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HomeMy WebLinkAboutForestry & Parks Committee - Minutes - 8/10/2020 BAYFIELD COUNTY FORESTRY AND PARKS DEPARTMENT COMMITTEE MEETING August 10, 2020 County Board Room and Microsoft Teams Members Present: Fred Strand, Chairperson; Jeffrey Silbert, Steve Sandstrom, David Zepczyk, Larry Fickbohm Staff in Attendance: Jason Bodine, Administrator; Lindley Mattson, Office Manager; Steve Probst, Assistant Administrator Others in Attendance: Joseph LeBouton, DNR Liaison; Leland Brown and Chris Parish, Non-Lead Partnership 1. Call to Order of Forestry and Parks Committee Meeting. This meeting was called to order at 6:00pm. 2. Public Comment: None 3. Approval of the July 13, 2020 Meeting Minutes. MOTION: (Zepczyk, Fickbohm) to approve the minutes as presented. All: Yes. Carried. 4. Presentation: Leland Brown and Chris Parish. North American Non-Lead Partnership Leland and Chris joined via Teams to present information to the committee on their organization, North American Non-Lead Partnership. Their goal is to bring awareness to the various environmental issues created by lead ammunition and promote voluntary measures to increase the use of non-lead alternatives. Leland and Chris introduced themselves and their backgrounds. Questions from Committee: Barriers; availability, making the change, cost. Exposure: waterfowl vs big game. What does a partnership mean: brochures and hardcopy material available, training is available. 5. Resolution: Supporting the North American Non-Lead Partnership. This resolution was taken from the Partnership’s website but adjusted to better fit the county forest program, with fishing/tackle added. By supporting this Partnership, the Forestry and Parks Department would work with them to promote non-lead alternatives when recreating (hunting and fishing) on county forest lands. This is not supporting any type of legislation or pushing for any form of regulation, but merely acknowledging the negative environmental impacts created by lead and encouraging voluntary use of non- lead alternatives. Our active support could come in the form of housing a link to the Partnership page on our website and/or including pamphlets or similar information at various information kiosks located on the county forest. The public would be free to consume the information and act as they see fit. Bodine presented a draft resolution. Bodine recommends approval. MOTION: (Fickbohm, Sandstrom) accept the resolution in support of the North American Non-lead Partnership. All: Yes. Carried. Note: Bayfield County Forestry and Park are joining as a non-financial member. This will not be forwarded to the Full County Board at this time. Implementation will be on County Forest lands and see how it is accepted before targeting the entire county. Bodine will pass it on to WCFA. 6. Monthly Reports. Discussion of general activities, events, issues and accomplishments. Possible action on report(s) only. a. Forestry (all updates): a) 2020 Budget. Revenues are well behind schedule. July was $270k, the past three years we’ve averaged $540k in July. To date, we have generated $1.95 million, short of our $2.8M three- year average. Covid-19 and the Verso closures have both been large proponents in this. A few high dollar contracts are being logged currently. Projected end of year budget $2.85M. In the past 20 years, the department has NEVER come in under budget. Expenses are under budget. b) Carbon Offset/Marketing. Still working on this potential project. Bodine met with consultants earlier in the week. Seems to be going in a good direction. Bodine is confident this will work for Bayfield County Forestry. c) Red Cliff Land Sale. Red Cliff Land sale has been approved by the board. The acres were off a bit. Estimated 210 acres was actually 220 acres. Total value stays the same $315k. The withdrawal was submitted to the DNR on 7/31. All hopes that this goes quickly. d) Stewardship Land Acquisition Project. The Trust for Public Land (TPL) is currently working with Ceres Timber on terms for a future large acquisition project. They did visit many of the sites. They feel these properties have tremendous potential and are now taking the lead on project development. The funds received from the sale to Red Cliff would be used as a partial match. TPL would secure the rest of the funds. The cost of appraisals would be absorbed by TPL as well, this is normally covered by the county. This partnership would result in zero out of pocket expense to the county (other than the Red Cliff sale funds). Also, this partnership would pose very little risk to the county. The only potential risk would come in waiting on the results of a larger project before applying for a smaller Stewardship project. More to come as this project evolves. e) Verso Update. Nothing new to report. Both mills are idled. WCFA has had no new updates. b. Parks: Busy month: tree on the shower at Twin Bear, altercation with a host, two break-ins resulting in a boat theft. Shower will be repaired; charges are being pressed and boat theft is being investigated. Boat launch use is up. Big Rock use is up. Total revenue should be on target, expenses are lower than budgeted. a) 2021 Camping Season Structure. The seasonal only camping structure adopted this year due to Covid has been very successful. Considering a structure like this again next year. Price structures, goals and objectives will be brought to the September meeting. It is also time to renew the campground manager’s contract, so working on updating that. ` c. Trails and Recreation: a) Motorized Trail Updates: Picnic shelter RFP went live, received no bids. We will reach out to contractors directly. b) Non-Motorized Trail Updates: Received three bids for the Siskiwit Falls project. Projected completion date is 2020. Bid was for $32,000 with an awarded grant of $60,000 which leaves money available to develop other parts of Siskiwit. c) Yurt Updates: Bodine presented the occupancy rates for July-Sept. Still continue to be very popular. All days that are not blocked for cleaning/replenishing supplies are booked. We have received a few more mouse complaints than normal. We are trying out a few different mouse deterrents to see what works. d) Events. No recurring events approved, no new events. d. Delta Landfill Update: DNR has approved the preferred alternative, which is 200k more than original “return to pre-disaster” estimate. Returning to pre-disaster condition, is just waiting for the next disaster to occur. The hope is to put it back together so that it can withstand the next big storm. This will require a change in scope, which will be submitted to FEMA and Wisconsin Emergency Management. There is a possibility we don’t get funding for our preferred alternative, in that case we will then use the “return to pre-disaster” repair. MOTION: (Fickbohm, Zepczyk) Receive and place on file. All: Yes. Carried. 7. Forestry and Parks Department 2021 Budget J. Bodine presented a draft budget to the committee. Projecting the timber sale revenue budget is probably the most challenging. As of this draft, we are $600k less in timber sale revenue from 2020. Bodine is still working on this. Narrative will be submitted to County Administrator at the end of the month and will be presented to the committee at the September meeting. Also discussed: one time adjustment on existing sales. With the most recent market crash, some of our existing contracts have stumpage rates so high it would be more financially responsible for the contractors to give back the sale and take the penalties than for them to cut the sale. Bodine is exploring options to get the sales cut versus the county receiving them back. Bodine is exploring options and discussing more with the WCFA director. MOTION: (Sandstrom, Silbert) Approve the draft 2021 budget as presented. All: Yes. Carried. Bodine notes that this budget will most likely change slightly before being submitted to Administrator. Committee understands. 8. Salvage Timber Sales Mid-July storms caused a significant amount of damage to county forest. Estimated damage is 300-400 acres. Some of the damage is located within sales that are currently under contract. Contract amendments will be needed for these sales. The blowdown sales should be completed by end of week, early next week. Bodine is asking for pre- approval from the committee to get those advertised and out for contractors to bid on before wood begins to degrade. A report would then be brought to the committee at the September meeting summarizing the results. Pre-approval would give Bodine the authority to establish, advertise, open bids and award contracts on these sales. MOTION: (Silbert, Zepczyk) Allow Bodine pre-approval for salvage sales and award contracts for sales that were damaged by the same storm. All: Yes. Carried. 9. Access Permit. William Fifer This access permit was actually previously approved by the Committee, but the property is now under new ownership. New owners need to apply for a new access permit. Attached is a map of the area. Bodine recommend approval. MOTION: (Fickbohm, Zepczyk) Approve Fifer access permit. All: Yes. Carried. 10. Access Permit. Dan O’Bryon This access permit request is located in the Town of Bell, near Siskiwit Lake. Dan recently purchased the large Ceres Timber parcel located north of the lake. The property is now named Lost Creek Tree Farm, LLC. The request is to use a small portion of county land (1,000 feet) to gain access to the western portion of that property. In return, we will be asking for permission to use 5,600 feet of the old town road for future timber sale access. This permit would be reciprocal in nature, all fees would be waived. Attached is a map of the permit. Bodine recommends approval. MOTION: (Sandstrom, Zepczyk) Approve reciprocal access permit for O’Bryon. All: Yes. Carried. 11. Bayfield County Forest Comprehensive Land Use Plan Revision a. Chapters 800 Comments: Received comments from the Red Cliff Tribe, mostly editorial in nature. Comment provided to Committee. Some discussion on comment: BMP training, birch harvesting. b.Chapter 4000 Comments: One comment from WI Sharp-Tail Grouse Society, positive notes on the Barrens development. Comment provided to Committee. c. Remaining Timeline. There is no deadline for the DNR. Bodine is hoping to bring a complete draft to the September meeting and then proceed from there. 12. Joseph LeBouton, DNR – Notified Committee that DNR staff is not allowed to do in person meetings at this time. He will be attending remotely until further notice. The next Forestry and Parks Committee meeting has been scheduled for Monday, September 14 at 6:00 P.M. Meeting adjourned at 7:47 PM Submitted by, Lindley Mattson