Prineville City Hall
Members Present: John Shelk, Suzie Hermrick, Nettie Downing, Jill Welborn, Kevin Keown, Steven Shrader, Jenna Deibel, Kit Dickey, Cynthia Harper, Cameron Scott, Gayle Casselman, Tom Casselman, Irene Jerome, Chris Gannon, Mark Mabol, Janet Hutchison, Mark Wunsch, Jerry Brummer, Marilyn Miller, Slater Turner, Dawn Alexander, Zoom: Thomas Stokely, Reese Mercer, Tim Deboodt, Yann Lapotre, Trevor Gardunia
Agenda Overview: Introductions were made. February Minutes were approved. Dawn went over financials: bills paid were 2/29 for Dawn $420.00, 2/1 New Unknown $260.00, and 2/29 New Unknown $260.00.
Western Beavers & The Crooked River Watershed Council: Chris Gannon. Director of the Crooked River Watershed Council gave an update. Their focus is on private lands more than public lands. The work involves landowner engagement and outreach, habitat, and upland health. Landowners voluntarily work with us; we will do fundraising by grants and then oversee the project. There is post project reporting with photos, including years 1, 3 and 5. There is a 16-member board.
Reese Mercer from Western Beavers Cooperative gave a presentation, Beavers in Our Landscape. ‘What’s missing from the landscape can often impact soil and water more than what we add to it’, Jennifer Ott, Environmental Historian. Western Beavers does landowner workshops, trail cam monitoring, aerial monitoring, community outreach, BOA design/implementation, and tree planting.
Why Beavers? Beavers have been around for 7 million years. Beaver dams’ slow water and hold in sediment and organic matter. Once adventurers started coming west, beavers were being trapped. Britain’s Hudson’s Bay Company in 1824 plan was to rid all beavers from the land. In 1825 3,577 beavers were removed in the Ochocos and in about 18 years the job was done.
“Process based” restoration structure back into our streams. Adding dams, BDA’s. Tree planting, favorite foods: cottonwood, aspen, willow. Beavers need a lot annually-1,000 lbs. of forage, about 216 trees, they only digest 1/3 of what they ingest. Need to plant about 20 times what they are planting now.
Watershed Council and Beavers in our Landscape are collaborating. Mountain creek by Mitchell Hwy. 20. Plant stock availability is a huge barrier. Willow limiting factor for recovery.
At the All Hands All Brands event at the end of June: 50 BDA’s in Gray Creek.
Jenna mentioned a possible field trip later to the location Reese was talking about. Private lands McKay Creek, Ochoco Preserve. Mentioned going before any work is done, and then go back in a few years. May 21st. possibly June 21st.
Monitoring/Outreach: Vickie is on jury duty. Janet reported that Vickie spoke with Amanda, leader of OSU students to do monitoring for Wolf Creek. She also spoke with Jill Welborn who is interested in Riparian monitoring. Jill is a botanist in Prineville and chairman of Crooked River Weed Management board.
FS is proposing to designate approximately 51.26 miles of trail for equestrian use. The route has been used under a special use permit for an annual endurance ride event for 25 years. FS is also proposing to include restoration of areas damaged by off road vehicles along with re-establishment of road closures that were authorized in previous decisions. EA has 2 alternatives, no action and proposed action. Disciplines evaluated are wildlife, botany, invasive plants, hydrology, aquatic species, and transportation system. Janet asked for help to look over and provide comments. Deadline is April 13th. Let Janet know if you are interested.
Forest Service Updates: Kevin- Prescribed burn scheduled for Thurs. on grassland, 600 acres. Grassland, thinning and piling contract 1200 acres, this spring and summer. Wildfire crisis strategy meeting- project areas Lower Bridge working on scoping and responding to comments. Next area is Central Landscape, Crooked River Ranch, developing a proposed action by end of summer. Working with homeowners’ association and BLM.
Put out Corral Flat EA public comments, April 13th public comments ends. 51 miles of trails making use of.
Mill Creek publishing final EA May 3rd end. Summarize: based on comments, modified alternative 4 commercial and noncommercial thinning, prescribed fire, 23 miles of stream restoration and some road closures.
North Fork Crooked River project- responding to comments putting out EA for final draft notice.
Accelerated tree mortality mostly fir engraver and ponderosa pine, team working on this getting an estimate of amount and priorities for treating. Tier 1 values. 5-6 projects on this assessment.
Funding Opportunities: Kevin just signed approval of Title 22 funding, line item for OFRC will give it to Janet when finalized. $35,000.
Facilitator Discussion: Janet had talked to Jean Nelson Dean about being a facilitator. She said maybe at the end of summer she would be interested. There were no comments on the changes we have made to update the Facilitator Scope of Work. Cynthia Harper made a motion to approve the Facilitator Scope of Work. Kit 2nd the motion. Motion passed.
Prescribed Fire/Strategy Plan Subcommittee: Thomas gave an update on the prescribed fire zone of agreement/strategy plan. The bulk of the document is written, and several members of the subcommittee are editing it. If you are interested in giving input, let Thomas know.
Update on Operations Manual: Tom went over the changes that have been made to the operations manual. If you have not signed that last page, please do so. We will have a vote on the Operations Manual at the April full group meeting.
MOU Document: Janet mentioned that the MOU has not been updated or discussed since 2020. Discussion on administrative charges. Where the 10% costs is spent by the foundation. Also, more communication is needed on notification of organizational changes. Vernita talked about doing different meetings with OFRC and Deschutes to update. Kit brought up the idea of having a meeting even once a year with each of the collaboratives. We will also put an item on the full group agenda for an update from someone on the foundation. Need to review MOU with the foundation.
Susan Hermreck- Executive Committee: Susan is the new Crook County Commissioner and would like to be represented by the county on the Executive Committee. Tom made a motion to approve Susan. Jerry 2nd the motion. Motion passed.
New Member discussion: Janet talked to Austin Smith with Confederated Tribes. He is now on the mailing list.
John Shelk made a motion to adjourn the meeting. Tom Casselman 2nd the motion. The meeting was adjourned at 3:55 pm.
