port oneida historic landscape management plan/environmental assessment

Port Oneida Historic Landscape Management Plan/Environmental

Assessment

• This Plan proposes desired future resource conditions for the landscape and an array of landscape management treatments.

• The Plan does not propose to “freeze” the Port Oneida landscape at any particular point in time.

Port Oneida Historic Landscape Management Plan/EA

Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore

National Park ServiceU.S. Department of Interior



Port Oneida Rural Historic District

Located within Leelanau County, Port Oneida is just south of a point of land (Pyramid Point) that extends into Lake Michigan between Glen Arbor and Good Harbor Bay.




• It is a 3,400-acre rural historic district that was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1997.

• The period of significance is 1870-1945.

• During this time, Port Oneida was a close-knit community, founded in the early 1860s, primarily by German immigrants.




• As logging activity slowed beginning in the 1870s, residents turned to farming as their primary source of income.

• Port Oneida includes 121 contributing buildings, five contributing sites, and 20 contributing structures. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1997.



Relationship to Other Park Plans and Projects

• 2009 GMP – Includes Port Oneida in the “Experience History” zone, managed primarily to preserve historic structures and landscapes.

• 2009 GMP – Identifies Port Oneida as a “fundamental” resource because it is critical to maintaining the park’s purpose and significance.




• 1990 Open Field Management Plan – Included portions of Port Oneida for mowing

• 2008 Port Oneida Environmental Assessment – Planned a visitor center, park housing, small parking areas, vehicle pull-offs, and hiking trails

• 2009 Sleeping Bear Heritage Trail – Will traverse Port Oneida along M-22 on the Bayview Trail and along the highway right-of-way




• 2005 Fire Management Plan – Prescribed fire is an option for vegetation management.

• Great Lakes Invasive Plant Management Plan/EA – currently underway



Plan Purpose

• Help park managers achieve an appropriate range of resource conditions.

• Manage the “Experience History” zone to preserve historic structures and landscapes.

• Provide for a primary visitor experience in this zone of visiting historical areas and learning about history.



Plan Need

• Since the end of agricultural activity, historic spatial patterns have deteriorated.

• Encroaching native and non-native woody vegetation has invaded many fields, diminishing the physical and visual connection between landscapes, buildings, and community landmarks.



Plan Objectives

• Identify field boundaries.

• Provide general recommendations for historic tree rows, orchards, windbreaks and ornamental or garden plant varieties.

• Develop an array of “desired future conditions.”

• Assign desired future conditions to each field or group of fields.

• Develop a list of techniques or treatment options.



Alternative 1: No Action (Continue Current Management)

• Since 1984, the park 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.

• Field maintenance activities to remove encroaching native and non-native woody vegetation are accomplished in an ad hoc manner as funding is available.



Alternative 1: No Action (Continue Current Management)

• Clearing activities have been implemented during the past five years at Kelderhouse, Peter Burfiend, and Lawr fields (2006), Carsten Burfiend and Barratt fields (2008), and Dechow and Charles Olson fields (2010).

• Some maintenance of cleared fields has occurred annually in recent years.



Alternative 2: Landscape Rehabilitation (Preferred Alternative)

• Strives to maintain the historic agricultural landscape so that the period of significance (1870-1945), and the changes that occurred over that time period, are conveyed to visitors.

• 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.




• Provides direction for stabilizing existing or reestablishing missing patterns of field and forest, allowing for active agricultural activities.

• Allows for a broader range of adaptive use of the farms compatible with objectives for Port Oneida.




• Identifies field boundaries (15 fields—see maps).

• 1938 aerial photography

• 2007 aerial photography




• Identifies three Desired Future Conditions:

• OLD FIELD SUCCESSION

• OPEN MEADOW

• ACTIVE AGRICULTURE (COVER CROPS)




OLD FIELD SUCCESSION




OPEN MEADOW




ACTIVE AGRICULTURE (COVER CROPS)




• Recommends Desired Future Conditions for each of the 15 fields (see maps).

• There are other public landowners in Port Oneida, including road rights-of-way (Leelanau County Road Commission and Michigan DOT), Kelderhouse Cemetery (Cleveland Township), and Port Oneida School (Glen Lake Community Schools).




• There are five privately-owned farms.

• The NPS recognizes the rights of public and private owners and will seek to work cooperatively with them on landscape rehabilitation efforts.




• Treatment Options:• Mechanical• Herbicide Application• Prescribed Fire• Cultivation and Pasturing

• Field Monitoring

• Mitigation



Alternatives Considered but Dismissed

• Restore Agricultural Production to Historic Levels

• Return Landscape to Native Forest Cover



Affected Environment and Environmental Consequences

• Cultural Resources• Water Resources• Vegetation• Wildlife• Species of Special Concern• Soils• Visitor Use and Experience• Park Facilities and Operations



Document Availability and Public Comment

• We encourage you to comment on the Plan until the public comment period closes on September 12, 2011. The document may be reviewed on the National Lakeshore’s website at www.nps.gov/slbe (just click on the “Port Oneida Historic Landscape Management Plan/EA” icon).

http://www.nps.gov/slbe




Paper copies are available for review at:

• National Lakeshore Visitor Center • Empire Township • Glen Arbor Township• Village of Empire • Glen Lake Community Library • Benzie Shores District Library • Darcy Library of Beulah • Leelanau Township Library• Leland Township Library • Suttons Bay Bingham District Library • Traverse City District Library




• We strongly encourage you to submit comments electronically through a link on the National Lakeshore’s website. Alternatively, you may mail comments to: Superintendent, Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, 9922 Front Street, Empire, MI 49630.

• A very limited number of paper copies and CDs are available upon request.



QUESTIONS? COMMENTS?

port oneida historic landscape management plan/environmental assessment

Documents

port oneida landscape

portions of port oneida

department of interior

park housing

historic structures

sleeping bear heritage

underway slide

vegetation management