Minutes

Saint John’s Arboretum Advisory Council-Twin Cities Subgroup

Minutes from the October 28, 1997 meeting

1:00-3:30 p.m. at Twin City Tree Trust

We felt that we needed to help develop the overall plan. This will help in prioritizing projects and raising money. Because of this, Peter said we need to have a vision statement. Where do we want to go? The mission statement is not the same. Vision/mission/goals

The vision of Saint John’s Arboretum is to celebrate the beauty and values of God’s creation.

(This is personal and yet it’s corporate. Inclusive of everyone.)

The mission is to provide:

Sustainable stewardship practices of use and preservation.

Opportunities for education on research.

Opportunities for spiritual renewal

--impressive trees, vistas, enhance natural groupings

--fauna can also be spiritual and educational

Goals are specific:

Restoration and preservation projects

Management

Educational programs

*Explain name—Natural Arboretum—other name? Forest/ /Nature area. There seems to be some confusion, uncomfortableness with Arboretum. Those here suggested we develop a Brochure/Fact sheet about arboretum. There is a need to explain it.

Prioritize what we are already doing.

Benedictine, Christian, educational.....

How do we put in the least amount of energy and money to make the most impact.

Have a strong priority in each area—but list them all.

Funding can change priorities

A high priority is the Habitat Restoration Project

Wetlands new dam/path/boardwalk---how do we get through it to the savanna?

Forest Management Plan

Sustainable harvesting/ multiple objectives

Demonstrations/control

Education

There are four main areas in Education: College, Prep,k-12 and adults

A priority is to strengthen College curricula at csb/sju

Meet with teachers who already use the outer campus. ---Doug Mullen

What are they doing? What could they do? What would they like to do?

We want to provide a link to the outdoors for teachers.

Brainstorm with them

Internships—education facilitation.—should be easy to do

Independent Learning Projects //Research Opportunities

High School pilot environmental program Sarah Pruett/

Use SNAP or TCTT for now so that we get going. But we should develop our own program, according to what we think is appropriate for our site and resources. What is sustainable, or natural to do? What are our standards? Our criteria?

A synergism with other programs could be stronger, providing more opportunities for us.

It probably will take us two years to develop a program we want.

Adult—Private non-industrial landowners(PNIL)

Volunteer program

Sustainable stewardship brochure for PNIL-adults

Set up demonstrations—signage for activities

Wild life habitat (pheasants, deer...)

Changing use of farm lands—woodlots

Children—Interactive programs are youth oriented. NSF guidelines. Inquiry based.

i.e. petiole and leaf motion. Due to flat petiole there is maximum flexibility.

Interactive---what do gopher’s eat?

Need to develop structure for curricula

A pre-visit video could help them with wildlife---K-6 should only look at one area at a time. Do it more thoroughly Do a short walk through---fact sheet on each habitat.

1. Using the land—how do you do it to maintain the wildlife too?

2. Abbey represents Sustainability. stewardship

3. Demonstrations—Cloquet, Lanesboro

4. Yearly symposium—natural use topics

5. 1 day workshops

6. Ecosystem Management

7. Theology of the land

8. Nature related conferences

 

Fundraising plan

Build in costs for development of program, site

 

For next meeting—have Linda Marrin help facilitate goals.

We need to push the program through