The Good Stuff - We have a Wildlife Plan

Our first, yeah!

This is the cover of Lafayette’s first 295 page Wildlife Plan! The City Council approved the plan at their May 21st meeting.

Back in January 2024, I reported that the Wildlife Plan was approaching the finish line. You might want to check out that report as I included some interesting graphics showing community responses to a survey conducted by the team hired to complete the plan. Here’s one.

Discussions of creating a plan for wildlife began with the Lafayette Open Space Advisory Committee (LOSAC) and the Prairie Dog Advisory Working Group (PDAWG) in 2019.

MISSION, FUNDING, AND WRITERS

In 2022 all the ducks were in a row and the process began. With a budget of $120,000, Biohabitats was hired to write the plan. Half the funding came from our open space funds and the remainder from the general fund. ( I recall additional funding was provided as the plan neared the end due to the need for more details, but I don’t remember how much.)

Our former Natural Resources Coordinator and now current Open Space Supervisor Lexie Sierra-Martinez has described the viewpoint of the plan throughout the process by asking the question if you were a red fox living in Old Town what kind of protections would you want in place that would preserve your habitat, your food source and that would protect your relatives. Her answer: this plan is going to address that. (Happy dance from me!)

Here’s a 2022 video I took of one of those red foxes in Old Town.

THE PLAN’S FOCUS

From the May 21st staff memo:

“The City has contracted with ecological consultant Biohabitats to develop the City’s first-ever Wildlife Plan that establishes a guide for identifying where, what, and how to implement certain habitat protections and improvements. The final plan includes land management recommendations as well as policy considerations that will offer best protection for wildlife and wildlife habitat.”

During a council workshop presentation a few months ago, one of the members of the consultants team mentioned that it was unusual for a municipality to have that framing for a plan of this type and they were excited to work on it.

SOME HISTORY OR HOW DID WE GET HERE?

You know I like to give background when I can and since I am such an animal lover you can probably imagine I have been involved a time or two when animal-related issues come up. I spoke at the May 21st council meeting to provide some historical background so I am going to use what I said to fill you in.

CREATION OF A WILDLIFE TASK FORCE

Back in the late 1990’s a developer killed a colony of prairie dogs next to city hall on property that didn’t get developed until apartments were built a few years ago. That action set off a firestorm which not only made the local news but even received a mention in the Wall Street Journal. The method used was particularly gruesome and it’s what got me involved in city watching. My husband made a sign and joined a large group of protestors while I got on the phone to call city council members.

Soon after that another colony was killed on the property that is now Natural Grocers. Public pressure on the council led to them creating the Wildlife Task Force.

SIDESTEP FOR A MUCH DESERVED SHOUT-OUT

Current LOSAC members Lynn Riedel and Grant Swift were members of that task force and were also instrumental in the creation of the Outdoor Classroom. An additional shout-out for their commitment to this community, Lynn was the LOSAC representative for the recent comprehensive plan update, Grant is currently the LOSAC representative to the development code update working group, taught at Angevine and Sanchez, was the mayor’s 5th-grade teacher, is vice chair of the Historic Preservation Board, and is a one-time volunteer of the year. And they landmarked their house too. I'm thinking there should be a statue of them in our future!

BACK TO THE WILDLIFE TASK FORCE

After the task force worked for 16 months a report was created that “encouraged a coordinated, multi-faceted approach to protecting and managing Lafayette’s wildlife resources, including cooperation between departments, boards, commissions and council, taking a regional approach, encouraging an aggressive acquisition and restoration of wildlife habitat, and community involvement.”

OPEN SPACE TAXES

Our Legacy Tax for open space purchases was on the ballot at this time. We already had the Post Tax for Parks, Open Space, and Trails which had been approved by the voters during another turbulent time when housing was being constructed near Waneka Lake and caused public pushback. However, the amount of money that tax raised when split between parks and open space provided little funding for open space acquisition. LOSAC brought forward the Legacy Tax which would be dedicated for open space purposes only and it too was approved by the voters.

WILDLIFE TASK FORCE RECOMMENDATIONS

One task force recommendation that took effect was that a member of the planning commission be a liaison to LOSAC. There were also recommendations regarding prairie dogs, including prohibiting specific poisons, which became a part of a prairie dog management policy for public lands. The creation of a natural resource manager position was included which finally happened decades after the report with the hiring of Lexie Sierra-Martinez in 2022.

The report helped to guide LOSAC and the open space department for years to come, although not all the recommendations were adopted.

2018 ANOTHER OUTCRY

Fast forward to 2018 when another outcry over prairie dogs occurred, this time at the city water tank when animals were live trapped during broiling weather. The council was inundated with emails and calls, Mayor Berg stepped in and the water tank prairie dogs were released back to their burrows. This was followed by a major poisoning on private land near Anna’s Farm. These two events resulted in the council placing a 6-month moratorium on all killing of prairie dogs on private land until a new policy with a focus on humane treatment was created. The moratorium was later extended for another 6 months to complete the new policy.

During public input on the topic, I suggested a prairie dog water tank task force be created to monitor the area and bring together staff and concerned residents to work together. Councilor Behanna liked this idea and it led to the creation of PDAWG the Prairie Dog Advisory Working Group.

A year after that outcry we saw a tightening of policy regarding city lands and a regulation and permitting process for public lands too. That was a huge step forward in the treatment of our wildlife.

A NEED FOR A WILDLIFE PLAN

The need for accurate mapping of existing prairie dog colonies came to the forefront during that time which led to the discussion of creating a Wildlife Plan to address all of Lafayette’s wildlife and their habitat.

WILDLIFE AND NATURAL AREAS IN THE COMPREHENSIVE PLAN

I was a member of the Community Advisory Committee for the recent update of our Comprehensive Plan. The comp plan is the closest we get to a vision document for the community. It was exciting to see wildlife and natural areas woven throughout. The natural world has become a major part of Lafayette’s identity and you will hear people say they moved here because of it.

It took some negative events to jump-start a move forward to preserve and protect but we did move forward and I am grateful that I got to witness and sometimes participate in making those jumps happen. I am thrilled that we now have a Wildlife Plan.

POLLINATOR DISTRICT?

The next step looks to be the creation of a pollinator district, stay tuned, more to come on that soon.

Want to offer more support? Awesome!