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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2017.08.08 Forest Lands Commission Minutes Action Minutes FOR A MEETING OF THE A SHLA ND FORES T LA NDS COMMISSION Tuesday, August 8th, 2017 5:30PM to 7:30PM Fire Station #2 Conference Room 1860 Ashland Street I. CALL TO ORDER: 5:36 PM Frank Betlejewski, Marty Main,Nathan Lewis, Steve Jensen,Matt Miller, Stefani Seffinger, John Williams, Marni Koopman, Jim McGinnis. II. INTRODUCTIONS Marni Koopman and Jim McGinnis introduced themselves from the Conservation Commission. III. APPROVAL OF MINUTES Change Agenda to Action Minutes in title. Page 2, C, AFR/AFAR Update remove incomplete sentence. Correct Torsten Heycke's name to include full and correct spelling. Add"if' in section A.a. Miller moved to approve as amended, Lewis seconded and all supported. IV. PUBLIC FORUM Marni Koopman and James McGinnis from Conservation Commission spoke. Koopman reviewed the commission's participation in the LEAP development process ad-hoc committee and subsequent discussion of which commission would oversee CEAP implementation. Conservation Commission brought recommendations to Council about CEAP implementation and recommending that Conservation stay independent and not directly be responsible for LEAP. She apologized if it sounded like Conservation Commission was too assertive in the process of defining roles in relation to LEAP. McGinnis offered to work with the Forest Commission to identify roles or actions identified in the CEAP. The FLC offered to go to the Conservation Commission to present the Forest Plan. Williams expressed concerns. Williams said that the Forest Commission had considered the LEAP in relation to the recent 2016 Ashland Forest Plan. Betlejewski pointed out that there needs to be sharing of data and information between commissions that are affected. Discussion took place about the approach to commission input into the CEAP oversight process with the impending ad-hoc committee. The Forest Commission offered to have a seat on the LEAP Commission. V. ADJUSTMENTS TO THE AGENDA Add 20 minutes for Siskiyou Mountain Park/Oredson Todd Inventory from Frank. VI. ONGOING BUSINESS A. Water Treatment Plant Trail alternate route update (Chambers, 5 min) Chambers met with Mike Faught, Jeff McFarland, David Chapman to discuss using the current water treatment plant road for shared traffic with peds or bikes. There is an impending decision at Council on where the new treatment plant will be built with a proposal to put it at the end of Granite St from Public Works. It's possible if the full proposal is approved, that the old plant could be taken off line in 2-3 years, making the road issue a moot point. Faught is asking for his staff's input on sharing the road until that time. B. Climate Energy Action Plan Update (Seffinger, 20 mins) Seffinger explained that there will be an ad-hoc committee to oversee the CEAP before there's a permanent group. The staff position is being hired and will likely be supervised by Adam Hanks in Administration. The idea for the ad-hoc committee is to have fresh thinking and opportunities for the existing commissions to engage with the CEAP process. The Mayor is putting energy into this issue and how it will form. Seffinger will likely stay as the Council liaison to the CEAP ad-hoc committee. Council is concerned about the amount of staff time dedicated to commission business in general. Having constructive participation from commissions to achieve work is important. Williams expressed concern about the 2016 Ashland Forest Plan and LEAP goals aligning. Seffinger said that if LEAP is translated to an ordinance it will be expressed as goals so as not to put the City in legal jeopardy. McGinnis would have liked all commissions to come together during LEAP preparation and sees opportunity for that now. C. AFR and AFAR Project Update (Chambers, 10 min) Chambers explained that the commercial thinning portion of AFR is nearly completed after 7 years. Log trucks are passing down Granite St for the next couple weeks. There will be approximately 1000 acres of non-commercial fuels work to complete along with several years to burn existing and future burn piles. Much of this can be funded through the City's OWEB grant. Maintenance underburning will take place increasingly with up to 1000 acres needed to maintain a ten-year cycle of maintenance. This will largely be funded by the City's assessment on water bills. If burn costs come down as more acres get burned, it will help achieve the targeted acres, though there are challenges with smoke, something the AFR partnership is working on. D. AFP City Lands Update (Main, 10 min) Main explained the re-inventory of all the City lands permanent plots on the whole ownership (not Parks). This year, all data will be collected for a ten-year inventory cycle moving ahead in both lower watershed and Winburn parcels. The data includes tree, vegetation, fuels, and soils data by unit. Getting good data is really important and very challenging with the diversity on the landscape. Frank commented that this data could come in handy for analyzing climate change. Main will present to the commission in the fall when data is analyzed, and commissioners would like a field trip as well. Frank explained that Parks has no plots like City lands do. He surveyed Siskiyou Mt. Park and Oredson-Todd woods to collect similar data. It needs to be entered into the attribute tables with corrections to existing data across the board along with an eventual larger update to the Forest Plan to include Acid Castles property and some corrections to existing text like inclusion of the Terrace St property. VII. NEW BUSINESS VIII. COMMISSIONER COMMENTS IX. REVIEW AND SET COMMISSION CALENDAR/NEXT MEETING AGENDA A. Next Regularly Scheduled Meeting is September 121h, 2017 IX. ADJOURN: 7:30 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).