RRG Final Meeting Notes

Transcription

1 RRG Final Meeting Notes October 29, 2015 / 9:00 Noon / Skagit Service Center, Burlington, WA Baker River Project License Implementation Recreation Resource Group Meeting Final Meeting Notes October 29, 2015 from 9:00 am Noon Co-Team Leaders: Tony Fuchs (tony.fuchs@pse.com) and Pam Garland, (pam.garland@pse.com) Facilitator: Lyn Wiltse: (call if running late or if your plans to attend the meeting change) Website: PRESENT Tony Fuchs, Pam Garland, Elizabeth Dubreuil, and Jacob Venard (PSE); Colin Mahoney, Nikolai Ferrell, and Seth Greenfield (USFS), Brock Applegate and Brian Fairbanks (WDFW); Corrina Hart (Town of Concrete); and Lyn Wiltse, facilitator and note taker (PDSA Consulting) DECISIONS: None today RRG MEETING DATES February 9 from 9-noon with LEP from 12:30-3:00 (to plan for the recreation season) June 21 at Baker Lake Lodge from 9-noon (with possible field trip with LEOs in the afternoon) October 25 from 9-noon with LEP in the afternoon (to debrief the recreation season) NEW ACTION ITEMS Tony Will replace cover sheet for SA 305 and SA 312 and submit to FERC in November. He will notify all when he receives FERC s notice of receiving the plans. Tony Forward instructions to all on how to access PSE s FTP site. Tony Notify all of the date of the next license overview session and invite all to attend. All Let Tony know if you would like to sit in on a session where he provides an overview of the license. Potential date: November 10. Repeat offenders are welcome! Pam Arrange for additional lighting / reflective surface to the marker the USFS installed on Lone Tree Island. Colin will provide information on what the Coast Guard uses on its buoys. Seth Send out Doodle Poll to set up meeting with Tony, Pam, and Hoodoo concessionaire in November about gathering data sufficient for the FERC Form 80 (focus on capacity and putting data in a useful format). Seth Ask Kai to record his observations / actions on the shoreline at Horseshoe Cove with Elizabeth. She will be out next week doing monitoring (Monday Wednesday of next week). Lyn Attach live links to the documentary videos (also available on the PSE YouTube page): o o o Baker River Project Relicense FERC Project NO RRG Final Meeting Notes October 29, 2015 Page 1 of 5

2 ONGOING ACTION ITEMS All Let Tony know of any updates to the contact list for your organization. Tony Continue to coordinate cross-resource group collaboration (e.g., I&E). Tony Forward Jacob s outlining the activities of the various resource groups to all. ANNOUNCEMENTS Nikolai and Seth are teaming up to cover Ann s former duties. Rourke McDermott begins on Tuesday and will fill Carol s position and will be responsible for public information for the Mt. Baker Region and FERC. The new MBS Forest archaeologist Paul Elford starts on Monday. REVIEW OF AGENDA AND MEETING NOTES The last meeting notes were finalized after the meeting via and will be posted on the PSE website. LICENSE IMPLEMENTATION / BRCC UPDATE Jacob reminded all that the next Baker River Coordinating Committee meeting will be in April of The BRCC is open to all and provides a comprehensive review of all of the license articles. It is an excellent opportunity for newcomers to the Baker License Implementation working groups to gain a good understanding of potential cross-resource areas of conflict and opportunities. The Aquatics Resource Group (ARG): Jacob explained it was a great year for fish passage. They passed 50K adult fish for the total terminal run! This is especially significant as a mere ten years ago folks were amazed when 23K fish were passed! They are wrapping up fine tuning of flow balancing of the Floating Surface Collectors (FSCs) in Upper and Lower Baker. All is working as it should. There has been a banner year in terms of the number of native char in the system. PSE and Upper Skagit Tribe are also doing spawning surveys in the basin. Terrestrial Resource Implementation Group (TRIG): Tony announced they have purchased a lot of elk habitat and are now focused on clearing and seeding activities and identifying areas on the shoulders of the valley to enhance to attract elk out of the valley bottom habitats. Stay tuned; more purchases to come! Cultural Resource Advisory Group (CRAG): Elizabeth described how they have been focused on the design and alterations (removing the crest and replacing the gates with wider gate structures) of the Lower Baker Dam due to FERC dam safety regulations. These modifications constitute an adverse effect. They created an MOA for the adverse effects to the historic district. Part of this includes remodeling the Baker Clubhouse to be a Visitor Center. One of the cottages in the district has been modified considerably over the years and is in need of repairs that greatly exceed its value. PSE is leaning toward deconstructing the building (either piece by piece or as a whole). The house sits alone, away from the rest of the historic district. If there is agreement to deconstruct, this will be added to the MOA. In the summer, there will be discussions about how to develop the Baker Clubhouse and partner with the Concrete Heritage Museum, There will also be work on the Lower Baker Trail. Corrina announced that the Town of Concrete has received a trail grant. There may be opportunities to collaborate. She will pass on this information to their consultant. Visitor Centers: PSE will be turning the Baker Clubhouse into a Visitor Center. Seth explained that Deb will be coordinating the construction of a FS Upper Baker Visitor Center near where the Hot Shots set up. Corrina announced that Concrete is planning to construct a new municipal center. FERC PROJECT NO , /29/2015 Notes, Page 2 of 5

3 DISPERSED REC PLAN Seth explained the Forest Service is close to having a product that will fulfill what is required of the USFS from a FERC perspective. They invited specialists (botanists and fish biologists) to have a say in this and they came back with requests to include all kinds of additional information. Internally, the FS wants to see much more than is required by the FERC license. They fixed up Anderson and other sites identified in the R12 survey. They are also working with WWU and Huxley to gain additional capacity. There was very high occupancy of the approximately 205 dispersed sites this summer. Five new sites were identified. The Forest Service is comparing numbers from this year with the R12 study to calculate the rate of growth. They will be identifying resource issues, damage, etc. They will do a presentation of the plan at our February meeting. There was a fire on the little island just past the swimming area at Horseshoe Cove. Elizabeth reminded all that there is a FERC obligation that PSE be informed of ground disturbing activities where there are cultural / historical sites ( sensitive areas ). Fulfilling this obligation is difficult as the locations of these sites are not publically disclosed. In the future, FS personnel are encouraged to report any ground disturbing events to Pam who has awareness of these locations of sensitive places. HORSESHOE COVE Horseshoe Cove set the record for use of developed sites in the whole Forest. Non-native fir trees from Oregon were planted in the area back in the 1950s. Root rot and the Douglas fir bark beetle were prevalent. As a result, the FS has removed over 210 trees. These trees are dangerous. One of the diseased trees came over when there was no wind and fortunately got hung up on the way down, so it didn t hit the campers in the sites below. The bark beetles are opportunistic and will create a hive if the logs are left on the ground. The beetles can fly up to a mile away. If there are no hot spots to dig in and propagate, they just disperse. The beetle scouts test each tree for disease, leaving the healthy trees alone and partying in diseased trees. Decked trees can be stored over an hour away to be safe (out of range) from the beetles. Another way to deal with the beetles would be to drown them. There is a sea plane launch area that would be ideal to store the trees as a trap for the beetles and then submerge them when the lake levels are up for next year s recreation season. There is talk about using the fallen wood for aquatic restoration processes. This is complicated by the fact that the FS can only donate wood to a tribe. Talks with tribes about this are ongoing. I&E PLAN Deb has completed the I&E Plan and the FS has begun implementation. There is a big focus on the Interpretive Center in the Upper Basin. Deb will be working closely with Rourke (who has a landscape architecture background) in coming up with a conceptual design for how to proceed. Issues include if and how the station should be staffed, whether there should be a boat washing station, etc. Seth shared the exciting news that the FS is working on the design of an MBS Forest app. RESUBMITTAL OF FERC PLANS SA 305 Lower Baker Developed Recreation: This article required us to secure access to the LB boat launch area by This has been done as the County has taken over maintenance of that road. The design and construction needs to be complete by We won t begin this until 2021, as the dam crest work will be complete in PSE will resubmit this plan and SA 312 Developed Recreation FERC PROJECT NO , /29/2015 Notes, Page 3 of 5

4 Monitoring and Funding with new cover pages citing the plans as FINAL instead of DRAFT (as they were originally submitted to FERC). PSE will likely be required to do monitoring prior to FERC approval of the plan is the first year for monitoring and we are set to do this. RECREATION MONITORING PLAN Tony clarified that the Rec Monitoring Plan is for the Upper Basin. The FERC Form 80 is for recreation throughout the entire basin. Seth will set up a meeting with Tony and Pam, and then they all will meet with Rob from Hoodoo to review the data needs for the monitoring to ensure we are able to get the numbers to tell us if we are at 60% capacity or greater. We need the data to be accurate and defensible, as hitting the 60% threshold will trigger requiring us to get approval by the RRG and BRCC to use the funding for additional improvements. The data also must include a complete description of number of rec sites and capacity and number of people: day users and night users. RECREATION SEASON REVIEW Sockeye Fishery: Even though the sockeye were deeper this year in response to the warmer water, the fishing was still good. And the fish are still coming! The sockeye season extends from July 10 until September 7. There is a greater awareness now so folks are fishing through the entire season. The fishermen watch for the counts on the website and show up accordingly. PSE added a launch lane at Kulshan with the intent that it be used for higher elevation launching (the dock not intended as a jump-off point for swimming). They will add a gate on the extra lane and signage specifying the ramp is open only during high lake elevations. Campground Occupancy Levels: There were record numbers of campers this season at both PSE and USFS facilities. The high numbers and increased use of the lake (fishing boats starting at 4am) interfered with the desire of folks on the east side of the lake who were seeking a quiet and secluded time in nature. The FS is encouraging folks seeking solitude and silence to visit before July or after September. Lake Shannon (especially the upper end) offers more of a wilderness experience and is another option for those looking to get away from it all. Aquatic Invasive Species Checks: WDFW conducted three invasive species checks this season. There were 277 contacts and 80 vessel inspections. No invasive species were found. They performed the checks as the boats were leaving the lake. They got so backed up with high volumes of traffic they had to wave some folks through without checking their boats. They did the first check on Memorial Day before the sockeye season opened, and it was pretty slow. They moved the third one to a Saturday instead of a Sunday and were busy the whole time. The focus of these checks was educational and the public was appreciative. We discussed potential ways to do the checks before the boats enter the lake, as that would allow us to catch the critters before they get into the lake. Perhaps the checks could be done when folks pulled into the campgrounds the day before they planned to fish. Maybe on a Friday afternoon? All were asked to consider how best to approach this next summer. Our original objective was about education. Lake Whatcom may be a useful example. Lone Tree Island: There is a marker on the island now, but it is not visible from all directions. Pam assured all that she will address this during low elevation. Access to the island represents a challenge. Colin will share information with Pam on what the Coast Guard uses on its buoys. Change in Depression Lake Fishing Rules: The fishermen seemed pretty happy at Depression Lake this summer. There were no issues relative to the deployment of the guide net to prevent non-native rainbow from entering Baker Lake. Despite the net, it appears that some fish were still making their way into the FERC PROJECT NO , /29/2015 Notes, Page 4 of 5

5 lake. It may be that some are residing in Baker Lake. It may be years before no trout make their way into Baker Lake. Signage indicated which side of the net contained the fish. Nikolai noticed that those fishing on the wrong side of the net quickly switched when observed by law enforcement, as if they were breaking the rules and didn t want to be caught. AESTHETICS PLAN Visual Screen Planting Update: Tony explained that Scott Heller looked at the plantings and was pleased to see that most of them weathered the hot summer weather really well. Next Steps for Use of Funds: There is currently $92K for 2015 of which they have used zero. Painting the big blue crane will likely occur in 2017 after replacing the Unit 3 runner at Lower Baker. The Clubhouse and trail system would also be good opportunities for the funds. Otherwise, the money is not earmarked for anything specific, though other projects will come up. The native plantings done around the Visitor Center were paid for through PSE O&M funding. RAM FUNDING Panorama Point: They are improving the boat ramp at Panorama Point (RAM funding) and will go out to bid shortly with plans to construct next summer. Nikolai is stepping in for Ann on this. Accounting Update: There is a $50K annual allocation. We used the first $25K of 2016 funds in March of $25K remains. We will look at year-end budget in the February meeting. Suggestions for Future RAM Funding: Nikolai explained that the FS still intends to replace the toilet at Panorama Point. They are also looking at another boat ramp at Crown Road where they are doing the fry release. Waste Management bear-proof dumpsters were not always functioning or in the best shape. Nor were they being picked up on a regular basis. There have been more bears than ever. It was the dry summer with the failed berry crop they all came down in search of other fruit (apple trees, etc.). WDFW trapped and relocated at least six bears this year, two of which were in town. No bears were reported in the campgrounds. Marking of parking lots (address in 2016?) MEETING EVALUATION Covered a lot of information Good discussions February 9, 2015 RRG MEETING TOPICS Plan for 2016 Recreational Season Presentation of Dispersed Recreation Plan Update on Interpretive & Education Plan Suggestions for future use of RAM Funding ($25K +) Review of 2016 Implementation Schedule Evaluate Meeting LEP Meeting after lunch: o Planning and equipment needs from each of the LEO Agencies o Communication and Coordination HANDOUTS February 17, 2015 Final RRG Meeting Notes Draft Meeting Agenda for October 29, 2015 FERC PROJECT NO , /29/2015 Notes, Page 5 of 5