March 22, 2000

Freeland - Trinity Lutheran Church
(revised 4/7/2000)

Attendees: Don Meehan, Mike Gallion, Mike Sato, Gary Wood, Tom Roehl, Tom Campbell, Linda Sue Schoenharl, George Lundgren, Jan Holmes, Bill White, Rich Shaughnessy, Julie Buktenia, Don and Renee Wright. Bolded = Voting Members

Preceding the meeting a 2PM Tour was conducted at Nichols Bros. Boat Builders. Key point was their aggressive approach to managing pollution of all kinds at their yard. They have spent over a million dollars in the last few years on equipment and systems for handling all of their wastes and surface runoff. It was quite impressive. Even in a heavy rainfall event that overcomes their regular treatment system they have their wetland back up preventing any untreated water from entering the Sound. (attendees: : Don Meehan, Mike Gallion, Gary Wood, Dick Toft, Tom Campbell, Linda Sue Schoenharl, George Lundgren, Commissioner Bill Thorn.)

Meeting was called to order at 6:13 by Chair Mike Gallion

Don Meehan noted there are five people applying for the secretary job and that Gary and Mike will be working with him to hire one of them next week. Don M. took minutes due to lack of regualr secretary. Please forgive him!

Minutes of the March 1 Meeting were approved by a motion from Tom Roehl (2nd by Linda Sue) - unanimous vote.

Mike Sato (People of Puget Sound) reported on State Supreme Court ruling on oil spill prevention and tugs efforts in the straits. Also reported that National Marine Fisheries is looking to give a response on the listing status (ESA) of Cod, Hake, and Pollack in Oct 2000 and Herring and Copper, Brown, and Quillback Rockfish in Feb 2001.

NWSC Report by Gary Wood - Reported on the retreat the Commission held on Orcas Island. Gary and Mike both attended. Key points were the organization of the commission into special committees. Each committee is to be chaired by a Commission member, but MRC members can be committee members.

Commission will have a Chair and Vice Chair.

Work plan development for each the NWS benchmarks will be tied to measurable factors.

Gary sought input from the committee on the Exec Director position and what we thought the person should do. This will be an item at the next business meeting of the NWSC.
Ideas that came forth from the Is. Co. MRC
1. Should attend MRC mtgs on a regular (quarterly) basis
2. Exec Director should work to make sure the NWSC serves the MRC with the concept that the local MRCs are at the top of the pyramid.
3. Should be able to provide the leadership to tie all of the MRC's together to create the spoked wheel concept.
4. Should have significant strengths in finding funding outside of the Federal stream of funds.

Salmon Recovery Funding Board - response to the Maxwelton Grant proposal- Report by Gary Wood.

Gary reported on his correspondence to the SRFBRD that told them they had failed to see our proposal was in fact a nearshore project that they had lamented they had not seen. Gary also reported his communication with Lyn Palinsky at the SRFbrd indicated our proposal would likely be funded in the next round in October.
Julie B. expressed total frustration at the results of the SRFbrd outcome.

Mike Gallion commented about the Science Meeting of the SRFbrd that Janet had commented we needed "more time". The SRFbrd may have taken that to heart.

Eelgrass Project: Gary noted that he had the work plan submitted to Sharon Riggs at the NWSC for contract development and Don M. outlined the process for getting work going...fairly arduous.

Jan Holmes talked about progress on the Census part and things were moving along. There was considerable discussion on how the survey should be done. Tom R. offered his help, as did Don M. offering the services of the Department of Rural Sociology at WSU.

Work Plan 2000 - A copy of the work plan was handed out by Linda Sue who had done the final tweaking of it following Don's efforts.

Don Meehan moved to accept the Work Plan 2000 as written with the proviso that it should be reviewed quarterly. 2nd by Tom Roehl......Approve unanimously

Budget for 2000 - Don Meehan reported he had begun the process and needed some help from the group. Only $10,000 appears to be coming from the commission of operations.
Mike G. and Linda Sue offered to assist in budget development...later Bill White joined the team. At the next meeting (April 5th) a budget will be submitted for review.

Tom Roehl suggested that action items need to be placed higher on the agenda.

Outreach and Education - Gary Wood reported he has been working on a brochure and will have samples at the next meeting.

Don M. suggested that an eelgrass brochure also be developed. Considerable discussion ensued with several folks noting that there are many such brochures already available. Jan Holmes offered to pull together all she could for the next meeting.

Juneau Salmon Symposium - Mike Gallion reported that he was organizing a symposium about hatchery salmon as a tool for salmon recovery and wanted the MRC to be a co-sponsor. Considerable discussion ensued with some supporting and some not.

Tom Roehl moved to have the Is. Co. MRC be a co-sponsor of the Juneau Salmon Symposium, 2nd by Gary Wood, Vote in favor 5 and against 2 ...passed.

Meeting was adjourned around 6:30pm

Recorded on Tape and by hand by Don Meehan - Secretary (temp)

Duly recorded by: Don Meehan - Temp Secretary