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HomeMy WebLinkAboutForestry & Parks Committee - Minutes - 6/14/2021 BAYFIELD COUNTY FORESTRY AND PARKS DEPARTMENT COMMITTEE MEETING June 14, 2021 County Board Room 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 1. Call to Order of Forestry and Parks Committee Meeting. This meeting was called to order at 6:01pm. 2. Public Comment: No one from the public to comment. 3. Approval of the May 10, 2021 Meeting Minutes. MOTION: (Zepczyk, Fickbohm) to approve the minutes as presented. All: Yes. Carried. 4. Monthly Reports. Discussion of general activities, events, issues and accomplishments. Possible action on report(s) only. a. Forestry (all updates): a) 2021 Budget. May’s timber revenues were slightly below the three year average. Just over $216k was received in May. To date, $2.14 million has been received in 2021. Expenses are on target. b) 2022 Budget. Bodine brought up a new position for 2022; Recreation Coordinator. The recreation in this county has increased drastically in the last few years. The workloads have increased significantly. Almost all staff members are helping with the recreation workload. This would also include a reclassification of other positions, Recreation Forester. The aging infrastructure is going to be looked at for the 2022 budget. Retaining walls within the campgrounds as well as broadband at the campgrounds. Yurts are beginning to show their age with the amount of use they are receiving. With this increase in use, means an increase in workload. Some committee discussions on the new carbon revenues and how to delegate these funds. More discussion on the development of a new position. Committee members are in support of the new position to further develop recreation in the county. c) Carbon Project. The carbon project was recently listed with ACR. As part of the listing, the name of our project is: Bluesource – Bayfield County Forest Project. Bluesource will begin to analyze our CFI plots to get an idea of how much carbon is available. Around May/June 2022 the plots will have to be re-evaluated to determine what if any changes have occurred. d) Wildlife Monitoring Project. To date, 6 males and 1 female sharp-tailed grouse have been captured. The lone female was predated. The Breeding Bird Survey has been completed. NRRI will have a summary later this year. One Kirtland’s Warbler was noted as part of this survey. e) Across the Pond CFL Withdrawal. There will be a deed restriction added to this property to clarify what can and cannot be done with it. The DNR should have the withdrawal to us shortly. f) Stewardship Project. TPL was recently informed that our large Ceres Timber acquisition project was not selected for the next round of consideration (for the Acres for America grant). TPL is committed to helping us carry out this project as it is written. There are smaller projects that we are also working on. The tribe received verbal notification from GLRI that they were approved. The hope is to sell the roughly 300 acres to the tribe for $1,500/acre. b. Parks (update). Campgrounds are in full swing. We opened up a small portion of the old orchard at the Siskiwit Falls Property. Town of Bell is interested in starting a community orchard, discussion is still ongoing. c. Trails and Recreation: a) Motorized Trail Updates: Wally Polk Trail updates – the private landowner on the south end of the Wally Polk trail (trail 40) will officially close his property to all public use starting August 1, 2021. Flag Rd is the work-around at this time. We are also working with the landowner off Almstead regarding moving the trail off his land and onto county forest. We are working with USFS, this update will likely take a year. b) Non-Motorized Trail Updates: We are still working with Landmark Conservancy on the final signs for Siskiwit Falls. There will be an appreciation event sometime in August to recognize past owners. c) Yurt Updates: Bodine presented occupancy rates. Bayfield yurts are above average use. Cable is back to traditional use. d) Events. No new events were approved. d. Delta Landfill Update: FEMA had nearly completed their final review of the proposal when Bodine was informed of the need to obtain various permits. Prior to that statement, we were told that permits (if any are needed) could be obtained after the review was completed. So, now we are working with the DNR to figure out just what permits are actually needed, if any. MOTION: (Sandstrom, Zepczyk) Receive and place on file. All: Yes. Carried. 5. Spring Timber Sale Re-Offer The bid opening results were provided to the committee. 11 sales, 220 acres went up for re-offer. We received bids on one. Tract 6-21 received 4 bids. Winner was Granger Logging. MOTION: (Zepczyk, Sandstrom) Accept apparent high bids. All: Yes. Carried. 6. Trespass on County Forest Bodine presented a plat of survey produced by the County Surveyor to give an overview of the trespass in Town of Bayview. The total impacted area is .29 acres. Bodine recommends selling the .29 acres to the landowner at $2,500/acre. The landowner would be responsible for all costs associated with the survey, legal fees, recording fees and administrative expenses. Fees expected to be in the ballpark of $3,000. All net proceeds would be deposited in the non-lapsing land acquisition account. 7. Resolution: County Forest Land Withdrawal and Land Transaction To address the trespass, the property will need to be withdrawn from County Forest Law. Once withdrawn, it can be sold to the adjacent landowners. The resolution basically formalizes the transaction, as described above, and authorizes the removal from County Forest Law. If approved, it will also need to be address by the Board. MOTION: (Silbert, Fickbohm) Move forward in selling the land as well as recommending to the full board a resolution for withdrawal from county forest. All: Yes. Carried. 8. Committee Members Discussion New agenda item for committee members to discuss topics. Topics discussed at this time could become agenda items at future meetings. Silbert would like the committee to consider the returning the remaining 708 acres back to Red Cliff at a very nominal cost instead of fair market value. Both Sandstrom and Fickbohm agree with Silbert’s comments. Part of the sale is a withdrawal from CFL. The DNR could potentially object to this. When the state looks at a withdrawal, they look to make sure there is an equal amount of value attached to it and that the county reinvests that into equal value of land elsewhere. Committee members agree to have this as a future agenda item. 9. Joseph LeBouton, DNR – Comments on the previous discussion regarding repatriation of the land to Red Cliff. You would need to show higher and better use of that land in order for this to be potentially approved by the DNR. The next Forestry and Parks Committee meeting has been scheduled for Monday, August 9, 2021 at 6:00 P.M. Meeting adjourned at 7:20 PM Submitted by, Lindley Mattson