It becomes obvious Estevan’s relatively new parks manager loves a good challenge, and while the challenges may be many, Rod March doesn’t appear to be overwhelmed by the new mandates.
Some of those mandates are self-imposed since March is anxious to develop some civic green space and pest-control benchmarks.
For instance, one of the 21 summer students employed and deployed by his department is spending her summer carrying out an ambitious tree inventory that includes locations, species, age and basic condition including size.
Why go to all that trouble?
“I know it’s a massive project, but otherwise how can you manage an urban forest if you don’t know what you have?” said March, a veteran forestry manager, who spent a previous career tending to rural trees in a B.C. forestry program.
“With the inventory, you can start to risk rank the older trees. Some will have to come down, if not soon, eventually … if they become a risk to the public. What do the trees need to thrive and where are the voids in the city? We need to find out why some trees fail in some areas. I see already where some just weren’t the right species for the soil they were in, so the inventory includes soil analysis, so we’ll know where fertilizers will help.”
It becomes clear as the conversation continues that March takes his role seriously and coupled with his knowledge-base, he is determined to make Estevan’s green spaces people-friendly.
With a number of active and passive parks to tend to, March and his permanent team of three employees plus another five, who are casual additions in the summer months, have a lot of their plate. Therefore, the addition of 21 temporary summer students, is totally welcomed and there is no shortage of assignments.
“I would like to see us planting more trees. We want to be proactive instead of reactive. That would include trimming and pruning to help trees become healthier and we’ll see less tree union breakage and frost rot.”
March said two elms had to come down earlier this year, victims of Dutch elm disease and another two just recently that were too badly damaged from the recent wind storm that struck the area with gusts that exceeded 105 km/h.
But when he’s not busy tending to trees, March is deploying people to tend to the green grasses around the city or checking into the crews responsible for restoring the boulevards along the city’s main thoroughfares. Paving stones and brick planters and a bevy of new trees will be put in place this year with new grass sown next spring, which will have time to catch and flourish in time to give Estevan’s streets a fresh look for the Saskatchewan Summer Games.
“I have the right people,” said March, talking about his staff. “They work well under supervision and are willing to work in different areas. All this inventory work and establishing the benchmarks is a two to three year effort.”
The parks manager is aware of the need to continue monitoring invasive species, whether they be bugs or weeds. And, then there are the constant questions as to how much time, money, equipment and materials should be spent on fighting them off.
“Mosquito monitoring is one example,” he said. “I utilize some people to do that while others fertilize trees.”
Equipment break downs are a constant source of frustration and wasted time, but March said he is aware his department’s needs are no greater than those of any other sector, such as engineering or public works.
“We got a new brush cutter this spring and we’ve used it efficiently in the Pleasantdale valley on the north side.”
March said he appreciates the fact Estevan has nurtured a few little “pocket parks,” as he calls them. There are about eight of them scattered around the city that sometimes don’t get much notice, except from their regular visitors.
“When public works have to go in and do some digging and hauling out, we follow up and do some restoration work and landscaping behind them,” said March.
And the aforementioned pests?
Well, there are more than mosquitoes to combat with the larvicide laying program using the services of South East Tree Care. They will monitor, count and keep track of some species, and are especially on the look out for the more dangerous culex tarsalis breed.
“Do we need to target them? Well, the Ministry of Health and Environment will tell us that, once we get some numbers from the monitoring stations. According to these people, this is an important area of the province because we’re so close to the American border. So we need to find out what they (Health and Environment) think should be our tolerance level regarding nuisance mosquitoes. Is it three in a trap or 10 or more? If we have more, what is our plan of attack? But we can’t attack before we have the data.” The same approach is made with invasive plants, i.e. weeds. What kinds and where are they the worst? When and how do they get attacked and to what level? He notes that these attacks have to include materials that don’t endanger people or their pets.
“So that means proper protocol for pest management plans and what’s acceptable and what isn’t? I mean we can’t get every weed on every soccer field or every ball diamond; but we try to maintain control. How many dandelions do we accept before we react?” he said with a chuckle.
Some invasive species have to be attacked outright, like leafy spurge. That’s a legislated requirement and there is no debate.
“What we can debate is the use of cosmetic herbicides, what to use and how much and how we inform the public and how we monitor weeds and let the public know where we’re putting down chemicals. Once we are able to develop a plan, we can place weekly notices and eventually the community will decide what they will accept and what we need to get rid of. In the meantime, we’ll use low and safe doses of chemicals for control.”
Episodes such as the recent windstorm will set work schedules back as employees react to damages.
Play parks and passive parks are also in the wheelhouse and the publicized Kensington Greens Park which received a lot of negative attention last year, is getting a fresh look this summer.
“Trees and shrubs have been replaced as warranty work from the developer, with very little cost to the city,” said March. “New mulch has been put down with proper drainage. We still need to eradicate the gopher population and we can’t use poison, so that requires a little more labour-intensive effort. They (gophers) damage the irrigation system as well as the plants, as do the rabbits if they get to the base of the trees and fresh plants when they browse,” March added. “With several hundred trees now in that area, we’re assigning a university cooperative program student there because we’ll have that student until the end of October. Again, we can’t make a whole lot of decisions until we know what we have.”
Royal Heights Park is getting a facelift, too, with a new splash pool and swamp matts.
“It’s stretching our resources, but it should be completed by mid-September. The work will include a new gazebo, because the foundation on the old one was heaving. We have a $20,000 grant toward that and with the Legion installing their memorial wall there, we can get some foundation work done for both projects at the same time. More trees will go in, but first I have to find out why the others are dying there.”
March said he sees parks employees getting more and more involved in maintenance of soccer fields, ball diamonds and the like.
“I will meet with the various sports associations, but they just don’t have the volunteer teams like they used to. Their numbers are dwindling.”
And, of course, the parks department wants to work closely with the Summer Games committee, and hopefully be in a position to respond to their emerging needs, some of which will be knee jerk, quick action requirements on short notice.
“City council and administration have been very supportive of what we’re trying to do and I know I can give them a priority list next year and Estevan can start working towards its full potential, but it’s not an overnight job. I’d like to see more pathways, better boulevard medians, more work on the cemeteries … did you know there are 457 trees in the city cemetery?” he said with a smile, referring to the importance of developing the aforementioned inventory. The work continues on the streets and city medians and residential areas.
“Some of this work has to be done by hand. We might dig up an invasive plant species, take it out and dump it properly so there are no residuals. Stuff like that takes time, but saves effort later and I’m always looking at that fair question of ‘do we need to do this and if so, are we in agreement? And if so, then we can implement the plan.’”
March said common sense has to prevail. No use of pesticides in parks being used by children, is one example, and then what to use as alternatives to destroy weeds or reduce pests. How to deal with wind events, what’s rational and what’s impossible?
“I know we have a lot of work to do, I need some time, just to reduce tree branches over sidewalks requires time, all the time. Lifting tree crowns so people can walk under them will take time and if residents would just look after their own trees, we’d be even better off.
“We can turn this ship around, it takes time, but as I get to know the players, it’ll make it easier,” he said with a note of optimism heading into what he expects will be a busy fall and winter season.
