AMERICAN RIVER WATERSHED GROUP

August 17, 2006

The meeting of the American River Watershed Group (ARWG) was called to order by Bill Templin, North Fork American River Watershed Coordinator at 10:05 a.m. at the Auburn Recreation District Canyon View Community Center located at 471 Maidu Drive, Auburn.

Present: Bill Templin, North Fork American River Watershed Coordinator; Rich Gresham, Stan MacDonald, and Katie Maloney, Placer County Resource Conservation District (PCRCD); Matt Triggs, Biologist and Dan Teater, Fish Biologist, US Forest Service (USFS)-American River Ranger District; Austin Mulder, South Fork American River Watershed Coordinator-El Dorado RCD; Edmund Sullivan, Placer County Community Development Resource Agency (formerly known as the Planning Dept.); and Kevin Roberts, Sierra Pacific Industries (SPI).

Check-In:

Bill Templin led the “Check-In” procedure that entails telling who you are, how you are, if you have any time constraints, emergent issues, and/or individual expectations.

Review & Approval of Minutes:

Matt Triggs noted the July minutes need to be amended to provide clarification of the preliminary results of the CSI and a correction in terms of site locations and their respective national forest.

Katie requested corrected verbiage so she can correctly revise the July minutes.

Dan Teater noted he will email to Katie.

Additions to the Agenda:

No additions were made to the agenda.

Discussion: “What do we mean by collaboration and capacity building?”

Bill Templin led a discussion on collaboration with ARWG members citing examples of both current and past collaborative efforts in terms of watershed management efforts that relied on the collaboration of multiple jurisdictions.

The Group concurred that collaboration was integral to good watershed management.

Bill indicated current discussions with others has highlighted the fact that “capacity building” is one of those fuzzy terms an audience doesn’t really grasp and noted the need to use stories to illustrate these kinds of terms in a meaningful way to an audience.

As an example, Rich Gresham reported the RCD currently has a collaborative capacity building projects in the works. The effort pulls together a partnership of four Central Sierra Region RCDs in collaboration with the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) to cost share GIS technical services that will build the capacity of each entity participating; by improving or providing additional services dependent on GIS technology and/or help guide RCD and/or regional programs, help identify individual and/or regional projects, and support the development of future funding efforts assisting each entity in realizing their individual goals and objectives.

Bill Templin noted the Upper American River Foundation (Foundation) meeting held a discussion that recognized the need for fuel load reduction and indicated projects can serve as a point of collaboration and reviewed some of the projects discussed at the Foundation meeting that included:

• Stream Condition Index: Benthic Macro-Invertebrates, flow, water quality, canopy cover, bed load, cross sections, vegetation.
• River Clean Ups: Spontaneous clean up held Sept. 23^rd in response to landowner concerns.

• Restorations: Past projects, post project maintenance, future projects and funding development.
• Interpretive Displays: Bill reviewed current displays and the potential to update existing sites including Oxbow Reservoir and the Confluence. PCWA has expressed an interest in interpretive signage.
• Water Quality Monitoring: Discussion revolved around current monitoring efforts, with SPI noting they conduct project specific monitoring and do not have a permanent on-going monitoring program. CABY has discussed the development of a regional monitoring effort and provides the opportunity to include additional monitoring components into their proposed monitoring plan.
• Outreach and Education: Identify opportunities and partners for collaboration.

Rich Gresham solicited interest in the Annual Salmon Festival held at the Nimbus Hatchery October 14^th and 15^th. He also suggested exploring the National Wild Turkey Federation as a potential partner.

Bill encouraged an earnest discussion of projects in order to begin identifying specific projects, identify appropriate partners, and determine a budget and timeline in order to develop funding proposals in time for the upcoming funding cycle.

Other Discussion:

Rich Gresham brought up the issue of carbon sequestering and informed the group of discussions about viewing carbon sequestration as a commodity possibly presenting both public and private forest land owners with an opportunity to garner carbon sequestering credits should the idea take off.

Edmund Sullivan noted larger issues like carbon sequestering will need larger partner based collaboration.

Kevin Roberts reported SPI is aware of the issue and crunching numbers in terms of the potential banking of credits.

Matt Triggs added carbon sequestering is a component of the USFS National Plan based on the theory that smaller trees are better at carbon sequestration than larger trees due to the growth cycle sequestering more carbon than a mature tree. He noted the other side of the coin is that as trees die they release their carbon as part of a cycle.

Status Updates on Active Projects:

1. Sediment Dynamics Study (SDS): Bill Templin noted the SDS Technical Advisory Committee field trip visited the Chipmunk Creek area, took the Big Trees tour, and explored the surrounding area to help validate Erosion Hazard Ratings developed under the study. One site at Tunnel Shoot where the south side was rated at high risk for erosion and the north side was rated low warranted a look at conditions in the field. He noted the consultants will be re-examining the data post tour.

Group discussion revolved around modeling and the importance of ground truthing such efforts.

Bill noted he still has an issue with the study not including fire history data as an Erosion Hazard Rating indicator.

2. Cosumnes-American-Bear-Yuba (CABY): Implementation proposals deadline is September 15^th for Integrated Regional Water Management Plan consideration.
3. PCWA Middle Fork Project: Tours are being planned for August 30^th and Sept. 27^th with the potential to identify future monitoring locations. Contact Bill for more info.

Bill also noted a Rubicon River Hike with Monte Hendricks is slated for August 20^th and will serve as an introduction to resources and issues of concern.

2. Auburn State Recreation Area (ASRA) General Plan: No report.
3. SEDD Wastewater Forum and Biomass Generation: No report.
4. Upper American River Foundation: Bill Templin reported on the last Foundation meeting above in Discussion: “What do we mean by collaboration and capacity building?”
5. American River Watershed Institute (ARWI) - Colfax Fuel Reduction Project: No report.
6. Colfax WWTP/Fuel Reduction/Biomass Generation: Bill reported Colfax Mayor Joshua Alpine is expected to speak at the next ARWG meeting about the Colfax WWTP.
7. Implementation of the North Fork American River Watershed Plan & Stewardship Strategy: No report.
8. Others? Nothing else was brought forth.

Next Meeting and Adjournment:

The next meeting is slated for September 21^st at the Canyon View Community Center. The meeting was adjourned at 12:00 p.m.