November 02, 2010Land Committee Minutes
Items for Follow-up
□Designated team members (Don, Scott, Dave, RJ, John, Mark) to develop assigned portions of a paper addressing our Energy Development Policy.
Assigned Tasks for Policy Paper:
Don E. and Scott N. – Oil and Gas Development
Dave M. and RJ T. – Transmission Line and Pipeline Development
John D. and Mark Y. – Wind Farm and Solar Development
□Brett J.to provide copies of TPWD’s policies towards various energy development activities.
□RJ T.to develop cost estimates and schedules for landowner workshops.
□Joe M. to contact Carolyn Vogel to coordinate his input on a workshop for real estates brokers, attorneys, appraisers, etc.
□Joe M. to get information about potential for contacting Trevor Reese Jones
Available Projects (still open for a Volunteer)
□Create a power point template for upcoming outreach presentations (based on current CCF presentation).
□Create public/private educational presentations to market our services.
Committee Chair:Mark Yarbrough
Proposed Date of Next Meeting:
12/07/2010 / Members Present:
Don Engelman, Brett Johnson, Joe Milkes (Board member), Dave Morgan, RJ Taylor (CCF staff), Mark Yarbrough (chair)
Updates on Easement Preparation
1)Montalcino Estates C. D. (Flower Mound) – Grantor: Centurion American
- no recent activity.
2)Mill Branch Mitigation Bank – Grantor: Ricky Wilson, and Riverbank Ecosystems (3rd Party)
-Stewardship Endowment estimate provided to Banker
-CCF Board provided concurrence to move ahead on project
-Draft Conservation Easement document being reviewed
-Bank project going to Public Notice through USACE.
3)MartinEquestrianCenter (Parker Co.) – Potential Donor: Anita Martin estate
- no recent activity.
4)Woodson Place
-no recent activity.
-Landscape contractor and residents will be providing vegetation and wildlife surveys
as an aid in the preparation of the Baseline Report.
Stewardship Updates – SFTRMB – Tenmile Creek Tract
Mitigation activity under construction. RJ will work to set up some site visits for the Board and Land Committee members.
Stewardship Updates and Issues – Leo Ranch
DWF met with O&G companies on Sept 20-22 to discuss drilling at Leo. CCF will work with DWF on any specifics associated with well site location discussions, pipeline alignment requirements, and restoration requirements in the leasing agreements.
New Info on Potential Easement Leads
North Texas Prairie Coalition Meeting on 11/01/2010. As an update on prairie surveys and discussions on landowner outreach in North Texas, RJ indicates that the group is still planning for outreach discussions with prairie owners. Limited contacts have been made by individuals in the coalition.
Discussions with Municipalities
Continued discussions with Exec. Director of new Upper Trinity River Water District (UTRWD) to investigate partnerships towards conservation easements on floodplain and riparian corridors in the Cooke/Denton/Collin County area. The committee members did not feel that Connemara Conservancy’s involvement with the water district would be a conflict, but stress that our role in the participation is not advocacy of reservoir development; it is promoting the protection of land with easements and educating landowners to protect the conservation values on their lands (including water quality protection.)
Other Items:
- RJ meeting with Trinity Trust on 11/02/2010 to discuss possible collaboration.
- RJ met with the Trinity Basin Conservation Foundation at their fundraising event to discuss possible partnerships in the future. They are strongly involved in conservation activities along the Trinity River watershed south of Dallas
- Private transfer fees, which many land trusts use to fund conservation stewardship, habitat restoration and project acquisition, may be eliminated by a proposed Federal Housing and Finance Agency rule prohibiting lending on any property that has a private transfer fee covenant.
- Joe M. suggested contacting Trevor Reese Jones in EastlandCounty to see if he had any interests in land conservation.
Work Items for Committee:
- Easement Sites now shown on Website. Easement profile write ups still will be needed. This work could utilize the Youth Council as a resource to document sites and prepare profiles.
- Generate digital boundary files of each completed conservation easement property. Dave Morgan has offer the services of Half Associates to assist in digitization of files.
- Policy paper on Energy Development Policy needed. A deadline of the next committee meeting was set to draft up key points for the various activities associated with existing and new energy-related facilities and infrastructure. The categories will be oil and gas development, windfarm and solar energy production, and RJ divided writing responsibilities amongst the committee members based on their interests and expertise. Don Engelman and Scott Norris will coordinate and work on oil and gas development,
John Dugdale and Mark Yarbrough will coordinate and work on wind power and solar energy development,
David Morgan and RJ Taylor will coordinate and work on transmission lines and pipeline development.
- Preparation for several landowner workshops in the next 12 months. RJ is setting up a series of landowner workshops to reach out to large landowners in two sectors of our service area; the Denton/Cooke/Wise County area, and the Grayson/Collin/Fannin County area.