Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAboutLand Conservation And Stewardship Board - Minutes - 08/13/2008MINUTES CITY OF FORT COLLINS LAND CONSERVATION & STEWARDSHIP BOARD Regular Meeting August 13, 2008 DATE: LOCATION: TIME: For Reference: Wednesday, August 13, 2008 215 N Mason Street, Conference Room 1-A 6:00 p.m. Linda Stanley - 491-7377 Mayor Doug Hutchinson - 416-2154 John Stokes, Staff Liaison - 221-6263 Board Members Present Raymond Boyd, Linsey DeBell, Chris Gaughan, Trudy Haines, Vicky McLane, Karyl Ting Board Members Excused Linda Stanley, Michelle Grooms Council Liaison Mayor, Doug Hutchinson Staff Present Natural Resources / Natural Areas Department: Geri Kidawski, Aran Meyer, Mark Sears, Jen Shanahan, John Stokes Guests Bob Coffin — citizen Agenda Review • Sears: I would like to change the first two items on the agenda, Prairie Dog Management update can go before Bernard Ranch Grand Agreement. Also, I'd like to discuss the email received from Sue Kenney regarding the tagline for Soapstone Prairie Natural Area. This can be discussed after the last agenda item. Public Comments Bob Coffin: I live at 6637 Holyoke Court (Ridgewood Hills) Fort Collins CO. This is day one of me trying to move the ball forward. It has to do with Natural Areas becoming populated with prairie dog colonies. Farm land has become open space, which I'm for, but concerned that they are just becoming homes for prairie dogs, which I feel we have an abundance of. 1 would like to see them turned into Land Conservation & Stewardship Board Wednesday, August 13, 2008 Page 2 of 6 something more viable such as farmers' markets or like at Longview, a dry land wheat program. I have talked to several people that would like to see something along these lines, also. I understand that there is a water issue, but I think there are a lot of people in the community that would be interested in this. I would like to get involved and perhaps attend more meetings like this and learn as much as I can to help. • Haines: When you talk about farmers markets do you mean individual vegetable crops? • Coffin: Yes exactly. • Ting: Do you have a natural area that you have envisioned like this? • Coffin: Colina Mariposa Natural Area, which is behind my house. I know water is an issue, but we can take 25 acres and make it into sweet corn and have retirees, volunteers or community service workers care for the area, for example. We have good real estate where we can give back to the community. • Haines: Have you talked to Gail at Be Local? That would be a good lead for you. • Debell: Be Local has a booth at the Farmers markets and this would be a very good organization for you to get involved with because they are trying to start a local market place. • Haines: Another lead would be with the County Open Lands because they have been talking about the same idea. K-Lynn Cameron would be the County contact. • Debell: Talk to your local CSA's, who are your local farmers doing this kind of work. Also, talk with the people at the Gardens at Spring Creek; they have a community gardens program. • McLane: John is there any legal restrictions on using our Natural Areas for this purpose? • Stokes: I do not know the answer to that question; we will have to do some research into this. As a staff we have recently talked about this idea. We are not sure about the language that authorized our program, if it would allow us to get into this type of project, it might but I am not 100 percent sure. We have some properties that would be suitable. It's not something that we have traditionally done, but it is an idea that has merit. • Coffin: Fort Collins has an agricultural school and they may have interest. • Debell: Greg Stonaker at CSU would be the person to talk to. CSU has enough land, but perhaps his students may be interested. • Sears: Daylan Figgs, Natural Areas Land Manager and I would like to discuss this with you. • Coffin: If I can be of help in any way please call me. I appreciate the Board taking the time to listen to me this evening. Review and Approval of Minutes Debell made a motion to approve the July 9, 2008 meeting minutes as written. Gaughan second. It was unanimously approved. Land Conservation & Stewardship Board Wednesday, August 13, 2008 Page 3 of 6 • Sears: The City received a Great Outdoors Colorado (GOCO) grant in the amount of $265,000, to support the conservation of the first phase of the Bernard Ranch. We are buying the Bernard Ranch over seven years, and currently own 880 acres. Natural Areas staff plans to apply for additional GOCO grants to help defray the cost of conserving additional phases of the Bernard Ranch purchase. As a condition of the grant agreement, the Natural Areas Program is required to convey a conservation easement on the Bernard Ranch to another entity during the period of time that the City continues to own the property. Thurs, the Natural Areas Program is proposing to convey a conservation easement to Latimer County on this initial 880-acre portion of the property. The conservation easement recognizes and protects the natural and scenic values of the property, and allows ranching. Latimer County has indicated its willingness to accept the conservation easement, and also its willingness to convey the easement back to the City if the underlying fee interest is sold to a conservation -minded purchaser. Boyd: Is there any history of GOCO going along with this kind of an easement? • Sears: We put a conservation easement on the Roman property in Soapstone, and it has both of our parking lots and trail -heads. • Ting: Are you talking about a public easement or a developing aspect? • Sears: We are putting in a conservation easement that would allow for public, it is not guaranteed. • Ting: Are there no plans for development? • Stokes: If we continue to own the property and Latimer County continues to hold the easement on this property, we will want to preserve our right to have public access. Stokes: I would like to say thank you to Mark and the staff who worked on the GOCO grant. I am so thankful to GOCO for giving us the money for this project. Ting made a motioned for the Land Conservation and Stewardship Board to recommend that City Council approve: 1. First Reading of Ordinance No. 095, 2008, authorizing the Conveyance of a Conservation Easement on City Natural Area Property (Bernard Ranch Phase 1) to Larimer County; and authorizing a related grant agreement with the Board of the Great Outdoors Colorado Trust Fund. 2. First Reading of Ordinance No. 096, 2008, appropriating unanticipated grant revenue in the Natural Areas Fund for Land Conservation. Debell second. It was unanimously approved. Prairie Dog Management Update • Shanahan: We've discussed various issues with this Board several times, but I will do a brief overview for those who have not heard this discussion. I would like to mention that we have a new wildlife technician, his name is Aran Meyer. Land Conservation & Stewardship Board Wednesday, August 13, 2008 Page 4 of 6 - The Natural areas Program began monitoring prairie dog populations in 2003. From 2004 to 2006 we observed a doubling of the numbers of acres occupied by prairie dogs. - 2006 was a relatively dry year and the impact to vegetation from prairie dog grazing was greater than usual. - January 2007 NAP adopted new Wildlife Management Guidelines directing the program to manage prairie dogs using specific filters and zones according to ecological and urban constraints and to monitor vegetation and populations. - From 2006 to 2007 the number of acres occupied by prairie dogs increased slightly, except for Soapstone which population doubled (again). We believe the heavy winter (06-07) and wet spring influenced population growth and movement we saw last year. - In 2008 we are gearing up to formally inventory population changes since last summer. However, we have observed expansions and contractions with significant die -offs attributable to plague. Population changes - actual mapping of the colonies will occur in October and therefore we can not report the exact changes that have occurred since last year. This year we seem to be seeing all types of changes in populations. Fumigation - We have continued to fumigate prairie dog populations in areas designated as unsuitable (according to the wildlife guidelines). All areas treated in 2008 were follow up areas (areas treated in 2007 that saw some re - colonization), thus no new areas have been treated so far. As of August 2007 we have treated approximately 110 acres on 5 different sites. Monitoring - a) vegetation - the purpose of the study is to relate canopy cover, basal cover and species composition to prairie dog activity and help inform management. We will continue this for a few years to establish baseline conditions. b) population - this coming October we will be mapping all prairie dog colonies to determine how the colonies are moving across the landscape. Soapstone and Meadow Springs - NA staff is in the process of monitoring recovery from the plague event at Soapstone and working with City's Utility department to analyze the geographic distribution of prairie dog populations on adjoining Meadow springs. Contraceptive Research - Dr. Christi Yoder at the USDA National Research Center here in Fort Collins has initiated a series of prairie dog contraceptive studies at Colina Mariposa, Hazaleus and Coyote Ridge Natural Areas. The initial trail of the first study has been completed and the second study is currently underway. How do we measure success? 1. The program is successful if we are fumigating fewer acres of prairie dogs over the long run. 2. The program is successful if the vegetation monitoring program can indicate when an area is crossing a threshold that threatens ecological resilience of a site (i.e. the site is too vulnerable to erosion). Land Conservation & Stewardship Board Wednesday, August 13, 2008 Page 5 of 6 3. The program is successful if we experience fewer conflicts with our constituents over the long run. • Haines: What percent of Natural Areas have prairie dogs? • Shanahan: Acres of prairie dogs as of 2007 were 1,587 acres. This is about five percent of the total areas, and 1,000 acres was at Soapstone Prairie Natural Area. • Gaughan: In walking I've noticed a decrease, in your inventories are you getting active and active or are you looking at acres affected? • Shanahan: When we walk the colonies we are looking at burrows, and we use a GPS unit to map the actual areas where the prairie dogs are active in October. • Haines: What do you mean by plagued out? • Shanahan: Within one or two weeks we notice a colony is becoming quieter and then it becomes totally quiet. Plague is spread by fleas and tends to wipe out the whole colony. There are a lot of unknowns regarding plague. • McLane: If a raptor takes a prairie dog with plague do they then get plague? There was a short discussion with the thought that it's the flea that is the carrier. • Debell: Is there an impact on other animals during fumigation. • Shanahan: Only if there are other animals in the burrow. • McLane: Have you had any protests or objections to fumigation? • Shanahan: We've had very few objections this year. • Gaughan: Have any of these areas been selection because of residents' complaints? • Shanahan: At Fossil Creek Wetlands we did treat a buffer along a neighborhood, but left alone the rest of the colony. • Boyd: Regarding Diazacon-laced rolled oats and molasses the National Wildlife Research Center (NWRC) talk about a feeding station. It seems that you may be setting yourself up to get a whole other set of species coming in. There are other animals that eat rolled oats and molasses. • Shanahan: This is an idea that is suggested, but it's not what they are currently doing. They are putting the oats just outside each burrow. • Gaughan: This may not be the prairie dog feeding strategy so it might target other species more. NISP Memo • Stokes: The staff has consistently advised the Boards and Council that the most intelligent strategic approach to the project at this point is to develop a set of technical comments on the Environmental Impact Statement (EIS). To look at the EIS to see what effects it's describing to Fort Collins, if there are any errors in the analysis or the description of the effects, and if the EIS is sufficient. We have been doing an intense analysis on those bases, and we will be submitting comments to the Army Corp of Engineers by the end of the comment period, which is September 121n On September 2, we will not provide full text of our comments to Council at this time; we will be providing a synopsis of our comment themes. Part of our resolution will be for Council to direct the City Manager to submit our comments to the Army Corp of Engineers. Land Conservation & Stewardship Board Wednesday, August 13, 2008 Page 6 of 6 Some of the other Boards have written resolutions supporting our approach. This Board is an advisory Board to Council so your advice should go directly to Council. There was a discussion of the Board's concerns regarding NISP, and how to write these concerns in a memo to Council. They agreed that Chris Gaughan and Vicky McLane would draft the memo and email it to Geri Kidawski, Administrative Secretary Natural Areas Office, for distribution to the Board for their comments, additions and deletions. • Stokes: I would recommend that the Board watch the City Council meeting on Tuesday, September 2"d Soapstone Tagline: • Sears: Sue Kenney is busy developing public amenities including interpretive messages at Soapstone Prairie Natural Area. As part of the education and interpretive efforts, she is crafting a respect/stewardship message for this site and we need your help. In order to come up with the best possible message, we are using the same process that we used for the Natural Areas Program tagline, which involved folks submitting great ideas and voting for their favorites. The message for Soapstone Prairie will be displayed near the entrance of the site, and it may be repeated on the site brochure and informational kiosks. • Haines: A Native American verse would be appropriate. • McLane: Sending an email to the Soapstone Prairie Natural Area tour participants would be a good idea. New Business: Announcements: Adjourn The meeting adjourned at 8 p.m. Submitted by Geri Kidawski Administrative Secretary