There was continued talk of wetland disturbance and protection during a work session for the Daphne City Council last week, as council members weighed options for what to do about an ongoing environmental issue at the city’s new sports park development.

Ashley Campbell, Daphne’s environmental programs manager, raised concerns earlier this month about potential issues involving wetlands and streamed near the expansion site for the Sportsplex and continued to say if she had been notified of changes to the development plan, she could have helped prevent some of the damage she said was done by the forester.

Campbell said the developers and some city staff had told her the area was under a silviculture plan, but she said she felt the move was a violation of the city’s own rules for environmental protection and added she was worried about the message the move sent.

“We’re setting a precedent for how we handle development in Daphne,” Campbell said. “If we want developers to claim silviculture - if we allow this to happen - we’re setting a precedent for that.”

Campbell presented the council with two options to help reintroduce native species to the damaged areas to help rebuild the ecosystem there and protect the area from invasive plant species.

“We’ll use native species,” Campbell said. “We go in and evaluate what is there and then they replant the proper amounts of each native species. This only includes shrubs or trees - if we do anything else, it would be an additional cost.”

One of the vendor options would cost the city $16,728, while the second option would cost $26,486.

Councilman John Lake said his concerns about cutting down the trees were about possible stormwater runoff.

“I think the one thing people don’t realize is why we have the 30 foot buffer and that’s to stabilize the stormwater runoff,” Lake said. “By having natural trees and other features in that area, it creates a forgiveness zone which helps to protect those wetland areas and it protects areas down stream for further stormwater runoff.”

Campbell agreed with Lake’s stormwater concerns and said that was one of the reasons why she felt so strongly about the disturbance to the wetland areas at this project.

“The wetlands themselves are filters, but we try to keep them undisturbed,” Campbell said. “We’re going to have to rewrite the rules to be as plain as day when it comes to how we protect those areas.”

Campbell said she was waiting to hear back from the Corps of Engineers to see if the city would have to go through an approval process for variances after the changes made on the site.

Councilman Robin LeJeune questioned whether the city had the ability to come up with another way to handle the situation.

“There is another option beside planting all of these native species,” LeJeune said. “We could go to the planning commission and ask for a variance for the entire buffer zone and then ask for more leeway and options for how we fill in those areas.”

Campbell said that option would cost the city more time delays on the project and said the issues could have been avoided had she been brought in on conversations about changes to the plan.

“Lack of communication of all departments is why we’re here,” Campbell said. “If there had been communication, we wouldn’t have to be here. If the council had wanted this to be silviculture, I could have been involved and it could have been taken care of without issue.”

Council members said they would like to take time to study Campbell’s plan for reintroducing native species to the wetlands and said they would likely take up the issue at a future council meeting.