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HomeMy Public PortalAbout20061129 - Minutes - Board of Directors (BOD) Meeting 06-28 SPECIAL MEETING BOARD OF DIRECTORS November 29, 2006 MINUTES I. ROLL CALL President Jed Cyr called the Special Meeting Closed Session to order at 5:31 p.m. Members Present: Jed Cyr, Mary Davey, K. Nitz, Pete Siemens, Curt Riffle, L. Hassett, and N. Hanko Members Absent: None Staff Present: C. Britton, S. Rice, D. Simmons, M. Williams 6:00 p.m. Special Meeting - Study Session on Draft Sudden Oak Death Management Policy SPECIAL MEETING 11. J. Cyr called the Special Meeting to order at 7:35p.m. He said there were no reportable actions from the Closed Session. Additional Staff Present: R. Jurgensen, J. Maciel, D. Simmons, M. Williams, K. Lenington, M. Manning, C. Roessler, M. Freeman, S. Hooper, M. Jesperson, Matt Baldzikowski 111. ORAL COMMUNICATIONS There were none. IV. ADOPTION OF AGENDA Motion: P. Siemens moved that the Board adopt the Agenda. L. Hassett seconded the motion. The motion passed 7 to 0. V. BOARD BUSINESS A. Agenda Item No. I —Authorize the General Manager to Negotiate and Execute an Agreement in an Amount Not To Exceed $60,000 to Fund Three Years of Research with the USDA Forest Service on Tanoak Resistance to Sudden Oak Meeting 06-28 Page 1 Death, for Conducting Research on the Sudden Oak Death Pathogen-, Determine that the Recommended Actions are Categorically Exempt Under the California Environmental Quality Act as Set Forth in This Report - (Report R-06-130) C. Roessler reviewed the staff report. There was a ten-year work plan on Sudden Oak Death and there were two major principles which are to map the oak trees on District land that appear to be resistant to Sudden Oak Death (SOD) and establish funding for research of SOD, specifically research that would help the District in making management decisions. She said that the proposal before the Board was slightly different than what was originally thought was going to be proposed. Originally the District was going to: 1) hire a contractor to go into the field and find oak trees that appeared to be resistant and surviving in areas that are heavily infected in the entire 50,000 acres managed by the District, 2) map those trees and keep checking them over the years 3) and if there was a research project going on, then offer those trees for research purposes. K. Nitz verified that the District had already had some students look for resistant oaks. C. Roessler said that they had set up a small scale procedure for doing that, but not all 50,000 acres were looked at. K. Nitz asked if that work would now be set aside and not used and C. Roessler said that the proposal before the Board was a better project, but that she had used the information gathered and had taken it to workshops and conferences and that it was noticed by the US Forest Service. At one of these workshops, C. Roessler was approached by the US Forest Service and told that they were very interested in researching resistant oaks and would like to do the study on the District's land. The proposal from the US Forest Service advances the District's plan by five years. C. Roessler then introduced Susan Frankel of the US Forest Service to describe what the research proposal is and how the District would be partners with the US Forest Service and National Park Service. S. Frankel is in charge of the SOD research at the US Forest Service and she oversees over $1 million dollars in research dollars. S. Frankel thanked the Board and commended them on looking for ways to research SOD. She presented PowerPoint slides with her discussion. She began her talk stating that this year has been a particularly bad year for SOD and showed slides of many Northern California counties heavily hit with SOD. C. Riffle asked if the slides showed tanoak and S. Frankel replied that they were predominantly tanoak. SOD is a very patchy disease, as not every tree dies. S. Frankel said the biggest question is what can land managers do to manage SOD on their lands. She brought up two thoughts, the first is what can be done by Meeting 06-28 Page 2 genetics and the second is if nothing is done, will the local populations of tanoak disappear. The study will help them find out if they can locate resistant oaks and if they can use their genetic properties to save sick trees. S. Frankel then reviewed the project design. The first part is to gather acorns, then take the pathogen and inoculate the trees. K. Nitz asked how old the trees would be and S. Frankel said they would be a year or two old. She continued that they would plant acorns in the field to see if they respond the same way. There would also be a common garden study where tests would occur to see if they had a viable product to inoculate the trees. K. Nitz asked if they would know which acorns are healthy and which were not. S. Frankel said they would know which is which. S. Frankel then reviewed the funding of the proposed project. She said that UC Berkeley would contribute 25%, that the Point Reyes National Seashore and the District would share an equal amount and that the balance of the funding would come from the Forest Service Research Program. She then reviewed their SOD research program. She said they were fortunate that there is $2 million funds dedicated to research, but after it is divided up, about $1 million will come to the Forest Service. They have a competitive program, issue a call for proposals and then have a team that evaluates the proposals and the work. P. Siemens asked if this money comes from a national office or her office and S. Frankel said it was national. P. Siemens then said he didn't think it was very much money. S. Frankel said it wasn't, except for a forest disease, it actually was a lot of money, but it's true that it does not go very far. Every three years there is a SOD science symposium and the next one occurs in March 2007. They have 105 papers submitted and she said there is more information located at www.suddenoakdeath.orp,. This concluded S. Frankel's presentation. C. Riffle asked if this is just a national effort or if there was an international effort as well. S. Frankel said that it is international and that the European Union has a risk assessment project and had about $3 million to use in the past three years. They are most interested in their nursery and agriculture. P. Siemens asked if they know where SOD came from and if anyone was researching that aspect. S. Frankel said that there were people researching this, specifically Clyde Frasier from the United Kingdom. She said that he believes SOC came from Asia. L. Hassett asked why a large portion of the research is being done in the Big Sur area. S. Frankel said the Big Sur area is heavily infested. There are research plots throughout the state, but the areas in Big Sur have the highest mortality. Meeting 06-28 Page 3 K. Nitz asked how they knew if the acorns collected were resistant or non- resistant. S. Frankel replied that they do not, but they had not been infected yet and the collection was done randomly. It is expected that I% of the population will be resistant, adding that it is a numbers game. They collected about 12,000 acorns, and they expected a low number of resistant acorns. 3,000 of the acorns were gathered on District land. C. Riffle asked how long it would be before they will have information they can do something with. S. Frankel said the first measurement will be the end of the summer and that it will be a year before they will have anything to report. It will be three to four years before there will be publishable material, but they can give progress reports about every six months. C. Riffle asked if the information the District gets back would help them in how they treat SOD. S. Frankel said it would. She said that they would know how the District trees did in the lab tests. They are trying to develop a whole ecology of the tanoak along with the disease component. J. Cyr stated that the previous studies were more hit and miss, but that the proposed project seems much more focused and useful to more agencies than just the District. N. Hanko asked if the problem started in Asia and are there maps showing where the problem areas are. S. Frankel said the complicating factor is that when the organisms are in the natural environment they don't do much damage, but when they are moved to foreign areas, that is when the problems occur. She added that the origin question is the most important to answer but the hardest to solve. Motion: L. Hasset moved that the Board authorize the General Manager to negotiate and execute an agreement in an amount not to exceed $60,000 to fund three years of research with the USDA Forest Service on tanoak resistance to Sudden Oak Death, for conducting research on the Sudden Oak Death pathogen; Determine that the recommended actions are categorically exempt under the California Environmental Quality Act as set rorth in this report. P. Siemens seconded the motion. Discussion: L. Hassett said he was glad that the District is stepping up to be a full participant and he thanked C. Roessler and K. Lenington. P. Siemens said he was excited about the partnership. He added that it is important to find the origin of the pathogen. C. Britton said it was their hope that other agencies will see what is happening and will join in. He added that the SOD task force is going in the right direction. K. Nitz asked why Marin was not Meeting 06-28 Page 4 involved and C. Britton said it had to do with lack of funding; Marin does not have much money to contribute and that Marin is helping in other ways, including their activity with legislation, M. Davey asked if the Bay Area Open Space Council was aware of the project and C. Britton said they were and that a presentation was made to this group. Vote: The motion passed 7 to 0. B. Agenda Item No. 2—Annual Update of Resource Management Program no formal Board action is required)-(Report(Report R-06-107) K. Lenington began the staff presentation saying this is the annual update on the Resource Program for '05 through '06. The first program area he presented was on the Resource Program Planning and Policy Management Development. He said that he would be highlighting the main points of the program. K. Lenington said that there was a Resource Program workshop in March 2006 that involved representatives from five agencies and that the workshop went over two days. The District's consultant developed a report summarizing the results of the workshop, District staff developed a table showing ideas generated at the workshop for consideration in the District's Resource Management program, which is included in the Board's FYI's this evening. He said that staff had given several Resource Management Policy presentations to the Board in the past year highlighting Water Resources and Grazing Policies. Another emphasis area has been on permitting coordination. He added that permitting is a complicated and long process requiring a lot of staff time regardless of whether the project was large or just a basic maintenance project. K. Lenington reviewed the Resource Inventory project saying that they had developed a baseline inventory of the flora and fauna. He showed the Board a vegetation map for the La Honda Creek Open Space Preserve. He said the District-wide vegetation mapping project had begun in 2000 and that Preserves and surrounding lands had been added each year, including the San Mateo coast. The vegetation data is very useful with the current projects, such as Sierra Azul Bear Creek Redwoods Open Space Preserve Master Planning project. K. Lenington gave highlights of the water quality protection projects. He said that the highest profile project was the El Corte de Madera Creek Watershed Protection Program. To date, the District had expended $500,000 to upgrade the roads and trails (totaling approximately 30 miles)to reduce sedment delivery from the Preserve's road and trail system. This year work began on the San Fracisquito Meeting 06-28 Page 5 Creek Watershed in an effort to protect water quality for steelhead trout. The District has been awarded grants through their partnerships with other agencies. Finally, K. Lenington said another large program area was environmental remediation with the largest projects being resolving the oil leaking at the Pulgas Ridge Open Space Preserve and characterizing the contamination at Driscoll Ranch. C. Roessler updated the threatened rare and endangered species program which included surveys on red-legged frogs, western pond turtles and marbled murrelet. There had been several trainings for staff from outside experts. Under Vegetation Management, staff had used multiple methods to control vegetation. Quite a bit of work had been done by the Operations staff. District volunteers had been very helpful in the Spring season. Staff is working towards getting the weed inventory management system completed. Staff will be able to put together information sheets to help identify and look out for new invasive species and use the information to share with other agencies. C. Roessler spoke about the use of weevils as a bio-control insect and staff is measuring its effectiveness. She said that slender false brome was found in new locations and that where found on District land, it is being treated. She reminded the Board that the slender false brome is a Category A noxious weed and that there is a ten-year program to eradicate it. C. Roessler said that 3,000 acorns had been collected on District land. About fifty volunteers had collected the acorns looking for good oak trees. On ecological restoration, C. Roessler reviewed the Pulgas Ridge Open Space Preserve planting restoration—planting 300 native shrubs. Staff had restored four acres at the former Skyline Christmas Tree Farm, but they now need a permit from San Mateo County to continue. The permit process may take a year. C. Roessler reviewed the wildlife management projects including the feral pig trapping, noting that no pigs had been trapped since March 2006 and that there were no signs of rooting. Staff rescued a bobcat found in a restroom. They conducted a survey on mountain lions at Rancho San Antonio and found that about 91% of those surveyed knew what to do when encountering a mountain lion. L. Hassett asked if there was a plan for controlling pampas grass. C. Roessler replied that staff would be working to evaluate and identify the problem, adding that pampas grass is not too hard to treat. L. Hassett asked if a plan was in place for eradicating bullfrogs. C. Roessler said that there were no plans currently, but did say that where there are red-legged frogs there are no bullfrogs. L. Hassett asked if there is a report from the consultant on the District's grazing study. K. Lenington said there was not a District-wide study; however, there was Meeting 06-28 Page 6 a grazing assessment done about two years ago at Big Dipper Ranch. P. Siemens asked if there is a plan to have a District-wide grazing study. K. Lenington said there will be site-specific plans because conditions vary greatly by Preserve. P. Siemens asked if the work had started on the watershed project that had received a grant. K. Lenington said work had not started yet, they just received the grant and they have until 2010 to complete the work. K. Nitz asked if the Sudden Oak Death 10-year plan had changed. C. Roessler said that it had not yet, but it will be changed to reflect the approved project (see Agenda Item 1). C. Riffle asked if the vegetation mapping of District lands was complete. M. Freeman replied that most of the mapping of District land is completed. The only areas left to map are the San Mateo County baylands. C. Riffle asked if there are a watershed plans for District lands. K. Lenington said that the District did not have watershed plans. He said that the Master Plan process looks at watershed areas rather than specific parcels. J. Cyr asked if staff shared the resource mapping with other agencies and if it was reciprocal. M. Freeman said that all data sets are shared with other agencies, but he said some data sets are purchased by the District with the understanding that the information is not allowed to be shared. The Board accepted the staff report. No formal Board action was required. C. Agenda Item No. 3—Implement a Retiree Health Savings Plan, Adopt the Resolution Implementing a Retiree Health Savings Plan•, Adopt the Resolution Amending the District's 40 1(a) Plan to Allow Accrued Leave Pre-Tax Contributions• Adopt the Resolution Amending the District's Personnel Policies andProcedures Manual to Reflect the Proposed Changes to the Sick Leave Conversion Language - (Report R-06-145) S. Rice said that the Resolutions are the last phase to implement this project and she reviewed the highlights noted in the staff report. J. Cyr complimented staff on this complicated process. Motion: M. Davey moved that the Board implement a Retiree Health Savings Plan; Adopt Resolution No. 06-52 approving the Vantagecare Retirement Health Savings (RHS) Program; Adopt Resolution No. 06-5 3 amending the District's 40 1(a) Plan to allow accrued leave pre-tax contributions; Adopt Resolution No. 06-54 amending the District's Personnel Policies and Procedures Manual Meeting 06-28 Page 7 to reflect the proposed changes to the sick leave conversion language. L. Hassett seconded the motion. The motion passed 7 to 0. VI. INFORMATIONAL/COMPENSABLE MEETING REPORTS P. Siemens said his compensable meetings included the November 29th Board meeting, the November 20th Sierra Azul Master Plan meeting, and the November 28th Administration and Budget Committee meeting. L. Hassett said his only compensable meeting was this evening's meeting. C. Riffle included his compensable meetings of this evening's meeting and the November 16th La Honda Master Plan meeting. He said he visited Pulgas Ridge on Thanksgiving and said it was a great place with a very nice parking lot. M. Davey said her compensable meetings included tonight's meeting, the November 15th La Honda Master Plan meeting, and the November 28th Administration and Budget Committee meeting. She added that the La Honda meeting was marvelous and had good participation by both the public and District staff. K. Nitz's compensable meeting included tonight's meeting, the November 8th Good Neighbor Committee meeting, the November 15th La Honda Master Plan meeting, the November 20th Sierra Azul Master Plan meeting, and the November 28th Administration and Budget Committee meeting. N. Hanko said her only compensable meeting was tonight's meeting. J. Cyr said his compensable meetings included the November 15th La Honda Master Plan meeting, the November 20th Sierra Azul Ad Hoc Committee meeting and tonight's meeting. He said the La Honda meeting was well prepared by staff and noted that the maps were well received. He said that Google-Earth has tremendous potential to help with District presentations. S. Rice handed out a Bay Area Open Space Council booklet and cards from the Land Trust Alliance to the Board. She pointed out the Resource Management memo in the FYI's. She announced that the staff holiday party would take place on December 20, 2006. D. Simmons showed his framed "Indenture"to the Board as a follow up to their exercise of Financing Authority at the prior meeting. M. Freeman said that the next day he would be attending a meeting with San Mateo County to discuss the permitting process between the two agencies and possible ways to streamline the process. Meeting 06-28 Page 8 J. Maciel said that on Friday the bum would be completed and he handed out an information sheet to the Board. R. Jurgensen remarked on the media file on slender false brome. He said their press released on the grazing program had been picked up by the Associated Press so that a newspaper in England had picked up the story. VII. ADJOURNMENT The Special meeting of the Board of Directors of the Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District adjourned at 9:45 p.m. Lisa Zadek Recording Secretary Meeting 06-28 Page 9