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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2012.03.13 Forest Lands Commission Minutes Action Minutes FOR A MEETING OF THE ASHLAND FOREST LANDS COMMISSION Tuesday, March 13th, 2012 5:30PM to 7:30PM Siskiyou Room, CommunityDevelopment Building 51 Winburn Way I. CALL TO ORDER: 5:30 PM Jim Berge, Albert Pepe, Frank Betlej ewiski, Marty Main, Stephanie Seffinger, Chris Chambers, David Chapman, Gary Pool II. INTRODUCTIONS III. APPROVAL OF MINUTES: February 14th minutes *Pool will serve as temporary Chair due to absence of Chair and Vice Chair. Frank asked that his comment regarding comments on the City forest lands phase II project being available via the internet was not accurate. Chris will search for electronic copies in the FLC files. Reference in the minutes will remain the same. Motion to approve and second made by Pepe, Berge. IV. PUBLIC FORUM V. ADJUSTMENTS TO THE AGENDA VI. BUSINESS A. Trails/Recreation Update Pool talked about his meeting with Chief Karns about the trail sponsorship program. Pool talked to someone from the School District and was recommended to talk with Jim Hartmann and Jay of the SAEJ program. Chapman gave an update on work on the Bandersnatch trail construction. 71 people showed up to work on the trail and dug 1/2 mile. Chambers said that trail posts are in and he and Karns will work on getting them labeled. B. City Lands Prescribed Burning and PERC Grant through TNC Chambers talked about ongoing efforts to secure a burn contractor for implementing prescribed underburning on City forestlands. Bids were received and the successful contractor came in at a high price per acre. Staff gather information and decided to re-offer the contract with different specifications to get a better price. Other bids were received by did not qualify due to a lack of prescribed burn experience. Grayback Forestry has been selected as a result of the final process and at a lower rate than initially received. When the paperwork is complete, Grayback will be monitoring weather to determine when the best time to burn is and the City will decide to go forward or not. The two high priority units for this spring are unit D 1/F/C and Unit J. Next year's units will be A 1/A2, unit H, and then unit E2. There is CADocuments and Settings\chamberc\Local Settings\Temporary Internet Files\Content.Outlook\WCYJHM20\March 13th 2012 draft minutes.docx a fair amount of public education to do because the burn will require closure of the Alice in Wonderland trail at the White Rabbit parking lot. Betlej ewski asked about prioritizing the Winburn property if funding didn't allow all of the work to be completed. Main said that we'd like to do it all at once to take advantage of shared move in costs with the AFR project. We're waiting to see if contractors are available at all. There will be an RFP going out for helicopter work in the AFR project this spring. Main said the Winburn plan is targeted on 100 acres of the 160 acres the City owns. The thin will promote older forests and remove competition that would otherwise have been removed by fire. Some of the wood removed will offset the project cost. The first City project broke even during good market conditions and we may do that again with help from the PERC grant. Main still feels good about the plan from 2007. Pepe wondered about the goal of fuels reduction. Main said that fuels are important everywhere in the watershed, and the emphasis on older forests is an important component at Winburn. C. AFR Project Update including Community Engagement Main said that we're moving into the spring operating season, especially with non-commercial thinning this spring. This project phase will be implemented by September 30th, 2013, which is about 3200 acres under current funding. As mentioned in the PERC discussion, the helicopter thinning is getting closer to reality with an upcoming RFP this spring. Main said that we are lucky to have the funding that we have right now, but looking at longer timeframes the Ashland Watershed has had relatively little funding. Betlejewski asked if AFR has considered western bark beetle funding. Main and Chambers had talked with the Forest Service about it and will follow up again. Main expects to see more tree mortality this year. Berge would like to see the area. Pepe would like to see more utilization of by-products by the local community. Main explained that although there is a product and willingness to use them, but the feasibility of getting it out and the laws regulating use of Forest Service timber products is challenging. Time could be a challenge as well for those who are working on the project. Main would like to see it be successful. D. Ashland Water Advisory Committee Forum Tomorrow night is the forum at SOU at 6:30. E. Watershed Outreach Plan Review Chambers reminded the group about the outreach plan, which was what created the watershed map project. The commission can review the outreach plan and decide to take up the next topic and/or refresh it. We'll address it next meeting. F. Ashland Forest Plan Revision Maymar and Main are going to get together to discuss an update to the Plan. Betlej ewski reminded the commission that both Parks and City lands are lumped into the Forest Plan. Objectives may be different between the two owners so exploring the issues with Parks is a good idea. G. Update Commission 3-Year Goals CADocuments and Settings\chamberc\Local Settings\Temporary Internet Files\Content.Outlook\WCYJHM20\March 13th 2012 draft minutes.docx Chambers and Pool recollected the effort to combine pre-existing goals and update them. Chambers will send out an update to the Commission with the latest version of the goal for discussion at the next meeting. VII. COMMISSIONER COMMENTS-Pool clarified that he had talked with another individual about the trail sponsor program and read a model trail sponsorship document. Seffinger asked about a photo book of before and after work. Chambers said it's possible and we just need some good photos. Betlej ewski has used the same approach. Main has many photos from the watershed and feels like it's worthwhile because of the long timeframes involved. Chambers commented that video is a great tool and more accessible these days. VIII. REVIEW AND SET COMMISSION CALENDAR/NEXT MEETING A. Next Regularly Scheduled Meeting: April IOth, 2012 IX. ADJOURN: 7:30 PM Pool motioned to adjourn, Seffinger seconded. Adjourned at 7:21. In compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act, ifyou 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). CADocuments and Settings\chamberc\Local Settings\Temporary Internet Files\Content.Outlook\WCYJHM20\March 13th 2012 draft minutes.docx