California Biodiversity Council
Business Meeting

March 11, 1999

University Club

University of California, Davis

MINUTES

• Mary D. Nichols (Chair), Resources Agency
• Patrick Wright, Resources Agency
• Richard Wilson, Department of Forestry and Fire Protection
• Ron Rempel, Department of Fish and Game
• Ken Jones, Department of Parks and Recreation
• Robert Hight, State Lands Commission
• Pat Meehan, Department of Conservation
• Bill Vance, California Environmental Protection Agency
• William Ahern, State Coastal Conservancy
• Brian Smith, Department of Transportation
• Reg Gomes, University of California
• Bob Haussler, California Energy Commission
• Dale Hoffman-Floerke, Department of Water Resources
• Brad Powell, USDA Forest Service
• Jay Goldsmith, National Park Service
• Diane Holcomb, Natural Resources Conservation Service
• Mike Spear, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
• Ed Hastey, Bureau of Land Management
• Frank Michny, Bureau of Reclamation
• Alexis Strauss, Environmental Protection Agency
• Peter Stine, USGS Biological Resources
• Dick Butler, National Marine Fisheries Service
• Colonel Dave Linnebur, U.S. Marine Corps
• Bob Pickard, San Joaquin Valley Regional Association of California Counties
• Robert Meacher, Regional Council of Rural Counties
• Nancy Huffman, Northern California Counties Association
• Paul Stein, Sacramento-Mother Lode Regional Association of California Counties
• John Schramel, California Association of Resource Conservation Districts
• Jerry Harmon, San Diego Association of Governments

• Introduction of CBC members and approval of minutes from last meeting

• Ed Hastey - Reviewed recent Headwaters acquisition and the future Catellus land acquisition effort
• John Schramel - RCD endorsed the proposed NRCS $300 million budget increase in California
• Colonel Dave Linnebur - Appreciation of CBC’s help in southwest strategy and offers for a future CBC meeting at Camp Pendleton
• Science Coordinating Committee has developed a concept paper for coordinating research activities and sharing research. Will forward to CBC Executive Committee

• Introduction of John Hammell, Coordinator of the Department of Interior Desert Managers Group in the California Desert

Executive Committee Report

• Ed Hastey gives an overview of the history behind the formation of the CBC and the accomplishments to date.
• Based on requests from the last CBC meeting, reviewed future action items and the progress towards completion.
• Reviewed agenda for the upcoming Fort Bragg CBC meeting to be held June 9 and 10.
• Reviewed progress in working with RCRC for the joint CBC meeting to be held in Tahoe during the fall.
• Discussed the potential of holding a future CBC meeting at Camp Pendleton in the year 2000 to discuss Colorado and Mojave Desert issues. Meeting would be held in conjunction with the Interior’s Desert Managers Group.
• Reviewed CBC workplan and the revision of Part 4 of the document to better reflect watershed issues.
• Discussed need for more money to support the Council and need for additional staffing and resources to accomplish some of the needs of CBC. Secretary Nichols asked the Council to make more of their staffs available for future tasks.

Janine Stenback, Department of Fish and Game, distributed handout explaining the role and options for CBC in watershed management coordination. She reviewed ideas how CBC could contribute to healthy watersheds and communities. At this time there were no mechanisms for Federal, state, local and tribal coordination for watershed issues.

Jeff Mount, UC Davis Center for Integrated Watershed, Science and Management, discussed the "residence time" of water. This was defined as the time water travels from its source to various places. For example, by channeling water from the Sierra source to the ocean we shorten its "residence time", therefore, the water quality. By increasing "residence time" we increase the quality of the water and its proper use throughout the water system. In particular, monitoring groundwater age is an excellent method for measuring the quality of water. He followed this with a discussion of watershed restoration of how it naturally functions.

Tim Farley, Department of Fish and Game Watershed Restoration Branch, provided an overview of the Watershed Restoration Project Council (WPRC). WPRC recommendations are to develop an understanding of the current status of the watersheds, expand the council to include federal and local governments, integrate other similar programs, increase technical assessments, increase funding and coordinate grant cycles, use NRPI as a clearing house for projects, coordinate watershed training, education and outreach, and establish a multi-agency steering committee for research and monitoring.

Diane Holcomb, NRCS Water Resources Planning, discussed methods for coordinating watershed activities. She listed a number of items such as establishing common watershed boundaries, coordinating baseline assessments of watersheds, developing an integrated GIS database system, streamlining regulations, coordinate funding, etc.

The proposed next steps for CBC’s involvement were identifying points-of-contacts for all the agencies in dealing with watershed issues, expanding CBC membership to increase water involvement, focusing future Council meetings on watershed issues, sponsoring watershed workshops, focusing Science Coordinating Committee on watershed needs, supporting watershed pilot projects, creating joint funding for NRPI, enhancing CBC web site with watershed information, and develop and distributing outreach materials.

A motion was passed to accept Janine’s report. Discussion followed:

• Richard Wilson explained that watershed management should take a "bottoms-up" approach in order to be successful. We also need to engage local governments and to provide them incentives.
• John Schramel noted the need to link the word watershed with the Council. Local governments need to understand watershed principles to create buy-in of the program.
• Ed Hastey said that it was important for California to have a very clear direction for resolving watershed issues to prevent future top-down approaches occurring through Federal government initiatives.

There was discussion on how effective any of our efforts have been to improve watersheds. There were over 80,000 documented watershed actions taking place over the last few years. Have the actions been monitored and has the data about the projects been evaluated? What were the successes? Discussions than focused on what role the CBC should play in lieu of the WPRC. Should the CBC focus on assisting existing activities or on one particular area at a time? Based on these points, Secretary Nichols instructed Janine to coordinate CBC’s potential role and focus.

Conservation Needs Assessment Discussion

Susan Cochrane, Department of Fish and Game Habitat Conservation Planning Branch, explained that there were similar efforts completed in other states (Florida, Oregon, New Jersey) and in December there was a Funding Forum asking the Governor’s involvement in the proposal. The proposal suggests a collaborative effort to preserve key biological areas to maintain a healthy ecosystem and local economy.

Questions raised are: what is the role of the CBC in this effort and what is not; is there a need to take a statewide approach; what products should be produced, and how should the products be used. This effort should not negate existing efforts and we should identify resource gaps. The proposal has long-term benefits. Bond monies could be used to fund the project. The mapping effort should be large scale and generic to show general conservation areas. A suggestion was made that there be a pilot in one region. However, if there is a focus in one area, other bioregions may be left out and may not support the project. Local support was also identified as important to ensure the project’s success.

A discussion was focused on how to make the best use of time and talent as a group. Some suggestions included:

• Create working groups to focus on watershed management coordination and consultation
• The Executive Committee needs to be strengthened and there needs to be more commitment by Department leaders to attend the meetings.
• Task groups may need to include local representative, not just federal and state staffs
• A demonstrated progress needs to be made at each of the meetings. Subgroups should focus on resolution of specific issues that may be brought to the full Council. However, the Executive Committee needs to be the sieve for information to the full Council;
• CBC needs to become a forum of ideas brought forth from the many subgroups;

• Subgroups need to outreach to outside groups for participation. The rural counties want to be more involved but are limited by budgets.
• Subgroup information needs to be available to the various different CRMP efforts

Secretary Nichols suggested that Patrick Wright would contact each of the CBC members asking various persons or staff to assist in the CBC workgroups. There will be subgroups for Watershed Management and for the Conservation Needs Assessment.

Bill Stewart, Department of Forestry and Fire Protection Fire and Resource Assessment Program, and Loren Clark, Senior Planner, Placer County Planning Department, reviewed the Placer Legacy Program; how it was formed and its progress. The program was the result of the tremendous growth within the county and the desire to preserve existing natural values for future generations. Successes of the program include: citizen advisory committee involvement, scientific sub-groups and demonstrated goals supported by most groups.

Deborah Rogers handed out brochures announcing there would be international conference on managing ecosystems to be held in Sacramento.

Rich Hunter, California Wilderness Association, provided an explanation of their Wildland Project that assesses and maps ecological areas throughout the state.