[mou] Pilot Knob update and request for help

[Bruce M. White]

December 7, 2004
To: supporters of preservation of Pilot Knob
From: Gail Lewellan, Pilot Knob Preservation Association

Thank you for your support in the past in working toward the goal of
saving Pilot Knob from development. We need your help again! Great
progress has been made during the last year toward the preservation of
this scenic, natural, and historically important site in Mendota
Heights. Discussions have been undertaken to negotiate a purchase of
private lands on the hill and thereby prevent development.

Efforts are now underway to find funding and negotiate a purchase of a 
8-acre piece of land just north of Acacia Cemetery, overlooking the 
Minnesota and Mississippi River valleys. As part of this effort the 
Trust for Public Land has submitted a request for funding from the Metro 
Greenways program of the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources. To 
support this proposal, we need groups and individuals who value Pilot 
Knob, to write letters of support to the Minnesota Department of Natural 
Resources. In writing it is especially important to emphasize the 
ecological aspects of Pilot Knob, its scenic value, its wildlife, its 
importance to the river valleys.

Please send me a letter of support by December 15, 2004. I will collect 
the letters and submit them as a group. Thank you again your help.
Gail Lewellan
656 Sibley Memorial Highway
Mendota Heights, MN 55118
651-457-4652
glewellan@comcast.net

The letters should be addressed to:
Minnesota Department of Natural Resources
Attention: Kate Drewry
Metro Wildlife Corridors/Greenways Coordinator
e-mail kate.drewry@dnr.state.mn.us

Here is a suggestion for language to be used in writing letters

Re: Application of Trust for Public Land for Funding for Pilot Knob
I am writing in support of the application of the Trust for Public Land
for Metro Greenways funding for the protection of Pilot Knob. I
understand that the Trust for Public Land, in cooperation with local
organizations, hopes to acquire at least 8 acres of land at the
northwest end of Pilot Knob and convey it to a public owner for long
term protection as open space available to the public. As much
additional undeveloped adjacent land as is feasible should also be
included in the project.

(Describe here your organization and/or familiarity with Pilot Knob)

Pilot Knob meets the selection criteria for the Metro Greenways program
because

(Please discuss one or more of the following selection criteria:)

Community Support and Collaboration: Local community elected officials,
residents, and other interest groups support this project.

Compatible Public Use: Describe educational and recreational activities
that can be accommodated without compromising the site’s ecological value.

Imminence of Threat: Repeated proposals for residential and commercial
facilities threaten to degrade the availability of the site as a
wildlife corridor, damage the natural character of the confluence of two
great rivers, and forever deny public access to this place of
ecological, cultural and historic significance.

Visibility: How might the characteristics, location and history of this
site further natural resource protection by increasing awareness of the
Metro Geenways program and its goals?

Ecological Value: A primary criteria for this Metro Greenways includes
protection and restoration of plant communities, habitat quality,
protection of ground water and surface water, soil stability and other
ecological functions. The Trust for Public Land proposes restoration of
plants native to the area, plants that were likely used by Native
Americans for religious and medicinal purposes for thousands of years.

I believe that with a strong commitment of public funding, the community
will work to raise additional private funds. (If you believe your
organization can make a financial contribution in the future toward a
$1.5 -2.5 million budget, you could mention this.)

I hope you will generously fund this important, community-supported project.

Sincerely,



.