June 6, 2001
Facilitator: Pat Corchoran
Scribe: Betsy Richardson
- A grant was obtained by the Nature Conservancy from Benton County for the
preservation 85 acres of land for the Fender's Blue Butterfly in cooperation
with Willamette Industries on their land.
- A grant for culvert needs assessment has been submitted to OWEB by Benton
SWCD in cooperation with the Marys River Watershed Council.
- The MRWC was awarded a Water Quality Monitoring Grant, to start July 1st.
Volunteers are needed to monitor water quality. If you are interested please
contact Sandra Coveny, 758-7597 or MRWC@peak.org
Land and Water Use Group will meet again on Wednesday July 11th at 7 PM at
Cascade Pacific RC&D. For more information contact Sandra Coveny.
Steering committee did not meet in May due to the fact that the regularly
scheduled meeting of the steering committee conflicted with the Benton
County Budget Hearings. Sandra Coveny and Tom Murphy from the steering
committee presented testimony in support of the Watershed council's request
for line item funding by Benton County. Five thousand dollars in funds were
awarded for this year to the watershed council, which will begin to help set
off the large shortfall left by the OWEB budget cuts.
Action item:
Annual fundraising event for council: Passed by Consensus -"The council
agrees to attract supporting gifts as an annual fund raising effort" We
will write a thank you note to donors and will supply a receipt for donations
upon request. The suggested amount will be between $25-$100. Donors may remain
anonymous if they so chose.
Next meeting Aug. 1 (There will be no July meeting)
- Facilitator needed
- Scribe needed
Speakers
Jessie Kneissler (PHS Senior) Spoke on her senior project. Sandra was her mentor for this project, in which she looked at
Flow, water rights, Macro inverts, Native trees planted, Fecal coliform studies,
Christmas trees (erosion, turbidity, solutions), Grass seed management, Starker
management, New techniques for helping the long term management of the
environment. She was impressed by the high quality of management practices she
found in her interviews with local agricultural producers and foresters.
Steve Elefant from Oregon Department of Forestry answered questions on
wildfire prevention and management during this unusually dry summer.
- Current conditions are more like those of late June and July but response teams
are well prepared and well coordinated.
Measurement of fire hazard (temperature, humidity, wind, and fuel moistures are
fed into their computer for an assessment of current fire dangers.
-
Fuel management effected by burning in the fall, with a concern for habitats
-
Fire environments are difficult to assess, as there are too many variables
involved. Need for educating public of this.
-
Rural-Urban interface (Wild lands, versus Structures)
-
Structure Triage: determines which structures should be saved during a fire,
and which are not savable. -Many factors are involved, such as: Combustible
surroundings, Location (accessibility on slope, near water, etc.),
Combustibility of construction materials, (shake vs. composition or tile roof,
for instance.)
-
Comparable values (human life first, then costs of habitat loss timber loss,
structure loss,) Road building being done in several places, among them Ft.
Hoskins, Tax Base needs to be reevaluated to bring paying, non paying up to
date: Housing and Real Estate (assessment), Forestland
- County (Forest patrol
assessment). Handouts: Risk meters to determine fire risk , Home Protection
Guide Booklets Wildfire Preparation Brochure
Meeting adjourned at 9 PM