MINUTES

Feather River Coordinated Resource Management Group

Management Committee Meeting

 

Reasonable Accommodations: In compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act, if you need special assistance to participate in this meeting please contact the Feather River Coordinated Resource Management Watershed Coordinator at (530) 283-3739, ext. 106. 

 

REMINDER:  Revegetation Sub-Committee Meeting, March 5th, 9am @ Plumas Corporation office

 

Date:  Monday, March 5, 2007

Time:  1:00 pm

Location:  Plumas Corporation Office

Members:  Chair- Joe Hoffman  Absent 

            Vice Chair- Todd Hillaire  Absent

            Project & Design Chair – Barb Drake

            Finance Chair– Dennis Heiman

            Monitoring Chair– Kevin Pond

            Others-Dan Martynn, John Kolb, Holly George, Mark Steffek, Fraser Sime-absent  

Staff:   Jim Wilcox, Terry Benoit, Leslie Mink, Gia Martynn, Jessica Albietz

Others present: John Hafen, Gabe Miller

  1. Review/Approve minutes from February 2007 meeting; Review/Approve March ‘07 Agenda

Kevin motioned to approve, John H. second, minutes and agenda approved.

 

  1. Committee Reports

Finance- Dennis Heiman

    1. Prop. 50 news- March 20th decision on supplemental funding 70% of request.  Opposition to supplemental funding for fears of no implementation funds for next round and funding of unqualified projects
    2. Title III- Board Of Supervisor’s appropriated funds for emergency services, fire prevention, community forestry, and other projects at their discretion.  CRM will be submitting a proposal for re-vegetation, developing a carbon sequestration protocol for restored meadows, and project development funds for rehabilitation projects along Greenhorn Crk.
    3. Sierra Nevada Conservancy Program- SNC has released a draft RFP for review to allocate funds through Prop 84.  Many objectives and goals within the draft are the same as our projects and program, including water quality and storage, monitoring, and education.  A community meeting in Quincy is being held March 21st to review the RFP.  This will probably be our highest priority future funding source available, since we are not able to meet requirements of other sources coming up (i.e. recent RFP for CalFed Prop 50 has a readiness to proceed criteria that is virtually pushing out all rural areas and small watershed groups that don’t have tax base funding.  In addition, the Feather River was not identified as one of the ten priority watersheds targeted in the RFP.)
    4. Stewardship Council- Rob Wade is putting together an application for Impact funds (up to $50K) through the Youth Investment Program to start an educational resource center at Caribou.  This project would partner with many entities to provide outdoor education services to both local and outside students and groups.

 

 

     3.    Project Updates-

a.       Carbon Sequestration- This was submitted as part of the Ecosystem Services package put together by the county.  Jim W. is working on developing a sampling protocol for measuring carbon seq. in meadows, sent draft to UNR staff, Sherm Swanson and Dale Johnson, specialists in soils and range. Current carbon credits for the state are managed through the CA Climate Action Agency.  This responsibility will be soon transferring to the CA Air Resources Board.  Holly shared info from Society for Range Management conference on work done in Montana through the Western Wide Range Program (?) Addresses the question of how long can you count credits. 

b.       Reveg Sub-Committee mtg report- see attached minutes from Re-veg meeting

c.       Review Period for CEQA on Dixie, Smith, and Rapp-Guidici closed 2/22/07; review period for Little Last Chance closed 2/08/07.  All projects submitted Notice of Determination to be filed with the County Clerk.  Unable to file due to newly required administrative fee of $1800 per project from Fish and Game.  Gia spoke with F&G contact to request exemption as a non-profit organization.  Was granted exemption, and told to cite the section from the statute on the NOD. 

d.       Other project development status – IFB’s for Long Valley Creek environmental survey work and reports available March 1st, bids due April 5th.  IFB’s for Meadow Valley projects will be out late March. 

Holly asked if anyone knew what was going on with the Ramelli Ditch project that was funded by the Forum and RAC.  Is a USFS grazing allotment and the permittee/landowner is willing to fence off creek and develop offsite water.  No one knew what the current status was on this project.  Terry noted he had proposed in the past to restore that whole reach from A23 to Grizzly Creek, which historically was full of beavers.

 

4.          Monitoring- Kevin Pond

a.       Indian Creek Modeling- UC Davis is expanding the Last Chance model completed in 2005.  The existing model was only run for the first year and showed a water deficit due to the newly restored meadow re-hydrating.  If run for years 2 and 3 should show changes in timing of water release, with more water later in the summer.  The model is now being expanded to the entire Indian Creek watershed and will include a temperature component.  The CRM will be subcontracting with UC Davis to do data collection.  UC has a contract with the state for Prop 50 funds to develop the model. 

b.       Set date for annual Monitoring Committee Meeting and Spring Steering Committee Meeting/Tours no date set for Monitoring Committee/ Steering Committee and Tours set for June 6 & 7th ( project sites on tour Humbug-Charles and Red Clover, others TBA)

c.       Status of constructed 2006 projects (PowerPoint photo presentation)- Jim and Terry shared recent photos of Red Clover, Hosselkus, Dyrr Bank, Charles-Humbug, Poplar, and Carmen Creek (Three-cornered meadow)

 

5.          RCD Updates – Andrea Oiler, FRRCD- New office with NRCS in Quincy at the PNF Headquarters in the old QLG Building.  Rose Comstock requested RCD to give update to the Board of Supes.

                                Gabe Miller, SVRCD- Working on fulfilling Dept. of Conservation grant through an Action and Strategic Plan.  Will be implementing a RAC grant for noxious weeds; purchasing a spray rig to be stored by the County Ag Commission and made available to Sierra Valley landowners.  Also, will be holding workshops for controlling Whitetop and Star Thistle.  Possible future funding sources Title III and SNC. 

 

 

 

 

6.          Other: Education - Brochure and Tagline review- Gia handed out taglines and brochure for committee review.  Asked for comments on taglines by the end of the week. 

Mark Steffek shared that the RC&D will be celebrating their 40-year anniversary in April.  They are talking about cutting 70% of the program, which would result in only one coordinator for all 12 districts.  Handed out RC&D brochures.  Also said to watch for a National Fish and Wildlife Foundation Pulling Together Initiative as a potential funding source.

 

Updates from Holly George:

Upper Feather River Watershed group update- moved monitoring site at A23 down to Grizzly Creek area.  Will be monitoring small wetland areas for filtration of tailwater. Looking at SNC funding thru RCD for continued monitoring work.  Currently applying for non-profit status.

Holly suggested increasing capacity and gaining more landowner involvement by developing a membership or sponsorship program.  Release a 2-4 page glossy brochure/annual report to outreach with.  Gave example of work done by watershed group in MT called Blackfoot Challenge. 

Also, suggested sending an invite to permittee for all TAC meetings, tours, etc. that involve areas they graze versus going through the USFS.  Add names to TAC lists.

Holly also asked if anyone comes across info regarding restored riparian areas in conjunction with irrigation systems to forward it along to her. 

 

 

Upcoming Dates:  Spanish Creek Public Strategy Meeting, March 12th, 5:30pm @ Quincy Library

                             NO April Management Committee Meeting

                             Re-veg Subcommittee Meeting, May 7th, 9am @ Plumas Corp office

                             Mgt. Committee Meeting, May 7th, 1pm @ Plumas Corp office

                             Steering Committee and Tours, June 6-7th