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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2015.11.10 Forest Lands Commission Minutes Action minutes FOR A MEETING OF THE A SHLA ND FORES T LA NDS COMMISSION Tuesday, November loth, 2015 5:30PM to 7:30PM Fire Station #2 Conference Room 1860 Ashland Street I. CALL TO ORDER: 5:30 PM II. INTRODUCTIONS: New Commissioner Steve Jensen Jeff McFarland, John Karns, Steve Jensen, Frank Betlejewski, Niki Silva (SOU student), Mica Schmidt (SOU student), Drew Palaset (SOU student), Lauren Barlow (SOU student), Steve Jessup (citizen), Luke Brandy, Dave Brennan, John Williams, Marty Main. III. APPROVAL OF MINUTES: October Meeting Minutes "JubJub" is one word name of the new trail, not two words. Williams motioned to approve with change and Brandy seconded. All voted in favor. IV. PUBLIC FORUM Steve Jessup spoke about the Paradise Creek watershed as a project area for fuels reduction planning and prescribed burning perhaps in coordination with US Forest Service work above in the AFR project. V. ADJUSTMENTS TO THE AGENDA Trails and recreation was moved to the first item (A). VI. BUSINESS A. Trails/Recreation (15 min) McFarland talked about the Ashland Trails Project on USFS that approved an alternative for trails management in the watershed federal land that would allow new trails to be built. The 45 day comment period extends into December and work might be able to start in January. AWTA and Ashland Mt Adventures worked on the rerouted section of BTI recently and one last bit of work remains plus decommissioning the old section. McFarland walked the Granite St property (wooden stairs that go up from Granite St) with Rob Cain to rebuild the stairs with concrete blocks for easier maintenance and better user experience. Parks Commission will review it and Cain will be paying for the work himself since it's his property, though a Parks easement for the trail. Parks helped with SOU students at Ashland Pond for middle school students in a pilot program. McFarland met with Pieter Smeenk and project geologist at the proposed water tank at the Loop Road and bottom of the new Bandersnatch Trail. McFarland asked for a geology assessment of the trough in the lower Alice in Wonderland trail that's a dangerous and damaging portion of trail that needs fixing. The assessment could be paid for with the adjacent tank project. Some commissioners have reviewed that area previously. Other trail maintenance and signage is ongoing. B. 2016 Ashland Forest Plan Status (45 min) Frank has been looking at the vegetation and management chapters along with riparian and water considerations. Invasive species management is being reviewed by the Parks Commission. Frank would like to use their strategy in the plan. Reviewers will be given the draft plan soon for review and comment due February 14th. Williams offered another review from a US Forest Service biologist. Frank said the spring would be the best time for that. Chambers will make sure the proper review is done with the City before it goes to Council. Commissioners gave updates on each chapter and progress to date. Frank talked about the map package involving an overview map and specific maps by topic area for each parcel and with tables of data as well. A section on climate change is needed and Main has recently presented at a local conference on that topic. Main talked about the conference and his presentation. He felt that the local impacts of climate change in the forestry world are difficult to predict with certainty, especially with the interaction of wildfire. What he found was certain is that the data shows temperatures are rising and there has been a lot of pollutants released into the air by humans. Williams commented on a study by University of Washington for the Rogue Valley for the issue of water, and their predictions for the 50 year timeframe came to pass within only two years. Frank had experience with climate models for tree distribution and models did a good job in some places and others were not accurate. For Southern Oregon, Main said that models generally predict either hotter and wetter or hotter and drier and perhaps the wetter end toward the coast, but with more extremes on temperature and precipitation. Williams commented that this has already lead to years of average rainfall, but virtually no snowpack and that's affect water use and storage planning. Main said that fire "delivery"to the City and watershed will be affected in addition to water. Brandy is concerned with not doing enough now for an uncertain climate future. Main and Frank commented that with multiple values and the need to go slow and not make mistakes has guided the City toward a cautious reduction of density, in addition to stands that don't sustain immediate release readily and especially not to very low densities, no matter how appropriate. Main presented his slide show on forests and climate change. C. City Lands Management Update (15 min) Main described work at hand to burn piles on the Winburn property, next to BTI, and above the Granite St quarry. The two latter units will have to wait until March for burning. He and Chris Chambers are looking at underburn units for the spring and also starting to take a look back at a small handful of units that have had no management to date for a variety of reasons. VII. COMMISSIONER COMMENTS Brandy asked about the Executive Summary for the Forest Plan. Frank said it's a one page summary after all other chapters are done. Williams has the 50 year climate change study from the Water Committee work that could be used for a reference in the Forest Plan chapters, and it applies to many chapters. It could be an appendix as well. Jessup asked if the Forest Plan includes easements along the TID. Frank said the closest city land is the north side of Siskiyou Mountain Park. McFarland confirmed that the TID is not under the City's management through easements. Lomakatsi has done some fuels reduction on the Hinkle property above the TID up to Siskiyou Mountain Park. Jessup is interested in SOU student involvement in the urban interface issue. VIII. REVIEW AND SET COMMISSION CALENDAR/NEXT MEETING AGENDA A. Next Regularly Scheduled Meeting is December 8th, 2015 IX. ADJOURN: 7:23 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 35102-35104 ADA Title I).