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January Meeting Minutes |
Approved Meeting Minutes
MRC meeting
Wednesday, Jan. 9, 2002
Heller Road Firehall, 4-5:25 pm
MRC Members present: Chair Tom Campbell; Vice Chair Tom Roehl, Don Meehan, Roger Sherman, Dick Toft, Phyllis Kind, Mike Gallion, Matt Klope, Sayed El-Sayed, Sharon Hart at the end of the meeting. Executive Director, Gary Wood. Technical Advisory: Julie Buktenica. Admin. Assist. Kate Poss. Guests: Frank Roberts, Laguna Point; Bill White, former MRC member; Ron Hewitt, Oak Harbor diver. MRC members absent: Marty Behr, Hi Bronson, Jeff Tate
Call to Order: Chair Campbell called the meeting to order at 4:08 p.m.
Agenda approval: Today's agenda was approved with the following
additions:
· Sherman will report on progress with proposed marine protected areas
affecting Island County.
· Wood will report on new Forage Fish Web site
· Meehan has updates to report
Approval of 12/12/01 Minutes: Meehan moved. Toft seconded. The minutes were approved
Approval of 2002 Meeting Schedule: This year's MRC meetings are scheduled for the 1st and 3rd Wednesday of the month with the exception of January (our first meeting was held on the 2nd Wed.-1/9), July, August and December. Meehan will post the dates on our islandcomrc.org website. Campbell reports there are no conflicts with holidays that would warrant changing the regular schedule.
Approval of MRC officers for 2002 at 4:12 pm--Nomination committee members Sherman, Toft and Meehan (?) met to nominate this year's officers. The recommended slate? Same as last year: Campbell as Chair, Roehl as Vice Chair, Wood as the our rep. for the Northwest Straits Commission. Action: Meehan moved and Kind seconded the motion to approve the slate. The motion was carried by all.
Our new forage fish website introduced by Wood at 4;15 pm
· Newly hatched and with some pages within it still under construction
is www.foragefish.org
· Created with the help of Langley-based Big Mind Media, the site features
information on our study of forage fish spawn sites conducted by Dept. of Fisheries'
Dan Penttila. The site includes data for other MRCs involved in this granted
study.
· To log into some of the pages, email Wood at gwood@whidbey.net for
a password for the read-only files. Gallion said the entire web should be read
only and suggested folks log in as guests.
· Conversation led around to grants:
o Wood reports that the National Fish and Wildlife Grant awards $45,000 each
to Island, Snohomish, Whatcom and Skagit counties for forage fish.
o UC Davis, which awarded us $17,000 last year, reportedly had $1.5 million
to spend this year. Receiving 50 proposals, it selected 24 for review. Our MRC
made the first cut; We asked for $30,000 to fund Island County in its second
year forage fish study plus $15,000 for other counties. Because we had several
other sources of funding and because UC Davis did not have as much money to
award as originally anticipated, it funded "pure science" projects
instead. Bottom line-we didn't get it. Will try again later this year.
o Salmon Recovery Funding Board or SRFB will hear Island County's request for
funding at its 2/13 meeting. A bit of a hitch-we're ranked No. 2 behind the
Deer Lagoon No. 1 -ranked proposal. SRFB must approve the first project before
approving the second. Meehan commented that the SRFB is between a rock and a
hard place. If the odds are slim for approval of Deer Lagoon-(The Whidbey Camano
Land Trust has requested nearly $175,000 to conduct a study determining whether
the Lagoon can become saltwater again. Meanwhile our MRC is requesting about
$277,000 to fund on-going and new projects), that means our request won't get
funded. Talk bantered about Deer Lagoon possibly withdrawing its request.
NWSC meeting at Captain Whidbey Inn, Coupeville Jan. 17th &
18th
· The seven north Puget Sound MRCs will meet at the Captain Whidbey Inn
1/17 and 1/18
· Wood said that NWSC is expected to grant each MRC $400,000 with an
additional $250,000 left with the NWSC for administrative funds.
Nominations for land purchase with Island County's Conservation
Future Fund
· Meehan said the county is looking for suggestions on land to purchase
for conservation.
Marine Protected Areas report with Sherman at 4:45 pm
· Dept. of Fish & Wildlife is holding 3 hearings from 1/15 though
1/29 geared toward commercial fisheries comment on proposed Marine Protected
Areas.
· The Dept. has several basins set up and wants to set up a network of
conserving areas. Sherman said the idea sounds wonderful.
· A conservation area proposed at Rosario head in Skagit was dropped
due to pressure from the Skagit MRC. Sherman said he doesn't understand why
protection was dropped since it is a beautiful dive site.
Nov. 7 MRC meeting transcript
· Kate typed the verbatim discussion regarding SRFB grants.
· Wood filled in the places Kate did not understand and the 5-page document
is now an addendum to the 11/7 meeting minutes.
Benchmarks with Meehan at 4:56 pm
· Last call to revise the 2002 Workplan-our "guiding force"
for this year. Approval of this will be an agenda action item at the 1/16 meeting
Feedback on NWSC October training session + suggestions for
next year
· Meehan said that he, Campbell and Wood attended a MRC chair meeting
recently and said more administrative support funds from NWSC are needed. He
added there is consensus among other MRCs that more $$$ administratively would
really help.
· Suggestions for this year's NWSC training conference:
o 1 day projects; meet twice a year
o Members ought to have more time to meet informally to have time to interact
and network.
o Consider a great motivational speaker to inspire folks to do great and wonderful
things
· Contact Wood and give him feedback before the NWSC meeting 1/17 and
1/18 regarding suggestions on what our MRC might present at that meeting
o Meehan suggests a 2- to 10-minute "dog and pony show" detailing
what we're doing.-perhaps a report from Sherman and Kind on MPAs-which can stir
up a hornet's next according to Toft.
Meehan's talk with Board of Commissioners on F. Roberts' issue
of hardened bulkheads
· Meehan met with the BOCC and was told that our MRC was advised not
to take a stand or make recommendations on existing concrete bulkheads and that
our MRC has no interest in seeing individual property owners affected.
· Roehl added that the concept of tackling bulkheads was not an agenda
item ever. The only thing our MRC has had was a presentation on bulkhead alternatives.
· Roberts said he couldn't agree more with what Meehan said; that while
hardened shorelines have come up in various contexts, he wanted to know where
science supported the fact that hardened bulkheads affect habitat.
New/Unfinished business at 5:25 pm
· Sound Waters Conference sponsored our by MRC and the WSU Beach Watchers
is Saturday, Feb. 2, 2002 at the Coupeville Middle School. Will feature topics
such as ghost nets, shipwrecks, salmon near the shore, shoreline regulations,
fish habitat, slugs, birds and seals. For more information call 679-7327; email
sarahs#wsu.edu or register online at www.island.wsu.edu
Our meeting was adjourned at 5:25 pm
The next MRC meeting will be held 1/16 at Trinity Lutheran Church, 4-6 pm in Freeland
