Approved 11/8/16

Wallowa County Technical Committee

October 11, 2016

Ag Service Conference Room

Present:

Bruce Dunn, Forestry / Cynthia Warnock, Conservation / David Pace, Hydrology
Ryan Oberhelman, Weeds / J. Johansen, Range / ShawnMork, Range
Montana Pagano, Fisheries

The meeting was called to order at 8:32 a.m. by Bruce Dunn. Introductions were made since there were some new people.

Minutes

Montana said under the tribe reportit was abutments not a culvert that was being constructed in the Washington waterway. The minutes stood approved with the corrections.

Projects

  • Shawn said that there is a proposal to have a lydar flight done in SE Washington. Some of this may include the area out north along the Grande Ronde. There is lot of interest in a lydar, but no money. It would be nice to get the Divide and Marr Flat area done. The more acres that are done the cheaper the cost. Water Resources has some small areas that have lydar done on them. Level one is the best when looking at vegetation and the scale is more exact.
  • It was asked if the new FEMA flood maps were done with guidelines for endangered species. Nobody had heard if the maps were completed yet.

Agency Reports

Natural Resource Advisory Committee (NRAC)

  • NRAC had the first meeting with the USFS on access and wilderness for the USFS Forest Plan Revision. The draft forest alternatives will stay in place, but they will add 2 new alternatives. The USFS re-evaluated all the proposed wilderness areas and decided none of them had special characteristics enough to be considered a wilderness area. NRAC still does not have any copies of the news alternatives. The county has cooperating agency status and should be getting the new alternatives. There will still be a pace & scale, and a range workshop with NRAC also. After these meetings there will be an overall county meeting to inform the public.
  • The Forest Collaborative had a meeting last week and discussed what had been done. The meeting was not well attended.
  • There will be an objection meeting on Lower Joseph Creek on October 18th. There were a total of 10 objectors and over 100 objection points.
  • There was a forest classification meeting in Flora and one in Enterprise to explain the changes in the classification. Next Thursday, 1:00 p.m., the County Commissioners will have the actual hearing so folks can express their opinions. If it passes, the plan classification will to ODF. Most of the changes made in the classification were on range land. Land that is annually cropped is not under this assessment.
  • A facilitator has been hired to fill the vacancy in the Wallowa/Whitman forest collaborative and the Umatilla facilitator vacancy. There were 4 persons interviewed but Bruce does not know who was hired.
  • A decision still has not been yet on what project the collaborative would like to work on. Would like to pick a site that is assessable be all.
  • A prescribe burn in the Minam got out of hand and there were numerous people that complained to the County Commissioners about the smoke. Susan Roberts called the USFS and DEQ. DEQ said that the amount of particles was within the law limit.
  • The Friends of the NRA banquet is this Saturday. Tickets are sold out.

Wallowa County Weeds

  • Ryan said the weed-spraying season is slowing up.
  • They did a lot of bug loss treatment in the Lostine.
  • Some of the sulfa cinquefoil was to be treated on the Zumwalt, but it never came out of dormancy and they had difficulty getting a contractor.
  • Ryan and the staff are busy writing grants to the state weed board and to OWEB.
  • The state may give $25,000 to counties that have weed management areas.
  • The hay station is up and going for the hunting seasons. They are looking at setting one up at Troy and Imnaha.
  • They are looking at getting some teeth behind their weed control enforcement under a nuisance ordinance.
  • The helicopter spraying is still going on in the Grand Ronde.

U.S. Forest Service (USFS)

  • Shawn said they are changing staffing because they have to live within the budget so they will reduce staff and work less time. For range there will be 1/3 less person and one pay scale lost. Nothing is in stone yet.
  • The regulatory agencies want the USFS to monitor streams every year that have fish in them. This would be about 300 sites to do mid-season and then for one week after cows are out of the area. They also need to look at fences and water developments. Some permittees have expressed they would like to have a conversation with NOAA and USFWS.
  • There was a Spalding Catchfly meeting a couple of weeks ago. This is something that needs to be added to the Salmon Recovery Plan for future guidance on this.

Nez Perce Tribe (NPT)

  • The tribe has quarterly meetings with the USFS. The next one will be on October 12th.
  • The Sheep Ridge diversion is complete. It was done on time and on budget. The final walk through was on October 5th.
  • The final design is completed on Tully Hill. They will work with the GRMWP on the implementation plan.
  • For the culvert on Buford Creek, the design is 30% completed and they are waiting for the Washington road department to approve the design.
  • Waiting for the final word on the OWEB grant for the Tamkalicks designs.
  • The submitted a grant proposal for a fish screen at the bottom of the Cross Country Canal.
  • They attended the GRMWP to review projects.
  • The bridge abutment will begin construction this week and should be completed by next week.
  • Put temperature loggers in Buford Creek and in the lower Grande Ronde, rattlesnake and other creeks. They saw Oncothynchus, which is a trout/steelhead at the stage they could be either fish.

Oregon Water Resources Department

  • This year David regulated the Lostine to help landowners stay in compliance with their water rights. There were a couple of ditches that were shut down during the irrigation season. The Poley Allen stayed within their duty right since David posted a sign at the diversion saying “Do Not Touch”.
  • We had a good snow pack this last year, but did not have the rains during the summer months. It was close in shutting irrigators on Troy down, but he worked with the junior water right holders on the Lower Valley Improvement District to turn their water down and was able to keep enough water in the system for Troy.
  • David also worked in Bear Creek and regulated some of the use in that system. Next year he will focus on the Lower Valley ditches, Bear Creek and the Wallowa mainstem between Lostine and Wallowa.

Soil & Water Conservation District (SWCD)

  • Cynthia is working on financial reports and final and annual project reports.
  • Will be submitting 3 OWEB project proposals. One if for the Ruby Peak pipeline to install all new pipe. Another is for a pivot up on Alder Slope and the third is for a conveyance pipeline to switch from flood irrigation to sprinkler.

Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS)

  • J has been getting CRP certification done and some renewals.

With no further business the meeting adjourned at 9:47 a. m.

Respectfully Submitted By,

Cynthia Warnock