This from the Township website. Click on the word “application” below for more information.

“There are also openings on Zoning Board of Appeals, Historic District Commission, Planning Commission and Safety Paths and Trails this year. These positions are appointed, not elected. Please contact mail@oaklandtownship.org with questions or to submit an application.”

There will be an election in November to decide who gets the Parks and Recreation Commission position currently held by Judy Workings. But the August Republican primary will most likely decide the election. Township voters will likely not vote for an independent or other party candidate. Judy Workings was appointed by the Board of Trustees when Maryann Whitman resigned shortly after beng elected in November 2020. The law required the Board of Trustees to appoint someone to fill the vacancy until the next election. See 41.426, Section 6 (5) below of Michigan code.

41.426 Township park commission; petition; election; membership; terms; increase or decrease in number of members; vacancy.

Sec. 6.

  (5) A vacancy in the township park commission shall be filled by appointment of the township board for the period prescribed in sections 370 and 370a of the Michigan election law, 1954 PA 116, MCL 168.370 and 168.370a.

If you want to run, click on link below for instructions on the Township website. I’m sure Deputy Clerk Roxanne Thatcher will help you with any questions at 248-218-6953.

Click to access UPDATED%20Candidate%20Info%20Parks%20and%20Rec%20Comm.%20PARTIAL%20TERM%202022.pdf

Here is a link to entire elected parks commission law-

http://legislature.mi.gov/doc.aspx?mcl-Act-157-of-1905

On Saturday, eight volunteers, including me, spent 5-1/2 hours learning to do controlled ecological burns. We got classroom and hands-on instruction from Dr. Ben VanderWeide, OTPR Natural Areas Stewardship Manager, assisted by Grant VanderLaan, Stewardship Specialist. The program of prescribed burns is in its twentieth year. Volunteers do the smaller burns while contractors do the larger ones. I observed a large burn last spring at Charles Isley Park. The volunteer program started in 2015, after Dr. Ben was hired in 2014 with extensive experience with such burns.

According to our training materals the reason for such burns is:

“To reintroduce fire into fire-adapted ecosystems to stimulate native plant and animal populations and give them a competitive advantage over invasive, fire-sensitive species.”

One of the volunteers was Pat Falle. He and his wife have purchased the former Iafrate property that borders Paint Creek Trail, Paint Creek, and Gunn Road. You may recall this property as the one with the large pond, large home with a lot of large glass windows and many fenced-in exotic animals. The large house had been removed before the property was sold to the Falle’s. They will be doing ecological restoration to the property, making it a private ecological park. The plan to build a house and barn. Please don’t trespass.

According to pages 2 and 6 of Dr. Ben’s recently approved (by Parks and Recreation Commission) “2022 Field Work Plan” , burns will be in March and April if wind and atmsopheric conditions cooperate. October will be used to complete what could not be done in the spring. See the full “2022 Field Work Plan” for this and other Stewardship work in the 2/23/22 PRC meeting packet starting on page 14. https://ecode360.com/documents/OA3183/public/646332345.pdf

Volunteer Crew Prescribed burns

Bear Creek Nature Park

Paint Creek Heritage Area – Wet Prairie

Nicholson Prairie

Paint Creek Trail Art Project

Lost Lake Nature Park parking lot planting

Gallagher Creek Park plantings

Contractor Prescribed Burns

Charles Isley Park

Draper Twin Lake Park

Lost Lake Nature Park

This page on the township website describes more details about prescribed burns. http://www.oaklandtownship.org/boards_and_commissions/parks_and_recreation/prescribed_ecological_burns.php I arrived at that page by this route – Township Departments/Parks and Recreation/Stewardship/Prescribed Ecological Burns

Even more comments about reasons for prescribed burns and their strategy are contained in this two page “Dave’s Fire Creed” written by Dave Borneman, Ann Arbor Natural Areas Preservation Burn Boss. Ann Arbor was the first in the state to use prescribed burns.

You can get a further idea of the complexity of planning for and safely doing a burn from the 25 page manual we received at the volunteer training. It was supplemented by Dr. Ben’s many, many slides and video clips and of course answering our many questions.

The Michigan State Senator for Oakland Township is Rosemary Bayer (D)

The Michigan Representatives for Oakland Township in the House are:

John Reilly (R) – northern part

Mark Tisdel (R) – southern part , precincts 4 and 7

A database set up by the Mackinac Center allows you to look at all their votes, or votes on specific topics.

Search Voting Record – Michigan Votes

I found this data interesting.

There have been 718 House votes from 1/1/2021 to 2/26/22. Reilly missed 44 votes. Tisdel missed zero.

Reilly voted against the majority of his Republican Party on 237 votes; Tisdel on only 7.

Senator Rosemary Bayer (D) missed 47 of 539 votes and voted against the majority of her party on 40 votes.

You can go to this website any time and see a list of votes with most recent at the top and a description of the bill.

This notice is in 2/27/22 Oakland Press.

February 26, 2022

Emily Barkham,

Chairperson, Parks and Recreation Commission (PRC), Oakland Township

cc: PRC Commissioners, BOT

Subject: February 23^rd PRC Meeting

I thought that allowing several public question and answer periods during Dr. Ben Vanderweide’s 159 slide presentation “2022 Natural Areas Stewardship Overview and Update” was extremely helpful. I hope this will set the pattern for future annual presentations and more residents will attend and ask questions about the complex Natural Areas Stewardship program. It was gratifying to see Township Trustee Dave Mabry in attendance and asking questions. Public Q&A, in my view, is a very effective way to increase public understanding of any township issue and to increase a board or commission’s understanding of the public views. Increased mutual understanding, in my view, leads to better decisions by government bodies and voters.

I also thought the round-table seating format should be considered for all meetings. It allows PRC members to hear each other better and to see each other’s expressions and body-language when communicating; which in my view,  sometimes constitutes 50% of the communication.

Bob Yager – Resident

I believe that Dr. Benjamin Vanderweide (Dr. Ben) is a major asset needed to keep Oakland Township “Rural”, as we say in our master plan, but also with restored, preserved and interconnected oak-barrens and other rare natural communities as shown on our Township Seal.  

Curamus Terram   – “We care for the land”

We must not let some other entity steal him away from us. He needs to be our sixth and final Natural Areas Stewardship Manager. But, of course, oversight of his plans and activities is required by our 20,000 community members through our elected Parks and Recreation Commission.

At the February 23^rd Parks and Recreation Commission meeting, Dr. Ben (as he is called), gave an overview of Natural Areas Stewardship accomplishments in 2021. He presented 159 slides and entertained questions at frequent intervals. Natural Areas Stewardship 2022 Update and Overview (oaklandtownship.org).

The questions resulted in some good discussions. I learned a lot, as did others. I hope this will be an annual public event from now on. One thing I learned is that Dr. Ben (as he is called) has issued a detailed Annual Report every year since 2014. These reports can be found on this page https://oaklandnaturalareas.com/about/.  Scroll down a little when you arrive at that page to see a list of links to these annual reports.  You can follow the annual progress since 2014 at your favorite park.

Apparently Parks encounters some difficulties posting on the Township website so for Stewardship activities most detailed information is seen at this website: https://oaklandnaturalareas.com/

You might also be interested in the education and experience Dr. Ben brought to Oakland Township. ths following paragraph is from the 2014 annual report:

“Dr. Benjamin VanderWeide joined Oakland Township Parks in April 2014 to lead parks Natural Areas Stewardship. Ben earned his Ph.D. in Biology from Kansas State University, focusing on how fire, grazing, and drought affect prairie vegetation, and a Bachelor’s of Science from Calvin College, with majors in Biology and Spanish, and a minor in biochemistry. Ben brings practical experience doing botanical surveys and ecological restoration in the Great Lakes region, invasive species management in Idaho with the US Forest Service, and 7 years of prescribed burning in Michigan and Kansas. His science education experience includes designing and teaching high school ecology experiments and teaching biology courses at Kansas State University. He loves to help people learn about nature in their backyards, and is excited to work in Oakland Township Parks to improve their natural areas. Ben and his wife Debbie recently moved back to the beautiful state of Michigan (he is originally from Sparta, Michigan), and now spend their time exploring the area, hiking on local trails, and enjoying the Great Lakes.”

In answer to resident Dr. Drew Moore’s questions about the future plans for the recently girdled maple trees near his home, Dr. Vanderweide said he planned to leave the large ones standing to eventually become woodpecker homes for rare woodpeckers. Any that present a hazard to trail users will be removed as a result of the annual hazardous tree survey, according to Parks and Recreation Director Mindy Milos-Dale.

Below is the table of contents for the 2020 Annual Report, showing where Stewardship efforts took place.

After this presentation, Parks and Recreation Commission (PRC) by a 5/0 vote approved his “2022 Field Work Plan”. Qualified as Dr. Ben is, his plans still must be approved by our elected Parks and Recreation Commission, who does our oversight for us. You can see the plan in the meeting packet here on pages 14-20 https://ecode360.com/documents/OA3183/public/646332345.pdf.

Commissioner Brian Blust questioned whether the public had sufficient time to review the plan and comment. The PRC consensus was that any resident concern about the plan can be addressed at any time.

Going through it you can see what is planned for your favorite park or other property. If you have any questions, Dr. Ben welcomes your phone calls at 248-651-7810.

With regard to one of my questions regarding the tree ordinance impact on Stewardship:

Counterintuitively, some of the work to restore natural habitat occasionally requires killing large maple trees to restore the rich biodiversity of the oak barrens that were here for centuries before European settlement suppressed fire. That original natural landscape is detailed in the 1816/17 initial land survey notes that are available to the public.

 Dr. Ben was told, when hired, that he was permitted to do such work under the tree ordinance exceptions 389-11 B and G.

389-11- B Conservation of natural resources. Conservation of soil, vegetation, water, fish, wildlife, and other natural resources.

389-11-G. Outdoor recreation. Outdoor recreation such as the utilization of field trails or woodlands on publicly owned property for nature study, hiking, horseback riding, trapping and hunting as otherwise legally permitted and regulated.

It was a great meeting format in that citizens were allowed to ask questions and get answers – and discuss further.

Each park has a maintenance plan. Some of these are ten years old need revision according to Dr. Ben. I will be following how that process unfolds – who approves what, when and how.

Among the 14 members of the public in attendance were  Stacy Sobotka, reporter for “The Record” newspaper; Dr. and Mrs. Moore who live in the former Bill Fox home, surrounded by Lost Lake Nature Park Expansion; Mrs. Moore’ parents, Trustee Dave Mabry, Reg Brown, Cam Mannino and others.

Dear Neighbors,

I hope you are enjoying your 2022.

During the 2/8 Board of Trustees meeting, I was prepared to share my thoughts on the proposed resolution.  However, when there is no motion to discuss I generally prefer to remain quiet to keep the meeting brief. 

I do not like the contents of the proposed resolution.  I do not wish to name the property.   I do not wish to manage the property.  I do not wish to approve individual expenditures on the property.

There seems to be some misunderstanding/disagreement regarding who should control/manage the Land Preservation Millage.  Many arguments could be made supporting the differing opinions on the matter.  Unless someone can point to a specific important problem that must be addressed, I do not believe that we need to resolve these differing opinions.  Also, I do not believe a BoT resolution will resolve this issue.

We have two millages for the purposes of purchasing and managing properties for active/passive recreation.  It seems logical to me that both millages are managed by a single group.  Because the Parks millage is managed by seven elected officials, I feel confident that they can properly manage the land preservation funds while remaining fully accountable to the citizens of Oakland Township.  Based on our recent grant successes, there are a least 5 million reasons to support my thoughts.  I do not feel that adding another layer of elected authority over Preservation Fund expenditures will serve the residents well.  Because I was previously on the Parks Board, I could speak at great lengths to describe the care and detail Parks puts into our natural areas and preservation fund expenditures.  I would strongly encourage anyone interested in land management to attend Dr. Ben Vanderweide’s presentation on Wednesday night at 7p.

Regarding BoT authority and oversight, I think most people would agree that the BoT, at minimum, has the authority to approve the budgets for both Parks and for Land Preservation.  This authority has been used to request small adjustments to budgets over the years through cooperative workshops.  I feel confident that the elected Parks Board is representing the residents well by managing the Park Fund and the Land Preservation Fund, and as a Trustee I feel that the budget approvals process is an appropriate check and balance.  

Kind regards,

Andy Zale

I have come to realize that it is not very easy even for highly intelligent people to find these items on the Township website. So I created instructions and posted them under “Township Website Help”on my “Encyclopedia” to your right. Go there and scroll down and click on “Township Website Help”