Mineral County Resource Advisory Committee Meeting

Meeting Notes

 

March 11, 2003

 

Meeting Location:  Mineral County Courthouse

         Commissioner’s Room

         Superior, MT  59872

 

Designated Federal Officer:  Robert Harper

Facilitator:                               Sharon Sweeney

Recorder:                                 Sandy Green

 

RAC Members Present:  Michael Byrnes, James Lommen, Denley Loge, B.J. McComb, Anngela DeAnne-Boutelle, James Arney, Gordon Hendrick, Patrick Hayes, Dennis Hildebrand, Philip Donally

 

RAC Members Absent:  Scott Burnham, Raymond Rugg, Dale Harris, and Wendy Ninteman

 

RAC Replacement Members Present: 

 

Others Present:  Sharon Patterson, Gary Edson (District Ranger from Nine Mile District), George Regan, and Larry Price

 

Meeting Minutes Review - Chairman Mike Byrnes called the meeting to order.  The draft agenda for this meeting and minutes from the February 4, 2003 meeting were approved. 

 

Rob Harper introduced Gary Edson, District Ranger from the Nine Mile RD.  Rob gave the RAC highlights from the District Ranger’s Meeting that he attended.  The four items that stood out were:  Invasive issues (weeds), OHB traffic, fuels and loss of green space.  It was also noted that the National press reports issues differently than what is really happening “The farther away from the ground, the stranger the press coverage.”  Rob gave an example of this reporting concerning the Stewardship issue.

 

Rob advised the committee to decide on their projects by April 25, 2003 in order to get the Title II funds obligated so money doesn’t get diverted for fire fighting efforts.  This is a remote possibility but one to consider none the less.

 

Rob passed out a project criteria worksheet and offered up a large spreadsheet for the committee to label and prioritize the projects.  He went over the prioritization procedure to assist the committee in their choices.

 

Dennis Hildebrand and Phil Donally were presented certificates for permanent position appointments to the committee.  Both were alternates and are now regular voting members.

 

Jim Arney asked Rob about the lawsuit that is happening right now.  Rob said it doesn’t affect this RAC other than bringing other projects to the table for consideration.  Rob then asked the committee if they would like a quick overview of this lawsuit brought against our current logging project by the Ecology Center and the Sierra Club with the Alliance for the Wild Rockies.  The committee was interested and Rob gave a 10-minute update.

 

Rob also said that the website has been updated with this RAC’s meeting notes and agendas.  He discussed addressing controversial projects and to avoid them at this early stage of this RAC.  The press will give good coverage if the chosen projects are popular with the community verses controversial ones. 

 

New Project Proposals:

 

Maynard Loge Nature Trail presented by Sharon Patterson, County Extension office

 

This trail is located on an old Forest Service compound in St. Regis.  The conservation district would like to do interpretive improvements on the current trail with benches, picnic tables and signage.  The trail is ˝ mile.

 

 

            Savenac Nordic Ski Trail presented by George Reagan

 

This trail is located at Savenac and the Snowmobile club and the Nordic Ski club would provide maintenance.  The trail will need to be professionally designed.

 

Denley Loge asked about the parking available and George Regan said he didn’t work that into his plan.  Anngela asked how George based his costs and George said it was based on conversations with various people who were knowledgeable in this arena.  Anngela asked if there would be matching funds and George said he would have to do more research on this.  Dennis asked if the funds needed to be obligated over several years or would it be a lump sum payment.  There was some discussion on this with no pat answer.

 

 

There were no more new proposals submitted so the committee reviewed and edited the project selection criteria sheet to fit their needs.  The following changes will amend the selection criteria form and will be sent to the RAC immediately so they may incorporate it in the selection process before the next meeting.

            Add #15 Economic Value

                       

Rob suggested sorting the projects into two categories:  watershed & roads and other, with 50% of the money into watershed & roads.

 

Dennis asked if trails are considered roads and Rob said “No”.  Jim wanted to know if watershed restoration included maintenance.  Would it consist of reducing risk of fire hazard?  Rob and Sharon will follow up with this since they couldn’t give a definite answer.  Denley wanted to know if the committee wanted to prioritize the selection criteria form but Rob had done that when he created the form.  Jim asked if  #14 meant maintenance of a healthy vegetation infrastructure or a healthy human infrastructure.  This question led to the addition of #16.

 

            Add #16 Healthy Forest

 

Using this criteria form will help with the first cut of projects.  Sharon suggested compiling costs with matching funds.  So, #7 will have added – need % of matching funds.

            Add #17 RAC/total costs

 

Add an asterisk on the bottom of the page to explain #17 if it is on going or requires funds for many years.

 

 

Jim said that since there were 16 projects and that many members, each person could present a RAC project to the group.  Mike said that there was a need to separate the projects first into two categories then go through each project.  Sharon said that the group should go through the proposals together.  Jim responded that each member should read each proposal on their own and be familiar with each of them to discuss at the next meeting.  Sharon then said for each member to fill out a criteria sheet on each project before the next meeting.  Sandy will prepare a worksheet for each project and mail this information out to the all members with a short note explaining what needs to be done before the next meeting

 

The committee decided that two meetings would be necessary in April to accomplish the task at hand.  The meeting dates are April 8, 2003 and April 22, 2003.

 

Sharon suggested doing a practice run on a project with the criteria sheet to familiarize the members with the questions.  The members will rank all projects with a yes or no on the criteria sheet on their own time and then come to the next meeting prepared to discuss the projects.  Since project selection will begin at the April 8, 2003 meeting, a quorum is needed in order to vote. 

 

Larry Price told the group to look at the involvement by County, State, etc (partnerships).  Mike said that would be acknowledged through press releases.  Gary Edson recommended to look at each project overall and find your project of choice.  The top three or four will float to the top throughout the group and then focus on those top three or four.

 

Pat Hayes passed out a paper he wanted the group to look over that he felt would fall under Title III money.  He asked for feedback after the members had a chance to read it.

 

The meeting was adjourned.