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HomeMy WebLinkAboutLand Conservation And Stewardship Board - Minutes - 10/08/2008MINUTES CITY OF FORT COLLINS LAND CONSERVATION & STEWARDSHIP BOARD Regular Meeting 200 W. Mountain, Suite A October 8, 2008 DATE: Wednesday, October 8, 2008 LOCATION: 200 W. Mountain Avenue, Suite A TIME: 6:00 p.m. For Reference: Linda Stanley - 491-7377 Mayor Doug Hutchinson - 416-2154 John Stokes, Staff Liaison - 221-6263 Board Members Present Raymond Boyd, Linsey DeBell, Chris Gaughan, Michelle Grooms, Trudy Haines, Linda Stanley Board Members Excused Karyl Ting, Vicky McLane Council Liaison Mayor, Doug Hutchinson Staff Present Natural Resources / Natural Areas Department: Daylan Figgs, Geri Kidawski, Erica Saunders, Mark Sears, John Stokes Guests Public Comments Agenda Review Sears: Executive session has been canceled for this evening. Review and Approval of Minutes Grooms moved to approve the September 10, 2008 meeting minutes as written. Boyd second. It was unanimously approved. Land Conservation & Stewardship Board October 8, 2008 Page 2 of 4 Great Outdoors Colorado Trail Grant Award • Erica: In July 2008 Natural Areas Program staff submitted a joint application with Larimer County for a special cycle trails grant offered by Great Outdoors Colorado (GOCO). The grant would provide funding for trails and trailhead features at Soapstone Prairie Natural Area and Red Mountain Space. Due to the regional nature of the project, Larimer County was the primary applicant and the City of Fort Collins was the partner agency. GOCO staff and the GOCO project committee have recommended funding this project in its full amount, which will award $210,000 to the City of Fort Collins and $340,000 to Larimer County for a total award of $550.000. On October 3, 2008 the entire GOCO board formalized this decision. Anything that we construct with the money needs to be in place for 25 years. • Gaughan: Are you ok with the plan of the area, that that 25 year period is comfortable? • Sears: Our long range financial model takes us through 2021. • Erica: Daylan Figgs was in charge of the Management Planning Process, and there was a lot of careful thought. A Technical Advisory Group made up of resource experts from the Division of Wildlife, CSU, and Jason Label with the Laboratory of Public Archeology gave a lot of expert input in the plan. • Figgs: We surveyed all the alignments, and we will continue to do that while constructing the trails. Grooms motioned for the Land Conservation and Stewardship Board to recommend that City Council approve: 1. The intergovernmental agreement (IGA) with Larimer County. 2. The contact with Great Outdoors Colorado (GOCO) Gaughan second. It was unanimously approved. Soapstone Grazing • Figgs: Soapstone Prairie Natural Area is currently leased to the Folsom Grazing Association for livestock grazing; the existing lease will expire in December 2008. The lease extension will continue grazing on the property through 2010 with modifications to the current lease. The lease modifications were made in order to manage for the conservation targets identified in the Soapstone prairie Natural Area management Plan. Modifications include focusing grazing to the shortgrass prairie system reducing the allowed number of animal unit months from 3,600 to 2,500 and combining all cattle into a single herd. Grazing management will utilize high intensity, short duration grazing to more closely mimic historic grazing patterns of native ungulates. Folsom will pay an annual sum of $26,700 or $53,400 over the life of the lease. A ranch manager, employed by Folsom will live on site during the duration of the lease and will be responsible for site security, maintenance of fences and stock Land Conservation & Stewardship Board October 8, 2008 Page 3 of 4 tanks, participation in rangeland monitoring programs, gathering information on weather patterns, and participating in up to six public tours of the ranch annually. • Gaughan: Do you have a contractor for the sheep? • Figgs: We are working with a contractor John Bartman, who is a local sheep producer. • Boyd: Do goats eat toadflax? • Figgs: Yes they will. We have talk about incorporating some goats into the sheep herds. • Stanley: Do you need to have someone watch over the sheep? • Figgs: John Bartman hires Chilean/Peruvian sheep herders. They herd the sheep 24/7. We give John maps, and we will meet with him to talk about herding. • Haines: What will they do with the rest of their cattle? • Figgs: Some will sell their cattle, and some will find other pasture. • Gaughan: Along these lines there might be an opportunity for the education team to explain the working dog vs. the pasture dog. The public should know what ranchers deal with on day to day bases, which are a part of living in the West. • Figgs: One of our educations plans is to talk about working landscapes and why we graze part of the property. We are also working with Folsom, our grazing tenants, to think about locally produced feed and marketing it that way. It's a way to connect Soapstone with Fort Collins. Gaughan motioned for The Land Conservation and Stewardship Board to recommend that City Council approve a two year extension to the Soapstone Prairie Grazing Lease between the City of Fort Collins and the Folsom Grazing Association (Ordinance 160, 2005). Grooms second. It was unanimously approved. LCSB 2009 Work Plans • Stanley: We will review the 2008 LCSB work plan and revise it for 2009. The Board discussed each item of the 2008 work plan; Stanley will make the revisions for the 2009 LCSB work plan, and send it to the Board members via email for final comments. New Business: Announcements: • Stanley: Vicky McLane has resigned from this Board. We now have two openings for this Board. • Sears: - At the November LCSB meeting we should have a discussion on how we manage prairie dogs at Prairie Dog Meadows. Prairie Dog Meadows has become a vacant dirt lot with the exception of a few weeds. The only control work we do there is to put buffers near the homes. Would Land Conservation & Stewardship Board October 8, 2008 Page 4 of 4 any of the Board members like to visit Prairie Dog Meadow before the November meeting? - We should also consider having a discussion on cultural/historical resources at the November LCSB meeting. - An offer was submitted regarding the Graves acquisition, which is up the Poudre Canyon between Picnic Rock and Gateway Natural Area. Hopefully it will be accepted and we will acquire the land over a five year period of time, in six different parcels, beginning this December. - The Benson Reservoir Dam Replacement is out to bid. Our bid opening will be next week. - Figgs has an outfall pipe out to bid on our gravel mine on the Resource Recovery Farm/Running Deer area. • Stanley: Did Hageman Earth Cycle do the requested improvements? • Figgs: The Stormwater plant is about 95% done. We still have to seed some areas. • Sears: At Bobcat Ridge we have been restoring the cabin, which is almost complete. Crusher fine will be laid to the cabin making it wheelchair accessible from the parking lot to the cabin. Later this fall a vault toilet will be built in the vicinity of the cabin. At Soapstone Prairie Natural Area the shelters are under construction • Gaughan: Is the road completed? • Sears: The road was completed in July and both parking lots are completed also. There is a large and small shelter at the north parking lot. At the south parking lot there will be a large shelter similar to the one built at Bobcat Ridge Natural Area. The vault toilets are going in at the end of October. Adjourn The meeting adjourned at 7:30 p.m. Submitted by Geri Kidawski Administrative Secretary