RELEVANT PLANNING DOCUMENTS The following documents are neighborhood plans and relevant reports. Only the applicable discussions concerning Vilas Park are shown for each document. The documents are listed chronologically.
1989 – BRITTINGHAM-VILAS NEIGHBORHOOD PLAN (City of Madison Department of Planning and Development) Although limited in recommendations specific to the park property, the plan is the one of the earliest neighborhood plans to directly address Vilas Park. The plan provides a short history of the park’s founding and the development of Henry Vilas Zoo. The neighborhood plan provides a single recommendation for improvements to Vilas Park: “Improve City clean-up activities in the neighborhood, especially after athletic or social events at Camp Randall, Henry Vilas Park and Zoo, and Brittingham Park.”
2003 – WISCONSIN DEPARTMENT OF NATURAL RESOURCES LAKE MANAGEMENT PROTECTION GRANT APPLICATION: LAKE WINGRA SHORELINE HABITAT RESTORATION88 (Edgewood College) The grant application describes the Lake Wingra lagoon shoreline: The Lake Wingra lagoons located in Vilas Park were originally part of the littoral zone of a Lake Wingra that was about twice the size of the current one.89 The lagoons, and most of the park itself, were created through extensive filling and dredging in the early 1900s. Presently the lagoons are 3.6 hectares (8.8 acres) in size, and less than 1 meter in depth. The aquatic vegetation is dominated by invasive Eurasian milfoil. There are about 1,550 meters (5,100 feet) of shoreline, and the shore is riprapped with gravel below the waterline. The grass turf of the park is maintained and mowed right up to the waterline, so that essentially no native vegetation is present. While Eurasian milfoil has declined in Lake Wingra itself, it still forms massive monotypic stands in the Vilas Lagoon systems that are connected by a narrow channel to the lake proper. In other area lakes, declines in milfoil have been linked to a native weevil that targets Eurasian milfoil. It is known that in systems where milfoil is not harvested weevil populations build up especially if a buffer zone of natural vegetation surrounds the lake shoreline affording critical overwintering habitat for the weevil. The Vilas lagoons currently have no such habitat since the park lawn is mowed right to the water’s edge, 88 89
Collaborative effort by Dane County, City of Madison, Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, Friends of Lake Wingra, Edgewood College, University of Wisconsin, and varied neighborhood associations, 2003. Baumann, P.C., J.F. Kitchell, J.J. Magnuson, and T.B. Kayes. 1974. Lake Wingra, 1873-1973: A case history of human impact. Transactions of the Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts, and Letter. 62: 57-94.
VILAS PARK MASTER PLAN 2020
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