Minutes
April 6, 2005
Members Present: Laura Arnold, Mike Bertrand, Brian Calvert, Michael Durland, David Hoopes,
Terrie Klinger, (Alan) Skeet Lowe, David Loyd, Kit Rawson, Joy Sevier, Jim Slocomb, Tina Whitman, Dennis Willows
Absent: Mary Masters, Victoria Parker
Guests: Eric Eisenhardt, Kirsten Evans, Phil Green, MRC Coordinator Jody Kennedy, Kari Koski,
Commissioner Kevin Ranker, Rowann Tallmon, Dr. Don Gunderson and 9 students of UW fish class
Guest Speaker: Julie Knight, Executive Director of Islands Oil Spill Association (IOSA)
Chair Kit Rawson called the meeting to order at 8:30 a.m. in the Community Room at Islanders Bank Annex, Friday Harbor and welcomed new members who introduced themselves.
Minutes:
The minutes of the 3/16/05 meeting were approved as read.
NWSC Regional Projects Funding:
Jody said that there is a new funding opportunity from NWSC; $10,000 is available to each MRC that wants to participate in one of three regional projects together with other MRC’s with the goal of creating a larger regional impact. Jody said that the projects include the Bays Blueprint Project that involves detailed mapping of shoreline resources/impacts with the goal of identifying target restoration areas; she added that most of the MRC’s who would apply for this are already engaged in the Blueprint Project. The second option is eelgrass mapping, which, Jody noted, has already begun here thanks to the efforts of FOSJ, Dr. Sandy Wyllie-Echevarria and Jim Slocomb. The third is the Native Shellfish Restoration Regional Project, which is underway in the Islands by different groups. Member discussion followed.
Motion: Jim moved, and Laura and Brian seconded, that the MRC apply for $10,000 for filling in the gaps in eelgrass mapping here. The motion passed unanimously.
Tina, Jody, Terrie, and Jim will review the NWSC application and previous work done here to identify gaps.
Shared Salmon Strategy Process Update:
Commissioner Kevin Ranker announced that the MRC will now act as the official citizens’ committee for designating projects for Salmon Recovery Board (SRF Board) funding as well as representing WRIA 2 in the Shared Strategy salmon recovery process. He acknowledged that the citizens’ committee to date has had engaged, focused members; he added that a technical advisory group to be selected by the MRC will assist the MRC in providing a scientific evaluation of the proposals before the MRC ranks them for SRF Board funding. Similar to the NWSC, National Science Foundation, and the SeaDoc Society’s scientific advisory panels, this MRC Technical Advisory Group will review proposals on their scientific merit, but not rank them. The San Juan County chapter of the Puget Sound Salmon Recovery Plan is due to the Shared Strategy by early May. The Shared Strategy has provided funds to finish this chapter, starting from David Hoopes’ final draft. A new full-time position will be based in the SJC Community Development and Planning Department, tentatively the “Lead Entity Coordinator,” with a broadened scope of work; this position, funded through IAC (DFW), will also act as liaison to the MRC. One role of the new position, for example, will be to assure that the eelgrass and forage fish data are utilized by the Department in its daily work. Kevin pointed out that nearshore issues are now acknowledged as being more important than previously recognized.
Kit said that he received a letter from Bill Hamilton, the Director of SJC Conservation District, requesting an MRC meeting with him and David Hoopes about the transition process. Kit said that he, Mary, Jody and any other interested members will brief the BOCC on April 19th, at their request, to explain how the transition will work from the MRC point of view. Skeet Lowe asked about performance standards in the recovery process and Kit suggested that a future agenda item be devoted to bringing the full membership up to speed on the recovery issue (e.g. the concept of adaptive management).
Kit said that more details about the process for soliciting and reviewing proposals for the next round of funding will be presented at the upcoming SRF Board meeting; David Hoopes added that Round 6 materials for applications will be out in May. Dennis said that developing salmon policy and regulations will take time and effort and should be kept separate from the MRC work plan; he suggested that a new MRC sub-committee or the technical committee come up with guidelines, including the vetting of proposals. Brian added that, given MRC’s past history, such a sub-group could come up with doable targets.
Guest speaker:
Julie Knight gave a brief history of the Islands Oil Spill Association (IOSA) which began in the winter of 1985 with the first oil spill report that came from a resident to the U.S. Coast Guard. The spill occurred near Westcott Bay and led to oiled marine birds and a possible threat to the oyster farm. Julie said IOSA acted as a “finger in the dike” in providing initial spill response here (state response and resources are necessarily delayed in reaching the San Juans). The Islands, Julie explained, are surrounded by shipping lanes and there are lots of recreational boats here as well so the threat of oil spills is ongoing. Another impetus for maintaining a local spill response team is the self-sufficient nature of Islanders, she added. IOSA is the only such group in the west, and after an initial start-up grant in 1988, the non-profit has been funded by a variety of sources, somewhat determined by the wide range of potential spill sources.
Local response involves providing safety, spills assessment, and response training for volunteers,; insurance, professional accountability, and meeting legal requirements are also priorities. There have been 382 reported spills in San Juan County since IOSA’s inception, 82 requiring response for containment, cleanup, and wildlife rescue; IOSA also participated in 3 major out-of-county spill responses. There are now 345 trained and experienced local responders (50 with Hazardous Waste Operations and Emergency Response certification); 150 access/view/launch points have been mapped; and there is more than $150,000 in spill response equipment here.
Julie discussed the problem of derelict vessels; IOSA, authorized by the Coast Guard to remove oil from sinking vessels, coordinates with DNR’s Derelict Vessel Program Manager in an effort to retrieve hazardous materials sooner from vessels that are in imminent danger of sinking. She said there are only two marinas in north Puget Sound (at Port Townsend and Bellingham) that are capable of hauling out and holding 60-ton vessels.
Julie said that “Geographic Response Plans”(GRP’s) for the region are available online through the state Department of Ecology; GRP’s provide proposed strategies for boom deployment to protect marine resources. IOSA has mapped priority areas that are particularly sensitive, identifying what marine resources to protect first if a spill cannot be contained. A drill is scheduled in Westcott Bay for April 22nd.
Kit said it was important for the MRC to work together with IOSA in developing protection strategies (as part of both the MSA effort and the Salmon Recovery Plan). Julie stressed the importance of updated site evaluations, adding new species/habitat data as available. Tina said the MRC could help digitize past spill sites to identify patterns. There was discussion about the strict protocol needed for using divers to retrieve derelict gear. Julie said there is no existing emergency response protocol to ensure diver safety at this time.
Kit thanked Julie and IOSA for their work. Kit said that a relationship between MRC and IOSA represents an excellent example of good stewardship.
Briefings & Updates:
Jody said there is a bill in Congress that would provide about $1 million in new funds to support/expand NWSC’s derelict gear removal efforts. Only 1% of traps and nets have been removed from Puget Sound so far. Jody suggested that the MRC send a letter to Congress to support passage of the bill. She will draft and email a letter to members for a vote at the next meeting and members agreed.
There was discussion on MSA technical review partnerships. Kit said that the MRC will be putting together. MSA specifics this year and has set goals and vision as policy guidance. The Nature Conservancy (TNC) has a nationally-established way to identify areas for protection and restoration that could be applied to SJC’s MSA process. Jim said that the TNC, and other groups showing interest in the MSA, have a lot of expertise and ability to be helpful. Terrie said that there are no committed TNC funds at this point but there could be staff time to help with mapping. She suggested that the MRC enter the partnership fully prepared to adapt TNC’s process to MRC needs. Jim noted that the workshop held here recently, for regional agency managers with direct on-the-ground responsibility for marine resources in SJC, provided an opportunity to talk about establishing some cohesion between those management responsibilities using the county-wide MSA as a guiding document and philosophy. He added that the goal for this year is to have a concrete discussion of what the MSA could do, followed next year with looking for commitments. Jim said that since most of the agencies and their representatives have scientific credentials in their own right, the idea is to use the “Five-S Framework For Site Conservation” (see attached introduction) as a way to properly, technically define the issues within the MSA construct.
Kevin said a written Memorandum Of Understanding would be needed to define the partnership and avoid project overlaps with TNC’s projects. Jim will draft an MOU to clarify issues such as funding, project ownership, etc.. It was agreed that MRC goals would be the driving force in such a partnership, acknowledging the scientific, technical expertise that the TNC would provide.
Puget Sound/Georgia Basin Research Conference: Kit said that he, Mary, Jody, Laura, Kari, Terrie, Kirsten, and Tina attended the conference last week. Kit added that Jody did a great job of presenting the paper from MRC on the MSA process, its accomplishments to date, and its direction (a copy will be emailed to members by the next meeting). Jody said that the 15-minute PowerPoint presentation got a very positive response from conference attendees. She added that the event was a good opportunity to inform the regional community and agencies, as well as for the MRC to talk to people from the Gulf Islands Marine Conservation Project (Parks Canada initiative) and from Islands Trust about their respective conservation strategies.
Kit added that Kari did an excellent presentation on SoundWatch with a good adaptive management piece. Laura said that, regarding anecdotal information and the MSA, she appreciated the how-to manual, “Giving The Land A Voice,” from the Gulf Islands group, which was passed around. Terrie suggested inviting the presenter from Simon Fraser University to visit the MRC to explain how to apply the social protocol he developed for the Gulf Islands to the MSA effort here. Terrie added that there was lots of support at the conference for revitalizing transboundary relationships. Tina said that WDFW has digitized 30-year marine resource data for San Juan County.
Citizens’ Comments:
Kari said that the next edition of “Spring Tide” (a visitors’ guide) is lacking in marine resource conservation information; she emailed MSA maps and the “Be Whale Wise” guidelines to the Journal for inclusion.
Kari added that she’s had long meetings with enforcement agencies on whale watch issues. She distributed copies of bumper stickers from NOAA (“Get Off My Tail: Be Whale Wise, Stay 100 Yards Away”).
Eric said that he is on the team to do bottomfish surveys here this summer!
The meeting was adjourned at 10:35 a.m.
Submitted by Helen Venada
