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Minutes March 21, 2006 Attendees: Don Luce, Lisa Noadel, Tom Sill, John Cauthorn, Mike Smith, Dan Grijalva, Bob Laport, John Bragg, Jennifer Wade, Bill Blackwell, Miranda Shapiro. Old Business 1. Welcome and introductions – John Bragg 2. Approval of February minutes – Miranda Approved with changes from Mike Smith, motion to approve made by Mike Smith and seconded by John Bragg. 3. South Coast Striders – report on February hike – John B and Don Luce Don Luce said that it all went well, though it was a little chaotic. There were 17 hikers with three late arrivers. It was tough getting across a creek, a little more dangerous than one would think. People’s feet got wet. Had four people show up at 10:00 a.m. and Don Luce led them. There is enough beach to walk north or south. One thing Don would do differently would be to have people meet up at the rocks. People could then go their own way and then have everyone meet up at designated area and have a sharing session and then head out from there. 4. Marketing and Publicity – John B Karin Thomas and Zoe Sweet have been writing articles in the Coquille Sentinel about the South Coast Strider hikes and put together a scrapbook of 2005 hikes. John Bragg suggested that Karin and Zoe be in charge of publicity. People at the meeting reacted favorably towards the idea. The Bay Area Hospital would still send mailings out about the hikes, put posters in the lobby, and help send publicity to newspapers and other sources that they are currently doing. Karin and Zoe would take over what John Bragg is doing currently. John Bragg agreed to talk this over with Karin and Zoe as well as the Bay Area Hospital. 5. Oregon Dunes National Recreation Area – Horsefall Dunes – follow up to discussion of letter to US Forest Service Jennifer Wade agreed to send John Bragg information on carrying capacity of Horsefall Dunes. Jennifer brought a schedule of proposed activities which is updated quarterly and is located on the Siuslaw website for the US Forest Service (USFS). If one goes to the website they can also see previous reports. The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has something similar to this as well. Jennifer thinks that each forest has project updates e.g. Powers, Rogue, etc. The NEPA (environmental assessment) for Horsefall was completed three years ago and the grant has gone through. The group discussed the importance of having time to review requests for support of projects enough in advance so there is enough time to reflect and decide whether or not to make support the project. It was also discussed that if an agency has something planned involving trails that it would be nice if they would let CRTP in on planning process. Bill Blackwell responded that the USFS has to have a pretty good idea about a project before they receive comments from the public. Bill said when they have a project proposal, they would be happy to hear from us, but sometimes grants come up pretty quick and they have to move on it or they will miss the deadline. Mike Smith asked if CRTP could get the USFS to let them know about NEPA proposals. Jennifer Wade said she would add us to the mailing list, but she can’t filter out trails projects for us. Don Luce said he would like to avoid what happened with the letter of support from CRTP for the Horsefall Dunes project and ensure that CRTP has enough time to make an informed decision. Miranda Shapiro reminded the group that at the last CRTP meeting it was agreed that the next time a request is made for support by CRTP, the group needs to have two meetings to be able to have ample time to review the request and make a good decision on whether to agree to the request or not. New Business 6. OCEAN (Oregon Coast Environments Awareness Network) annual meeting update–John B OCEAN is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization that does environmental education, natural resource interpretation. OCEAN provides support to CRTP through a memorandum of understanding (MOU) which needs to be reviewed and discussed in order to be renewed for this year as it is supposed to be renewed annually. a. board elections – John Bragg was elected to represent CRTP on the OCEAN board. b. invitation to OCEAN meeting – John Bragg invited the Executive Board of CRTP to come to OCEAN’s annual meeting. OCEAN is interested in discussing insurance and liability issues, how CRTP board should interact with the OCEAN board, and ramifications on each other if one group does something that isn’t kosher. CRTP also has a computer and file cabinets at the OCEAN office so what needs to happen to this stuff should also be discussed. The groups need to get together to talk about their relationship. Mike Smith asked if we really needed an MOU with OCEAN right now? John Bragg said he is not leaning one way or the other, but that CRTP needs to understand more about the relationship with OCEAN. John said he is willing to represent CRTP’s point of view. Mike said he would like to work with OCEAN on a project-by-project basis. Those in attendance on the Executive committee agreed to attend the meeting, except for Miranda Shapiro who had a potential conflict and would send questions to John Bragg for the meeting if necessary. 7. Trail donation – John B John Bragg hasn’t checked with the anonymous donor for Winchester Trails, but will try to do that by the next meeting. 8. Winchester Trails Bob Laport said that there has been road building and maintenance that has altered some of the Winchester trails. There is a new road called Elk Point Road which goes through parts of Franz, Skyline, and French Connection so these parts of the trails system need to be re-routed. There are trees down across trails, brush hanging over, and bridges fallen down. A complete loop can still be made. The county is going to pull a culvert that would affect the loop. The County Attorney is not in favor of a new agreement without insurance to do maintenance and re-routing of trails. Any groups that want to do maintenance with need a special use permit and have to have county’s insurance. One could pick up garbage without a permit. The cost of insurance is not known. Bob Laport said any interested parties should make a proposal and the county will write up a permit and the attorney will decide what requirements will be necessary. Liability insurance wasn’t needed previously except for events. Horse, bike, and mountain bike groups need to get together and come up with a plan that covers what they would like to do over the next few years. Establishing a Winchester Trails Committee is a start. There is $1300 potentially from a private donor and somebody needs to check to see if it can only be used for bridges. John Bragg agreed to speak with the anonymous donor. Mike Smith said the South Coast Trail Riders has an anonymous donor to the tune of $92,000. 9. Goals, what we are about, what we want to do as a group. The group reviewed the CRTP’s Memorandum of Understanding’s mutually agreed 8 points. Some goals for the group discussed included a forum for issues to be discussed, and South Coast Strider hikes – getting the word out. Miranda Shapiro reflected on past accomplishments of CRTP including a mountain bike feasibility study done by the Community Planning Workshop at the University of Oregon, helping build and maintain the Blue Ridge and Winchester Trail Systems, mountain bike race events, regional trails plan, water trails action plan, recreational opportunity guides, brochures for hiking, biking, and water trails, a website, a water trails map, and the South Coast Strider’s monthly hikes as some principal examples. John Bragg said he thinks the relationship with OCEAN should be to let handle the things we don’t want to handle. OCEAN thinks CRTP can help revitalize them. Mike Smith explained how CRTP has actually contributed to the demise of the Winchester trails system by obtaining a SIMS maintenance grant without having the manpower to complete the work. The trail work got done but with a relatively high priced crew at the last minute. This sub par performance indirectly contributed to the revocation of future funding and the inability to properly maintain the trails. John Bragg said he thinks OCEAN can do management of grants. CRTP could have listened better and then State Parks would have worked with us better. John Bragg said that the members that signed the MOU need willingness to participate. Jennifer Wade said that CRTP needs to ask for State Parks participation. Mike Smith would like to return to the roots of CRTP. He is interested in building and maintaining trails, making trail linkages, being multi-use oriented to build participation. Projects that are multi-use oriented will help keep the interest going. Mike Smith said he is also interested in bringing the whole region together trail wise e.g. ODNRA, county – also need private sector. There is not a lot of cooperation and more reaction. Need more coordination between agencies and private users. E.g. coordination between USFS and BLM on North Spit. So we need to get private landowners involved as there is checkerboard land ownership. BLM may be changing the way they manage the land which can help link things together. Don Luce would like to build new trails, maintain current ones. John Cauthorn would like to do some more hiking and meet more people. Tom Sill said the Partnership keeps him involved and informed on how people are recreating. Thinks South Coast Striders is a good goal. Donna will send goals to us. Lisa Noadel – Equestrian trails group do clean up and maintenance on North Spit, Cape Blanco, and Winchester Trails. Don said he would like various user groups to look at plan and see if there is something lacking. He would like new hiking club. Thinks that agencies can make things happen. Jennifer Wade thinks CRTP is a good forum for communication. Wade said it’s easy to find grant money to build new trails but hard to find funds to maintain them. SCTR adopted Saunders Lake road and maintains it. The USFS is really involved with County Parks and have worked with State Parks at Umpqua Dunes location. They are also working with Coos County Parks at Riley Ranch on access. The regional connections can be challenging as there are clear national forest management laws, NEPA, endangered species. The next planning phase for the USFS will be in schedule of proposed actions. There are 45-90 days for groups to make their ideas heard. If they get thoughtful ideas they will take them and analyze them. 10. Other new business John Bragg said if people have agenda items they should send them in as soon as possible to him. Adjourn |