Members Present: Mary Opperman, Janet Hutchison, Cari Press, Kevin Keown, Jerry Brummer, Tom Casselman, Gayle Casselman, Frank Porfily, Cameron Scott- Forest Restoration Coordinator, Madi Cunningham- Heart of Oregon, Isabel Isaksen-Public Affairs for Ochoco National Forest and Crooked River Grassland, Cynthia Harper, Dawn Alexander, Bob Sjolund-Central Oregon Fire Management Services, Jenna Deibel-OSU Extension Service, Central Oregon Extension Forester.
Zoom: Kit Dickey, Irene Jerome, Marilyn Miller, Jodie Barrum
Agenda Overview: Janet went over the agenda and then introductions were made. Tom made a motion to approve the minutes with corrections. Mary 2nd the motion. Motion passed. Mary went over the financials from the past month.
Kevin has talked to Sadie and Kit since our agreement with them expired. The Foundation will be paying the invoices and once a new agreement is approved, the older funds that we are drawing from now will be replaced with funds from the new agreement.
Heart of Oregon Presentation: Madi Cunningham is the summer coordinator for Heart of Oregon- Heart of Oregon Corp is a non-profit that has been around locally for 22 years. The mission is to empower young people and provide job opportunities through multiple programs. Heart of Oregon has 5 programs.
YCC – Youth Conservation Corps-16-24 years of age. They had 6-7 youth crews for 8 weeks of conservation projects coordinated with Ochoco National Forest. This summer there were 3 crews from Prineville. They have a college/career day and write a resume. They work four 9 hr. days per week, $15.00 per hour. 3,689.5 hours were worked this summer. A survey done at the end showed that 86% feel more connected to their public lands. Recruitment is done through Crook County High School and Pioneer School. Students go online and apply, then selected through a lottery system because there are so many Prineville applicants. A week and a half to train, safety of chain saw, spraying, what to bring to work, etc. and then hit the ground running. Youth return as crew leaders and then some go into the pipeline of forestry.
HDCC – High Desert Conservation Corps-are young adults ages 17-24 who serve outdoors on conservation projects throughout Central Oregon. They learn job skills and gain hands-on experience through the AmeriCorp program. They can earn a scholarship fund for trade programs and National Outdoor Leadership School. They can opt for a 4-, 6- or 12-month term of service. They work for the Forest Service, ODF, City of Bend, BLM. There is one crew in Prineville. They can earn multiple certificates, Chain Saw, Spraying etc. and they try to obtain as many certificates as they can. Then, they can go onto schools or at least a better position for applying for jobs. Students earn a bi-weekly living stipend working Mon-Fri 8-4:30. They learn how to create a resume, cover letter, and apply for federal jobs through USA jobs in an attempt to become a federal employee.
Heart of Oregon has 5 programs.
Introduction of Public Affairs officer: Isabel Isaksen is the Public Affairs Officer with the Ochoco National Forest and Crooked River Grassland. She just went to Steins Pillar Elementary School after creating a children’s book about exploring the Ochoco National Forest. She is very excited to tell the stories of forest management to second grade students.
Introduction of Facilitator: Cari Press is our new facilitator and will help the collaborative. She is excited to start helping us with our goals, facilitating meetings, and has a goal of making sure everyone is heard. She has experience in working with collaboratives, partnerships and the NEPA process. Cari was a hydrologist with the Forest Service and a project manager with the Soil and Water Conservation District. She graduated with AmeriCorps after completing two years.
Election Discussion: Requirements in the operations manual may seem a little restrictive for attendance to be a chairman, vice chairman. It states that to be considered active you must have attended 2 of the last 4 meetings. Wondering if we should review and modify so it is accessible for more people to help lead the group. If you are interested in joining the executive committee let Tom or Janet know. We need people to join. This is the last meeting for Janet and Tom. Need a chair and vice chair. Discussed moving elections to the first quarter of the year, take out the fall part in the manual for elections. Cynthia moved that we table the discussion to January and then seek nominations for new chairman, vice chairman in February. Jerry 2nd the motion. Motion passed. Janet and Tom will stay until we have the new vote. Tom will not be on the executive committee after his term is completed but will attend full group meetings. Janet, since she is on the city council, will still be on the executive committee for 1 more year, especially to help Cari.
Cari asked about the current members on the executive committee. Elections are held every year; each term is 2 years and staggered. Tom, Janet, and Vickie D. are up this year. John, Mary, and Jenna were elected last year. Suzie was put in last year and is completing Jerry’s term as commissioner.
Dawn will work with Sadie and/or Nikka to get Cari added to the Google Drive.
Climate Change Workshop Recap: Kevin, Cameron, Marilyn, and Kit gave a recap of the workshop. Titled Climate Adapted Dry Forest Management. This was the 2nd in the series. There were two presenters: Max Wolborg, USFS Area Ecologist, has done lots of climate change work and Thomas Stokely talked about climate work with the tribes and the Nature Conservancy. The last part of the day was a field trip where participants looked at examples of tangible things on the ground. Max led them through sources of climate information- climate envelopes, climate analogs and global models. Climate envelopes are relevant to us, pointing to information about what trees should be doing and what they are actually doing. Gives us a place to start thinking about and use strategies of what we could do in certain places.
Models: resistance, resilience and transition. Based on the info you have you may be trying to build resistance, by building a fuel break around it. Resilience works within the same stand to reduce ladder stands or risk from burning. Transition is how we are going to transition from ponderosa pine to a shrub step with bitterbrush… through this framework we can make some informed decisions.
Marilyn mentioned that Max has been working on Climate Change for 17-20 years, and he has a great PowerPoint Presentation. The 2nd stop of the field trip was in the Delicious Fire site that has been replanted several times but hasn’t taken. Thinning of Delicious fire failed and didn’t create resilience. Climate analogues pertain more to us. Looking at places that have vegetation like we have now and what it will be later. 2055, East Bend will have vegetation more like Walla Walla has now.
Will offer a series of winter zoom workshops where people who are using these tools will share their process. Goals of the workshop is to help land managers use these tools.
Cameron – What tactics are we going to use on the ground? These strategies from the climate vulnerability assessment are more like decision support tools for land managers. Helping inform post fire recovery of where to focus efforts (i.e. where to let transition happen vs. where to restore).
Questions from Cameron: Where do we go from here? Kevin, in light of this last fire season how might Ochoco be using these support tools? How does OFRC want to see the forest service use these recommendations? Ochoco National Forest hasmore acres to reforest than they have seed available. They are using climate maps to prioritize where to plant. Looking at some of these products most affected by fires. SW of Maurys would be hard to reforest. North sides are more resilient.
OFRC – New Zones of Agreement will hopefully come out of these workshops, the next one we are going to start working on is Climate Change. Max Wolborg would be a good presenter for us to have at OFRC prior to initiating Climate Change ZOAs utilizing the Climate Vulnerability Assessment. Possibly a couple of hours presentation but we need to watch the PowerPoint presentation prior to Max’s in person presentation. We will ask Max to give examples on the Ochoco and then do a field trip.
Forest Service Update: Fire updates, post fire repair, assessments and BAER work. Plans completed for all 3 fires, half of a million dollars to do BAER related work. Next step is burned area rehabilitation. The top priority is fencing repair. Hundreds of miles have been burned. Seeding needs to be done within 3 years of a fire. Assessments have been submitted for Crazy Creek Fire by Dec. 2nd. Wiley Flat and Rail Ridge are due in Feb. Most road closures are opened back up. Rapid assessments- team of folks to look at and what to do post fire regarding salvage of dead trees, for sure roadside abatement and selling of those trees. 13-14 miles of road for Crazy Creek. Wiley Flat, 20 miles of road, Rail Ridge is still being assessed. Tribal notification letter out, urgency salvage must be treated quickly. Grazing will be rested. They will evaluate next year and that will determine how long there will not be any grazing. Alternatives to fencing repair is using bay stations, like a shock collar, on cows, and virtual fencing. These are things we will be looking at, but they are also expensive.
Vegetation Management and Fuels Planning- Mill Creek is signed, the first sale, Shake T.S. is going out next week and then sold a month after that. Others in the queue will take a back seat to post fire. Push planning team back a bit. North Fork Crooked River is complete, but the decision is delayed until after salvage.
North Slope may be pushed out another year.
Projects: Equestrian trails working on a more established system, objection resolution meeting on Friday and then will make a final decision.
Jackson Fuel Breaks Project not done yet.
Hiring now in pretty good shape, not hiring any full time. No seasonal personnel unless in fire. The Critical Forest Environmental Coordinator position will be vacant in one week. Will be working on grants and agreements and post fire work. Planning for a flat or declining budget.
Cameron Scott- Could use Good Neighbor Authority with ODF to help fill capacity and funding voids. The Ochoco Forest Service agreement uses ODF personnel, stocking surveys, project layout, and more.
Member Outreach/Recruitment Letter: Jenna went over the letter that she has written. The plan is to put the letter in the papers right after the new year. A few suggestions were given to Jenna to wordsmith. Jenna will bring the revised letter to the executive committee in December. Tom made a motion to approve the letter and the changes we discussed. Jerry 2nd the motion. Motion passed.
COFS Foundation Update: Cameron – Sadie will be leaving Dec. 6th. Climate Change workshop happened Nov. 9th. The climate change committee is planning 2-3 zoom workshops. The organizational structure of the group is being worked on.
Sustainable NW Update: John was not in attendance. This was tabled. Cameron mentioned that the Regional Conservation Partnership Program that just went into place in Wheeler County overlaps with OFRC’s NE area of Ochoco work. Sustainable NW is working on a partnership to cross boundaries to complete restoration work.
Monitoring/Outreach: Working on protocols for Jill. OWEB report due by Dec. 31st. Kevin thinks the protocols can be done by the end of the year. Because of all the fires this summer/fall it has been hard to get things accomplished.
Adjourn: The meeting was adjourned at 4:05 pm.
