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amounts of chemical runoff that makes its way into ponds and stream corridors. This encouragement can take place through public education efforts that include the ramifications of excessive use of chemicals as well as the potential cost savings that could be experienced by the residents.

• Use a combination of pond aerators and adequate plant management to prevent the conditions necessary for mosquito larvae development.

• Routinely monitor ponds for mosquito larvae and, if excessive larvae are found, treat the water with an EPA-approved larvacide.

Policy 6: Develop and implement an effective woodlot management plan

Issues

• Dublin’s woodlots are currently undermanaged. Management plans are necessary to keep the City woodlots healthy. The resulting undermanagement is permitting woodlot degradation. If no management activity takes place, grapevines and honeysuckle could choke the woodlots, causing trees to decline in health. Other native plant communities, wildlife, water quality and the public in general will all be

adversely affected if the degradation is allowed to persist.

• The more drastic man-made disturbances are the further back in the successional stage woodlots become and the more resources will be required to create specific habitats.

• The closer developed areas are to woodlots, the greater the chances that trees might become a hazard to property and people.

Strategies

• Develop a woodlot management action plan overseen by experienced, knowledgeable professionals. This plan would begin with goal setting, then performing an inventory of tree species and invasive species, and calculation of regeneration rates using a timber assessment survey.

• Perform woodland assessments to determine stage of succession and develop an effective management plan.

• Thin out overstocked woodlots to allow younger, stronger trees to thrive and regenerate.

• Leave trunks and other natural materials that provide shelter and food for animals.