Marys Peak Stewardship Group
Marys Peak Stewardship Group
Meeting Notes
September 22, 2016
Name / Affiliation / Name / AffiliationJane Brass Barth / Facilitator / Jeff Uebel / SNF
Kathleen Westly / MRWC / Cindy McCain / MPA/AFRANA
Mick Mueller / SNF / Jennifer Ward / City of Corvallis
Mike Totey / ODF
Meeting began shortly after 6:00pm with review on August meeting notes. The notes were approved with the correction of Kathleen’s last name.
Update on Marys Peak Alliance Discussion with City of Corvallis about West Point
The 60 acre parcel known as West Point was retained by the City when ownership for other Peak property was sold to the USFS in the 1950’s. This relic City ownership has communication infrastructure on it. This property is managed by Adam Steele in Public Works. The site has Noble Firs and meadows that would benefit from restoration activities similar to those being done on the FS’s land on the Peak. The Marys Peak Alliance approached the City to discuss possibilities for doing restoration at West Point. They also discussed the possibility of drafting a management plan to create opportunities to mesh work on this City land with work of the Siuslaw NF on nearby land. The City is open to doing work there, but doesn’t have a source of funding or personnel to lead that work as it does within its watershed. The MPA offered ideas for potential grant funds the City could pursue. One source could be retained receipts. The City also is interested in selling or swapping the land with the SNF since the SNF is in the business of ecological restoration and management. The property could be placed on the tri-partite land exchange list, but the SNF is just now doing pilot of that tool in the Hebo District.
NEXT STEPS: A small group of MPA members will work with the City and Jennifer will serve as liaison. Mick Mueller will be the FS contact. This group will keep the MPSG updated.
Wyden Projects
CPRCD received 8 full project proposals for a total in requests of $422,212. Approximately $360,000 will be available for Off-Forest retained receipts projects. The Round table representatives will have to work to determine whether to fund all 8 projects or to cut down some budgets to fit within the available funds.
Round Table representatives for Fall meeting offered that they would appreciate information from the HSG representatives about whether they would like to fund all their 5 projects at some level or lop one or more off the list in order to be able to fully fund the others. They also said that information on which projects give “more bang for the buck” would be helpful. Jeff said that he would ask the Technical Review Team to look at proposals with an eye for the relative value of each and include a comment in their report. The Review team will not rank the proposals, but will ask specific technical questions of applicants. It also may raise questions if budget figures seem out of line with usual costs.
Project Implementation Process Discussion
Mike Totey explained that ODF, as the agency responsible for enforcing Forest Practices Act on private land, is in the process of responding to concerns about implementation of a Wyden project funded last year. The project replaced a culvert with a bridge. ODFW inspected that project and found that large rock placement was not suitable and would need to be fixed. The contractor apparently made on-site decisions that did not follow the originally approved and technically-reviewed design. A group of stakeholders met at the site earlier this week to seek a solution. They play to ask Job Corps volunteers to move the misplaced rocks by hand, which would be a no-cost fix to the Alsea Watershed Council who is managing the project. Once this fix is completed, ODFW and ODF will re-inspect the site. This situation raised several questions for ODF: Who is responsible for the work being done within retained receipt contracts? Who would ODF pursue for damages? Who would pay for the fix? The Round table can discuss this issue further to learn from this specific, first-of-its-kind experience over the duration of the stewardship program on the SNF.
The Nature Conservancy’s Inquiry into Science Needs of Forest Collaboratives
The Adaptive Management Working Group is holding a conference call to discuss how to respond to TNC’s inquiry. They intend to prioritize science questions in order to seek TNC’s assistance in answering them. Jane will resend the email from TNC. MPSG participants are encouraged to send ideas to Jane so that she can relay them to the working group. [UPDATE: Conference call set with Trent Seager on October 12th at 11:30am. The working group is crafting a list of science questions to share with Trent on that call.]
Revisiting Stewardship Needs and Area Boundaries
This topic was deferred until next month.
Updates and Announcements
USFS:
· Jack Sleeper is leading the Technical Review Team. The Team will create its report by first week of October. Jeff will share the results of the report with the MPSG at its October meeting.
· The SNF is working on a Legacy Roads proposal to the Region. The grant is for approximately $6 million to work across the entire forest over a 3 year period. The grant will be used for storm damage risk reduction and drainage improvement. These funds also are used for fish passage projects. The forest typically receives 25% of what they request.
· The new stewardship group in the Smith River/Umqua/Dunes area has suggested a boundary that overlaps with some of the SSG’s area. The area includes the Smith and Umqua Rivers and tributaries that extend into the Dunes. A couple of folks from this new group went on the recent SSG field trip to the Indian Creek EA area. Two will attend the Round table to listen and learn how the SGs work collaboratively.
· CPRCD has applied for a NFFWFF grant to create a Cooperative Weed Management Area in the Dunes. This is an outcome from the recent Dunes Restoration Strategy Working Group effort and has relevance for the new stewardship group in that area.
· SNF is working on a Joint Chiefs proposal and are closing out the fiscal year.
· The Restoration Biologist left and the SNF hopes to fill that position soon.
Partner Organizations:
· Cindy announced the Lets Pull Together event happening this Saturday. One effort will be to pull baby fit on the Peak from 10am-2pm.
· Mike shared that Peter Dougherty has been promoted to the State Forester position.
Before adjourning, the group determined that October 20th worked better than the 27th for most participants. Therefore, the next MPSG meeting will be on October 20th.
Distributed at Meeting 3