Full Council Meeting

Cloverdale Veterans Memorial 9-2PM

Thanks to Bob Anderson for facilitating the meeting! Quorum was 20 at 9:15AM and 25 at 9:30AM. Thaks to Judy Christensen for acting as coordinator for the meeting!

AGENCY ANNOUNCEMENTS-Sonoma County Water Agency will continue their Section 7 public consultations on December 19 with a report on flood control and dam operations impacts on recreation and ecosystems.

CA Dept of Fish and Game continued their coho recovery program with 250 coho captured in Green Valley Creek. New tanks at the Warm Springs hatchery are operational for all the 800 fish projected for the program. Still need 100 more for this year's collection efforts to ensure genetic diversity.

It was suggested to have a special tour in November at Warm Springs Hatchery. At least 170 DFG employees have been laid off with 30 affected locally. DFG is reevaluating priorities to ensure crucial activities are covered like permitting although field work will be minimal.

AGENDA/MINUTES APPROVAL-The day's agenda was amended to show David Lewis taking Chuck Connor's place during the WMP scope of work discussion. The minutes of July 12 were passed unanimously.

ANNOUNCEMENTS-Graton Day is celebrating the local community today. The community celebration has been supported by Bread for the Journey, a local donor for community building activity.

Brock Dolman announced a grant received by Occidental Arts and Ecology Center to conduct firesafe trainings in west county. Ecological fire management methods for wildlands will be discussed at Oak Grove School on Oct 1 at 9:30.

Bob Clemens asked for volunteers for the Russian River cleanups on September 20 and 21 that will cover the area between Cloverdale and Mirabel.

Fred Euphrat shared brochures for the Celebration of the Russian River, which starts today, and runs for an entire week of community activities throughout Mendocino and Sonoma counties.

Dennis O'Brien requested that the language for the Hydrologic Regime Analyzes include the Eel River diversion's contribution to the local water supply.

FIRST FLUSH SUPPORT-Zeno provided background for the First Flush monitoring. The Russian River Watershed Council supports the monitoring of local creeks by local volunteers during the first storm event of the season with 25 ayes, 0 no/abstain. Local citizens will monitor thirty points in Mendocino and Sonoma counties with the results reported on the RRIIS and rrwc.net websites. Information collected can help local agencies like WQB to monitor pesticide runoff impacts. Training for volunteers will be held on September 17 and October 4 at Finley Center and also for volunteers in the lab at the North Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board.

FOUNDATION PARTNERSHIP- Rusty Klassen and Fred Euphrat presented the history of the RRWC partnership with the Community Foundation. The following motion passed. The Russian River Watershed Council agrees to work with Community Foundation Sonoma County from September 2003 to September 2004 to identify funding opportunities that protect and restore the Russian River while building community capacity to address local watershed concerns with 23 ayes, 1 no 1 abstain. Rusty Klassen and Fred Euphrat are continuing talks with the Community Foundation to develop a list of projects that could be funded in 2004 and researching potential grant sources. For instance, the Celebration of the Russian River received a $10,000 grant recently. Another $20,000 has been requested for a study the middle Reach with a letter of intent already prepared.

PROJECTS LISTING-Bob Anderson and Karen Rippey reviewed a draft list of proposed projects for funding in 2004. The RRWC discussed listing RRWC initiated projects first and then others with some guidelines about how grants should be awarded and limited to not more than $25K/year. The existing projects list should be reviewed after the technical panel has conducted their analysis of the scope of work. Long term funding for RRIIS is a recognized as a priority for funding urgency for system administration and data assurance staffing.

The period for funding is unclear. Fred explained that each project would be subject to the funding cycle of the interested donor. Every project will need an active champion to manage the details and coordinate volunteers. Studies funded would not pass through the Corps of Engineers; rather the information would be qualified for the particular element of the scope of work that was addressed.

The group decided to review each project rather than prioritize one above the other. A motion passed by 19 ayes to have the existing list used for discussion and then referred back to the Steering Committee and/or a sub work group for further review and more budget details.

The actual support for each item was as follows:
25 ayes Russian River Cleanups ( Items 1-3)
25 ayes Russian River Celebration
25 ayes First Flush monitoring
25 ayes Russian River Interactive Information System support
14 ayes, 9 no Resource Directory expanded distribution
19 ayes, 4 no Willow Creek assessment and channel feasibility study
20 ayes, 3 no Stormwater outreach by Mendocino County Water Agency
20 ayes, 3 no Hydrologic Regime Analysis
20 ayes, 3 no Floodplain Hydraulics
20 ayes, 3 no Watersheds Sediment
20 ayes, 3 no Riparian and Upland Habitat evaluation
20 ayes, 3 no Human Impacts on Watershed Resources
20 ayes, 3 no Watersheds Surface and Subsurface Water Quality evaluation
20 ayes, 3 no Recreational development of Hansen property to include meeting facility

SCOPE OF WORK-David Lewis and Karen Rippey reviewed the work of the WMP subcommittee in finalizing the scope of work and panel members for the technical review scheduled for October. The scope of work was carefully compared to the Plan of Action to ensure that the critical issues were included. Every task and item of the scope of work was reviewed for its conformance to the Plan of Action. In Task 9, the committee is still evaluating methods for categorizing and prioritizing the tasks as the studies will be funded over several years.

David explained that the panel will meet at the Bishops Ranch in Healdsburg from October 22-24 to conduct a critical review of the scope of work. 11 panel members and 3 alternates will analyze the scope of work for completeness and probability of success. By looking at components and reviewing representative watershed groups' studies, all the tasks needed to bring together and implement a management plan will be summarized. The WMP subcommittee will probably need to meet in November or December to approve the panel's report before the panel members present it to the full RRWC in January.

RUSSIAN RIVER INTERACTIVE INFORMATION SYSTEM (RRIIS)-Cheryl Dean invited any member of the RRWC to login for the system's initial startup phase. WIAM members have already met to review the capabilities of the system. Talks are ongoing with the ICE group at UC Davis as a potential system administrator for RRIIS when it is released to the general public. Any RRWC member can review the site at www.rriis.migcom.com and user setups can be coordinated through Cheryl and the development team.

The Dutch Bill watershed has been used as a prototype to demonstrate how a sub basin watershed group might use the system to share its information and make connections among residents of the watershed. Using the Steering Committee and RRWaMP subcommittee members to evaluate system features can help work out issues before the system is released to the public. Users can use a clipboard to upload/download information to/from the site, a calendar to post/review local watershed events, a discussion feature to share information about particular topics and maps to review watershed attributes. Depending on how much you use the site, your login will show your Hot Topics by your previous activity when you login and search the site.

NEXT MEETING is November 15 at the Cloverdale Veterans Memorial. Reports from the work groups are expected.