2023 Budget Add

Look carefully to the left of the path at the mass of thick, bright green buckthorn and contrast it with the right side of the path. The right side is actively managed by volunteers with the Friends of Eloise Butler Wildflower Garden, one of the beautiful natural areas within our park system. What they are creating is a multi-layered, healthy forest with tree canopy, mid-size shrubs and forest floor plant life, demonstrating active land management support for our precious urban natural areas.

We need to take better care of these natural areas made up of native plant communities (1,200 acres representing 20% of our total MRPB parkland). I didn’t believe this was sufficiently prioritized in the proposed 2023 MPRB budget, given one of our key 2022-2026 strategic goals is Steward Our Natural Resources.

Working with other commissioners, we unanimously amended the 2023 budget to reallocate budget dollars and invest in hiring a Natural Resources Technician in the land management area. Adding a full-time staff position honors and leverages the many hours of work volunteers give to our system in active land management. In the future I would love to see MPRB add a full-time ecologist to our staff.