Rocky Bluff Neighborhood Association, Madison WI

Friends of Hoyt Park Minutes for July 2017

Meeting Date: July 13, 2017
Recording Date: July 14th, 2017

IMMEDIATELY RELEVANT TO RBNA

  • The Park Rangers are on a blitz to enforce dogs on leashes. Tickets have been handed out to people whose dogs are off leash.
    • Patrons of the park have made calls to the city to report off-leash dogs.
    • It may also be worth noting that Hoyt Park is technically supposed to be dog free. This is clearly not being enforced.
    • According to city bylaws, all dogs are supposed to be registered and, if present in parks, must have a park license. Please check the city website for details.
  • The Friends of Hoyt Park group hosts both weekly and monthly workdays.
    • Weekly workdays are every Wednesday at 10 am, meeting point is at the main parking lot. Look for a park ranger. These workdays will continue until at least the end of August.
    • Monthly workdays are the third Saturday of every month at 10 am (July 15th, Aug 19th, and Sept 16th, etc) and continue through November. Meeting location varies, so please check the Friends of Hoyt Park website for updates.
      • July 15th (this Saturday) is a planting day. 400 plants will be put in the ground 
      • The next work day is expected to be a fireplace cleanup.

OF INTEREST TO RBNA
(in expected chronological order)

  • Bat Survey (Kid Friendly!)
    • Tentatively evening of Aug 11, backup date Aug 12
    • Citizen Science initiative
    • a Park Ranger will hand out a bat sonar listening device which are able to detect the sound of  bats and potentially identify the genus species.
  • iNaturalist Demo (Kid Friendly!)
    • Aug 26th at 10 am, meet at main shelter
    • This is an phone/web app that allows crowdsourcing of plant/bug/etc. identification.
    • Demo date is not scheduled, but expected to be late Aug or early Sept.
    • For the tech savvy, this demo is probably unnecessary, but the concept of the app seems great!
  • Ranger Farewell Party
    • Erick, our park ranger, who is a UW-Madison botany student, is only with us during the summer months.
    • No date setg; expected late Aug or early Sept
    • Typically people (who know the ranger?) show up at 5 pm and have a few drinks with the ranger
    • Probably not child friendly (some light drinking may be involved), but I’m sure people would behave appropriately around kids

EXPECTED MAJOR EVENTS OCCURRING IN HOYT PARK

  • Picnic in the Park
    • Oct 28th
    • A ticketed ($135) event put on by MadisonParksFoundation.org
    • Apparently this is a very epicurean event. Tents will be erected in the park, trucks with kitchens built-in will be around.
    • Park patrons should expect the park to be partially or closed for a few days around the event with  gates erected around the ticketed area.
    • The event is expected to take up on-street parking, so neighbors and park patrons should expect the streets to be busier than usual

RANGER REPORT

  • The dedicated park range has been working on repairing paths that have been experienced water damage due to the heavy rains, removing poison ivy which is encroaching on paths (though there is still plenty of poison ivy off the paths), and removing buckthorn trees (which are alien and invasive)

FINANCES

  • Current funds for Friends of Hoyt Park are ~$13.9k
  • There is still an ~$1600 grant from the city we are expecting to get.
  • There was light mention of doing a fundraiser to help finance the prairie burns