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CFG Advisory Group Meeting Summary Report and Staff Recommendations

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CFG Advisory Group Meeting Summary Report and Staff Recommendations CFG Advisory Group Meeting Summary Report and Staff Recommendations The Advisory Group (AG) Meeting to review the proposed Unit Management Plan (UMP) for the Marjorie Harris Carr Cross Florida Greenway (CFG) State Recreation and Conservation Area was held at the Marion County Government Services Building in Ocala, Florida on Wednesday, November 15, 2017, at 9:00 a.m. Mr. Greg Vaughn from Atkins (F4 Tech teaming partner) began the meeting by explaining the purpose of the AG and reviewing the meeting agenda. He then afforded AG members an opportunity to introduce themselves. Following introductions, he provided a brief overview of the Division of Recreation and Parks (DRP’s) planning process, including specifics about the comment process. He indicated that we had provided the document in advance along with a comment matrix for the receipt of comments. He also stated that we had received several comments and that the point of this meeting was to discuss substantive comments. All editorial comments can be submitted through the comment matrix and will be addressed following this meeting. All AG members who submitted comments will have responses submitted back to them. Attendees can email comments as well. Respectful debate is encouraged. INTRODUCTIONS • Mickey Thomason. Manager of CFG, Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP) since 2000. • Whitey Markle. Chairman of the St Johns Sierra Club and Silver Springs Alliance Board and Executive Committee of the Silver Springs Council. • Larry Wuest. Representing Florida Paddling Trail Association. • Daniel Osborn. Assistant Park Manager at Silver Springs State Park. • Jim Gross. Florida Defenders of the Environment. • Jim Couillard. Marion County Parks and Recreation Department. • Chris Spontak. Marion County Ocklawaha Paddlers Group. • Taryn Evans. Representing Big Scrub Chapter of the Florida Native Plant Society in Marion County. • Walter Green. Mayor of Dunnellon. • Tom Matthews. Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission Public Access Services. • Scott Berry. Levy County Soil and Water Conservation District. • Drinda Merritt. Mayor of Inglis. • Helen Koehler. Levy County Property Owner. Professional Volunteer. Nature-based equestrian tourism. • Guy Marwick. The Felburn Foundation. • Rob Ern. Vice President of Ocala Mountain Bike Association. • John Dunn. Vice President of Silver Springs Alliance. Restoration and Preservation of Silver Springs and Ocklawaha Rivers. • Barbara Schwartz. Marion Audubon Society and the Silver Springs Alliance. • Mark Fielding. Florida Trails Association. Section Leader for the CFG. • Doug Shearer. Florida Greenway Equestrians. Maintenance of the equestrian trails. Silver Springs Alliance. • Wayne Little. Local property owner. 1 CFG Advisory Group Meeting Summary Report and Staff Recommendations • Sam Carr. Founding member of the Putnam Trails Association. Member of the Trails Association. Creator of the Bartram Trail. • Dixie Hollins. Local property owner. • Steve Miller. President of Save Rodman. • Richard McGinley. Marion Soil & Water Conservation District. • Gene Stillman. F4 Tech. FDEP contractor who oversaw development of the UMP. • Alicia Tretheway. Levy County Board of County Commissioners (filling in for Commissioner John Meeks). • Eric Summa. Planning and Environmental Lead for the United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE). • Heather Ellison. U.S. Forest Service (USFS). Ocala National Forest. • Jared Nobles. USFS. Ocala National Forest. • Bob Wuestenhagen. Keep Marion Beautiful (local non-profit). • Jeremy Olson. Land manager with the St. Johns River Water Management District (SJRWMD). • Justin Kilcrease. Florida Forest Service (FFS). Ross Prairie and Indian Lake. SUMMARY OF ADVISORY GROUP COMMENTS Justin Kilcrease. FFS, Ross Prairie and Indian Lake. Main comment commends the CFG in its restoration efforts and burning. Understands the difficulty in burning across the CFG. When they talk about restoration in the UMP, they list certain goals and I encourage DRP to keep it like that. Continue the focus on prescribed burning. I agree with most of the information regarding timber management and understand what they are doing. Jeremy Olson. Land manager with SJRWMD. Seconded Mr. Kilcrease’s comments. It is a challenge to deal with timber, prescribed burning, and public use. The SJRMWD would like some clarification on Objective E on Page 220. Basically, the objective concerns an evaluation to potentially transfer the responsibilities of Patrick Dam and Buckman Lock to the SJRWMD. Unclear as to whether this has been mentioned before by DEP. Doing so represents a potential concern that needs more clarification. Bob Wuestenhagen. Keep Marion Beautiful (local non-profit). No direct comments. Would like to obtain more information on how to continue the KMB mission. Jared Nobles. USFS, Ocala National Forest. Able to quickly review the document yesterday. Main areas to revisit are all of CFG ownership blocks on the USFS side of the river, which are within the bounds of the Ocala National Forest and marked for fire management. From previous mutual agreements to reduce the amount of fire lines, I’d like to see it mentioned that the USFS is still capable of burning their land and letting the fire go to the Ocklawaha River. We are trying to reduce the amount of fire lines we create on the Ocala National Forest. Overall, I see a lot of opportunities with FDEP (like with SJRWMD and FFS) to get an overarching “good neighbor authority” partnership agreement regarding burning, timber sales, interpretive signs/information, and recreational items. Looking forward to the partnership opportunity. Heather Ellison. USFS, Ocala National Forest. Recommend pursuing potential partnering opportunities since the CFG is adjacent to the Ocala National Forest. I am in charge of lands and 2 CFG Advisory Group Meeting Summary Report and Staff Recommendations acquisitions. Understand there are some parcels to exchange. From a management perspective, we manage our lands similarly. With the management of adjacent lands, I will follow up and say that fire, timber, recreational resources, special uses, timber resources, etc., represent areas of mutual interest and potential partnership opportunities. Eric Summa. USACE, Planning and Environmental Lead. Took several hours to review the UMP and found it to be well-written, clear, etc. I found the page insets with information in the margins to be very helpful. Specific comments: really good use of goals for overall management on page 13. Some discussion in the UMP about invasive species. However, very little discussion about promoting native plant growth and native plants. So many pages dedicated to natural communities, but only two pages covered altered systems. Because of the significant amount of alteration across the CFG, it would be helpful to have acreages of the altered systems identified and what habitat types were altered. This would be helpful in this document and will help the natural communities. I was somewhat confused about the hydrologic management objectives because part talks about existing control structures, functions, and maintenance, which is apparently addressing flood protection. Reason to maintain these systems is to protect residents. Need to expand on this objective. Hydrologic management section is lacking—need to take those modifications that have been done over the last 40 to 50 years and improve on them. Spoil island management to include invasive species is significant on the intracoastal waterway. Opportunities exist for recreation and natural habitat. Lastly, a lot of information near the end of the document about the Rodman Dam, specific to Mr. Miller and others. Due to its controversy, it would be helpful in showing if removing the dam would impact recreational opportunities. Alicia Tretheway. Levy County Board of County Commissioners (filling in for Commissioner John Meeks). No comments were offered (listening in). Gene Stillman. F4 Tech. FDEP contractor who oversaw development of the UMP. Thanked all for their assistance in developing the plan. Richard McGinley. Marion Soil & Water Conservation District and Property Owner. A tremendous amount of information is contained within the UMP. Would be great to have copies available to Board of County Commissioners, Soil & Water Conservation Districts. The UMP provides a basis of knowledge that is beneficial for the community and multiple counties. Steve Miller. President of Save Rodman. It has been previously stated that there are several good sections in this UMP. One thing that stood out was water resource management by the SJRWMD. We are trying to determine that the overall goal is to transfer management responsibility for Rodman Dam to the SJRWMD. Obviously, a potential water resource issue concerns saltwater intrusion in the aquifer. We would like to see the goal expanded to include management of the facility and transfer of the land (in particular). Was glad to see some language in the document pertaining to the Kenwood campground and would like to see this advanced. Save Rodman is a broad-based local citizens group that can help improve, sustain, and manage the campground. We will be submitting more information on that. In the area around the dam, it would be beneficial to put a kayak launch or dock on the lake side to improve ingress/egress. Some folks in Putnam County found that observation decks/towers would be great for birdwatching, sightseeing—this could be something to consider adding to the Kenwood campground. 3 CFG Advisory Group
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