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Friends of Sauk Creek

May 25, 2023

GREENWAY BIKE PLAN SURPRISE

Neighbors strongly urge you fill out a survey by May 31 opposing bike path in Sauk Creek Woods

Several advocates were surprised to see a map this week that suggested the city will build a bike path along the Sauk Creek in the Greenway. Friends of Sauk Creek strongly urge you to fill out a survey from the city by May 31 at this address: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/WestPlan1 and oppose the bike path.

The map released about 10 days ago was buried on a city website describing several Madison West Area Plan projects. You can see this map by going to the Background Map link on https://www.cityofmadison.com/dpced/planning/west-area-plan/3896      It is the sixth map in the collection. 

We are seeking explanation of this surprise from city officials. Many of us attended a series of meetings during the past four months on the West Area Plan and the bike path was not presented or mentioned in presentations. We have opposed this bike path since 2018 because it would mean significant tree loss above and beyond the removal of invasive trees and trees that need to be removed to get massive logging machinery and creek widening machinery into the woods. It also could increase water absorption problems that could contrbute to flooding. We thought this plan was delayed or that we would have input into its construction.

We are experiencing a gap in communication between two departments in the city government: Engineering and Traffic. The Greenway issues are controlled by the city Engineering Division. Bike path plans come out of the city’s Pedestrian Bicycle Administrator’s office in the Traffic Division. Last fall, the Engineering Division said publicly that it could not stop a bike path because it only controls stormwater issues. Friends of Sauk Creek pushed back saying if the Engineering Division is in charge of the Sauk Creek Woods Reconstruction and wastewater control, then it should have authority of whatever is built inside the woods that could affect waterwater flow. 

in about 2018, the city suggested an asphalt bike path similar to the service road at Randolph and Tree Lane, which Sauk Creek neighbors and advocates opposed given that the stormwater issues appear to originate in the impermeable asphalt at Menards, Target and West Towne areas. More asphalt is not environmentally friendly to water absorption in area woods.  

Our position has been from our beginnings about a year ago that The Friends of Sauk Creek support the city and realize it needs our guidance about issues involving the environment in the Sauk Creek area that affect neighbors in Oak Bridge, Sauk Creek, Sauk Creek Estates, Tamarak Trails and Walnut Grove neighborhoods. We need to give the city our reaction to this sudden bike path addition NOW.

In addition to a bike path and the reconstruction of Sauk Creek, the West Area Plan includes projects involving residential zoning issues south of Tree Lane, the Mineral Point Bus Plan/Routes, changes in left turns off Mineral Point that increase traffic in our area and Park Division issues. Neighbors can also comment on these concerns on the survey due May 31. 

We’ve made good progress as we reported May 17. The bike path plan and the way the city obscured its introduction of its most recent plan to build it represents a setback. 

May 17, 2023

 

YOU DID IT!

Bike path declared dead; city engineers will reach out to us for Sauk Creek planning

Our neighborhoods got great news at the West Area Plan Open House at Lussier Community Center May 10 and it’s due to your hard work over the past year.

  • Mountain Bike Path dead. A city official told neighbor George Meyer at the May 10 community meeting that The Walnut Grove Park mountain bike project is now permanently canceled due in large part to your advocacy work.
  • City Engineers to engage us in planning. The city engineer assigned to the Sauk Creek project met informally with neighbors at the same meeting and said she will begin meetings with neighbors to determine our values before she does the conceptual design for the restoration. She told a group that she wants to keep the width of the creek close to its current state.

This is a 360-degree change from the approach the city engineers took in 2018 until COVID delayed the project. That plan involved the city creating a plan and then asking us for comment after it was done.

Your relentless energy getting the public’s attention on these two issues did the trick. It looked glum for several months. The Zoom meeting with the Parks Department last year was disrespectful and many of us were shocked at the way the park employees treated our older neighbors.

We met many roadblocks on the Sauk Creek project, but your resilient spirit pushed through when several city officials, including our alder and the mayor, did not reply to many requests for meetings, information, and legislative and mayoral support. They referred to the creek as a “farm ditch” in the State Journal.

Here’s what we did in just one year:

  • We created a loosely organized advocacy group called the Friends of Sauk Creek that kept everyone informed and worked behind the scenes, so the city heard our voices.
  • We circulated a petition against the bike path and a petition asking for consultation on the Sauk Creek plans. Hundreds of voters signed them.
  • Several of us requested documents through the Freedom of Information Act to get the detailed information needed for our advocacy.
  • A group of us attended a city council meeting on the budget that included Sauk Creek funding, and several spoke in person to the council and the remote audience.
  • We held planning meetings and brainstorming sessions on Zoom, often led by Gwen Long and Susan Bruegman.
  • We started a webpage and a Facebook Group to keep all of us up to date on issues and city actions.
  • Some of us wrote letters to the editor at the State Journal with pointed criticism of the city’s actions.
  • We participated in a front-page State Journal story that gave the community our side and put to rest the derogatory wording about the creek, such as “farm ditch.”
  • Others of us worked our networks and found like-minded advocates on climate change and the environment, most of them in our area and state. They supported us.
  • We proudly tapped our neighbors’ expertise, primarily Michael Notaro, George Meyer, Randy Bruegman and Nino Amato, for panels about our issues before the election.
  • We printed lawn signs for the Sauk Creek and Walnut Grove neighborhoods alerting passersby about the possible outcome of the creek construction.
  • Many neighbors ran important errands, researched city budgets, scoured the Sauk Creek Restoration web pages and read hundreds of pages of history and reports to get us up to speed so we could speak confidently with officials in our emails.

Thank you!

We plan to continue to work with the officials who spoke to us in groups May 10. We want to be helpful and yet strong about the neighborhood’s stance on the environment and our values about how many trees should be cut down and what species should be saved. We oppose a bike path down the center of the Greenway because of tree loss.

We are now planning new updated lawn signs and we will continue meeting in one of the core groups to plan new initiatives. One new idea may include a gathering of other Madison neighborhoods also facing greenway or environmental issues in their backyards.

We need your help to keep the momentum going. No effort is too small to make a difference. Email Gwen Long at gwenlong6@gmail.com for more information.

 

 

 

 

May 7, 2023

Help the Creek by attending May 10 Meeting

City Engineers will take your questions at Lussier Center on the coming creek reconstruction

The birds happily chirp in chorus, the creek glitters, the trees bud, and the wildflowers spread across the floor of the woods. We are grateful for the beauty of our neighborhood. And we are grateful for your help this past year.

Recently, many neighbors picked up bags of trash in the creek area in honor of Earth Day.

A large core group from three neighborhoods, including Sauk Creek, Tamarack Trails and Walnut Grove, met regularly this winter and pulled together two information sessions at Alicia Ashman Library on Highpoint before the spring elections as city engineers renewed work on the Sauk Creek reconstruction project that has been in the works since 2018. More than 80 people attended giving us new energy. Many said they did not know how significantly changes could negatively effect conditions in the creek, among the trees and in neighbors’ back yards.

Volunteers attended city meetings last Fall and reached out to officials. We still do not have any solid news on the next steps. A city engineer is drafting a conceptual plan and neighborhood meetings on the Sauk Creek Woods cleanup and tree removals were mentioned but none have been scheduled.

However, very soon we may get a chance to talk to the city engineers who are in charge of the creek reconstruction. Seven city departments will speak on a handful of projects called the West Area Plan at a city meeting on May 10 at 6:30 p.m. at Lussier Community Education Center, 55 South Gammon Road. Organizers said city engineers will attend to talk about greenways, a designation that the city has given to Sauk Creek.  

Previous versions of this meeting split up attendees for the Question and Answer session. If you are interested in the creek issues, be careful to choose the city engineering discussion group. If you are inadvertently put into another group, you can ask questions, but engineers will not be there to answer them. 

The Friends of Sauk Creek volunteers strongly recommend that you attend the May 10 meeting. For more information, go to the city website at this link, West Area Plan meeting. 

Yards signs will also be available soon from Gwen Long at gwenlong6@gmail.com. Please message her if you are interested.

 

 

 

Nov. 12, 2022

Speak Out at the Nov. 15 City Council Budget Hearing

It’s our last chance in 2022 to prompt city engineering to tell us its plans for the trees, wildlife

We finally get a chance Nov. 15 at 5:30 p.m. to tell the city council our opinions about its plans to fund changes in Sauk Creek Woods. We only have a few hints about the scope of the project because the city engineers say they don’t have a design yet. How can they not have a design if they want the city council $4 million for Sauk Creek reconstruction? Engineers refuse to give us the details. We do not know how many of our 5,500 trees will be removed due to reconstruction and what will happen in Haen Park. Several of our neighbors have spoken out at meetings and in the media against such a haphazard process that could give city engineering too much power to do whatever it wants in the woods. 

Even the city engineers have said at meetings that neighbors need to be prepared for Sauk Creek to look very different. How different? The mayor has told us in person at a Yola’s Cafe meeting that Sauk Creek is not a park but a stormwater conveyance tool. City engineers were quoted in a statement read by our Alder Nikki Conklin recently that the Sauk Creek area is “not a woods.” They refer to the creek as a farm ditch and they hint that the creek will be widened significantly and all trees within 20 feet of each bank will be cut down. 

We get one last chance before the city locks into its plans that have not been publicly shared and which we have had to opportunity to design. You can register to attend and/or speak in person or virtually at the Nov. 15 meeting  at https://www.cityofmadison.com/MeetingRegistration

Help the engineers understand how those who care about climate change and our wildlife prefer the changes to occur. Following are talking points you can use by speaking at the Nov. 15 council meeting, writing your opinions in an email or letter to your alder, or talking to your neighbors. 

For more information, contact Gwen Long by text (preferred) 608-290-4997 or by email at gwenlong6@gmail.com. 

Nov. 15, 2022 Talking Points

Our shared goal for Sauk Creek woods and creek

We support the cleanup of the area if the city uses citizen decision-making rather than just telling neighbors what city engineers are going to do. We want the city to promise that any changes to the Sauk Creek woods and creek will be environmentally friendly. 

  • We want the council and mayor to deny the Sauk Creek Restoration budget requests in November until we have a guarantee on citizen engagement and environmental protection.
  • We have support. We gathered 380 signatures on petitions and neighbors submitted 56 on-line comments to city officials supporting the woods/wildlife an environment.  We have 40 yard signs posted in 3 neighborhoods informing the public of the project.
  • We want the Mayor and Common Council’s to honor their commitments to the environment. This project conflicts with the City’s sustainability goal #7, which is to restore and maintain natural habitat.
  • We want to save our neighborhood and woodlands.
  • We want to save the wildlife in our area. 
  • We want to stop climate change and save the environmental. Discussion on the carbon dioxide absorbing/oxygen providing mature trees will help that cause. 
  • We want to save a heritage woods that has been here for centuries and has not been farmed.  
  • We want our community to do the right thing.  Cutting down the trees, planting grasses and mowing might be easier, but it is not the right thing for the environment/wildlife/community.
  • We want to right-size the over-engineered plans from 2018.
  • We support neighbors who feel that they have been silenced by the lack of response from city officials on this important environmental issue that influence climate change.
  • We have had to rely primarily on info from 2018 reports and it is outdated. Our experience in the areas behind Mineral Point Walgreens, Rocky Rococo’s and on Lake Mendota Drive concerns us.
  • The City’s FAQ which was released Oct. 30 on its website is helpful but doesn’t give neighbors new information except that the project will start in 2024. 
  • Neighbors say that waiting to start city engineering engagement with us in Spring 2023 after the city completes its design will be too late for voters/constituents to influence decisions on this important environmental topic. 
  • Neighbors strongly oppose a bike path as mentioned in the new FAQ and hold the mayor, council, and city engineers responsible for taking down more trees for the unsupported bike path. The city has responsibility to stop the Greater Madison Metro Planning Organization’s plan.
  • Research suggests the source of the water issues starts with the commercial property where Target and Menards now stand. Neighbors want to know the city does not hold hose companies responsible for and demand that they participate in correcting these water issues their commercial properties created.  Why is it all on the taxpayers?

 

Sept. 9, 2022 

SAVE THE TREES OF SAUK CREEK WOODS

Madison will lose our unique 26-acre urban woods if we do not act now  

The Friends of Sauk Creek, a group of environmentalists and neighbors, strongly urges you to join us in opposition to city plans to convert this earth-friendly 26-acre wooded nature area with a mile-long creek into a mowed-grass stormwater channel that would remove thousands of mature trees. 

Madison citizens will pay for this $6 million to $8- million-plus project through City Utility Rates increases. Yet we cannot get details on plans, processes, designs, and timing of the reconstruction of the area, located near Walnut Creek, Tamarack Trails, Oakbridge, and Sauk Creek neighborhoods.  

City officials repeatedly ignore or deny requests for meetings with Friends of Sauk Creek even as plans appear to keep changing from information on the City’s project page. City spokespeople previously assured residents bike paths were not part of this project, but citizen research recently discovered in a city budget document that funds are proposed to build a greenway bike path along Sauk Creek. 

City officials continue to warn residents that it needs to take drastic action in Sauk Creek to avoid flooding of homes. The Friends of Sauk Creek found no evidence of residential flooding in 2018 and research points to problems in other locations such as the under-sized culverts under the Beltline and High Point Road.

Mayor, City Engineering warn about tree removal

The city’s engineering department and Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway separately said in recent public meetings that a significant number of the 5,500 trees along Sauk Creek will be cut down and removed because, as the mayor said, the area is “not a park for your recreation” but a greenway with the sole purpose of moving stormwater. Sauk Creek Greenway Reconstruction would not be considered for a tree-friendly renovation like Owen Park’s restoration, officials say.  

Yet our alders appear to get little information from the City’s Engineering Department and the council members need our help understanding how the people who vote for them see these important issues. 

Less than 1,000 trees are quality trees

A 2018 presentation for residents by city engineering staff said the “Greenway will look considerably different” after reconstruction with plantings of grasses and shrubs, trees removed near the creek and a 10-foot gravel path along the creek after stabilization. (Scroll down page to Public Information Meetings for this presentation.) The engineers said the city policy is to restore greenways to grass greenways but planned to save as many quality trees as possible in Sauk Creek.

Unfortunately, the city’s own tree survey states that only 976 of the woods 5,550 trees or 17 percent are quality trees. The 2018 presentation said even quality trees near the creek would be “disturbed’ and areas with non quality trees, such as box elders, would be targeted for removal.

This de-foresting Sauk Creek is in conflict with the 2020 Madison Urban Forestry Task Force report encouraging tree canopies.

Alternatives available

City engineering could redirect its expensive Sauk Creek plans to fixing culverts under roads, eliminating water run-off elsewhere, and by expanding and dredging of existing retention ponds. We need to get the alders’ attention as they consider funds for the Sauk Creek project through the 2023 Capital Budget process that ends in November. The city’s plan would be hard to change after that date.

With 38 watershed projects slated for the city, the Sauk Creek reconstruction could set an ominous precedent for the future of other Madison neighborhoods.

Next steps: Sept. 12, 13

The best chance for our neighborhoods to show our opposition to the over-engineered plan to tear apart Sauk Creek woods comes next week with important city council meetings.

We urge you and as many supporters as you can gather to attend two virtual meetings Monday, Sept. 12, and Tuesday, Sept. 13 at 4:30 p.m. to oppose the Sauk Creek reconstruction. Council members make important decisions during these meetings, including whether the Sauk Creek project will get funded. While the process continues through Nov. 15, after the first meetings, we will have little opportunity to influence change of the direction for removal of thousands of trees in Sauk Creek. 

Our only opportunity to speak next week is a meeting is on Monday, Sept. 12. We urge advocates to register to speak. See directions below. You can also show support by virtually attending Monday’s meeting and writing an email in opposition to the city council. 

Tuesday is also virtual only. Residents cannot speak. It is an official Capital Budget Hearing. We urge you to attend to show our alders that we are listening. Here are tips to find the meeting. 

In the meantime, below are other ways you can help The Friends of Sauk Creek be heard at city hall.

Help now before trees are cut down

  1. Write letters to the Editor of Wisconsin State Journal and other publications
  •  Join “Friends of Sauk Creek” on Facebook Groups:
    • Share your point of view
    • Keep up to date on project and issue.
  •  Join a confidential communication list for updates
  • Bookmark this website: https://foleymediagroup.com/home/friends-sauk-creek/

 

Details for Sept. 12, 13 City Council Actions

Below are instructions on how to attend, speak or give feedback at the important City Council Finance Committee meetings.

FINANCE COMMITTEE MEETING SEPT. 12

    • Look for the box that says REGISTER FOR PUBLIC COMMENT and click it. 
    • It will ask which agenda item you want to speak about. View the agenda through the link to choose your agenda item and type that into the box. Our agenda item is # 26. 
    • Fill in the other required information and click the REGISTER button. 
  • To view and listen to the meeting: 
  • To send feedback about #26 agenda item:
  • Talking Points 
    • We are in favor of environmentally friendly stormwater improvements to the Sauk Creek Waterway.  However, any improvements must be developed with full public disclosure and input.  Such a plan should be consistent with sustainability objectives and not cause significant environmental damage to the 5,595 trees and habitats of birds, bats, and vegetation in this unique urban 26.5 acre woods and 1-mile waterway corridor. 
    • Until we receive and can review more specific information from City Engineering, we oppose the Stormwater Utility’s 2023 capital budget for project #11665 on the Sauk Greenway Project and the Capital Improvement Plan for 2024 through 2028.
    • We currently oppose the carryover of the allocated capital of $1,445,000 (or unused funds) approved in the 2021 Capital Improvement Plan for Phases 3 & 4 of the Sauk Creek Greenway project because the City has failed to adequately inform residents of the plans for this stormwater project and expenditures.  
    • We oppose moving budget dollars from two other stormwater projects, which were deemed NOT supported by their communities, and we oppose moving those funds to the Sauk Creek Phases 3 & 4 Projects, which cover the areas from Tree Lane to Highpoint Road.
    • We support environmental methods of stormwater control, supported by Federal and University of Wisconsin–Madison contractors, that do not need the removal of so many trees along the creek to complete this project. We support these less expensive solutions for the stormwater management.
    • We oppose engineering practices that would destroy a significant number of the 5,500 trees in the 26-acre Sauk Creek Woods, similar to those practices used in two previously completed projects upstream, one behind the Mineral Point Walgreens and the other behind Rocky Rococo resaturant. 
    • We oppose the bike path planned for the Sauk Creek Woods due to the lack of information provided to residents and the path’s disruption of nature and wildlife in the area given the city’s commitment to the environment. There are several other bike paths and bike lanes in the area. 

 

FINANCE COMMITTEE MEETING SEPT. 13

Here at the instructions to view the virtual Sept. 13 meeting, which is the alders’ official Budget Hearing. The only agenda item so far is the Capital Budget. The budget is a long, complex document and it’s difficult to find parts that mention Sauk Creek projects. Try pages 4, 10 and 12. 

  •  
  • To view and listen to the meeting: 
    • Go to the meeting site at 4:30 p.m. Click here. 
    • Click the button WATCH ONLINE.
    • Look for the meeting you are interested in among the boxes with the antenna-like symbol. In this case, choose Sept. 13. 
    • There is also a phone option.
  • To send feedback to alders on the Sauk Creek reconstruction
  •  
  • Talking Points
    • We are in favor of environmentally friendly stormwater improvements to the Sauk Creek Waterway.  However, any improvements must be developed with full public disclosure and input.  Such a plan should be consistent with sustainability objectives and not cause significant environmental damage to the 5,595 trees and habitats of birds, bats, and vegetation in this unique urban 26.5 acre woods and 1-mile waterway corridor. 
    • Until we receive and can review more specific information from City Engineering, we oppose the Stormwater Utility’s 2023 capital budget for project #11665 on the Sauk Greenway Project and the Capital Improvement Plan for 2024 through 2028.
    • We currently oppose the carryover of the allocated capital of $1,445,000 (or unused funds) approved in the 2021 Capital Improvement Plan for Phases 3 & 4 of the Sauk Creek Greenway project because the City has failed to adequately inform residents of the plans for this stormwater project and expenditures.  
    • We oppose moving budget dollars from two other stormwater projects, which were NOT supported by their communities, and we oppose moving those funds to the Sauk Creek Phases 3 & 4 Projects, which cover the areas from Tree Lane to Highpoint Road.
    • We support environmental methods of stormwater control, supported by Federal and University of Wisconsin—Madison contractors, that do not need the removal of so many trees along the creek to complete this project. We support these less expensive solutions for the stormwater management.
    • We oppose engineering practices that would destroy a significant number of the 5,500 trees in the 26-acre Sauk Creek Woods, similar to those practices used in two previously completed projects upstream, one behind the Mineral Point Walgreens and the other behind Rocky Rococo resaturant. 
    • We oppose the bike path planned for the Sauk Creek Woods due to the lack of information provided to residents and the path’s disruption of nature and wildlife, which runs counter to the city’s commitment to the environment. There are several other bike paths and bike lanes in the area. 
  •  

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Aug. 2, 2022

Advocates fight to save 5,000 TREES in Far West Madison

Newly formed Friends of Sauk Creek seeks help for the environment from neighbors, experts

Overview Map of Greenway System and Project Area

A growing group of neighbors in more than three West Madison neighborhoods—Walnut Grove, Sauk Creek and Tamarack Trails—joined together recently to stop plans to remove 5,500 trees during a reconstruction of Sauk Creek, a well-established dog-walking and nature hiking area called a jewel of urban forests.

Advocates from these neighborhoods will update this webpage with new information as it is released.

Concerned neighbors say the city has failed to communicate well on this plan under study for at least five years. City engineers continually promise to responsibly save wildlife, trees, and wildflowers but then they unexpectedly denude areas in an afternoon, as they did behind the Mineral Point Walgreens and in the nearby Oakbridge neighborhood behind Rocky Rococos, neighbors point out.

in a statement sent recently through Ald. Nikki Conklin, city engineers said that the greenway is “not a woods.” Other city officials have said Sauk Creek is simply a drainage ditch, which neighborhood leaders said shocked them.

A former stream on a farm owned by the Haen family, Sauk Creek is clogged with downed trees and debris due to 40-years of city inattention and most residents agree the creek needs city help to increase water flow through the area surrounded by runoff from West Towne, the Menards development on Commerce Drive and the Target at Prairie Town Mall off Mineral Point. However, activist neighbors, many of them retired after careers in public service, say they are alarmed by recent disclosures about city mistakes on city lands such as Reindahl Park on the East Side and more recently the surprise cutting down of trees in the Robin Parkway Greenway in Hill Farms. A core group of retired attorneys and engineers, a former state secretary of the Department of Natural Resources, two former alders, retired university professors and health care executives who live in the area now oppose the city’s overengineering water control projects in the Sauk Creek woods and its destruction of urban nature areas that Mayor Satya Conway Rhodes wants protected.

In recent months, residents have criticized the city for dodging queries for information and requests for clarity on the city plans. The city engineers, who have control of greenways, said that construction is scheduled to begin in the fall of 2023 and action at the city council and Board of Public Works has begun to build budgets and plan bidding processes.

Neighborhood groups encourage others support the effort by viewing the Facebook Group Page called Friends of Sauk Creek or contacting Gwen Long at gwenlong6@gmail.com or Nino Amato at namato@cwag.org.