Minutes of 6 January 2001 Planning Group Meeting

 

Present: Ken Ekelund, Martha Diehl, Bill Nelson, Matt Weston (took notes), Richard and Sally Taylor, Lynn Overtree, Lloyd Jones

 

Agenda:

Update since last meeting- All

 

Update on Road Assessment Grant- Ken

 

Prop 13 grant for Watershed Coordinator and Contractor support- Ken

 

Non-Profit Corporation- Ken and Sally Taylor

 

Comments:

Ken talked about methods of killing Cape Ivy….the recipe he is using is 4 oz of Brush B Gone and 3 oz of Roundup concentrate per gallon of water. He has sprayed several pieces of in the lower creek area and around his house.

 

Ken talked about David Dilworth complaint. A letter was sent to the Planning Department and a bunch of other agencies.

 

Ken talked about Kallie Kull’s work with Fishnet 4- C. She will be briefing the county officials on recommendations in changing procedures to address the 4(D) rules for steelhead.

 

Ken talked about the Citizen’s Monitoring Program. We are testing water quality at 4 sites along the lower and middle creek area. Basically, other than turbidity (cloudiness due to sediment in the creek) the numbers look very good for the steelhead.

 

Ken will be taking a Hydrology course at CSUMB starting in late Jan.

 

Lloyd talked about Cape Ivy work on his property. He will be getting some Garlon 4 concentrate, which is supposed to be the most effective herbicide available. He talked about burning Cape Ivy as well. He pointed out that he recently saw something from CDF that gave the impression they were still recommending the use of Cape Ivy as a fire retardant cover. The council will have to look into this.

 

Martha talked about the need to extend our education program to realtors. By letting them know that there is an active effort to improve the condition of the creek, this could actually be a big selling point for our area.

 

Martha suggested that the Planning Group members pick Issues and Concerns they would like to concentrate on; these were listed at the breakout session during the 16 December meeting. The list as update is included below.

 

Issues from 16 December 2000 meeting - grouped

 

COMMUNITY                                                                                                   (Martha)

Community involvement and education (outward)

-          Identification of community

-          Education of community and public agencies

o        Watershed issues

o        Real Estate Agents (new-comers)

-          Development of New Homes

o        Infrastructure adequate? Are current standards appropriate?

o        Participation of all residents

 

ROAD/ACCESS ISSUES                                           (Lynn Overtree, Richard Taylor)

Teamwork  (government & resident)

-          Road Construction

-          Road Pass ability

o        Slides

o        Culvert size and spacing inadequate

o        Maintenance of culverts

o        Energy dissipaters

o        Road side ditch size

-          Fire Management

o        Road size, construction- silt

o        Brush clearing- slit

o        Controlled burns- silt, nutrients

o        Cape Ivy – useful or not

 

ENVIRONMENTAL INFORMATION AND PLANNING                         (Ken)

Education (inward)

-          Water Quality

o        E.Coli- Septic, animals

o        Silt- Roads, grading, natural

o        Pesticides- Ag Sources

o        Giardia

-          Eradication of Non-Native Species     (Lloyd Jones, Sally and Richard Taylor)

-          Restoration

o        Stream bed   } Following Non-native plant removal

o        Upland        } Logging roads

-          Imbalances

o        Log jams from cut logs

o        Oak tree die-off

o        Lack of fire (45 year cycle)

-          Fish Habitat

o        Silt from roads

o        Migration barriers, log jams

o        Lack of deep pools

o        Cape Ivy along streams (toxic)

o        Water quality / Quantity

§         Annual variation

§         Water diversion

§         Runoff from development

 

 

Richard talked about access rights to roads and prescriptive rights-of-way.

 

Ken talked briefly about the PWA grant. Bill Weaver has been contacted but doesn’t have a lot of details as far as when the project will start since they have note officially been notified. (Ken called Bill after the meeting and it is felt that work might start in April.)

 

Ken talked about the Prop 13 grant proposal that is due by 1 February. There was much discussion where the council should make this application under the Conservation Agency (the Taylors are on that board) for purposed of receiving the money. (It was determined after the meeting that it would be OK to submit the proposal under our name; we would receive 501(c)3 status well before the money could be spent.

The Prop 13 grant will fund a watershed coordinator (60% part-time and consultant and other support).

 

Sally talked about what will be involved in setting up a non-profit corporation. She will do some of the background and then will get help from the rest of the Planning Group. We will need to get the non-profit status to directly receive funding from grants. (Other agencies usually take a 10% cut for their overhead)

 

Action Items:

 

Ken:    

- Submit Prop 13 grant under GCWC name. Several questions to be resolved are length of grant (1,2 or 3 years) need to be resolved before the grant can go out.

- Get a turbidity tube to Richard so he can do “daily” measurements

- Get a speaker to talk about why turbidity is a major issue for water quality and the fish. (This will be discussed at the 11 Feb meeting).

 

Sally:

- Start the 501(c) process and report at 11 Feb meeting.

 

All:

- The agenda for the 17 March meeting

 

 

Meeting was concluded at 12:30. Thanks for Matt Weston for talking great notes.

 

 

Next meeting will be on SUNDAY 11 Feb at Lloyd Jones house. Time is 2:00.

(Note this is the first time we are doing it on a day other than Sunday.)