PressRelease:
Powder Basin Watershed Council
Regular Meeting Minutes
for August 6, 2014
Baker School District 5J Building, 2090 4th Street
Voting Members = Seven Per Charter: Quorum for decision-making is five
Facilitator: Nancy Rorick

Call to order Nancy called the meeting to order at 5:30 p.m.

Guests John Dadoly, ODEQ; Karen Leiendecker, OWEB; Wes Morgan, Burnt River Irrigation District; Denis and Bill Norlander, Curry Ditch in Halfway

Approval of Minutes No changes to the June 4th meeting minutes were requested.

Comments from the Commissioners Karen reported that Baker County had signed a drought declaration during commission earlier that day. Commissioner Bennet raised concerns about fires near the North Fork Burnt River headwaters and asked that the Council partner with the Forest Service to address fire concerns.

Fall Tour: Johanna asked the Council members and guests for input on the Fall Tour, which will showcase the McMullen Slough Restoration in Halfway and efforts by the City of Halfway to improve wastewater treatment. Bill and Denis Norlander suggested looking at improvements made to the Curry Ditch and the mining project being pursued near the Curry diversion on Pine Creek. Nancy suggested inviting Mark Fern, a retired DOGAMI geologist, to speak about the history of mining in the Pine Creek Basin. Tim pointed out that the ODFW and Idaho Power Company fish survey data on Pine Creek might be available by that time. A weekday during the first half of October was chosen as the best time to schedule the trip.

Bylaws Committee Report: Nancy stated that the committee began the process of reviewing the Charter some time ago, and that the Council had decided to transition to a membership organization. The committee is now drafting bylaws to reflect that decision. The committee sought guidance from the Council on changes regarding membership, election of the Board and Officers, and amendment of the bylaws. Currently the County appoints members to the Council, but committee members recommend that the Council take responsibility for membership on itself; discussion followed regarding whether or not the Commissioners would support the change. The revised draft of the bylaws includes a variable number of Board members, ranging from 3 to 7; the committee asked for guidance on methods of electing officers and whether or not state and federal employees should be allowed to serve on the Board. Tim suggested that Board members elect the officers and recommended longer terms. Karen Leiendecker suggested that state and federal agencies may not want staff setting policy for Councils. Currently the bylaws can only be amended by the Council, but it is the Board that has fiduciary responsibility for the organization. Tim noted that those in natural resources may not want to devote meeting time to administrative tasks.

Update on Current Projects
McMullen Slough Restoration: Skidgel Contracting, LLC completed the felling and hauling of trees for the project. Aaron and Celeste completed a snorkel survey at the site to supply pre-implementation data on the fish population. Lindley Contracting will begin mobilizing equipment and River Design Group’s engineers will begin staking the site on the 14th or 15th of August, with a pre-work meeting scheduled for August 18th. The construction is expected to take about a week. Tim asked if Skidgel also provided the root wads; Johanna explained that the terms of the contract with the Forest Service required cutting trees at the base, so Lindley will be supplying the root wads that will be used in the project.

Basin-wide Water Quality Monitoring: The Council has been awarded an additional 319 grant from ODEQ to support the volunteer water quality monitoring project. The funds will allow Aaron to spend 100 percent of his staff time on the project once the habitat surveys are complete. Additional staff time for data entry is also included.

Nutrient Monitoring: Denine expects her seasonal employee to begin on Monday. She has now completed three quarters of the data collection for this year and has begun receiving results from the BOR lab in Boise. An additional $10,000 for lab services has been obtained by the BOR lab for the project, allowing additional sites and parameters to be added. Denine is coordinating with the USFS to identify additional sites. Total suspended solids, alkalinity, and total organic carbon have been added to the list of parameters to be measured.

Powder Basin Headwaters Habitat Survey: The crew expects to finish habitat surveys on Fruit Creek today, with Wind and Pole Creeks remaining. They expect to finish electrofishing on Wolf Creek this week, with portion of Fruit Creek remaining as well as Wind and Pole Creeks. While electrofishing on Fruit Creek, a bull trout was found; bull trout were not identified on Fruit Creek during previous surveys.

Powder Basin Outreach Initiative: Johanna reported that the hiring committee selected Meghan Rorick as the top candidate for the Outreach Coordinator position. Meghan will be joining the Council staff the second of September.

Durkee Habitat Unit Juniper Removal: Josh Uriarte, Baker County SWCD Conservationist, will be the manager for this project. Johanna spent a morning in the field with him while he identified monitoring locations. The juniper removal is expected to be completed in October.

OWEB Fall Grant Cycle: Johanna began the discussion by listing previous project ideas, which included strategic/action planning for the basin, flow monitoring, restoration along Clear Creek, and outreach activities to get residents interested in the watershed.

Bill Norlander explained that Curry Ditch users have noticed leakage from their ditch and want to identify the amount being lost. They’ve worked with Suzanne to borrow a flow meter to begin finding the locations where seepage is a problem, but better equipment would be helpful. They believe that 30% of their water is lost before it reaches any users along the 4 ½ miles of the ditch. Denis noted that other Curry Ditch members are supportive of measuring the ditch’s flow. John suggested checking in with Steve Hansen to see if equipment would be available through the ODEQ volunteer monitoring program and to see if Steve could supply a sample QAPP addendum for flow. Karen Leiendecker suggested looking into an amendment to the OWEB monitoring grant to allow the purchase of the needed equipment. She and Nancy also suggested checking in with OWRD to see if they could recommend creeks in need of flow measurements.

Tim addressed a potential need for interns to help with bull trout conservation efforts. These ESA listed fish persist in small, isolated populations in the Powder Basin. One factor hindering recovery is the presence of non-native brook trout in many streams and mountain lakes. Mountain lakes that were stocked with brook trout in the past feed creeks in the basin, and brook trout migrate from some lakes to bull trout-occupied streams. While removing brook trout from streams is difficult, removing the source population from lakes has been successful in other places. Removing brook trout from Twin Lakes and then stocking the lakes with a sports fish that will not compete with the native fish would reduce the potential for competition and hybridizing with the bull trout population in Lake Creek. Interns working in the summer months with gill nets could play a role in removing brook trout from Twin Lakes. A long-term plan for brook trout eradication would be needed, including an outreach campaign to the angling population. Gill netting alone would not be enough to eliminate the brook trout population; additional follow up would be necessary. Karen Spencer asked what the brook trout would be replaced with and how the netted brook trout would be removed from the area. A hybrid trout, potentially a hybrid rainbow, would be a likely sport fish to replace the brook trout.
Tim also noted that brook trout have now been bred to produce only male off spring, which might offer a second control method. A horse pack might be needed to haul out the netted brook trout. Johanna noted that both Suzanne and Denine had expressed interest in having summer interns available to assist with implementing on the ground work.

Karen Leiendecker recommended reviewing the funding available for Aaron’s position and applying for additional monitoring funds if needed, as OWEB only offers monitoring funds in the fall.

PBWC Board of Directors Report:
Council Facilitator: Denine and Suzanne were both nominated to facilitate the September meeting; Karen will fill in if both are unable to attend the meeting.

Treasurer’s Report: Karen reported that the fiscal review had been presented to the Board at the July meeting. The review was a lengthy process, not because of any illegal or immoral activity, but because of the transitions made in the Council’s accounting practices. The books are now in order and at the Board meeting today, a letter of engagement was signed with Guyer & Associates for the 2014 review. Nancy added that the Board had been impressed with the quality of Mike Rudi’s work on the review.

Board Update: Nancy reported that the Board had discussed employee benefits, the OWRD contract for maintaining the Deer Creek gauges, and ideas for guest speakers.

There was no further business.
The meeting was adjourned at 7:05 pm
 

Council Attendance: 4 voting members [Quorum = 5]
Tim Bailey
Nancy Rorick, Co-Chair
Karen Spencer, Co-Chair Andrew Umpleby
Paul Wares, Director at Large

Staff Attendance
Johanna Sedell, Executive Director

Guests
Karen Leiendecker, OWEB
Denis and Bill Norlander, Curry Ditch
Wes Morgan, Burnt River Irrigation District

Next Meeting – September 3, 2014