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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2010.05.11 Forest Lands Commission Minutes Minutes FOR A MEETING OF THE ASHLAND FOREST LANDS COMMISSION Tuesday, May 11th, 2010 5:30PM to 7:30PM Siskiyou Room, Community Development Building 51 Winburn Way I. CALL TO ORDER: 5:30 PM Present: John Williams, Chris Iverson, Gary Pool, Marty Main, Melody Noraas, Chris Chambers, Pieter Smeenk II. INTRODUCTIONS III. APPROVAL OF MINUTES: April 13`h meeting Motion to approve as submitted m/s by Williams and Iverson. IV. PUBLIC FORUM None V. ADJUSTMENTS TO THE AGENDA Williams offered to give an update on the watershed advisory committee Noraas will update the commission on the Parks pesticide policy VI. BUSINESS A. AFR Project Update Main explained the process that the AFR partner group is using on treatment of unit 3 as the first AFR work. The process includes flagging, prescriptions, technical review, and public review. Treatment will start this month after reviews are complete. The technical review group consists of Max Bennett from OSU Extension, George McKinley from the Small Diameter Collaborative, and Joseph Vaile of the local Klamath Siskiyou Wildlands Center. This Sunday from 2-4 PM will be the first public review opportunity. First work may start May 24t". Unit 3 is a complex unit so the review may take a bit longer than anticipated and the date may move back by a week. Williams asked about a media release or opinion piece about the kick off of the project. Chambers wasn't certain how to go about this based on the timing and how it would be covered in the media. An opinion piece could be crafted by the Forest Lands Commission beforehand. John Williams volunteered to work on the language for review by Tony Kerwin. Iverson motioned to authorize Williams to craft the letter for edit by the Forest Lands Commission and approval to submit to the Daily Tidings, Mail Tribune, and other press for submission and printing on or before the 22"a of May. Noraas seconded the motion, all voted in favor of motion. Chambers took a group from a local church into the watershed on a tour this past weekend. B. Ashland Forest Plan Update GAfire\F'orest Interface DivisionTorest Lands Commission\MINUTEM2010VvIay 11th 2010.doc A group met a few weeks back to discuss an approach to the Forest Plan Update. They looked at different approaches to the Forest Plan update and agreed on the need for a comprehensive update including all the past work and documents. Main has documents that aren't archived in the City's records and would like to get those input into the system and in the plan. C. Public Outreach Plan Watershed Map Project Iverson worked to get more submissions to the contest. The only one remains the original submission. Iverson had a list of map criteria he put together to help winnow down any issues to begin working with the artist on a final version. Iverson went down the list of questions. Discussion centered on how to submit comments on the map to the artist. Iverson commented on the FLC directing the content and the artist interpreting that in a concise document for the artist. The group decided to compile email comments by the next meeting and evaluate them at the meeting for final submission to the artist. Iverson will email out the questions and list of things to be included. Main had to leave and commented on a few misplaced items. Group discussed the orientation of the map with north up on the map versus the highest point (Mt. Ashland) at the top. Iverson went down each item on the list of questions except for the first two. Williams commented on the quality, saying that the watershed could be featured by moving the focus into the middle of the map. Noraas commented on the "Ashland" label, suggesting he focus that energy on the Ashland Watershed label. Williams will talk with the artist about quality issues and translation to a digital format. Group liked the general art approach. Color will be a key issue. Williams favors a green landscape with snow on the mountains. Educational criteria could involve coming up with some facts and verbiage about the watershed. Commission will work on this next time. Chris will find out how to get ownership of the map by the City. Copyright? Chambers brought up the issue of timely payment in order to get the current year's money spent before the new fiscal year rolls over on June 30th Williams suggested giving the Arts Commission and other groups a near final draft to look at to reduce the length of the process. Noraas suggested not overwhelming the artist with multiple reviews and comments on a wide range of issues. Iverson will talk to Ann Seltzer about the review process once a refined version of the map is available. Need to check in with the artist about an electronic version. Williams will bring a sample contract to next meeting. Distribution plan can wait until the map is nearly complete. Idea of a camera purchase came up. D. Public Outreach Plan Watershed Engagement Plan Iverson reviewed the Outreach Plan and talked about the elements of it talked about in the past including a video, power point, volunteer groups, community values of the watershed, leaning opportunities in the watershed, work parties, walking tours, symposium, art contest about the watershed, stewardship program, interpretive signs. Overall. Iverson felt that they should wait on work on the Outreach Plan until the Map Contest is completed. Group talked about a video camera again as a tool for monitoring and documenting various aspects of commission work. G:\fire\Forest Interface DivisionTorest Lands Commission\1\41NUTEM2010\May 1 Ith 2010.doc E. Ashland Water Advisory Committee Met twice, one being a public meeting. City has a grant to update and improve water systems and has hired an engineering firm from Portland. Rich Whitley is serving as a connection between the engineering firm and the community. Many options for water storage are being explored. Smeenk would like to get more people engaged in the process. Iverson suggested webspiritcommunity.com as a resource for posting. Smeenk would like a webpage where people can leave comments. Williams suggested getting it broadcast on local T.V. and a Tidings article. F. Parks Commission Pesticide Policy 3 people came to a Parks Commission meeting about pesticide policy with a request to change the policy to match the City's approach of reducing pesticide use. A committee from Parks met over the past months to review and rewrite the policy on pesticide use to feature integrated pest management to reduce or eliminate pesticides. The committee will track pesticide use over the coming years. They will have a volunteer coordinator position who will recruit and work with local agencies and groups. Julie Norman will work with Ann Rich to create and write up the policy in digital format. Records were kept about what chemicals were used where. Actions will be taken to reduce use of chemicals based on the records of use. Public input was used to inform the new policy and the Parks Commission will vote on it next month. Williams wondered if anyone was testing the TID water. Smeenk said that Public Works has done some water quality monitoring, but more is needed and a group is proposing further monitoring. Parks goals will be reviewed each year. G. Commission 3-Year Goals progress No work done on this. VII. COMMISSIONER COMMENTS VIII. REVIEW AND SET COMMISSION CALENDAR/NEXT MEETING A. Next Regularly Scheduled Meeting: June 9th, 2010 IX. ADJOURN: 7:30 PM Motion to adjourn m/s Iverson and Williams at 7:29 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 GAfire\Forest Interface DivisionTorest Lands CommissionWINUTEM201May 1 Ith 2010.doc ensure accessibility to the meeting (28 CFR 35.102-35.104 ADA Title I). G:\fire\Forest Interface DivisionTorest Lands CommissionWINUTEM20I0\1VIay 1 Ith 2010.doc