The City of Neenah’s parks director presented a revised master plan for Carpenter Preserve on April 2, detailing a phased five-year implementation schedule, a $100,000 budget request for 2025, and community volunteer events to support restoration work.

Michael Kading, Neenah director of parks and recreation, told the Common Council the revised plan follows a wetland delineation submitted to the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources in June 2024 and public input in 2023. Kading said the plan breaks projects into year-by-year phases and “that’s the game plan we needed to get to.”

The plan covers work across the preserve’s roughly 103 acres, noting that 30 acres were first purchased in 1996 and 71 acres in 1999. Kading described the project as a multi-year effort to remove invasive species, replant native trees and build a connected trail between Highway G and the Belle Breezewood area. He said the city requested $100,000 in 2025 to fund the year’s tasks and that the numbers for later years are preliminary estimates to be refined through the capital-improvement process.

Kading announced several community and implementation details. The Park and Recreation Commission authorized a contract with a grazing vendor; “the sheep are coming,” he said, explaining a Woolly Green Grazers flock will graze on a rotational basis May through September on about 6 acres identified in the plan. He also said the city will purchase a trailer to store volunteer equipment and that Fox Cities Greenways has established a donor-advised fund and set aside $120,000 to support Carpenter Preserve work.

The city scheduled a volunteer workday for Saturday, May 3 (8 a.m.–noon) to plant roughly 1,100 native seedlings; Kading said the exact planting location would be announced by April 23. He asked for volunteers to help plant and to support ongoing maintenance through a core volunteer group and neighborhood liaisons. Kading and volunteers said the preserve’s work will include buckthorn removal, tree replacement and trail stabilization.

Public comment during the meeting included Frank Cuthbert, a Neenah resident and longtime volunteer, who said he supported the plan and praised staff and volunteers for prior work removing buckthorn and planting trees. “I would like to speak in favor of the work that has been done and the planning and work that is going to be done for the Carpenter Preserve,” Cuthbert said.

Council members asked about maintenance, timeline and outreach. Alderman Lee Hillstrom, who served on the originally drafted 2002 master plan, asked why the city chose sheep rather than goats; Kading said site characteristics and vegetation height informed the vendor’s recommendation and that goats could be brought in later if needed. Alderman Lundrum asked about the feasibility of planting 1,100 seedlings in a single four-hour shift; staff said volunteers and prior site prep make the schedule reasonable.

Kading said staff will return with updates and refined CIP numbers in late summer or fall and will hold additional public meetings, including a late-April spring information meeting and a planned fall update. He described the preserve plan as evolutionary and dependent on continued volunteer engagement and outside funding.

The presentation and subsequent public comment did not include a council vote on the plan; council members asked staff to provide periodic updates and to return with more detailed budget figures for future action.