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Home My WebLink AboutLand Conservation Committee - Minutes - 3/14/2008 Bayfield County Land & Water Conservation - Sound Land and Water Stewardship through local Leadership BAYFIELD COUNTY LAND CONSERVATION COMMITTEE MINUTES March 14, 2008 Present: David Good- Chair, Marco Bichanich, Jim Beeksma, Kenneth (Bucky) Jardine, Loretta Skaj, Peter Tetzner Advisors: Tom Cogger-NRCS Staff: Butch Lobermeier, Ben Dufford, Stefania Strzalkowska 1) Call to Order by David Good, Chairman at 9 am 2) Minutes from December 14, 2007 LCC meeting were accepted with no changes. Motion by Marco Bichanich / Bucky Jardine. Motion carried. 3) Public Comment – no public attended. 4) Update on Admin Asst position – We are sorry to lose Jen, she did good work, but because of personal problems she had to resign. Mark mentioned two folks in-house interested in the position, and we have a few interested good potentials. We are limping along, as before but we are making it. We hope to have someone in that position by the first of April. 5) CREP Comprehensive Reserve Enhancement Program - Chuck Ledin, DNR Great Lakes guy, DNR not even party to contract is putting some pressure on Bayfield County and Kay MacKenzie, LCC of Douglas Co, to sign a new contract with the state and feds. Contract is between FSA, NRCS, DATCAP, and the counties. Bayfield Co finished 2nd contract Dec 31, 2007. However, if county does not amend the contract to extend the expiration date, landowners do not get paid (Jan 10, 2008 letter of Keith Foye, DATCP). Discussion followed relative to the program and Wash. D.C direction (no farm bill yet, therefore no program yet), and tree planting (if trees died . . . are we ever out of the project?), and follow- through (Whose responsibility follow-up? Carry through is happening via county, not federal agencies) and a step-by-step guide needed to get through all the program logistics. Lobermeier cited Foye’s example of a “working” CREP program—Outagamie County with 18 contracts but only 6 property owners for a total of 80 acres. Plus, these contract focus around a drainage district so its not a typical CREP program. The true CREP program is to buffer streams in active farmland with riparian plantings. Bayfield has no active farmland in program—just planting trees—not a bad thing—but—not really how CREP is suppose to work. For LWCDs, CREP isn’t mandatory, farmland preservation is; other programs we can pick and choose. In 2010 CREP could be made a state priority for eligible counties. At WALCE training, DATCAP said state priorities are not being met. Well—land and water management plans are locally driven—so the state needs to look at local priorities. Butch has a meeting with Chuck Ledine April 4th. Motion made to sign back up with CREP program with the intentions of finding out the exact expectations of the program. Motion by Bucky Jardine / Marco Bichanich. Motion Carried Butch will write a letter inquiring of their expectations. 6) Groundwater Program - professor of UW-Superior wants to do a study to test 200 randomly assigned wells and study source, chemical content, contaminants, etc. Match would be county time to advertise for the study (in the context of our work) and help select “random” samples. Prof is still looking for ear mark money from the feds. Isn’t this information already available? Each time a well is drilled, the driller has to send geographic info to the state. Unfortunately, all this info is sitting in a box—no data base yet. Landowners may have reluctance to participate in public testing of wells because the data collected is available to the public. For instance, if a background chemical is found like arsenic, if owner wants to sell, he’ll have to tell potential buyers. Right now, Douglas Co LCC is the grant support lead [Reference- Douglas Co Resolution] MARCH 14, 2008 MINUTES – continued: 7) Nutrient management-$20,000 given to Bayfield (first had $0 before Co Cons wrote letters). We did have it in 2007. Presently, can’t use funds until July 1, and maybe not ever because of budget crisis in state—may pull these funds. Overall it is a good program—very cost effective as fertilizer is $700-800 per ton these days. We need to apply for 2009 funding by April 15. Also need to set up training schedule—if only can handle/pay five producers—that’s all we can do. River Alliance report—nutrient management is not working—still have phosphorus, green lakes, report says it like it is—the program is not working! DATCAP was livid about the report (not defending themselves) just mad. Unfortunately, after publication of report, DATCAP has not received any response from citizens or agencies. $28 per acre is what the program pays landowners and once paid they need to stay in compliance. Discussion followed on who is to have a plan (owners or renters), how does one write a plan? Need a plan for spreading manure. People get paid to be compliant. This is the carrot for conservation practices. LWCD will work with state for this program, and will continue and try and get producers to make a plan. Discussion about phosphorous in lakes. Discussion of biofuels, crop management, soil management, tilling with tines, minimum till, the need to minimize energy putting the crop in (fuel for tiller). 8) LWRM Plan – the state Land and Water Board is considering a 5-10 year plan, now 3-5 yrs only. (Forestry has been 10 yrs, now 15) Lisa Schultz from the state to help—Butch would like to pare it down including only the things we do, not what all agencies do as is in the current plan. We can hire consultant or do it in-house. Committee believes we can do in-house because we have lots to pull from—as long as it is pared down. We don’t have to start the plan until the state decides five or ten years. Due 2009 with filed extension. 9) Conservation Report – On file. 10) Technicians Report – On file. Other news: LWCD will get more into well abandonment reclaimation, hopefully people will sign up for it after a press release. It is good project all around. Slow the Flow work, Ducks Unlimited applying for grant for wetland conservation for our projects! We are going to get the money because of the good work we have done in the past. 11) AIS Coordinator Report – handout –Comments from reviewers are favorable for the AIS Strategic Plan, overall it is being well-received by agencies and lake groups alike. Motion made to approve final Draft of plan. Bucky Jardine / Jim Beeksma, motion carried. Summary of networking, outreach and education successes. 12) Wildlife Damage Program – Dave not present – handouts – Discussion regarding the need to meet one’shooting permit harvest objective before receiving a damage claim. 13) Agency Staff Reports - Tom Cogger for Gary Haughn, NRCS- Every year there is more and more layers of paperwork required (cultural resources report, endangered species report) which increases the time it takes for us to get out in the field. Presently working on 26 project plans--fencing, well, orchard people with pest management, all engineering for these projects is complete. Most projects in Bayfield and Ashland counties. Recent grazing conference had 72 attendees, many beef producers. Trend now is more beef producers, less dairy. Tom Cogger works mostly with grazing. Property taxes is the driver for doing something with you lands. Discussion followed on conference topics and grazing in general in the county. 14) Other business – GELNEC—Great Lakes groupl Nexxt meeting on March 27th at Marinette at 9am. Discussion on what this group does? LCC does not really know about this organization other than what Kay has said in past 4-County LCC meetings. Participation means what? The County Con of Marinette Co called Butch and strongly suggested he be at the next meeting. Committee agreed Butch should go and see what the organization is all about and what is expected of our participation. 15) Next meeting date: Third Friday of the month, June 20, 2008. 16) Adjourn: Motion to adjourn, Bucky Jardine / Marco Bichanich, motion carried, 11:36 am.