February 3, 2005 Meeting Minutes

Present: Glen Aldridge, Duane Brovan, Foster Brovan, Larry & Pat Brown, Eda Eggeman, George & Mary Eichelberger, Ray &Alice Gomez, Chantz Joyce, Roland Weidenkeller, Carl Weidert, Stan Weidert, James Moller- WSRCD Watershed Coordinator

James Moller called the meeting to order at 6:30PM .

Review of Last Months meeting:

• No comments were made.

Project Coordinator Report:

• The Project coordinator was not in attendance but had reported that the TAC members have handed in the comments from the last assessment review.

Watershed Coordinator Report:

• James Moller disused the different meetings and activities that he has been attending and doing this past month, like the Science alliance meeting, CALFED grant workshop and James has been visiting with willing land owners to find locations in the Cow Creek Watershed to construct three demonstration projects 1 tailwater retention pond and two fish screens these demonstration projects are for the Cow Creek portion of the PIN #900 grant.

Marketing the Watershed Group:

• Goshingletown.com is going well Foster Brovan has provided the access statistics for the web site. After looking over the statistics page you can see that there a number of land owners interested and the numbers should raise considerably after a little effort from the Bear Creek group in advertising.

• Community posters are under discussion a sample was brought giving the group an idea of what they would look like, either a map of the watershed covering the entire 11x17 page or a 8x11 map with descriptions above and below the picture also on a 11x17 size paper.
• Due to the lack of interest from the Ridge Rider News for reporting the Bear Creek Watershed group’s activities. The East Valley times is going to be contacted in hopes that some articles about the Bear Creek Watershed group can be printed in the paper and/or posted on their web page.

New Business:

• Does the Bear Creek Watershed group want to form a board of officers? The BCWG is interested in learning how other groups operate either it being a CRMP, a 501c3, our a board of trusties having a chair and vice chair. Some items they want to know about other groups are their strengths and weaknesses, pros and cons along with position descriptions. James will be contacting persons in other watershed groups to see if they can come speak at a up coming Bear Creek meeting about their involvement and ways of operation of other groups.
• For the NOAA fisheries critical habitat changes for the Bear Creek watershed the group would like to here from Aric Lester about any changes and a description of the changes before the dead line for public comment on March 14 th
• The endangered species information was presented by James Moller, Private landowners, corporations, state or local governments, or other non-Federal landowners who wish to conduct activities on their land that might incidentally harm (or "take") wildlife that is listed as endangered or threatened must first obtain an incidental take permit from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service; to obtain a permit, the applicant must develop a Habitat Conservation Plan (HCP), designed to offset any harmful effects the proposed activity might have on the species. The HCP process allows development to proceed while promoting listed species conservation. The “No Surprises” regulation provides assurances to landowners participating in HCP efforts. This information is available on the web at http://endangered.fws.gov/hcp/index.html

Old Business:

• There were no updates to discuss about the Irrigated lands waiver. Once information is received it will be sent out to the Bear Creek Watershed members.
• After a brief discussion members of the group offered to pay for a few mailers to go out each month. James tallied all of the member that have been attending meeting since June of 2004 and after subtracting members with email addresses there are 6 members that would be receiving meeting notices by mail every month.

Question and Answer:

• What is happening to keep fuel breaks clear?
• What is happening with the Shingletown chipping program? Is there going to be one this year and if not what are they supposed to do with the piles accumulating along road sides?

Next Meeting Agenda Items:

• Speakers from other watershed groups to discuss how they operate and the structure of their groups.
• NOAA fisheries discussion on the critical habitat change in Bear Creek

Meeting adjourned 7:45 PM

The next meeting will be March 3rd, 2005 at 6:30 PM .