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Minutes April 20, 2004
1. Welcome and Introductions – John Bragg welcomed the group and gave an update on the last meeting held on Tuesday, March 16th. 2. Review of Minutes Added an s to seem when discussing Steve Wickham’s support for a trail connection from Blue Ridge Trails System to Lavern Park. 3. Grant writing presentation by Gary Combs – postponed. Miranda Shapiro agreed to call Marty Giles about inviting Gary Combs to our next meeting on Tuesday, May 18th. 4. Project update a. Review of draft flyer for work party Kaarina Scolari made a flyer for the Winchester Trails Work Party on May 1st (with another one schedule for June 5th). Decision: Approved. Thanks to Kaarina for doing such a nice job on the flyer. b. National Trails Day Awards Bob Golden, Coos Bay District BLM and Dave Wash, Coos Bay District BLM, informed the group about the possibility of them nominating CRTP a National Trails Day Award, “Making a Difference”, for the work accomplished since its inception. Dave and Bob would submit an award nomination to Washington DC. Could use photos to help illustrate accomplishments. Dave Wash agreed to update the group at the next meeting. c. Update on OPRD grant for Winchester Trails System Mike Smith, South Coast Trail Riders Association, updated the group about their grant for Winchester Trails through OPRD. Mike still hasn’t received okay to use money. Mike Law, State Parks ATV coordinator for our area, suggested Mike Smith call the new ATV coordinator, Rocky Houston, to see what’s happening. Mike Law agreed to call about the holdup as well. Law explained that due to lack of full time personnel the contracts are taking longer to approve. With the new ATV coordinator, things should be getting back on track. Mike Smith agreed to draft a letter to OPRD to inform them about the work party and request that this be included in activities accomplished under the grant. d. Further logistics for work party at Winchester Trails/potluck Reg agreed to bring chipper which is currently located at New River to help deal with brush. The chipper has to be pulled by hand and AmeriCorps volunteers have used this in the past for maintaining New River trails. The focus of the work party will be Hall’s Hollow. Need to bring rakes, clippers, and gloves. Oregon Equestrian Trails broadcast the work party on statewide trail mail. Need to put up signs to help guide people. Everyone who comes to help should meet at staging area. A potluck will occur after the work party. Oregon Equestrian Trails will help with coordinating the potluck. e. Update on RAC grant Reg Pullen updated the group about a discussion with Ethan Nelson, NW Youth Corps, about applying to RAC to do a restoration project at Winchester Trails. Ethan had agreed to write the grant and was also interested in writing for funds to continue trail building around Eel Lake which is located at Tugman State Park. RAC grants are for 1. Projects that directly benefit ONC lands, and/or 2. Projects that benefit anywhere in county. The Title III funds had already been allocated so CRTP will have to look for other grants. f. State Oregon Equestrian Trails Funding In order to receive State Oregon Equestrian Trails Funding to work on bridges at the Winchester Trails System, we need an engineer for specs for the bridges. This information needs to be provided before the 12th of June. Mike Law says he has standard plans for building bridges and can send them to Oregon Equestrian Trails reps. Dave Wash says he will look to see if the BLM has standard designs for bridges. Horses set the standard for bridges as they weigh the most. ATV’s also require a certain width. g. Pulling instream crossing – Winchester Trails System Mike Smith updated the group that Matt Anderson, Coos Watershed Association, informed him about a project with Coos County to pull an instream crossing. This will take out a main loop of trail known as Franz. The timeline for this project is this summer. Matt and Mike will be meeting again to look at how to make this project happen while still meeting the needs of trail users. One possibility is having islands with two or three 25-foot bridges instead of one 70 foot bridge to span the crossing. h. Update on website: www.coostrails.com Alan updated the group on the CRTP website. Since the last meeting he has added links to OCEAN and Unicom. The Blue Ridge Map has been replaced with an updated one. Alan put in the most current map of the Winchester Trails System. One area that still needs work is the partnership information. Miranda Shapiro agreed to try to locate a file copy of the Coos Regional Trails Plan. Alan also added a link to the Bay Area Chamber of Commerce’s weather page. Bob Golden recommended adding information on “Leave No Trace” which could be done through linking to that information on another website. Another link that needs to be added is the Backcountry Horsemen of America and the National Association of Water Trails. i. Distribution of the water trails map The group discussed sending the water trails map to other chambers of commerce (Myrtle Point, Reedsport, and Coquille) and the Pony Village Mall. John Bragg agreed to bring copies to the next meeting for people to deliver. 5. Officer Elections (president, vice president, secretary, OCEAN liaison) Nominations following by votes for each office were made with the following results: Decision: President – John Bragg Vice President – Dave Wash Secretary – Miranda Shapiro OCEAN Liaison – Ron Steffens Treasurer – Alan Hoffmeister (treasurer was decided at last meeting). 6. Adding Representative for USFS – Oregon Dunes National Recreation Area Alan Hoffmeister agreed to write a draft letter to the Forest Service requesting a representative to participate in CRTP. 7. A committee was created to do bylaws and an MOU - Dave Wash, John Bragg, Miranda Shapiro, and Bob Golden. The committee will set up a meeting to discuss this and update the rest of the group. 8. Camas Rim Trail Meeting This is a 50-mile project that is being done by private landowners in conjunction with Douglas County Parks. An email about the meeting will be forwarded to the group. 9. RAC Grant for Millicoma Interpretive Trail Miranda Shapiro updated the group that the Coos Watershed Association submitted a grant to create an interpretive trail at the Millicoma Fish Hatchery and Interpretive Center in collaboration with the Oregon Department of Forest, the Society of American Foresters, Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, and Coos County Extension Service. Next meeting will be held on Tuesday, May 18th at 6:30 p.m. at the Coos Bay District BLM. On the agenda will be Mike Smith’s master plan of the “Big Loop”. Respectfully Submitted By,
Miranda Shapiro |