Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAbout2010.04.13 Forest Lands Commission Minutes Minutes FOR A MEETING OF THE ASHLAND FOREST LANDS COMMISSION Tuesday, April 13th, 2010 5:30PM to 7:30PM Siskiyou Room, Community Development Building 51 Winburn Way I. CALL TO ORDER: 5:30 PM Present: John Williams, Greg Len-house, Christopher Iverson, Gary Pool, Tony Kerwin, Frank Betlejewski, Marty Main, Pieter Smeenk, Dan Maymar. II. INTRODUCTIONS III. APPROVAL OF MINUTES March 2010 and February 2010. February minutes were reviewed due to an incomplete sentence discovered at the last meeting. Sentence was deleted. M/S to approve February and March minutes Williams/Iverson. All ayes. IV. PUBLIC FORUM None V. ADJUSTMENTS TO THE AGENDA None VI. BUSINESS A. AFR Project Update Master Stewardship Agreement and Supplement Project Agreement were signed, meaning the AFR project is underway. Development of a process for planning and technical review and public review has been proposed. The Forest Service's crew has started flagging out the units. Marty has started looking at the units for prescriptions, and Lomakatsi will be out tomorrow looking at areas for surface and ladder fuel prescriptions. News release came out April ls` (no fooling). Main explained the roles that partners are playing in AFR. City, USFS, The Nature Conservancy, and Lomakatsi Restoration Project. City is coordinating density management and community engagement. TNC is coordinating monitoring and review as well as being the financial coordinating body. Lomakatsi is coordinating workforce contracting and surface and ladder fuel management and prescribed burning workforce. Maymar asked about marking crews. Main said that Lomakatsi will provide the marking workforce with City involvement overseeing the marking. Watershed prescriptions and marking will be complicated due to diverse conditions. Lemhouse asked when the average person will see progress on AFR. Main answered that May or June will likely be a starting point for surface and ladder fuel work. First unit will likely be next to City lands on the west side of the creek, low in the watershed. Len-house stressed the importance of seeing work taking place and the economic benefits. Chris will add Frank to the Community Engagement mailing list. GAfire\F'OREST\MIN UTES\2010\.Apri1 13th 2010.doc Frank suggested marking the leave trees instead of the cut trees. Main said the local Forest Service will be lobbying to mark leave trees. Frank asked about how the units are layed out without having prescriptions to delineate stands. Main said the Forest Service has designated units based on a gross identification of areas and that the process will refine the units into subunits based on site conditions. Frank reviewed the area around White Rabbit Trailhead and found discrepancies between the AFR mapping of plant associations and what is on the ground. He also found many weakened trees with poor growth, mostly Douglas-fir. He found pine had done better. Main explain plant association groups---vegetation communities based on trees and other vegetation related to site conditions and parsed out by dry or moist in each dominant tree species such as Doug-fir and White fir. Kerwin said he's been working with the USFS to create a bat monitoring program in the watershed. They need 10,000 dollars for equipment to make the program happen. Main stressed the opportunities for research and the need for funding. Kerwin would volunteer his time to do some of the work. Both owls and fishers are being monitored in the watershed already with lots of data coming back. Need to figure out more funding opportunities for wildlife. Lemhouse explained the Council's decision to not join the Forest Service in the lawsuit against the AFR project. The Council felt the City would not contribute technical expertise and could be open to liability. A letter will be sent to the Forest Service in support of the project. B. Ashland Forest Plan Update on Process A sub-committee will meet next week to discuss the update process and report back next meeting. C. Earth Day Chris Iverson secured a booth for the FLC. Chambers will round up supplies for the booth and the Parks department's watershed model. Pool asked if anyone is documenting the watershed/AFR process. There isn't anything in line right now, but Williams has a camera that can be used for capturing footage. Pool and Williams will talk it over. The opportunity is there to show what's actually happening as a way to get people involved and informed about what's happening. Chambers and Iverson will coordinate and anyone is welcome to show up at any time to help staff the booth. Having footage available will help the FLC become more well known. Main asked if people at the table have been hearing more about AFR. Lemhouse said that he hears different opinions about different aspects of the project, Williams hears more about the lawsuit, Iverson has heard some about the fire threat. Some folks have come from a position of no cutting to recognizing the need for thinning. D. Public Outreach Plan Watershed Map Project Iverson showed the one entry for the contest. He said that he emailed a group of folks who showed interest in the project and didn't hear back from anyone. Comments were made on the initial elements of the map. Lemhouse said that the group should decide whether or not to extend the deadline on the map. Deadline was April 51h, Williams GAfire\F0REST\M1NUTES\2010\April 13th 2010.doc made a motion to extend the map deadline to May 1 oth, seconded by Maymar. All ayes in favor. Iverson will update the deadline with his contacts and at SOU. Chambers will update the website. E. Public Outreach Plan Watershed Engagement Plan Iverson commented on the video production as a project ongoing and involving the Mayor on a hike in the watershed. Iverson would like to interface more with the AFR community engagement group and use that as a basis for a more unified watershed education platform. Lemhouse would like to see a fact sheet for the public. Williams commented on some of the communications ideas including cards, an updated info sheet, and website. Facebook and Twitter are possibilities as well. The project partners will be discussing communications this Thursday and will report to the FLC and members on AFR sub-committees. Iverson foresees building energy through the summer for watershed education. Main mentioned an effort in another forest that brings writers, poets, artists into the woods and gives them an opportunity to learn about forests. Talked about tours for AFR/Watershed. May tours are scheduled for a church group and one is needed for public review in early to mid May. A hike is scheduled for June 26th through the Parks Recreation guide. Need a flyer for the June 261h hike at Earth Day. Chambers and Williams will work on it. F. Commission 3-Year Goals Pieter Smeenk gave an overview of the water master planning process that will take place in the next year. Likely to integrate the Ashland Forest Plan at some point. Commission reviewed the existing three year goals. Winburn management plan is completed. Goal 2 needs to be updated, Maymar suggested integrating the monitoring plan into the Ashland Forest plan update. Water quality monitoring is on the table as part of AFR and the City's water master plan. Goals 2,3,4 will be integrated into one goal as the Forest Plan is updated. Goal 5 was discussed. Noxious weeds were mentioned by Chambers as an opportunity for public volunteers to engage in the AFR project. Smeenk mentioned that the division of goals could be used in the water master planning process and might be an avenue for funding depending on the aims of the goals. Goals 5 and 6 will be integrated as part of the same goal to read "develop and implement community engagement plan". Smeenk mentioned a community outreach plan related to TMDL attainment for the Reservoir. Iverson would like to see an integration of the two public outreach efforts. Chambers explained that a decision was made to separate the efforts so the AFR committee could focus on AFR work. Iverson proposed a longer discussion on community outreach. Tony will work on integrating the plan goals. VII. COMMISSIONER COMMENTS Kerwin brought up the need to talk about a new chair of the commission at next GAfire\F0REST\M1NUTES\2010\April 13th 2010.doc meeting. VIII. REVIEW AND SET COMMISSION CALENDAR/NEXT MEETING A. Next Regularly Scheduled Meeting: May 11 th, 2010 IX. ADJOURN: 7:30 PM In compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act, if you need special assistance to participate in this meeting,please contact the Public Works Office at 488-5587(TTYphone number 1 800 735 2900). Notification 48 hours prior to the meeting will enable the City to make reasonable arrangements to ensure accessibility to the meeting (28 CFR 35.102-35.104 ADA Title I). GAfireTORESTWINUTEM2010\April 13th 2010.doc