Chehalis Basin Partnership

 

 

 


Meeting Summary – November 18, 2005

 

A.     GENERAL PARTNERSHIP BUSINESS

 

Introductions

Chair Bob Spahr welcomed everyone and opened the meeting.  Nine of the Partnership's twenty-eight member organizations had a representative or an alternate at the meeting.  Eleven additional citizens, alternates, or visitors were at the meeting. (See attendance list on the last page of this summary). 

 

Chairman Spahr updated the group regarding the outcome for his city’s council elections.  He was not successful in the election, therefore, he will be resigning from this Board effective December 31, 2005.  Ron Schillinger thanked him on behalf of the City of Montesano. 

 

Report from the Nomination Committee

Jim Hill reported that Bonnie Canaday was selected by the committee to be the nomination for chair.  Bonnie was originally approached to be the vice chair to replace Jim Haslett who resigned in October.  The committee was still searching for a vice chair nomination.  The group agreed to hold off the election until December.

 

The group discussed the composition of the Citizen Advisory Committee.  Swartout suggested following the Nisqually Model, which would open membership to everyone, verses four citizens from each county.

 

Monthly River Flow Report

Jennings reviewed the flow charts he created for this month’s report.  The graphs describe real time data from the USGS gage sites at the Newaukum, Skookumchuck at Bucoda, Chehalis at Grand Mound, Chehalis at Porter, Satsop, Wynoochee and Humptulips Rivers. The graphs show the regulatory flow, the actual flow, and the median flows for the 15th day of the month and measure the flow in cubic feet.  Jennings commented that this month the flows were beginning to rise.

 

Chehalis Basin Watershed Festival

Chanele Holbrook reported that she contacted festival vendors.  There appears to be interest in attending our festival, provided the dates are open.  We need to settle on a date.  The group commented that September would be a good time.  Notice could be sent out through the schools.  The drawback would be low flows in the river. 

 

The group also suggested that the booth themes include: education (Chehalis Basin Educational Consortium and River of Words); releasing fry in the streams would be a good activity, but not for September; Noxious Weed Coalition, and Tribal display (Chehalis Tribe’s educational coordinator should be contacted).

 

Anyone who is interested should contact Chanele.  She will continue to provide progress reports during the monthly meetings.

 

B.     Special Projects

 

Planning for the Legislative Committee Assembly Meetings

Napier reminded the group that it was scheduled to meet with Chehalis Basin house representatives on December 1 and senate members on December 6 on the Capital Campus.  The primary purpose of meeting is to introduce the legislators to the Chehalis Basin Partnership. 

To achieve that purpose, the STC suggested an agenda and meeting points to cover.  Napier put that information together in a Power Point presentation.  The group reviewed the slides prepared by Napier and suggested changes.  Since the group had little time to present, they agreed upon a short presentation.  This presentation would include:  a review of CBP milestones, membership, organizational structure, and a list of topics to cover through a roundtable type of discussion.   Note: a copy of this presentation is available by contacting Lee Napier.

 

Napier asked the members to confirm who would attend.  Several members requested that County Commissioner Beerbower attend both meetings.  Napier responded that he was scheduled to attend both meetings.  Mark Swartout, Bob Spahr, Jim Haslett, Terry Willis, Chanele Holbrook and Lee Napier stated they would attend the meetings. 

 

Watershed Plan Implementation –Phase IV

Napier updated the group regarding the Phase IV contract.  The first task in that contract, with an upcoming deliverable due date was the letter to the group A Water Systems.  Grays Harbor County mailed just under 300 letters to the Group A Water Systems in the Chehalis Basin.  The systems were asked to contact Napier by November 30th.  To date, she was contacted by six individuals who represent about fifteen water systems.

 

Regarding the contract task of developing Detailed Implementation Plan(s), a considerable amount of the work will occur during STC and Water Quality committee meetings.  Willis reported that the Water Quality Committee (WQC) met earlier in the month with representatives from the Chehalis Basin Noxious Weed Coalition.  The purpose of that meeting was to discuss a work plan for Action 38.  The meeting resulted in informational discussions on both sides.  The WQC heard about the Weed group’s plan which contained many of the tasks/milestones they were looking to include in the DIP work plan.  The Weed representatives heard about the work of the CBP and its committees.  Each month, the WQC plans to invite a representative group to the meeting to discuss the work plan scheduled for review that month.  During the January meeting, the group will evaluate and discuss tasks for action 31. 

Swartout added that the STC will discuss the instream flow work plans at the December meeting.  For that discussion, Terra Hegy, WDFW, and Bruce Jones, QIN will help to lead the discussions since their respective organizations are not only interested, but knowledgeable in the subject.

Salmon Recovery

Napier reported that she had met with the SRFB Review Panel the day before.  Prior to the meeting, she received comments regarding the projects.  Generally the comments were positive.  Three out of twelve projects were listed as projects of concern (POC).  The POC’s were at the end of the list and were not likely to receive funding since the cumulative list requested over $3 million.  Because the projects were located at the bottom of the list, she did not dispute the comments.  Instead she focused the presentation on the higher ranking projects.  She hopes the SRFB will consider funding the top eight projects.  A report is due out early December describing the review panel findings and recommendations.

 

Napier also reported that the habitat strategy is still undergoing an update.  The Habitat Work Group will meet the second Friday of each month at the Lewis Conservation District Office.  She encouraged anyone who is interested in projects to become involved in the update.  The group will be updated the subbasin profiles.  The final document will be presented to the CBP. 

 

Annual Plan of Work

Time did not allow for much discussion of this item.  Napier will work with the STC and WQC to develop the plan of work.  An updated will be provided during the December meeting.

 

C.  Open Comment

 

The next meeting of the Chehalis Basin Partnership will be held a week earlier on December 16, 2005 from 9:30 AM to 12:00 m at the Lucky Eagle Casino near Oakville.

 

Decisions

 

§         The CBP deferred election of officer until the December meeting.

 

Chehalis Basin Partnership Attendance Record

Lee Napier

Grays Harbor County

Mark Swartout

Thurston County

Kernen Lien

Lewis County

Bonnie Canaday

City of Centralia

Kahle Jennings

City of Centralia

Bob Spahr

City of Chehalis

Patrick Wiltzius

City of Chehalis

Ron Schillinger

City of Montesano

David Weiser

City of Ocean Shores

Terry Willis

Grays Harbor County CAC member

Jim Hill

Lewis  County CAC member

Chanele Holbrook Shaw

Thurston County CAC member

Chad Stussy

Department of Fish and Wildlife

Ann Wick

Department of Agriculture

Steve Craig

Department of Ecology

Bruce Jones

Quinault Indian Nation

Taylor Pittman

USFWS

Nancy Allison

CP RC&D

Les Holcomb

WDFW

David Heimer

WDFW

Jim Haslett

Citizen of Lewis County