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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2010.10.12 Forest Lands Commission Minutes MINUTES FOR A MEETING OF THE ASHLAND FOREST LANDS COMMISSION Tuesday, October 12th, 2010 5:30PM to 7:30PM Siskiyou Room, Community Development Building 51 Winburn Way I. CALL TO ORDER: 5:43 PM Chris Iverson, Gary Pool, Dan Maymar, Marty Main, Peter Smeenk, Craig Gorson, Margueritte Hickman, Melody Noraas, Greg Lemhouse II. INTRODUCTIONS Poky McFarland, map maker, Anne Crispino-Taylor, AFR project assistant III. APPROVAL OF MINUTES: September 14th meeting Motion made to approve the minutes with a vote (Melody abstained, but there was still a quorum). Later, Peter noted the date for the next Water Advisory meeting was incorrect and should be October 21, 2010. IV. PUBLIC FORUM None V. ADJUSTMENTS TO THE AGENDA Chris asked if Poky could be moved to the top of the agenda; approved. VI. BUSINESS A. Public Outreach Plan—Watershed Map Project Poky made copies of the map for members to review at the meeting. The following suggestions for changes were made: Fix the spelling of Wagner Butte and Tolman Creek Road. There was a discussion about whether Hitt Road was a"legal"trail and should appear on the map—will need to make sure Hitt Road Trail is legal, and that it is okay with the homeowners to be identified before a final version goes out. It was noted that the section currently identified as Hitt Road was actually FS road 2060-300 and will be updated as such. Poky will identify Ashland Access Road. The group felt the map captured the fun the group was looking for, and that the orientation was good. However, since the orientation is south-facing rather than north, a compass will be added to indicate which direction is north. Poky said he will use different shades of green to identify and highlight specific area of the watershed. It was noted that Jackson Wellsprings is a business venture, and that the map should not benefit any single business entity. Therefore, the area will be identified as Jackson hot springs; a historical site and not a business. The Forest Service office will be identified and the location of the golf course will be adjusted. Also, both fire stations will be added and identified by number. G:\fire\F'orest Interface DivisionTorest Lands Commission\MINUTES\2010\October 12th 2010 Final.doc Acid Castles will be made to look more like a rock formation rather than a structure. The parking symbol for the Toothpick Trail will be removed from Tolman Creek Rd. A fountain will be added to the graphics on the plaza and the existing graphics for OSF and the Lithia Springs Hotel will be enlarged. Poky will add in various locations flowers, butterflies and deer, and will change the graphics of the spotted owl to appear more true to form. The Research Natural Area (RNA) will be identified with the owl depicted inside. Also, with the compass, the following notation will be added: "Artist Rendering Only: Map Not to Scale." Emigrant Lake will stay where it is even though it's not really in its "correct" location because the true location would place it off the map. The group agreed that it's good to let people know a lake is located nearby, and it will add some blue color to the map. The lettering will be bolder and in black. The group agreed block printing would not work and liked the fun lettering. Ostrich Peak will be added and identified near Hitt Road. The oval above one of the trees will be a peace sign fitting in with Ashland's image. The group agreed Science Works was important to identify, so that area of the map where Science Works is located will be edited to allow for the addition of this landmark. (The existing bear may need to be removed.) Fish will be added to the creeks, as well as some mountain peaks and trees. The title seemed a bit too linear: Poky will play with the placement a bit and make the "Ashland Creek"portion arch with the shape of the mountain crests and the Loop Road. Marty made some suggestions for how to add Hamilton Creek without crowding that area of the map. Poky will bring the map to the next meeting with the above changes. At the next meeting final changes will be made and from there the map will be forwarded to the Public Arts commission, with a final version out by spring, 2011. Chris wanted to be sure the addition of FAQs and talking points for the back of the map were added to next month's agenda for discussion. Back-side information should include little known facts about Ashland such as: where the TID water comes from; where Ashland's drinking water comes from; and how much acreage the city owns in the watershed. Two versions will be created: a large poster-sized map and an 8 V2"x 11" sized map. Once a final version is ready, it should be shrunk down to see how it appears. It was also suggested a kid's version be printed for them to color. Printing costs will be addressed when a final version is ready. B. Follow up on FSC Certification presentation Chris opened the discussion. He's not sure if this is the right time to pursue this, but felt it would be good for the City's image to pursue it at some point: harvesting the city's own wood for city housing and other projects is an excellent example of closed-loop sustainability and he would like to put this back on the agenda for discussion. Although there are up-front and yearly costs, and adding this value to the finished project may be even a money-loser, using certified wood from the Ashland watershed would be good PR and a good investment. Although only wood from private land can be certified at this point, this could change in the in the future to include federal lands. An additional cost, not taken into consideration before, was overhead such as personnel time needed for internal tracking and maintenance of internal records, which need to meet their standards. This could take a large chunk of time and money. Nonetheless, Chris still feels the city needs to explore this further and eventually make a recommendation to the Council. It G:\fire\Forest Interface Division\Forest Lands Commission\MINUTES\2010\October 12th 2010 Final.doc was agreed that further research into the number of board feet currently used by the city for city projects, as well as predictions for future needs, is necessary. It was also agreed that if the city did have a surplus of its own wood that it should be mandatory for the city to use that wood for city projects. To make the project pencil out the city would need to mill the wood locally transport to Rough and Ready would be too costly. Marty highlighted that access to timber on city land is limited—city-owned land is located on steep slopes with limited access, and there is no intent to harvest much timber on city- owned land. At this time the city only harvests about one load of logs each year or enough for a single house. With costs expected to be between and 6-8 percent of the annual budget for the first year and 3-4 percent with each successive year (not including overhead and internal accounting costs), this may not be practical. It is only once every 10 20 years where up to 45,000 board feet are harvested, and this amount of timber could not be processed locally by a small portable mill. Due to the process for setting up a helicopter operation, the timber must be taken all at once, not in small increments it's just too expensive to have helicopters dispatched for multiple jobs. It could be possible for Parks to generate a small amount of timber annually. However, if the prescribed burning is not allowed, there may be more cutting on city-owned land. The real question is will the cost for extracting wood exceed the cost of obtaining wood elsewhere i.e. is this only a perceived benefit and would this money be better spent on other sustainable projects such as solar panels and/or water catchments? Because the city's budget has little leftover, the benefits to projects such as these need to be real, not perceived. However, Chris still felt that the city's best resources were it's water and forests and that this was the fundamental issue how best to use the city's own resources. Chris will get some questions to Jake and would like to form a sub-committee and have a formal discussion about the positives and negatives of this project. Jake agreed with the group's assessments and that a"stamp"may be worth more than perceived. But the group must weigh the pluses, minims and costs of the project and take the issue up with the mayor, the chief, and the Council. C. Ashland Water Advisory Committee Update Peter said the committee has moved forward a lot over the past month. An open house is scheduled for October 18th. The board is comprised of 11 people and they've moved beyond the technical portions of the discussions. The focus has now narrowed down to six alternatives or packages for creating an additional 600 acre feet of water for the city's use: Package 1) Recycled Water+Emergency Supply+WTP Expansion; Package 2) TAP + WTP Expansion; Package 3) Expanded TID + Emergency Supply+WTP Expansion; Package 4) Additional Ashland Creek Storage + Emergency Supply+WTP Expansion; Package 5) Potable Groundwater+WTP Expansion; and Package 6) Aquifer Storage and Recovery+Emergency Supply+WTP Expansion The topic of using snow fences for additional water supply came up, but wasn't discussed. The next meeting is October 21 st, not the 23rd. G:\fire\Forest Interface Division\Forest Lands Commission\MINUTES\2010\October 12th 2010 Final.doc D. AFR Project Update including Community Engagement Marty discussed that we're almost out of fire season and partners are finalizing the surface and ladder (S&L)prescriptions Lomakatsi and the FS silviculturist with crews from Lomakatsi planning to treat 300 acres in Blocks 1 and 2 over the fall and winter in areas both in the lower and upper elevations (the lower elevation area is located near the previous treatment area) of the watershed. The IRT team came out last week to review the prescriptions, with the public scheduled to participate in a review of the area with a demonstration area on October 23rd. The areas to be treated are comprised of two types of forest conditions: dense madrone stands and off-site Ponderosa pine on clear-cut—off- site because the seed source is unknown. The vigor of the trees in these off-site stands is sporadic: some stands look good while others do not. Basically, if the tree(s) appear to be doing well, they'll stay if not they're may be some capability for utilization, but only in treatment areas that are close to the road because extraction costs are too expensive. Also, the log market right now is next to nothing. There was discussion about using the bi-product as biomass, but transportation costs would likely exceed the purchase price as prices are calculated by the ton. Melody asked about using the bi-product for mulch in the park. Parks is trying to eliminate the use of pesticides and, therefore, is increasing the use of mulch. Currently they purchase mulch off-site. If Parks has access to a chipper on- site this may be a viable alternative and will be a good example of closed-loop sustainability. Marty will contact Jeff regarding mulch; i.e., what does the city currently pay and will this be a viable option? If it doesn't get chipped or otherwise removed, it will be burned. This is because the cost of removal is approximately 2K per acre while the cost to leave and burn it is approximately 1 K per acre. It all comes down to practicality. Marty thinks only about 2-5 percent will be able to be utilized, but that we should take advantage of that opportunity. If the bi-product is used for firewood the result is usually to break-even, if everything goes right. Sometimes organizations such as Jackson County Fuels is contacted or firewood is provide to the needy. Lomakatsi has a lot of connections for distributing firewood. Simultaneously, while finishing S&L prescriptions for underbrush work in Blocks 1 and 2, trees for Density Management (DM) are also being marked, and blocks 3-8 are being laid out. The next step is to mark trees for DM in Blocks 3, 4 and 5. This will be done as a team, to be reviewed by the partners, the IRT and the public. There will be burning this winter of the recently treated area as well as areas previously treated under AWPP. E. Public Outreach Plan Community Engagement Plan The Community Engagement team plans to hold a couple of events to educate the community about burning: a neighborhood specific event targeting the residents at the top of Granite Street and an event open to the public. TNC has worked hard to bring in SOU as a partner and currently has a couple of monitoring programs in the works: one to monitor streams and macro-invertebrates and another to monitor the prey base of the spotted owl. The goal is to set baselines prior to treatment and monitor conditions during and after treatments to get a better understanding of how to keep these habitats intact. Also, AFR was instrumental in bringing back SOU's Friday Science Seminar with a presentation by a fire ecologist. The seminar had over 150 attendees. G:\fire\Forest Interface Division\Forest Lands Commission\MINUTES\2010\October 12th 2010 Final.doc F. Commission 3-Year Goals progress No one spoke, as members left and a quorum was no longer in effect. VII. COMMISSIONER COMMENTS Greg requested that he be provided bullet points to present at Council meetings, which are the 1st and 3rd Tuesdays of the month. Suggestions for key points are: the number of jobs created by the project with Lomakatsi, and tying burning back in to the fuel reduction process. VIII. REVIEW AND SET COMMISSION CALENDAR/NEXT MEETING A. Next regularly scheduled meeting: November 9th, 2010 B. Continued review of Watershed Map Project and discussion of FAQs and Talking Points for back of map C. Follow up on FSC Certification discussion D. Ashland Water Advisory Committee update E. AFR Project update, including community engagement IX. ADJOURN: 7:15 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). G:\fire\Forest Interface Division\Forest Lands Commission\MINUTES\2010\0ctober 12th 2010 Final.doc