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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2011.08.09 Forest Lands Commission Minutes Minutes FOR A MEETING OF THE ASHLAND FOREST LANDS COMMISSION Tuesday, August 9th, 2011 5:30PM to 7:30PM Siskiyou Room, Community Development Building 51 Winburn Way I. CALL TO ORDER: 5:41 PM II. INTRODUCTIONS Present: Stefanie Seffinger, Chris Iverson, John Williams, Pieter Smeenk, Gary Pool, Albert Pepe, Marty Main, John Karns, Dan Maymar, Chris Chambers III. APPROVAL OF MINUTES: Chambers will attach action minutes to agenda emails in the future. Williams moved to approve minutes from last meeting as submitted, Iverson seconded and all ayes. IV. PUBLIC FORUM V. ADJUSTMENTS TO THE AGENDA Commission voted to move the discussion of Chair and Vice Chair to first on the agenda. VI. BUSINESS A. Discussion of Chair/Chair Election Maymar volunteered to be Chair and no one opposed. Pool motioned that Maymar be elected as Chair of the commission, Williams seconded and all voted in favor. Iverson volunteered to be Vice Chair. Pool nominated Iverson to be Vice Chair, Williams seconded and all voted in support. B. Watershed Map Distribution Iverson is working on the placement of the watershed maps. He handed out a draft list of locations and the committee discussed placement. Iverson added the utility billing office in addition to the Community Development office. Handouts will be at both Fire Stations and eventually a poster at the new Station 2. Others are as listed on the handout. Chambers will contact the NW Nature Shop. Williams will contact schools. Chambers will take care of the Forest Service. Maymar will ask at Rogue Valley Runners. Chambers suggested that businesses pay for posters if they'd like them. There was agreement that businesses should be offered the 8.5 by 11 inch maps, but the posters would have to be paid for. Restaurants would buy their own as well. No one knew people at Mt. Supply to contact. Seffinger suggested the library, which was added. Williams will work on the Cafe Press site when/if it is needed. Iverson will contact Tidings about map distribution G:\fire\F'orest Interface DivisionTorest Lands Commission\MINUTES\2011\August 9th 2011 minutes.docx point article. Iverson suggested some things to say to the distribution points when bringing the maps. We'll need to check back in to see when and if they are running out of maps. C. Trails/Recreation Policy Subcommittee Karns talked about the effort to coordinate trails management between the City, Parks, and the Forest Service. The subcommittee will work on the policy for City trails. The next step is working on an application process that will required of any group proposing a trail on City lands. The application needs to be polished up to reflect what is being demanded of trails by various users. The template used by Parks for their Master Plan will be used to guide the City's plan. One issue that will be important is enforcement of trail use and etiquette. Iverson suggested using an"adopt a trail"program where people adopt a section of trail to maintain. Another concern is fire and life safety on trails for rescues and fire responses. Chambers will send out the minutes from the last trails meeting. D. AFR Project Update Main said prescriptions are finished for blocks 1 and 2 (of 6) and marking is done in block 1. AFR crews are working on block 2 marking in the next few weeks. The Forest Service is cruising and appraising the marked trees and will be done by the end of September. There is some ground based thinning that can be done in block 2 only on gentle slopes. Work is likely to begin next spring. Just over 100 acres has been thinned already(non-commercially) in the past month and put into burn piles. August 27th is a public tour of marking. Main explained that we have multiple reviews of AFR plans including public, AFR partners, and an implementation review team composed of Joseph Vaile, Max Bennett, and George McKinley. Chambers explained the recent rumors about clear cutting and the need to get out good information to the public. Chambers said that 72.6 percent of the basal area in Block 1 is being retained in the larger trees and mostly smaller trees are being marked for thinning or are already thinned via the non-commercial surface and ladder fuel work. Chambers also pointed out that not all of the area is being thinned. Substantial areas of unthinned forest are kept for riparian protection and wildlife habitat so the averages for trees thinned should take this into account. E. Ashland Water Advisory Committee Update Smeenk explained that the committee met again and discussed water storage. Current treated storage is about 1/2 day of use. The committee discussed having closer to a day of use. More accurate numbers are being generated about the options for increasing water supply in the future. Options are being discussed to change the water rate fee structure to avoid being penalized for conservation. Changing the base rate could help cover infrastructure costs in addition to other options like raising taxes. Williams asked if water use declined when the City requested conservation some weeks ago. Smeenk said they didn't keep close enough track to know for sure, but changes in irrigation of landscapes are most important for affecting change in use. Seffinger said she would change more of her landscape for water conservation if she had more information. Smeenk said G:Afire\Forest Interface Division\Forest Lands Commission\MINUTES\2011\August 9th 2011 minutes.docx that we generally have enough water, but not enough storage in drought years. Pool said that people generally support reducing lawn area when they have good information. A discussion of water catchment took place. There are local contractors who specialize in rain water catchment systems. Williams said the committee discussed water supply for fire fighting and having adequate flow and pressure. Williams asked Karns to come to present information to the group on fire fighting flow requirements. One plan to create redundancy is have another treatment plant out of the canyon which could treat the bulk of the water year round and then supplements using the other plant in the summer. The TAP pipeline is another option that's being considered, which would hook the City into the Medford Water Commission supply(Big Butte Springs). Smeenk said that ultimately Ashland will need both options, it's just a matter of how to pay for it and which option to choose first. Next meeting is August 25th 4pm at the Siskiyou Room. F. Commission 3-Year Goals progress Commission agreed that the Goals need to be resurrected. Maymar commented on the Ashland Forest Plan needing to be updated, or at least reviewed. Kerwin was working on 3 year goals when his term ended. Chambers will dig out the notes from past meetings and email it out before next meeting for comment, including the public outreach plan. VII. COMMISSIONER COMMENTS None. VIII. REVIEW AND SET COMMISSION CALENDAR/NEXT MEETING A. Next Regularly Scheduled Meeting: September 13th, 2011 IX. ADJOURN: 7:07 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 DivisionTorest Lands Commission\MINUTES\2011\August 9th 2011 minutes.docx