AGENDA West Sound Watersheds Council (WSWC) January 19, 2011 9:00 AM - 12:00 PM Poulsbo City Hall, 200 NE Moe Street 9:00 Introductions, review agenda 9:15 Salmon Recovery lead entity topics Kathy/John Habitat Environmental Technical Assistance requests? PSAR Funding 3 Year Work Plan SRFB calendar input? 9:45 Coulter Creek Estuary update Nicole 10:00 Learning about Liberty Bay Linda 10:30 Break 10:45 Pierce County s Water Quality Scorecard Barbara Ann 11:15 Information Sharing all Noon Adjourn Next meeting date: Feb. 16 location? Meeting dates for 2011 please mark your calendars: Mar. 16, Apr. 20, May 18, June 15, July 20, Aug. 17, Sept. 21, Oct. 19, Nov. 16, Dec. 14
West Sound Watersheds Council (WSWC) Meeting Notes January 19, 2010 Poulsbo City Hall Attendees and affiliations: Kathy Peters John Meyer Peg Tillery Joy Davison Joleen Palmer Tom Ostrom Mark Libbey Jo Myers Bob Johnston Doris Small Jim Aho Linda Berry Maraist Dayna Hernandez Cindy Larve Brenda Padgham Barbara Ann Smolko Tom Kantz WSWC Coordinator/Kitsap County Puget Sound Partnership WSU Extension Hansville citizen Stillwaters Environmental Center / ECOnet Suquamish Tribe Clear Creek Task Force Kitsap County DCD/ PSRF US Navy/ PSP Science Panel WDFW Illahee citizen City of Poulsbo WWU student WWU student Bainbridge Island Land Trust Pierce County Pierce County Salmon Recovery Lead Entity Topics Kathy Habitat Environmental Technical Assistance Does anyone want to take advantage of this? Doris Finn Creek has requested this assistance, but I think we should look at it ecologically before we decide what kind of engineering assistance we need. Kathy agreed to set up a site visit date. PSR Funding Governor s budget has $15 million in it for Puget Sound Salmon Recovery. The Partnership asked for $55 million, with the state budget in such poor shape we are lucky that this much was included. The Puget Sound Salmon Recovery Council has a formula to allocate up the funding. If the legislature passes the capital budget with this target amount, the West Sound will get approx. $498,000 this year for the biennium. If the SRFB appropriation is similar to last year, we will have another $200,000 300,000 for this 2011 grant round. The Governor s Office has asked us to look at job creation as a priority in funding salmon recovery projects, implying that restoration may be a higher priority than acquisition.
Three Year Work Plan Update It is an annual process to summarize what we have been doing and what our plans for future actions are. We hope to get all the 3 Yr Plan projects into the Habitat Work Schedule. The eventual plan is that once a project gets funded, it gets transferred to PRISM, which is the grant management program for RCO. There will be an interface that transfers several fields directly from the HWS to PRISM automatically. You will be able to see in PRISM any documents/attachments that you entered in HWS. There are webinars on the HWS that are very useful for learning how to use the HWS. If anyone wants to help with the three year work plan, please let Kathy know. SRFB Calendar Come March or April, the RCO staff will be asking us when we want to do our site visits. So we need to start to plan our local calendar now. By Aug. 15, we will need to have our list ready, and a month before that, WSWC will need to approve project lists. So in April or May, we will need to start evaluating projects for funding this year. At the February meeting, let s talk about who will sit on our Technical Committee, that way we can be sure we have the right technical assistance and evaluation of projects. Coulter Creek Estuary Nicole There are some great opportunities for conservation in North Bay. Jurisdictionally, it is in Mason County, but most of the watershed is in Kitsap County. Last year this project was positioned for ALEA funding and possibly Water Access funding. If the WWRP gets funded, we may receive $400,000, and I am looking for additional funds. We have been advised to apply for a Coastal Wetland grant, but I am going to need some resources and technical assistance, which is why I am here today to ask for your help. The grant is based on the following: Give priority to acquisition because it is long term It is 50% wetland and %50 declining wetland Evidence of threatened and engendered species Supports federal or local plans for sustainability. Please contact Nicole if you have any recommendations or ideas about where she could find technical data to include in the grant application. Nicole s contact information is nicoleleehill@gmail.com and 360 250 3978. Liberty Bay Linda We are planning an event about Liberty Bay here in this building to bring together and discuss the science going on in the Bay. We want to discuss the studies, restoration projects, and how this information can be incorporated into future policy. Liberty Bay was chosen as a study area by the USGS because of its uniqueness and location. The studies primarily focus on the effects of urbanization on the Bay. The idea is to have the community and electeds learn about these studies and all the work that is being done here. We are thinking of holding in March or April. Comments Kathy We wanted to have it on a Saturday so legislators and the working public can come. One of our goals of the Lead Entities is to help create a sense of place in our area. We are also trying to figure out ways to bring scientists and policy makers together without requiring people to attend monthly meetings. Tom It might be interesting to include the Nearshore Assessment. Also, it is important to set the context and include the tribal history of the area since it is a culturally significant place. Doris Maybe you could include a bon voyage party for the salmon. It could be a finale for the day.
Kathy We would like to keep it focused and short so people don t feel like they will have to spend all day. Maybe we could do something that is optional at the end. Pierce County Score Card Barbara Ann There have been years of water quality data that we have been collecting across Pierce County, and we decided to come up with a scorecard in order to disseminate water quality info in a way that is understandable to the larger community. Sites are monitored once a month by county staff. The data gets compiled and put into a range that is comparable across factors and then based on the score, streams get a grade. For the most part, majority of streams settle out to about a C. The three things we would like to do with this are: open it up to other bodies of water, influence the capital funds projects, and put these data on the web for easy accessibility. This data can be used to examine how restoration projects affect overall stream scores. We have help collecting the BIBI data, the analysis is contracted out. All of the water quality and flow data is collected in house. We also have weather stations that we are hoping to cross reference rain and water quality changes. Comments Linda Is the Health Department involved and their PIC programs? Barbara Ann We are not as good at it as Kitsap is, but we do get together to figure out why spikes show up. Joleen/Joy Would like to use the template to manage the water quality data in their watersheds. Information Sharing All Doris Has two interns helping collect surf smelt data. Mason County is starting their SMP Update. Went out with Kathy and the Mid Sound Fisheries Enhancement Group to look at a culvert on the Howe Farm in South Kitsap. Joleen Continuing to work on connecting ECOnet with the Partnership. We are going to offer tours of Kitsap County for folks from Puget Sound Partnership. John I want to talk about PSAR the mark is at $15million dollars. This money is so important to keep this work going. Please contact legislators and let them know how important this money is and what it means for this area. Reinforce job creation! Also, SMP Updates that are going on and local jurisdictions need groups like this and the other groups that you are connected with to show up to meeting and give your input. Jim We now have three projects on Illahee Creek entered into HWS. We have hired a videographer, Shelly Solomon, to create a movie that we want to use to help tell the story of the creek. We also had a culvert almost fill with sediment. We have been trying to get the county to help us address these issues. Jim Put the link to your community blog on the notes or send out to WSWC members. Peg I m no longer in charge of the master gardener program Coleen Miko has taken over that job. Jeff, Coleen, and I are doing the rain garden program. I will be devoted to water quality. If you have information that you would like to send out to the group of shoreline steward volunteers, let me know. Joy Finn Creek has stalled out and we are now looking for a new plan. I can help enter projects into the HWS.
Brenda the Land Trust is working on a conservation plan on Bainbridge Island using much of the property analysis that has been done with a focus on shoreline property and salmon bearing streams. We are in the middle of our shoreline restoration design project on a piece of private property funded by SRFB as a design only project. We will be looking for partners and funding for implementation. It is likely we will be teeing this up for the next funding round. We are really struggling with baseline data collection. There is not a good template for monitoring shoreline properties especially and would like the state/partnership to step up and help with this. Barbara Ann Point Defiance is hosting a nature mapping training workshop, and we asked them to come to our side of the bridge. If you are interested, let me know. We have a shellfish grant coming up and are working with Kitsap Health and the shore stewards. There is a high tide event coming up next weekend and Ecology is encouraging people to go out and take photos. They want to use this data to look at how sea level rise will affect the Sound. Bob the Navy is putting out the fecal coliform/tmdl plan. We have been doing ambient water quality monitoring which I will be able to give an update to this group next meeting if interested. There are going to be more meetings working with the Partnership on how to integrate science and policy issues. The Partnership is working on how to coordinate all the monitoring that is going on in the Sound and integrate it. EPA funded the Partnership as a leading entity to carry out the Salmon Recovery Plan as well as four other entities to focus on specific components for restoring Puget Sound. Another big focus at the Partnership is working on dashboard indicators and setting targets for all 23 indicators. The Salish Sea Conference is being hosted up in Vancouver in October. Puget Sound Science update is available online, but it is not fully functional yet. John We should talk about the EPA grants at the next meeting. These organizations are not there yet, as far as figuring out how to disperse money. It will probably go through the Local Implementing Organizations where they exist. Tom the Hood Canal Coordinating council is working with the Navy on an integrated fee to mitigate damages. A check could be cut for damages that would go towards funding restoration projects instead of directly mitigating for that specific project. I am a bit concerned about this not being good compensatory mitigation. Linda Poulsbo may have lost funding planned for Fish Park, which was the last piece of restoration and acquisition. The other key piece was that we had a waiver of retroactivity from a land donation from the Great Peninsula Conservancy to match ALEA funds. Now we risk losing waiver because of the potential elimination of ALEA.