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California Biodiversity Council
Sierran Local Group Forum 

September 21, 1994
El Portal, California

Welcome
Art Baggett welcomed the watershed groups and Executive Council members to El Portal  

Introduction
Michael Mantell - introduced the MOU goals, Redding watershed workshop, follow-up actions by the Council, such as the help desk, GIS video, Liaison Team, Council meetings and watershed group workshops held locally to foster and enhance California biodiversity efforts.

Council members: 
 Art Baggett, Howard Stark, Penny Howard, Bud Laurent, John Burton, Jon Kennedy, Don Erman, Richard Wilson, Ken Jones, and Michael Mantell  

Round table and discussion:

Vision and needs of individual Sierran watershed, landscape, and bioregional groups

  • Cosumnes Watershed

  • Oakhurst River Parkway Partnership

  • Quincy Library Group

  • South Fork American River Watershed Partnership

  • Sierra Nevada Alliance

  • Forest Health Consensus Group

  • Deep Springs Resource Management Team

  • TUCARE

  • Mokelumne Watershed Group (written comments submitted)

Summary of Needs Identified:

Cosumnes Watershed - TNC - Dave Martinez

  • Information in GIS format

  • Administrative bottlenecks--need to streamline

  • Hydrologic models

Oakhurst River Parkway - Noreen McDonald and Sandy Brinley

  • What grants are there?

  • Agency priorities did not support project

  • Learning buzz words and lingo

  • Timing of grants and signature process

  • Administrative dollars (o/w need to be donated by group)

  • Part-time project leaders (need dollars)

  • Encourage agencies to respond

Quincy Library Group - Mike Jackson

  • Address key issues:

    1. Fire threat

    2. Maintaining old-growth

    3. Deteriorating condition of watershed and water quality

    4. NEPA "riots" in court because of lack of information

  • Need to keep talking to opponents

  • Be consistent with message--speak with one voice

South Fork American River Watershed Partnership - Mark Hicks

  • Single person coordinating activities

  • Support for specific projects

  • Link fire, water quality, fuels management

  • Prevention and forest health vs. reaction and mitigation

  • Agency commitment down to field level

  • Focus on action--be accomplishment oriented

  • Use RCDs as a tool

Sierra Nevada Alliance - Laurel Ames and Andrea Lawrence

  • Bureaucratic "no" vs. on-site participation

  • Improve data on environmental health

  • Encourage partnerships

  • Consensus is sometimes perceived as a peer-pressure technique

Forest Health Consensus Group - Steve Chilton

  • Tree removal (biomass conversion)

  • Vegetation mapping

  • Prescribed fires

  • Respond to air quality issues

  • Consensus

Deep Springs Resource Management Team - Geoff Pope

  • Agencies not committed to grassroots support

  • Give management authority at watershed level

  • Concentrate on process not products

TUCARE - Mike Albrecht

  • Federal dollars for forest thinning

  • Access to federal timber

  • Education

Mokelumne Watershed Group (written comments submitted by Ben Smith)

  • Open communication

  • Water quality data

  • Agency participation at local meetings

  • Identification of funding sources

  • More local workshops

  • Share vital watershed information through CERES and other networks

Facilitated Session: Role of Council and local groups

  • Agency Coordination Needs

  • Single council point of contact - Help desk support

  • Identify areas of responsibility

  • Associations?

  • Brief information sheet on available resources (i.e., CA Water Quality Task Force product)

  • Personalities unique-- bureaucratic solution may not work

  • Promote local networks

  • Encourage agency support-- not directing of local groups

  • Biodiversity Planning Resource Guide

  • More watershed workshops

  • Bioregional conference in central area (enlarge this workshop)

  • Video: cross-section of successful watershed projects

  • Expand membership on Council, such as EPA, Air Resources Board

  • Have coordination/workshops a budgeted item

  • Cohesive regional view (to facilitate dollar transfer)

  • All cooperating agencies should be funded from a joint project (such as water)

  • Reinvestment locally - Council could develop collective strategy

  • Collectively lobby politicians (not just one senator)

  • Provide for more discretionary funding such as, evaluate and comment on existing funding formulas

    • Example: Ask Congress to allow KV funds to be spent on ecosystem management projects

  • Focus on a key issue reach consensus and act!, such as, fuels management

  • Move forward in new ways with existing funds--get agreement on starting point

  • Delegate decision-making authority to local agency representative

  • Make it easier to enable equipment contributions or donations to agencies--use DPR as a model for agency acceptance of private dollars

  • Follow new legislation and collectively work on common issues (not advocacy) let your legislators know

  • Improve relationships with private property owners - provide incentives

  • Air quality a critical issue to address

  • Become an educational forum for public, such as, Smokey promote fuels reduction

  • Major marketing campaign?

  • Workshops in front of County Supervisors Boards

    have locals communicate message

  • Focus on dissemination of information

  • Reduce travel times

    establish local teleconferencing facilities
    survey groups for suggestions

  • take a project and have Council represent needs of local groups in a unified way Example: Biomass operations step forward in front of PUC

  • Focus on what Council can do now (one project)

    don't get overstretched

  • Reach out to high school teachers

  • Change agency fiscal policies

  • Sit down with CRMP executive council and minimize duplication

  • Charter regional groups to comply with FACA