Rochester Natural Areas Management Plan updates

(ABC 6 News) – The city of Rochester continues its mission to improve and preserve natural wildlife in and around town. For roughly the last six months the city has been trying to plan the future of 1500 acres of land they consider ‘natural areas’.

Tuesday, at city hall they hosted the Rochester Natural Areas Management Plan meeting. The purpose of this meeting simply was to update the public on the progress that the city has made on the Natural Areas Management Plan as well as receive feedback from community members.

They also presented nine potential projects at some of these natural areas, three of those would be at Joyce Park in east Rochester.

City officials said having a well thought out plan with feedback from others is important to the efficiency of improving and preserving Rochester.

“The idea being that we can get as much bang for our buck, and meet as many goals as possible with each project, and spend money in the best way possible in order to have Rochester have a healthier natural environment,” said Rochester Park Planner Jeff Feece.

According to city leaders they should have an official plan intron of the park board soon, but as of now no date has been set.