pretty beloved. We have probably all fed ducks there at some point in time in our lives, I know I have and I have great memories of that. But the way we have come to appreciate and learn about these animals and what environments they thrive or do not thrive in, has evolved. This is much like how our zoos and aquariums have evolved with their thinking of how they treat animals and what kind of enclosures are used. At the end of the day,this type of environment is much too small for what is going on. It is over-crowded and malnutrition is happening. People love to feed the ducks by hand, but unfortunately they are feeding them things that are not healthy for the ducks, most commonly bread. I know there is this whole thought where people would ask, `Well why not put healthy food out there that people could feed the ducks with?' Well, dependency on human feeding is not good in any way, shape or form. These ducks no longer migrate because they have this constant food source and they are also getting over-fed. There is no way to control the amount of food they eat. At a place like the Potawatomi Zoo for example, they don't allow the public to feed any of the animals anymore except for the koi fish. The only people that can feed the animals there are trained vets that ensure the animals have the right diet and eat at the right time of the day. The whole idea of humans feeding animals has come and gone. We used to think it was ok but, like a lot of things we used to think were ok in our society, it is no longer ok. A lot of this discussion is predicated on what's good for the animals and what is good for the environment. Mr. Perri continued, We're told, and it is pretty easy to see, that people have been abandoning ducks out there. Any of the white ducks you see are actually not native. They are not natural. They are domesticated ducks that people have abandoned and dropped out there. Those ducks have now actually been cross-breeding with native ducks to create mutant ducks that can't migrate or fly. The ducks are going back and forth across the road and it causes traffic problems. We sometimes even see ducks getting hit by vehicles. At the end of the day, there are some things we can do to make it a little cleaner and we will continue the maintenance regimens, but this isn't about a lack of maintenance. This is about an unhealthy situation that we have created. This proposal we have drawn up on the second page of the handout includes the removal of the duck pond. What is indicated are some replacements labeled four(4) and five (5) at the top of the chart on the hand-out. We will be designing a much larger river walk and wetland area where the ducks will naturally want to migrate and inhabit. We will encourage the stopping of feeding the ducks and geese. The restored Studebaker Fountain is proposed to go where the duck pond is currently. It is not a replacement for the duck pond because these things have been thought of as mutually exclusive from one (1) another. Quite a bit of information is in the handout and we will be talking about this more at the NNN on Wednesday, June 14tH Garry Harrington, Director of the Rum Village Nature Center, stated, I've been in my role for about twenty-three (23) years and have been teaching people about nature and wildlife that whole time. As an educator, certainly I have very strong feelings about nature and wildlife. Frankly, in my job I wear two (2) hats—one (1) as an educator and one (1) as a historian. I teach people about history as well. Sometimes certain issues come head-to-head and for a short amount of time, that was true for this situation. The more I thought about this situation and the more I learned about it, the naturalists won. I do have a strong desire to preserve what we have and we have wonderful natural resources within the city limits and wonderful parks. However in good faith, I just cannot support feeding ducks. That is a bad practice. We are looking to come up with 2 new and good practices. As a consequence of this situation, we have come up with Ecological Advocacy Committee (EAC). We are trying to come up with a series of best practices. As a naturalist and a historian I'm going through and thinking about all the best practices from the past. One hundred(100) years ago, if you saw a bird of prey or any kind of predator,the best practice was to shoot it on spot. That was the best practice because they would eat the farmer's food and humans needed the food. We now know better and that isn't a good idea. We actually kind of messed up the food chain by doing that, without knowing it. In the 1940s, the best practice was to take DDT and spray it all over the plants of food to kill all the insects on them. We learned that by doing that we actually messed up the ecosystem. It killed all the things that eat everything else in the food chain. We actually learned a lot about the food chain around that time. As late as the 1950s and early 1960s, the best practice was to have all our toilets go into the St. Joseph River. The river was our sewer. At the time,that was the best practice. So what we are trying to do is get away from bad practices and I think it is something that evolves with time as we get smarter. It is a dynamic thing. Mr. Harrington then gave an account of his personal life growing up in South Bend and feeding the ducks. He grew and learned more and realized the effect of him doing so. Mr. Harrington continued,At Leeper Park, what we have is a totally unnatural ecosystem. There is nothing natural about it. It is essentially an impoundment. A lot of them can't fly and can't evade predators, so they are just stuck there. There are a multitude of problems that come from feeding the ducks. It is not only bad for the people, but it is bad for the ducks. There are also many different diseases associated with ducks and geese. When they are fed bread, twinkies, and donuts, it is alien junk food to them. They need protein and they get that from aquatic plants, seeds and insects. They are not getting that here. This causes a whole host of issues. Dependency on people is also not a good thing because they can become aggressive. It is not a good thing when animals lose the natural fear they have associated with people. That is what is happening with these ducks and geese. Dogs could also eat the duck and geese feces and get sick with some of the diseases. The water contamination is also a big problem because there are so many ducks in such a small pond. The E-Coli and chloroform bacteria levels are incredibly high. Mr. Harrington then scrolled through a presentation (which is available in the City Clerk's Office)that showed pictures supplementing all the aforementioned issues. Mr. Harrington concluded, There needs to be signage and a campaign that encourages people to stop feeding the ducks and geese. Mr. Perri followed up, This is merely a conversation and these proposed plans are not scheduled to take effect until 2018. Committeemember Oliver Davis asked, What will be done with the ducks and geese that live there now? Mr. Perri answered, Between the Potawatomi Zoo and the Water Foul Rehabilitator,we would try to find places where they would survive. 3 Councilmember Tim Scott stated, Leeper Park is in my district and I have received many comments on it. I've gotten more comments to do something different with the duck pond than to keep the duck pond. I think that is good and it shows that people are understanding the changing of the culture. The park originally had two (2)ponds and they were more for small boating and cooling off when there wasn't air conditioning. It has now become the duck impoundment it is now. Also, carp can handle low oxygen and it is concerning to me when I see dead carp in the pond because carp can survive in anything. A few years back when they shut the pond down to clean it, there were kids fishing out goldfish and dumping them into the St. Joseph River. That is technically dumping an invasive species into a state-owned water way and that is illegal. There have been many problems. The one (1)big question I've been receiving is whether the playground will stay. Mr. Perri confirmed that both playgrounds will stay. Committeemember Mick Perry asked, What will be done with the `Best. Week. Ever' icon? Mr. Perri answered, That public piece of art was created for the temporary use and will be used again next year. With no other business, Committee Chair Kelly adjourned the PARC Committee meeting at 4:47 P.M. Respectfully Submitted, Randy Kelly, Chairperson 4