Port Oneida Plan, Environmental Assessment available for public review
From staff reports
Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore Superintendent Dusty Shultz has announced the availability of the Port Oneida Historic Landscape Management Plan/Environmental Assessment. The Environmental Assessment (EA) describes and analyzes alternative approaches for addressing historic landscape management activities at the Port Oneida Rural Historic District (Port Oneida).
Since the end of agricultural activity in Port Oneida, historic spatial patterns have incrementally deteriorated. The physical and visual connections between landscape features, agricultural buildings, and community landmarks have diminished, and the number and diversity of historic plant materials has decreased. The overall result, which signifies the need for the EA, is diminished integrity of design, setting, materials, workmanship, feeling, and association in the historic landscape; the qualities that make up historic integrity. The NPS seeks to prevent any further loss of integrity through the development and implementation of a historic landscape management plan.
Under the “No Action” Alternative, landscape stabilization and rehabilitation would continue under current management plans. Since 1984, the National Lakeshore has been mowing fields to provide a sense of the park’s agricultural history, preserve wildlife habitat, and make visible significant glacial and geologic formations. In the past, historic field edges have been determined by studying aerial photographs and on-the-ground investigation. Field maintenance activities to remove encroaching native and non-native woody vegetation in fields and important viewsheds are accomplished in an ad hoc manner as funding is available. Much of this field maintenance consists of mowing on a periodic schedule.
The Preferred Alternative presents an active program of removing vegetation to maintain or reestablish the historic boundary (or a semblance of the historic boundary) and configuration of fields while addressing natural resource concerns such as invasive plant management, wetland protection, and soil conservation. Field maintenance is one of the primary objectives for this alternative, as it is critical for retaining large-scale spatial patterns in the landscape. This alternative provides direction for stabilizing existing or reestablishing missing patterns of field and forest and protecting existing historic vegetation through removal of non-historic (and often invasive) vegetation. It provides a general framework that will allow flexibility in applying techniques for removing and disposing of non-historic vegetation and maintaining the desired vegetation. This alternative will also permit the National Lakeshore to respond positively to proposals for adaptively using the farms that are compatible with objectives for Port Oneida.
The National Lakeshore would like your opinion on the best way to manage the historic landscape at Port Oneida. They encourage you to comment on the EA until the public comment period closes on Sept. 12. The document may be reviewed on the National Lakeshore’s website at www.nps.gov/slbe (click on the “Port Oneida Historic Landscape Management Plan/EA” icon). Paper copies are available for review at the National Lakeshore Visitor Center in Empire, the offices of Empire and Glen Arbor Townships, the Village of Empire Office, the Glen Lake Community Library, Benzie Shores District Library, Darcy Library of Beulah, Leelanau Township Library, Leland Township Library, Suttons Bay Bingham District Library, and Traverse City District Library. A very limited number of paper copies and CDs are available upon request.
The National Lakeshore strongly encourages you to submit comments electronically through a link on their website. Alternatively, you may mail comments to: Superintendent, Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, 9922 Front Street, Empire, MI 49630.
A public open house on the project is scheduled for Tuesday, August 23, from 5 to 7 p.m. at the Philip A. Hart Visitor Center auditorium in Empire. A 30-minute presentation on the EA will be held at 5:30 p.m., with a question and answer period following.
The National Lakeshore looks forward to receiving your thoughts and opinions concerning the Port Oneida Historic Landscape Management Plan/Environmental Assessment. For more information, please contact Environmental Protection Specialist Michael Duwe at (231) 326-5134.
