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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2013.08.13 Forest Lands Commission Minutes Minutes FOR A MEETING OF THE A SHLA ND FORES T LA NDS COMMISSION Tuesday, August 13th 2013 5:30PM to 7:30PM Siskiyou Room, Community Development Building 51 Winburn Way 1) CALL TO ORDER: 5:37pm 2) INTRODUCTIONS: John Karns, Alicia Fitzgerald, John Williams, Frank Betlej ewski, Albert Pepe, Dan Maymar, Dave Brennan, Marty Main, Dennis Slattery 3) APPROVAL OF MINUTES: July 9th minutes i) Frank requested that under"B. Ashland Forest Plan Revision", the typo be corrected in the sentence, "For the write for each unit..." and change to "write-up". Frank added that he talked to Dave, and he now thinks each unit will have a short abstract/synopsis of about 150-200 words since they are going to end up with a bunch of units and unit boundaries. He mentioned that there is going to be a lot of units from the Parks Commission. Dan suggested looking for the Arcata Forest Plan. ii) Frank stated that under"D. AFR Project Update", rather than say, "...through USFS fuels mitigation dollars..." it should read, "USFS project funding" since he used to apply for these dollars and he doesn't think mititgation money is the best word. Frank stated that you can ask for inventory money, air photos, etc. and not just mitigation money. iii) No one else had any comments. Motion to approve notes with changes was done by Dave and seconded by Dan. Everyone agreed. 4) PUBLIC FORUM -none 5) ADJUSTMENTS TO THE AGENDA 6) BUSINESS A. Trails/Recreation Update a. Chief Karns discussed the City's effort to create a trails masters plan with Parks and the Forest Service. Parks felt it was time to look at their plan and modify it, though the $5000 allocated toward that project might not go very far for City-owned lands. There has been some talk about combining plans between Parks and the City. Don Robertson of Parks contacted Dave Lewis, who did their master plan before, to see how Dave felt about coming in to update their plan and possibly blending what the City is trying to do. Next week they will have a meeting to discuss costs. They might have to move some money around but it seems like there is some value to have one G:Afire\Forest Interface Division\Forest Lands Commission\MINUTES\2013\August 13th,2013.FLCnotes.AFedits.docx comprehensive City lands document that refers to the Parks land document as well. The original plan pictures were taken by Jeff MacFarland before so he'd probably do that again. By next month they will determine if combining the plans is feasible or not. No more information about work on the Alice in Wonderland Trail. b. Jeff discussed the Parks work on the Mike Uhtoff Trail putting in some bolts with a 3-hour fire watch. They had a gasoline powered drill for that, which they got a waiver for from the Fire department. c. The Lomakatsi Youth Training and Employment Program worked with Parks on the Mike Uhtoff Trail for a day. The program also worked on the White Rabbit trail re-routes above the White Rabbit parking area, with help from Bill Rousell and the Lomakatsi water truck. Parks also got help from the Youth Conservation Corps on the Mike Uhtoff Trail during the summer. B. Ashland Forest Plan Revision a. The group discussed finding the forest plans for Corvallis and Arcata. Frank was unable to find the Arcata Forest Plan, though Marty Main stated that they have a really progressive city forest lands program so he was sure there has to be one out there. Later in the meeting, Dennis found the "Arcata Community Forest and Jacoby Creek Forest Plan 1994" on the Arcata city website under Environmental Services. They have the "Arcata Forest Non-industrial Timber Management Plan". b. John shared his notes with the group. Stephanie pointed out there might be good reason for us to include in any of our discussions about forest maintenance that it is on-going, not just a one-time occurrence. She also asked if she could add photos and graphs to her revisions and the group said yes. The group agreed that putting the data into graphs and/or tables is a good way to communicate a lot of information. c. The existing policy documents Restoration II and III say we will generally manage for dispersal habitat but are inconsistent with each other as to what specifically we intend. The US Fish and Wildlife Service have authorized pilot projects to shoot barred owls in California and Oregon. Barred owls are present in the watershed and may cause conflicts between the species. d. The group agreed to have a rough draft, if we're making new content, by the next meeting on Sept 1 Oth. The group agreed that during the next 30 days they need to start putting some work forward on this and start getting things circulating. If anyone has any questions about what they should be doing they should email John W. or Frank B. John will contact Stephanie and make sure she's aware of what she's doing. Frank and Dave had a good meeting last week to get him up to speed on what he should be doing. e. Frank stated that whatever section you're doing, there is no need to go much past what those columns in the attribute table on what relates to the topic you're doing. He also stated that he looked at an area in Siskiyou Mountain Park west of Chesire Cat trail and South of White G:Afire\Forest Interface Division\Forest Lands Commission\MINUTES\2013\August 13th,2013.FLCnotes.AFedits.docx Rabbit trail. He used an increment borer on one Douglas fir and one pine there and it seems something happened to release these trees around 1992 through 1994. The trees have responded and haven't slowed down since then so he believes the management pre-1995 caused a growth response. He also stated that there's not a lot of conifers in there. Marty stated that there was an extended drought from 1987 through 1994 so it might be weather related, but that is usually overrated and was probably management, but it could also be weather. C. AFR Project Update a. Marty stated that there hasn't been a lot going on. He discussed one meeting where the group strategized, and looked back to do some retrospective work together. There are a huge number of piles to burn, he thinks roughly 1,500 acres. There has been a fair amount of work in the last 3-4 months on securing some funding. Chief Karns stated that it is going to be an ongoing process. He gives the mayor credit, since Mayor Stromberg has been focusing on pushing the Forest Service and City to get more funding. He discussed how there was always some implied idea that Ashland should put some "skin in the game" and then we can go forward and put more pressure on the federal government and that's essentially what happened. Dennis stated that we're starting to target the federal funding through local people, and nothing came out of the state legislature. He thinks we're going to be working on it constantly. The Chief stated that he thinks the video is one of the tools that will be used for this. b. The group discussed the upcoming Chamber dinner on October 1 oth. Dennis stated that it would be good for some of Forest Lands Commission to go. He stated he would get the group some more information, but that AFR is going to be front and center. He stated that Sandra was a young woman when she started pushing on federal people, so this is a long time in the pipeline. He talked about how the amount of impact on our watershed can't even be put into numbers. People keep thinking millions of dollars is expensive but you can't quantify how much impact this could have. He stated he would be interested to see if someone could put a number on the economic impact on the 2 weeks of smoke that just occurred and how the business community has a big concern about losses related to the smoke. Unfortunately, we're preaching to the choir, but some great efforts are being made to raise the profile. Chief Karns stated there will be a survey to measure that. He mentioned that he spoke to a B&B that had 31 cancellations, and since they're not even a big business that gives some indications. c. Frank discussed The Nature Conservancy's work on legacy tree monitoring. They're tracking a couple hundred of the legacy trees through AFR in part to see if enough trees were cut around the legacy trees to increase their chances for survival. He stated that it's solid science, and will generate a mountain of data that can be published in a peer reviewed journal. d. Marty stated that he thinks the federal government is going through G:Afire\Forest Interface Division\Forest Lands Commission\MINUTES\2 013\August 13th,2013.FLCnotes.AF edits.docx some discussions on the congressional level, with Ron Wyden, Greg Walden and Peter DeFazio. He doesn't know how it will come together but he thinks we may see a transition in how the Forest Service and BLM are structured after this. Maybe not. Dennis stated that he can't get a feel for whether it will be positive or not. He discussed the conflict of whether you leave it as is or re-structure something, and stated that it makes him nervous. Marty discussed the intent to put O&C lands in a trust arrangement focused more heavily on producing logs and economic benefits, which is coming through the house (DeFazio, et al). There are some real intense discussions on the economic side of producing forest products in relation to the money the counties have historically gotten and is now going away. That discussion has been going on for 4-5 years and may have some resolution in the next year. Dan stated that for the O&C lands, half the economic benefits were supposed to go to the schools. That is how that whole program is sold. Now the interesting thing is that if you aren't having that much logging in the county, that money isn't coming into the County budgets. Marty stated that most of that is focused on O&C and BLM lands. Since we don't have that we maybe won't be affected as directly, but the political winds are pretty shifty so we'll see what happens. D. Watershed Outreach Plan Discussion a. Brochure Tasks i. JohnW—The chamber was working on a new Ashland map. Dennis stated that the new Ashland map was not finished and is still in development. The goals of this particular map were to get a bead on the trails that are around Ashland and get people to those trails. A trails map you could hand to visitors which would maybe also include Howard Prairie and other winter- time trails for skiing. It would also possibly be sold and then a donation made to AFR. The Chief stated that it would be a high-end 48-panel map which may include information from Lomakatsi and the Forest Service on Native American influence, as well as biology influences, and there will be an opportunity to contribute to the work in the watershed. He is pretty optimistic, since the community is screaming for something like this at hotels, tourist centers, etc. He thinks this will address most, if not all, those needs. ii. Dave stated that he has some concerns about going a separate way from this map project. He stated that there are 4 different maps that you can get for the different trails and the more maps, the more confusion. He suggests working as much as we can with the Chamber of Commerce to see if our needs are going to be met in their needs. John W stated that the map the group wants to produce would be a simple 8 1/2 tri-fold map that you can put in your pocket and take on the trail. He stated this would be useful especially in an area like Alice and Wonderland where you are going across some trail systems. G:Afire\Forest Interface Division\Forest Lands Commission\MINUTES\2 013\August 13th,2013.FLCnotes.AFedits.docx Dennis stated that he thinks the Chamber is looking to produce a usable map. Sandra was going to give it away at first but he convinced her to sell it at the Chamber for a $2 donation to AFR. Dennis will talk to someone and see if they will come to the next meeting or get something in writing about where they're at and will send an update to John W. He thinks they are trying to serve a number of needs on this and also support AFR. He stated that trails on the Forest Service are yet to be solidified and is a constraint at this point. He thinks they have had conversations with a cartographer but he's not sure. The Chief stated that the City GIS department dedicated someone for a few weeks on the map project. E. COMMISSIONER COMMENTS i. Frank suggested that the group have a deadline of the 8th for finishing their section and sending them to Chris. This would give the group 48 hours to at least scan the information ahead of time and provide time at the meeting for discussion. The group agreed. ii. Chief Karns stated that there has been some discussion about re-formatting the Firewise Commission. Firewise has been very successful here, but at some point it will reach its saturation. The Fire Department will sustain that,but are going to transition into a"Fire-Adapted Communities" Program. Fire- Adapted Communities efforts involve land-use planning as well. There has been some discussion in folding that as a sub- committee of the Forest Lands Commission. That is one reason Chris is back at the Fire Academy this week. iii. Dennis stated that he would like John W. to get on another council agenda to give information on what the Forest Lands Commission is doing. He thinks sometime in September or October, after the 1 Oth, to talk about what the Commission is doing and where it's moving. Especially with the AFR overlay, the council still has some grumbling about budget and uncertainty, and it would be good to have someone, or everyone, from the commission there. Dennis will get it on the schedule and will let John W know. VIII. REVIEW AND SET COMMISSION CALENDAR/NEXT MEETING A. Next Regularly Scheduled Meeting, September loth 2013 at Fire Station 2 (unless communicated differently). John Karns will schedule it in the conference room. IX. ADJOURN: 6:36 PM G:Afire\Forest Interface Division\Forest Lands Commission\MINUTES\2 013\August 13th,2013.FLCnotes.AF edits.docx 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:Afire\Forest Interface DivisionTorest Lands Commission\MINUTES\2013\August 13th,2013.FLCnotes.AFedits.docx