Weed Advisory Committee Meeting

MARION COUNTY Weed Advisory Committee Meeting April 14, 2012 Willamette Room

MEMBERS PRESENT: Kurt Spingath, Joe Williams, Bob Brown, Robert Dyk, Tom Silberstein, Dan Goffin

MEMBERS ABSENT: John Savage, Paul Borgen, Liz Redon, Terry Witt, Jacque Keller-McCormick

PUBLIC SIGNED IN: None

STAFF PRESENT: Tanya Beard, Mandy Follis

MEETING START: 7:35 am

MOTION: Unanimous approval of the March minutes. Discussion: None Abstentions: None Dissensions: None Results: Minutes approved.

INTRODUCTIONS: None

PUBLIC INPUT: None

INFORMATION SHARE:  Joe is working on a poster that lists a few noxious weeds and control methods for each.  Joe wants the Committee to give input about what species should be on this poster.  There is a maximum number of weeds that can go onto this poster.  The posters will be made available to the public, growers, etc.  We have the basic format of the poster and can make changes.  The poster can be made available online.  The link to the poster is http://www.weedawareness.org/weed_poster.pdf

IVY PULL:  John and Liz have agreed to participate in this event.  Saturday April 21st at about 8am.  Pool vans will be taken from Marion County Public Works.  Everyone participating will meet at the WinCo on Lancaster Dr.

KUEBLER SCOTCH BROOM PULL:  The volunteers on Kuebler have continued their work to remove the scotch broom.  They will have another official weed pull on Saturday April 28th.

Weed Advisory Committee Meeting April 14, 2012 NATURE NIGHT:  Thursday April 12th was Nature Night at Forest Ridge Elementary.  149 kids plus their families showed up.  Tanya had a booth and posters about seed dissemination.

VEG ACADEMY:  Wednesday April 18th in the morning is Veg Academy.  Tanya will distribute guides and talk about early detection to the operations road crews.

SCIENCE EXPO:  Wednesday April 18th in the evening is a student oriented Science Expo.  It is held at the Sparks Center at Willamette University.  This is for all Salem-Keizer students to learn about science based things.

AG FEST:  The Ag Fest is April 28th & 29th.  Tanya will have a booth and may have a volunteer helping out.  We could think about activities for next year.

PLAN FOR CITIZEN TRAINING:  Tanya handed out the action plan from last meeting.  John previously talked about having a training in May, however we may not have enough time to put that together.  The training for Liz’ group in the Detroit area won’t start until about July.  We could start our training slightly west of Detroit to kind of roll the training down from Liz’ area so there are no gaps.  Having the training locations so close to one another will allow for the same people to participate while adding new volunteers.  Because this would be watershed-based, we might be able to get grant money.  If the program is successful this year it would pave the way for next year.  Grant money could fund signs to be posted at key locations reminding people to report noxious weeds.  Spread the training over different times of year allowing volunteers to see the plants at different stages.  We need to think about who we are trying to contact and how we can reach them.  The training should be limited to 2 hours.  We can focus on 3 species but provide information about others.  The following Committee members have agreed to participate in some way in these training workshops: John Savage, Tom Silberstein, Bob Brown, & Dan Goffin.  Tanya will talk with Liz and find out if they have a species list so we can be consistent.  We would want to do our first workshop after Liz’ workshop.

BRAINSTORM FOR WEED AWARENESS WEEK (MAY 20 – 26)  The Governor proclaimed that May 20 – 26 is invasives week.  Do we have time to put something together by this date?

Weed Advisory Committee Meeting April 14, 2012  Tanya might be able to go through a reporter she’s worked with before and have an article about the Governor’s proclamation.  We could mention the upcoming workshops if a story or article is done.  We need to relate to something people care about.  We could have a catchy jingle or catch-phrase.

NEXT MEETING: May 12, 2012

ADJOURN: 8:47am

Weed Advisory Committee Meeting April 14, 2012