AMERICAN RIVER WATERSHED GROUP

December 16, 2004

The meeting of the American River Watershed Group (ARWG) meeting was called to order by Bill Templin, American River Watershed Coordinator at 10:03 a.m. at Placer County Water Agency’s American River Room located at 144 Ferguson Road, Auburn.

Present: Bill Templin, American River Watershed Coordinator; Rich Gresham, Stan MacDonald, Stewart Feldman, and Katie Maloney, Placer County Resource Conservation District (PCRCD); Mal Toy and Marie Davis, Placer County Water Agency (PCWA); Rich Johnson , US Forest Service (USFS) American River District Ranger; Marilyn Jasper, Clover Valley Foundation and Sierra Club; Eric Nichol and Mike Cooney, CA Dept. of Water Resources (DWR); Kevin Roberts, Sierra Pacific Industries (SPI); Jill Anderson, Watershed Coordinator for El Dorado County & Georgetown Divide RCDs; Mike Hunerlach, US Geological Survey (USGS);Tim Dabney; USFS District Ranger Eldorado Nat’l Forest; Katie Cantrell, Foresthill High School Teacher; Matt Triggs, USFS-Foresthill; Shana Avalos, Bureau of Reclamation; and David Siedband, Wolf & Associates.

Check-In:

Bill Templin led the “Check-In” procedure that entails telling meeting participants who you are, how you are, any time constraints, the identification of desired stakeholders not present, emergent issues, and individual expectations.

Review & Approval of Minutes:

No changes were made to the minutes.

Additions to the Agenda:

No additions were made to the agenda.

Guest Speaker – Jill Andersen, Watershed Education Summit”:

Bill Templin introduced Jill Andersen the South Fork American River Watershed Coordinator and indicated Jill will give an overview of the annual Watershed Education Summit event, a collaborative effort between the El Dorado and Georgetown Divide RCDs, USFS, high school students and many others. Bill noted interest has been expressed about expanding the education and data collecting event to the Middle and/or North Forks of the American River.

Jill presented a video of the latest event that took place in early October 2004 at Union Valley Reservoir and resulted in the collection of water quality field samples, vegetation mapping, and bioassessment data. Jill noted there has been data collected for the last seven years and offered to share data with those interested.

Katie Cantrell noted Foresthill High School is interested in developing a monthly monitoring program in conjunction with their environmental education program.

Group discussion revolved around potential bio-assessment training with Katie expressing interest in acquiring bioassessment training for approximately seventy students.

Bill reviewed his efforts to identify monitoring efforts that are going on within the watershed, make contacts with stakeholders, and identify watershed values focused events.

Bill reported he is working on developing a calendar for the American River Watershed Portal and introduced David Siedband the programmer for the web-based portal where documents, projects, articles, maps, events, and calendars can be posted.

David gave a brief overview of how the portal works and the ease with which information can be posted. He then polled the group about who is interested in using the site to post information and solicited information regarding documents that are available for posting.

Bill noted the look and feel of the site is still being refined and mapping tools are available at the site and encouraged members to support the American River Watershed Portal by posting pertinent information to the site.

Rich Gresham reported the Sacramento River Watershed Program is committing $60K in a watershed portal development effort to transfer the Watershed Information Model to others. He noted a Request for Proposals (RFP) is expected in about three months and expressed hope the group would choose to participate in the effort that could provide an opportunity to collaborate in the development of a portal focused on area watersheds like Auburn Ravine, Coon Creek, Dry Creek, Pleasant Grove, Curry Creek, and the Bear River.

Rich Johnson reported he has brought the group 10 watershed maps as requested for their use.

Bill noted Rich is very involved with the development of the CSUS Watershed Conference coming up this spring and thanked Rich for the maps.

Sediment Dynamics Study (SDS) Update:

Bill reported the Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) has chosen the firm Tetra Tech as the contractor to implement the SDS project.

Bill noted the December 2^nd meeting between participating agencies resolved contract language issues to everyone’s satisfaction.

At the group’s request the following folks were identified as serving on the TAC:

• Mal Toy and/or Marie Davis

• Rich Gresham

• Sandra Scott

• Bill Templin

• Kevin Roberts

• Eric Nichol

• Matt Triggs

• Carol Kennedy

• Cliff Heitz

• Vern Finney

• John Lane

• Mike Hunerlach

• Stefan Lorenzato

• Tom Stewart

• Tim Dabney

• Doug Ferrier

He noted the TAC is committed to meeting monthly to keep the project on track. December 21^st will be the next TAC meeting.

Activities Update:

• Watershed Coordinator: Bill handed out copies of his activity report and solicited feedback.

• Public Outreach Team: Bill noted entities that will be helpful in his task to develop a public outreach team including the Placer Nature Center and the American River Water Education Center.

Bill introduced Shana Avalos the Manager of the American River Water Education Center for the Bureau of Reclamation at Folsom Dam.

Shana gave the group background on the center that is focused on introducing watershed values and energy conservation concepts to elementary school students. She expressed interest in the development of a water quality monitoring program.

Sub-Committee Reports:

• Placer County Fire Safe Alliance (Alliance): Bill reported the Alliance is compiling a projects map for fire risk areas and that once potential projects are identified a search for appropriate funding sources will be mounted for those chosen for implementation.

Stewart Feldman noted a funding matrix is in the process of being refined.

• American River Watershed Institute (ARWI): Stewart Feldman reported the ARWI is involved in the Colfax Shaded Fuel Break Project and gave a brief overview of the project that encourages voluntary fuel reduction by private landowners within a project area to be selected within the Bear River watershed.

Bill expressed a desire to have ARWI information posted to the American River Watershed Portal and an ARWI update to the ARWG.

Bill also expressed the desire to have PCWA post information to the portal site.

Mal Toy reported PCWA has mobilized a technical team for the FERC re-licensing process and is working with resource agencies on identifying baseline conditions to set a foundation for ’07 re-licensing process.

Bill inquired about current PCWA monitoring efforts and Mal noted some monitoring is being conducted with more being planned for ‘06-’07. It was noted that with Marie Davis on the SDS TAC there would be coordination of monitoring between PCWA the SDS efforts.

Rich suggested the Paired Watershed Study might be appropriate for posting on the watershed portal and Mal agreed that it could be posted to the portal.

Bill encouraged the ARWG membership to post their watershed information on the portal.

Next Meeting:

• Agenda Suggestions: Bill suggested using historical/current watershed photo comparison for a future agenda item as USGS has some great photos. The group expressed interest.

• Open Discussion: None

Adjournment:

The next meeting will take place on January 20^th at the American River Room. The meeting was adjourned at 11:43 a.m.