Agendas and Minutes

Forest Lands Committee (View All)

Minutes from October meeting

Agenda
Tuesday, October 13, 2009

Minutes FOR A MEETING OF THE

ASHLAND FOREST LANDS COMMISSION

Tuesday, October 13th, 2009

            Siskiyou Room, Community Development Building

51 Winburn Way

 

 

 

I.                   CALL TO ORDER: 5:30 PM

 

II.                INTRODUCTIONS 

Commissioners Present: Melody Norass, Craig Gorson, , John Williams, Tony Kerwin. Chris Iverson called in, but did not vote.

Others: Chris Chambers, Margueritte Hickman, Vicky Sturtevant, Gary Pool, Greg Lemhouse.

 

III.             APPROVAL OF MINUTES: September 8th meeting

M/S to approve Williams/Gorson. All ayes, Norass abstained since she was absent at last meeting.

           

IV.              PUBLIC FORUM

None.

 

V.                 ADJUSTMENTS TO THE AGENDA

 

VI.              BUSINESS

A.     Public Outreach Plan Continued Discussion

Chris Iverson explained the Watershed map idea and plans to create a flyer to solicit maps from local artists to create rough sketches for judging by the FLC. Once selected, the artist will consult with the FLC on the elements of the map and finish the full blown map in a couple months for printing.  Iverson would like to print a smaller amount of maps to distribute—possibly a donation from a printing service and then raise money to print a larger set.  Iverson went over the key elements of the map including the watershed, trails, parking areas, Winburn, fire stations, smoke from controlled burns, riparian corridors, --Gorson made the point that we don’t want to make people complacent about smoke—we need to make it clear that people call in fires even if it uses some fire department time. Burning and smoke is usually seasonal—perhaps put that on the map in text at the bottom. Iverson’s list continued to include many other things (see his list on separate document). Tony suggested streams coming into reservoir be labeled and shown.  

Conversation went on to the scale of the map and how to represent other landmarks like Emigrant Lake.  Due to the artist’s ability to show feature not to scale, it may be possible to show Emigrant Lake while still featuring detail in the watershed. The group elected not to show the food co-op to avoid issues with businesses.  Gorson suggested giving the artist something in return as a prize. Lemhouse suggested partnering with a service club to get sponsorship.  All agreed that this would be a good idea. Gorson will bring the poster up with the high school arts group next week. Iverson will bring an example of a poster to the next meeting. Iverson suggested making the contest a City web page that can be advertised and eventually links added to the online map to get more info.   Chambers said it would be no problem to do that.

 

Vicky Sturtevant explained her research and involvement with wildfire communities and education taking place about fire and forest issues.  Vicky is working on Forest Service grant to find out how communities are creating programs to address forests and wildfire. She oversaw the creation of wildfire education kits, one of which Chambers brought to the meeting and is available for use in local schools.  Vicky can serve as a local resource for the FLC and others on education and outreach issues. Chambers will let Laurie Hayden know about the kit.  

 

 

B.     Input for Council Goal Setting Meeting in January

Lemhouse talked about the Council goals and values discussion.  They want goals that are attainable in 12-24 months.  One example that was brought up by Lemhouse and Navickas is a goal to complete a study on homelessness in Ashland.

Copies are available on the City website and from Ann Seltzer at the City.

Lemhouse also explained that Council is looking at how commission liaisons function.  There are issues with whether or not the councilor is a voting or liaison member –which doesn’t allow the councilor to even speak. An ex-officio status allows the councilor to speak as a participating member, but still with no vote.

Gorse supports a more active role of the councilor liaison since the commission serves the council. Kerwin was comfortable with a non-voting role, but with the ability to give input.  Williams agreed as well. Lemhouse will bring back a message in favor of ex-officio status for the Council liaison.

 

C.     AFR Review & Update

Lemhouse reported that the Sec of Agriculture has remanded the decision back to the Forest Service to issue a Record of Decision in a relatively short timeframe.  He is continuing to contact representatives locally and at the national level to keep the AFR process moving toward the decision, especially given the work that’s been accomplished by the Commission and the partnership working on the multi-party monitoring effort.   

 

Chambers gave an overview of the AFR multi-party monitoring plan, including the website at www.ashlandwatershed.org. He covered the National Forest Foundation grant history and what products were created as a result of the grant, which ended September 30th.  He described the technical and community engagement workshops and the resulting plans that are being reviewed by community stakeholders.  The technical monitoring plan is on the website for review, and the Outreach and Education plan will be released soon. Chambers gave an overview of the website on the screen and showed various graphs and visuals of data taken and analyzed from the Research Natural Area in the watershed, which totals 40 plots and 700 more plots are being taken by the Forest Service in the rest of the watershed. Some of the grant money was used to analyze the existing data and create ways for the public to understand what’s happening in the RNA’s forests.

 

D.     Ashland Forest Plan Update Discussion

Kerwin explained the need for a summary of the current state of the City forests and the work the FLC has done. Rather than put a big effort and group together for an update of the Forest Plan, Tony suggested putting together a small campaign and building it if there is a lot of interest. We can use the City website and the utility billing newsletter to get the message to the people who would like to participate.  Tony would like to work with Marty and Chris Chambers to develop the history.

 

E.      Commission 3-Year Goals

No discussion on this topic.

 

VII.           COMMISSIONER COMMENTS

            Gorson brought up a potential wood to oil production opportunity/technology.  He then asked about a report on the Siskiyou Fire. Chambers gave a quick update on the efforts to report on the fire and fuels reduction done in the fire area, which will be forthcoming. Hickman commented that we had a lot of factors on our side including a quick and large response from local fire agencies that were all in Talent at a meeting reviewing the Hot Springs Fire of the week before.  

 

VIII.      REVIEW AND SET COMMISSION CALENDAR / NEXT MEETING

A.     Next Regularly Scheduled Meeting: November 10th, 2009

 

IX.           ADJOURN: 7:30 PM

 

Submitted: October 14, 2009 by Chris Chambers, City of Ashland.

 

 

In compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act, if you need special assistance to participate in this meeting, please contact the Public Works Office at 488-5587 (TTY phone number 1 800 735 2900).  Notification 48 hours prior to the meeting will enable the City to make reasonable arrangements to ensure accessibility to the meeting (28 CFR 35.102-35.104 ADA Title I).

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