Weed Advisory Committee Meeting

MARION COUNTY

Weed Advisory Committee Meeting

February 11, 2012

Willamette Room

MEMBERS PRESENT: Joe Williams, Paul Borgen, Liz Redon, Bob Brown, Robert Dyk, Tom Silberstein, Terry Witt, Dan Goffin

MEMBERS ABSENT: John Savage, Kurt Spingath, Jacque Keller-McCormick

PUBLIC SIGNED IN: None

STAFF PRESENT: Tanya Beard, Mandy Follis

MEETING START: 7:36 am

MOTION: Unanimous approval of the January minutes.

Discussion: None

Abstentions: None

Dissensions: None

Results: Minutes approved.

INTRODUCTIONS: None

PUBLIC INPUT: None

INFORMATION SHARE:

·  Liz started a partnership with the Forest District and sent out 450 letters to landowners above Detroit Dam with an overwhelming response. A lot of the property owners agreed to let Liz’ group inventory weeds on their properties including timber companies.

·  Tom wanted to clarify from the last meeting minutes that Extension doesn’t differentiate between private and commercial. They work with individuals as well as groups. Extension can help people understand the facts and move forward with the information. They supply facts but they can’t be and are not required to be an advocate. This should be changed in the previous meeting minutes.

REVIEW AND REFINE STRATEGIES FOR TARGET WEED MANAGEMENT AND MESSAGING:

FIRST STRATEGY:

·  One strategy is to expand a volunteer base. Make sure they are trained and have them look for specific species.

·  Tanya used the term “Mandatory Reporters” to refer to the volunteers trained to identify weeds and required to report them when they’re found.

·  GPS is a better way to track locations. This committee cannot supply GPS units. There is a GPS app for smart phones that has to be purchased and regularly updated. It is possible for volunteers to get GPS themselves.

·  Volunteers will report weed locations directly to the invasives hotline. The reported location is marked on a map in the I-map Invasives program and sent to Tanya.

·  I-map Invasives is different from the Oregon state Weed Mapper because it is a multi-layer map that likely uses Google earth as a back ground and is a free service. Weed Mapper may not continue because it’s just a static snap shop which has outlived its usefulness.

·  SWCD is uploading data to the I-map Invasives program as inventory is taken. This will give us the information we need to start with.

·  Tanya S may be brought in to the program with the Forest Service. The plan is to train other people to do the work. Liz will likely need help with this project in the future. The forms for Liz’ project are due in March. Once the information is logged into a spreadsheet, Liz and her group will talk about what they have and what they need to do next.

·  Paul offered a facility at Pratum for doing training.

·  Tanya would like everyone to think about what they could offer toward this goal as an individual or as a group.

SECOND STRATEGY:

·  The second strategy is messaging which is very important and expensive. This involves getting information out there and making it easy, memorable, & consistent. Tanya will look for partners to leverage funding.

·  Coordinate with other agencies so the information comes out the same way from different sides.

·  Tanya is working on getting the “Control Noxious Weeds, It’s Your Responsibility” signs put up.

·  Some messaging options are radio spots and bus placards.

·  Marion County Farm Bureau pays for radio advertizing for tractor safety at about $500 a month and the advertising is a few times per day. Marion County Farm Bureau could help with messaging because weeds are a problem to them.

·  CCTV is an option, but not many people watch it.

·  Tom has talked with several students at Willamette and thinks they might be interested.

·  Part of what Mike Ricks does at Chemeketa is teaching about invasive species. We could see if we could coordinate with Mike.

·  Tom could bring this topic into his grower meetings.

·  Generally by the time we get letters out it’s too late to do anything. We are currently drafting a letter that says you had Tansy last year; this is what you should do to avoid it this year.

·  Most big chemical companies have grower meetings. That might be an opportunity to do something on noxious weed identification. People at the growers meetings could identify noxious weeds on a neighbor’s property.

·  Tanya would need a couple weeks notice to prepare for a growers meeting.

DETERMINE DATES OF 2012 ACTIVITIES; DEFINE ROLES AND CREATE PLAN:

·  We may want to continue the Scotch broom pull on Kuebler Blvd with City of Salem to see it completed in April or May. Tanya will see if Salem is interested. May place a Volunteer accomplishment sign. Someone from this committee should participate in the Kuebler Blvd Scotch broom project.

·  If City of Salem is not interested in the broom pull we could do a spring ivy pull. Last years volunteers showed interest in continuing work at Niagara. We may want to do the ivy pull on a different date so it’s not on Earth Day.

·  With the “No Ivy League” ivy pull we want the message out that there are weeds that are not on our high priority list that we will continue to pull.

·  The ivy pull needs to be somewhere visible that is news letter worthy to get the word out. Tanya will look into River Rd S because it might be a good spot for an ivy pull. Minto Brown could be a staging area.

DISCUSS TERM LIMITS IN COMMITTEE BYLAWS:

·  The Committee bylaws indicate that each member can do two terms of four years each.

·  Tanya would like to have the term limit removed.

·  There is currently one seat open that has not been filled.

·  Tanya will run this by the BOC if someone makes a motion to remove the term limit.

·  This group has been dynamic and has rotated some positions in and out.

·  Robert wants to prevent the perception that this promotes stagnation within the group.

·  As long as we continue to get new members, there shouldn’t be a problem.

MOTION: Unanimous approval to recommend to the BOC to remove the term limit from the bylaws.

Discussion: None

Abstentions: None

Dissensions: None

Results: Motion approved.

ADDITIONAL UPDATES:

·  The watch list and weed list were approved on February 8th.

·  Tanya was on CCTV and talked about the tansy issue.

·  The BOC had good things to say about the Weed Advisory Committee.

·  Tanya has the new weed guides and can hand them out as needed.

·  Tanya was impressed by a story of a citizen who received a letter about noxious weeds on their property. The citizen was unable to get rid of the weeds on his own. With the guidance of the SWCD the end result was the citizen selling his cattle and leasing his property to someone who has agreed to control noxious weeds.

NEXT MEETING: March 10, 2012

ADJOURN: 9:03am

Weed Advisory Committee Meeting February 11, 2012