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Meeting Minutes |
Trinity Lutheran Church—Freeland, WA
4 p.m. to 6 p.m.
Revision II—Dec. 6, 2000
Present: Don Meehan, Gary Wood, Mike Gallion, Hi Bronson, Dick Toft, Vice
Chair Tom
Roehl, Julie Buktenica; Kate Poss. Visitors: Donna Keeler, Island Co.; Pete
Sybert, P.E. Engineer, Island
Co. Public Works; Mike Kyte, biologist, Golder Assoc., Redmond; Shelly Solomon,
Jefferson Co., Public
Works; Ken Cook, Jefferson Co. Public Works; John Cambalik, NOPLEG, Clallam
County DCD; Sheila
Harrison, public visitor; Herb Hunt, public visitor; J.C. May, public visitor;
Winnie Wheeler, public visitor; Judy
Wheeler, public visitor; Bill White, public visitor. MRC members Jan Holmes,
Chair Tom Campbell, Matt
Klope and Tom Shaughnessy, had excused absences. Guest speakers Elliott
Menashe of Clinton
–based Greenbelt Consulting and Jim Johanneson of Bellingham-based Coastal
Geologic Services were also
here.
A quorum having been established by Acting Chair Tom Roehl, the meeting was called to order at 4:05 p.m.
Dick Toft moved to approve the 11/1/00 as submitted with revisions; Don
Meehan seconded; the motion was
carried by all.
Jim Johannessen: Jim said that Whidbey Island has the most, for its size,
and longest, stretches of
potentially unstable shoreline bluffs in the Puget Sound. He started his
slide presentation with a picture of
the collapsed concrete bulkhead at West Beach.] He said an informal survey
by BeachWatchers indicated
that Whidbey Island's shoreline is about 20 – 25% comprised of hardened
bulkheads. Hard bulkheads, he
explained, often contribute to loss of surf smelt and sand lance spawning
areas. These are fish that are the
“last supper” of salmon as they make their way to rivers. In addition hard
armoring-another word for inflexible
bulkheads can prevent shade plants from growing that protect spawn from
the heat of the sun; Some
concrete bulkheads result in the loss of fine sediment for hard-shell clams.
Soft shore protection involves an approach of using gravel, sand, logs,
root masses, individual rocks
and/or native vegetation to create a more natural habitat conducive to forage
fish and plants. Soft armoring
does not lend itself to a uniform design. It must be custom designed for
each individual site upon analysis of
the variable condition hard shore armoring which ranges from about $100
to $200 per linear foot.
Maintenance is required for either type of system also depending on conditions.
Jim showed slides of
some of his successful projects in Island County, Orcas Island, and elsewhere
in the region. At Maxwelton
beach, for instance, there were old broken concrete bulkheads, logs, muck,
and garbage. Jim’s group
replaced the mess with buried concrete ecology blocks to which large logs
were anchored by chain and
covered and covered with gravel and sand.
Elliott Menashe: Elliott said it was a myth that trees growing on bluff
faces add to erosion and bluff
failure. He said, that trees and vegetation serve to hold and bind bluff
soils and deter erosion by water
stream He said that tree roots are naturally engineered to provide strength
to contain soil and permit
vegetation to grow. One of his favorite sayings is: “It doesn’t make sense
to put a permanent solution in a
temporary place.” Fallen trees act as buttresses to hills, keeping a slide
from continuing and allow for the
establishment of other trees. Willow trees are especially good, he added,
saying they handle salt water
well.
He explained these concepts of root binding and the potential for using
root stumps in the design of Soft
shore armoring. He and Jim have a proposal pending to Island County to employ
soft armoring in a
stabilization project off Madrona Way north of Coupeville.
MRC’s co-sponsorship of the 1/27/00 “Sound Waters” forum with Island Co./WSU
Beach Watchers @ 5:32
p.m.
Responding to a proposal by Don Meehan, a motion was made by Dick Toft
and seconded by Gary Wood
that the MRC provide support and/or participation in the upcoming Sound
Waters workshop and that up to
$200 be allocated towards the MRC presence there. The motion carried with
4 voting in favor and Don
Meehan abstaining.
Discussion: Tom Roehl said he agreed with the MRC having a presence at
the workshop and providing
support but was uncomfortable with the MRC actually writing checks for projects
of community groups no
matter how worthwhile, especially since we haven't yet adopted our work
plan for the coming year. He noted
that we only have $10,000.00 for the whole year.
Gary Wood said he would accept re-nomination of his term.
Don reported that Jan Holmes said she is considering leaving the MRC.
He said he would contact her,
hopefully to talk her out of leaving. He said if she plans to decline he
would ask for something in writing
Tom Roehl reported he received an E-mail from the Coupeville Port District
that it will continue to have Tom
Shaughnessy as its representative. He said he'll forward this to Don
Motion was made by Gary Wood and seconded by Dick Toft to recommend the
following for appointment
to the Island Co. MRC: Sayed Z. El-Sayed, representing science; and Martin
H. Behr, representing marine
commerce to replace Mike Crotty of Nicols Brothers and Roger Sherman, representing
agriculture to replace
Linda Schoenharl. The motion carried with 4 votes with Mike Gallion abstaining.
The names will be
submitted to Island County commissioners for their approval to replace former
MRC members who resigned
in September and in October: Linda Sue Schoenharl and Mike Crotty.
Julie Buktenica encouraged those who could, to attend the 11/16 Dept.
of Fish & Wildlife seminar on
salmon recovery from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. in Everett. If anyone does go, she
asked that they bring handouts
back.
Don M. handed out a summation of the NWSC training conference hosted in Oak Harbor 10/27 and 10/28.
The next meeting is scheduled for Dec. 6, 2000 at Monroe Landing Firehall
South of Oak Harbor between 4
p.m. and 6 p.m. This will be the last MRC meeting for the year 2000.
