Weed Advisory Meeting

November 14, 2009

Marion County Public Works, Willamette Room

Members Present: John Savage, Bob Brown, Mike Ricks, Nick Castillano, Dan Goffin, Liz Redon, Kurt Spingath, Jacque Keller-McCormick

Staff Present:Tanya Beard, Jeff Bickford, Maryjean Rose

Absent: Tom Shamberger, Robert Dyk, Ralph Fisher, Terry Witt

Public Present: None

Meeting called to order: 7: 35

Minutes from October 10, 2009: Minutes were approved as written.

Information Share by Committee Members:

Tanya read email from Robert Dyk. Robert wanted suggest that we, the weed board, gauge staff and board work-load to fit not only our time/fiscal constraints, but also our capabilities, regarding which projects/organizations we engage with.

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Updates:

Renewing Contract with Herbicide Applicator

  • Contract is up at end of this year.
  • Contractor would like to renew but rates have increased some for next year.
  • We are in process of renewal now.

OR State Weed Board Grant Application

  • Tanya has worked with Jenny Meisel @ Marion SWCD to create an application to cover Tanya’s time, herbicide applicators time, and Jenny’s time.
  • Jenny will do vast majority of outreach and education.
  • This will include a follow-up to both Little North Fork and North Santiam weed inventories that the SWCD did over the last two summers. Because inventories are done we already have population information to provide to the weed board. They already had contact with adjacent landowners. Those who agreed to provide additional access have already provided permission for treatment. Tanya said the application looks good. Jenny will take the program to the board for review.
  • Grant is just shy of $7000.

OPB show

  • OPB had show on garlic mustard and knotweed and the City of Tualatin going after it.
  • Clean Water Services is doing the project.

Training Youth

  • Tanya is working with Dan Hoynacki @ OSU Ext. Offering outdoor school program through the KROC Center and will be incorporating high school and middle school youth to create a mentor program.
  • Tanya and Jenny Meisel are working with Dan providing background on native plants, nonnative and noxious weeds.
  • They will be working in the wetland near KROC Center.
  • Additional inventory projects next summer. Tanya plans to continue training for AmeriCorps.

Program for Teachers

  • Saturday Dec 5th in Corvallis is a teacher training class for BLM’s invasive species K-12 class. $10 for all day w/ lunch. Train teachers how to use curriculum.
  • Tanya is looking into the possibility of offering the same program for teachers in the Salem-Keizer School District.

Partner Project List:

Tanya showed the board an excel spreadsheet for potential collaborations that the board had requested.

  • With who and what kind of projects do we want to invest time and/or money?
  • Several items are not active and would require additional time.
  • Allocation of existing budget
  • The challenge is how much does each item cost and how do we access or package those dollars? Discussion ensued.
  • North Santiam Watershed Council and Stout Creek is funded.
  • SWCD contingent upon application Tanya is sending to State Weed Board.
  • BLM – Tanya is unsure what the relationship will look like as our usual contact is retiring. Tanya is still working with them on the funding they have provide so far.
  • Department of Forestry is mostly of collaboration with projects done jointly and/or in adjacent areas. They have not coordinated any projects at this point but it is a possibility. Discussion ensued.
  • US Fish & Wildlife – The only thing Marion County does for them is the roadside area under noxious weed program. We can educate them about yellow flag iris in their ditches and purple loosestrife. They have animals and plants they need to protect. We could do additional inventory for them although they lack staff. Their focus is on animals and not on plant life. Discussion ensued.
  • Mid Willamette CWMA (Cooperative Weed Management Area) consists of Marion, Polk & Yamhill County members. We have not done any joint programs to date. The river divides us and politics keep it challenging to create a project that would overlap all 3 counties. We mainly share experiences and grant applications. Kurt said the river and road is a huge vector for weeds. Tanya said the problem with the river is that there is a lot of private property, and we’d be starting dead center in the river and really need to start at headwaters. Lane County is at headwater and they cannot use herbicides on county property ever. Discussion ensued.
  • U.S. Forest Service has been a very remote partnership for this group. The botanist stationed at Detroit wants to handle everything and there may be policies or rules and regulations regarding herbicide applications on forest properties that affect this relationship. Tanya suggests more communication and information share. Tanya does not know if it would be beneficial to go any further with them. Discussion ensued.
  • Oregon parks & Rec have several good-sized properties in M.C. and a decent number of staff. They do not always do a very good job of control. It may be worth sending letter stating they have this problem and need to deal with it like we did with ODOT. Discussion ensued.
  • John suggested that we look at Ankeny Wildlife Refuge and continue our relationship with the BLM.
  • John said he sees possibilities with education and outreach at Ankeny that we should not ignore.

Work Plan:

  • Tanya would like the group to start looking at how they are going to afford to do this in regards to time, materials, etc.
  • BLM has been extremely helpful up to this point. Other agencies would be more willing to participate if Commissioners would provide support.
  • Tanya would like to hear what kind of strategies would be appropriate to discuss the importance of our program, impact of program, and reasons that board ought to consider providing fiscal support.
  • This would be a work session with the Board of Commissioners of about an hour.
  • John suggests the we break down the work session discussion into three 20 minute segments:

20 minutes discussing who we are, what we do, and why we are important to Marion County

20 minutes discussing what we would do with general fund money and what we want to accomplish.

20 minutes with local community members speaking about real issues and why they think this is important.

  • Discussion ensued.
  • It is suggested that they bring this information to the Board of Commissioners as soon as possible. Discussion ensued.

Next Meeting: December 12, 2009

Adjourned: 8: 48am