Minutes
June 21, 2006
Members Present: Laura Arnold, Michael Durland, Ron Hendrickson, Terrie Klinger, David Loyd, Howie Rosenfeld, Joy Sevier, Jim Slocomb, Jonathan White, Tina Whitman
Absent: Skeet Lowe, Mary Masters, Kit Rawson, Ken Sebens
Staff: Helen Venada
Guests: Hilary Culverwell, Kirsten Evans, Claudia Mills, Rich Osborne, Suzanne Russell,
Morgan Schneidler, Rowann Tallmon, Margot Winters, Tina Wyllie-Echeverria
Guest speaker: Christine Woodward, Director of Natural Resources, Samish Nation
Vice Chair Jim Slocomb called the meeting to order at 8:30 a.m. in the Community Room at Islanders Bank Annex, Friday Harbor. Victoria Parker has submitted her letter of resignation as member of the MRC.
Minutes:
Minutes of the 4/19/06 meeting were revised to incorporate edits submitted by Russel Barsh. Minutes of the 6/7/06 meeting were approved as read.
Critical Areas Ordinance process update:
Ron Hendrickson said that the consultant’s report is complete and is available on the county’s website; he added that, basically, it frames the issues. Ron said there will be a preliminary public meeting on June 29th from 1-4 pm at the Mullis Street Firehouse; a summary of the report will be presented for review and comments. Ron relayed the good news that the county will be proceeding will its ecosystem-based initiative, a 2-1/2 year process. Unfortunately, he added, his office will have to move ahead with the CAO process within a relatively short timeframe on the limited funds available; a meeting in July to explain the process is being planned. The question remains of where to go after the 29th, Ron said, since he still has no staff and funds to do the work are limited. A long-range planner and a current planner have been hired and interviews for a second long-range planner are scheduled.
Jim said that, given the state of resources that the CDPD has, the MRC hopes to take somewhat of a leadership role, i.e. commenting as a committee. Discussion followed.
Motion: David moved, and Jonathan seconded, that an ad hoc CAO working group be formed to work on CAO issues. The motion passed unanimously.
The names of Tina, Laura, Mary, Kit, and Joy were submitted to serve as the preliminary CAO working group. Jonathan and Terrie offered to help as much as possible, given their busy schedules.
Presentation:
Christine Woodward, the Director of Natural Resources for the Samish Indian Nation, said that one of the projects the tribe is working on is a water quality baseline study. Staff from the tribe is collecting data on Total Dissolved Oxygen, bacterial contamination, turbidity, etc. in water from 35 stormwater outfall pipes in Fidalgo Bay; they hope to add nitrates and pesticides to the data in this second year of the contract with the Bureau of Reclamation. The Nation has been working with refineries in the area and others to fill data gaps; meteorological data collection (e.g. level of particulates) is being done in collaboration with other weather stations in the valley corridor, Anacortes to the North Cascades, from the 7-1/2 acre Spit conservation area. The Samish Nation has also applied for a DOE grant to do a water quality study in Campbell Lake (the Tribe owns 80 acres there).
Christine said that the tribe has been working with Tina on the SRFB grant and the work is invaluable. Interest and effort are reaching beyond Anacortes and Fidalgo Bay in areas where the tribes have U&A treaty rights. She added that two BLM grants are now completed. Christine said she and the Samish Nation hope to gain a working relationship and trust with the San Juans. Terrie and David both pointed out that there are huge data gaps in the San Juan Islands.
Two new oyster seeding areas are being established in Fidalgo Bay in a joint project with the Skagit County MRC, Christine said. She offered that the Nation has state-of-the-art GPS available for use and that she would be happy to do a future presentation on the water quality data being collected.
Presentation:
Tina Wyllie-Echeverria presented preliminary results on the salmonid sampling that is underway now through September ‘06 with the partnership of the Samish Tribal Nation. The question is which habitats in the San Juans are being used by juvenile salmon. Nine sites are being sampled using seine technique, from Waldron to Griffin Bay, most along San Juan Channel (where most pinks/year were found) and there is high wave action exposure. 25 different species are being surveyed including salmonids, sand lance, smelt, English sole, greenling, pollock, cabezon.
One hilight of the study is the small numbers for Chinook. Tina showed summary results from the San Juan Channel 2005 surveys (using beach seine sampling). Results of the monthly sampling were graphed, with fish lengths and numbers as well as locations to get a picture of where the Chinook numbers are low (they tend to be found offshore, not in nearshore habitat, Tina said).
Tina said that the proposed geneticp study would allow for an improved sampling method to be used in deeper waters. David said that the Pinks are here half the year, during which they double in size. Tina added that she’d also like to do a sampling around marinas. She said that the Friends of the San Juans forage fish spawning project has contributed greatly to the data; 48 surf smelt beaches and 8 sand lance beaches were documented. Still, the data-to-date is incomplete, Tina said. She added that sampling is weather dependent which can skew the data. Anecdotal data suggests that forage fish prefer sandier beaches.
Based on earlier sampling efforts, Tina said, the WDFW now delays release of 1.65 million hatchery Chinook to increase the population of blackmouth in Puget Sound. Origins of the species is another big question, Tina said. Chinook are likely from Cascadian streams, where, based on NOAA’s sea surface temperature data, water is colder except for June and July. Hilary said that PSAT is interested in the stomach content analyses as well.
WORK SESSION:
MSA Social Targets update:
Kirsten Evans said that the socio-cultural targets will help in identifying where restoration is needed and what the top threats are to target species and the whole ecosystem. Socio-cultural values, also, add more indicators than biodiversity targets. Kirsten highlighted the third target created, “cultural traditions;” she asked that members review and make comments on this section. There was agreement that the number of indicators to monitor for each target be reduced to 25.
Kirsten said that the threats assessment gives the best picture on the status of resources, with the budget time and funding available. The core team will develop a threats list, reconciling it with the biodiversity list. A one-day workshop is being planned (late August?, 3rd week of September?) at which time Kirsten would like to have the whole MRC present to help develop MSA strategies.
Jonathan said that he recently visited Glacier Bay and brought back hand-outs with information for boaters. He said the area is much more highly regulated than 10 years ago on his last visit. The regulatory layers provide a good model, Jonathan added, that people will buy in to; it was initiated by the Parks Department and includes video, monitoring and maps. Kirsten suggested that the MRC commission a boat regulations analysis.
Motion: Tina moved, and Laura seconded, that the comment letter to the Governor’s Ocean Policy Work Group be sent as written. The motion passed unanimously.
Tina distributed copies of the MRC’s draft letter to the CDPD, supporting a stormwater utility and water quality component with funding from the County Council to Public Works. Tina said that Matt Zybas, the SJC Utilities Manager, concurs on the importance of a water quality and other environmental elements. Terrie said that no HPA permits are currently denied.
Tina said the CAO consultant is funded through the July public meeting and that the next two weeks are key. Jim asked if the MRC is comfortable with the county putting off mandatory marine habitat planning in the CAO process or not. The CAO effort also represents the first step of the San Juan County ecosystem initiative.
Motion: Terrie moved, and Jonathan seconded, that the revised draft letter be approved and submitted to Ron Hendrickson with copy to the County Council before the June 29th meeting. The motion passed unanimously.
Members will be asked to comment at the next MRC meeting on the federal Orca critical habitat designation for all of Puget Sound (except from 24-feet up). Information on the designation is online at NMFS website. A public meeting will be held in Friday Harbor on July 13th.
Terrie reminded that the State has published a draft oil pill contingency plan rule. She said that since the 5-S process identified oil spills as the top threat to San Juan County, she will draft a comment letter for MRC review at the next meeting.
Laura said the MRC already voted to spend $50,000 NWSC funds to finish 5-S; she discussed the conceptual grant amendment proposal and the projects list, including the preliminary genetics stock study of 50 fish north and 50 fish south.
Motion: Tina moved, and Howie seconded, that $30,000 be requested for the genetics stock study, $5,000 for the class I beaches study, and $7,000 for the vessel survey. The motion passed unanimously.
Laura suggested that the sub-committee meeting schedule be included on MRC agendas.
Next meeting: The next MRC meeting will be held in the Community Room at Islanders Bank in Friday Harbor on Wednesday, July 5th, from 8:30 to 10:30 am.
The meeting was adjourned at 10:30 am.
Submitted by Helen Venada
