Progress Report

By

William E. Templin Jr.

North Fork American River

Watershed Coordinator

http://arwg.net

Feb. 19, 2007

Since my progress report on January 15, 2007, I have accomplished the following work:

Objective 1: Coordinating Collaboration:

• Participated in the Placer County Resource Conservation District Board Meeting on 01.16.07 presenting the highlights of my last month’s activities.
• Coordinated another American River Watershed Group (ARWG) meeting on 01.18.07 with an interesting presentation on “Lessons Learned from their FERC Relicensing Project” by SMUD representatives David Hanson and Scott Flake and a very interest-provoking presentation on “B.L.M.’s Restoration Plans for Mercury Removal at the Pond Gold Mine near Todd Valley, CA” by David Lawler, U.S. Bureau of Land Management. Results included direction by the ARWG members present to look into partnerships for writing a grant proposal on gold mine assessment in the N.F. American River Watershed to submit for the California Department of Water Resources Prop. 50 Watershed Grant.
• Participated in the Sacramento Urban Creeks Council Board meeting on 01.22.07, reviewed activities since the last meeting and Creek Week Plans.
• Participated in a tour given on 01.24.07 by Walt Stevens (co-owner) Horseshoe Bar Mine and American Bar Quartz Mining Co. of their property along the M.F. American River above and below the Tunnel Shute. Walt asked me to attend a site/inspection walk through by Jill Pahl and John Marin, Placer County Department of Health and Human Services and Department of Planning (respectively) of their existing facilities to hear Placer County proposals for viable alternatives to a traditional campground. Placer County has concerns with the location of septic systems and portable toilets near the river. There has been concern about the design and location of camp sites and septic systems required to operate a privately-owned campground. There also may be interest in rafter’s use of the area and historic mining activities on this property. Placer County is to get back to Walt with their ideas.
• Coordinated a very productive meeting on 01.25.07 of the Upper American River Foundation (UARF) http://groups.msn.com/uarf with first time meeting attendees Jan Cutts (Tahoe National Forest) and Dave Lass (Trout Unlimited). Minutes of the meeting were previously sent out via email.
• Met with David Lawler (BLM), Charlie Alpers & Deb Curry (USGS) on 01.26.07 at the BLM office in Sacramento. We discussed alternatives and a sample project proposal from Charlie that we can modify for a watershed wide assessment of Gold Mines with mercury cleanup needs.
• Participated in a meeting of the PCWA Recreation Technical Working Group (TWG) on 01.29.07 at the Canyon View Community Center in Auburn, CA for the purpose of reviewing visitor survey project proposals. About 20 people attended from all aspects of government, individuals and non-government organizations.
• Participated in a Conference Call Meeting on 01.30.07 with Jan Cutts (Tahoe National Forest), Fraser Shilling and Barbara Washburn (California Watershed Assessment Manual “CWAM” Team) regarding planning a session for the American River Watershed Conference on “Watershed Assessment and Adaptive Management”. Fraser, Barbara and other CWAM Team members have been putting on workshops on this subject all over the state and we discussed their interest in a 1 day session at the conference. They are interested and will move forward with topics and speakers.
• Participated in the first meeting of the year of the Cosumnes American Bear & Yuba (CABY) Integrated Regional Water Management Plan (IRWMP) collaborative group (about 30 attendees) on 01.31.07. Primary topics included possible project funding opportunities under Prop. 50 Chapter-8 IRWMP, and Prop. 50 Watershed Program grants. We learned from Liz Mansfield (El Dorado Irrigation District) that the California Department of Water Resources (DWR) is now planning to not open Round 2 of the Implementation Grant (that we were expecting to get significant funding from for our projects) and that political maneuvering has been raising it’s head again in this process, resulting in concerns about the handling of grant allocations to areas throughout California. The Prop. 50 Watershed Grant is still expected to be available to us and the rest of the state to compete for $10 million for Watershed Assessment and Planning and Implementation Projects. Procedures for the next phase of project reviews by CABY for submittal to DWR were discussed.
• Participated in the American River Watershed Conference Planning Committee meeting on 02.01.07 at CSU Sacramento.
• Participated in the ARWG Sediment Study Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) meeting on 02.02.07at the California Division of Forestry Training Center at Bowman, CA Marie Davis (PCWA) compiled comments from all TAC members present or represented for submittal to Tetra Tech.
• Participated in the PCWA Plenary Meeting in the morning on 02.05.07 at the Canyon View Community Center in Auburn, CA. California Department of Fish & Game was represented for the 1^st time since these meetings started last year, so now most key agencies are represented. The Terrestrial TWG met in the afternoon and the Aquatic TWG met on 02.06.07 and I attended that with Bill Carnazzo, Vice President, Upper American River Foundation. Plans for schedules and project planning continues to be the primary focus of these meetings.
• Coordinated another monthly American River Watershed Group (ARWG) meeting on 02.15.07 Featuring “Huell Howser’s 2 New “California’s Water” http://www.calgold.com/ episodes 1) ”We all Live in a Watershed” (29 minutes) featuring the Middle Fork American River, Costarring Marie Davis (PCWA), Jan Cutts (USFS), Jim Branham (Sierra Nevada Conservancy), and Nate Rangel (California Outdoors), and: 2) “Sacramento Valley: Working Together Pays Off” (28 minutes), featuring the Lower American River, Costarring Leo Winternitz (Water Forum), Ed Winkler (Regional Water Authority) and others…
• Coordinated a very productive meeting on 02.15.07 of the Upper American River Foundation (UARF) http://groups.msn.com/uarf with first time meeting attendees Rick Radoff radoffcnst@jps.net (President, Granite Bay Flycasters); Bill Deitchman (Ranger, Auburn State Recreation Area) and Dan Teater (Fisheries Biologist, Tahoe National Forest). An agenda for the meeting was sent out via email to all ARWG members on the date of the meeting. Many good projects and partnerships are being built and our largest single donation (so far) was received at this meeting from the Granite Bay Flycasters totaling $2, 950. This brings our current balance up to nearly $4,000, so our application fees for 501c3 status appear to be covered and maybe we can start some of our other projects such as “Adopt A Display Board” and “Clean up/bbq/fishout events” at Sugar Pine Reservoir on (A To Be Announced date in March 2007) and at Ralston Afterbay on April 15, 2007.

Objective 2: Implementing Education and Outreach

• Helped staff the Granite Bay Flycasters booth on 01.18 & 19.07 at the International Sportsman’s Exposition at Cal Expo Fairgrounds in Sacramento, CA distributed Upper American River Foundation pamphlets to visitors and other booths.
• Participated in the American River Watershed Conference Planning Committee Meeting http://www.csus.edu/CREST/American_River_Watershed_Conference.html on 01.18.07 at CSU Sacramento led by Ron Coleman, rcoleman@csus.edu Biology Professor. This conference to be held on Thurs. & Fri. April 12 & 13, 2006 at CSUS. During this meeting we continued to layout speakers for Sessions. Gary Estes. We discussed expanding the conference to include Land Use Management in the 6 county area with the Local Government Commission http://www.lgc.org/ and the Sacramento Area Council of Governments http://www.sacog.org/. The next meeting is Thurs. Jan. 18 at 6 p.m.
• Participated in the American River Watershed Conference Planning Committee meeting on 02.15.07 at CSU Sacramento. “Save That Date (April 12 & 13, 2007” cards were available at the meeting for all to help distribute. The agenda and speakers continue to become firmer, but the preliminary program needs to be printed very soon, so we need final information ASAP.

Objective 3: Fostering Opportunities for Collaboration among Stakeholders:

• Attended a meeting of the Trout Unlimited Sac/Sierra Chapter in Sacramento on 02.01.07 and viewed a fantastic presentation by Ralph & Lisa Cutter on the subject of “Under water photography of Benthic Invertebrates” and distributed more of the Upper American River Foundation pamphlets.
• Participated in a Fire Wise Community meeting set up by the Sierra Nevada Forest Protection Campaign http://www.sierracampaign.org/ on 02.07.07 at the Bill and Claire Cave home in the Auburn Lake Trails community. Fire Wise Communities are recognized when they are “working towards meeting specific criteria” for fire safety and awareness, and the Auburn Lake Trails community has done that. Other communities in El Dorado County were discussed and some of them already qualify as do some communities in Placer County. The Sierra Nevada Forest Protection Campaign is a non-profit organization working to get more communities started as Fire Wise Communities in an attempt to reduce the environmental damage from fires..
• Met with Cindy Podsiadlo cpodsiadlo@fs.fed.us on 02.14.07 at Eldorado National Forest Supervisor’s Office in Placerville, CA to learn more about the Environmental Assessments that are done by the USFS for Range Allotments like the Chipmunk Allotment that runs from above French Meadows Reservoir over to Hell Hole Reservoir and down the Middle Fork American River to it’s confluence with the Rubicon River. Significant monitoring occurs before the Environmental Assessment document is written. Some possibilities may exist for volunteers to help with restoration projects where needed.

  Objective 4: Informing and Educating Landowners on Water Quality Issues:

• Helped produce a map showing the planned USFS vegetation management projects and SPLATS in the Tahoe National Forest at a meeting on 02.16.07 at the Tahoe National Forest Supervisor’s Office in Nevada City with Karen Jones and Chuck Brickey (Tahoe National Forest), and Austin Mulder (Placer County Resource Conservation District). This map will be used with the recently identified High Risk Sub-watersheds for Sediment Production to help guide our selection of projects for “Next Steps for Watershed Protection”, a concept proposal to be written by our TAC for the Prop. 50 Watershed Grant due mid March 2007.