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Minutes July 13, 2004
John Bragg opened the meeting with a review of the planned agenda The Minutes were approved as read (Mike Smith motioned to approve and Donna Bishop seconded the approval). Reports and Project updates: National Trails Day Mike Smith reported on the Winchester Trails clean help on National Trails Day held on June 5th. Eight people showed up to help and together they cleaned up 3-4 pick-up loads off Winchester road and some spurs. Thanks to all the volunteers who gave their time to this worthwhile project and the May 5th brush clearing at Hall’s Hollow (also at Winchester Trails). Volunteers for both work group parties include: Mike and Donna Bishop, Sandy and Mike Badgewell, Mike Smith, Nancy Hill, Terry Gale, Jenny Webster, Jeanne Gunnari, Biance Chevalier, Karrina and Joyce Scolari, Bob Laport, Reg Pullen, Bob Shaffar, Connie Alskisv, and Bob Golden. Mike suggested that doing clean ups more regularly might improve attendance. Last year three people volunteered and the year before, 25 people volunteered at the clean up. Mike thought Sunday might be better. The fact that it was high school graduation day may also have affected attendance. Reg Pullen thought it would be good to maintain the clean up on National Trails Day since it is producing good results in helping to clean up dump sites on sides of roads. Donna Bishop would like to do same place again next year as well. Mike suggested calling people is the best way to get them to come out. Miranda agreed and recommended putting together a list and dividing it up among CRTP members. We could also contact SOLV who has small grants to do cleanup in forests. Mike said he is capturing volunteer hours as in-kind for current and future grants. Report on tourism presentation at the Port of Coos Bay John Bragg updated the group on his presentation on tourism and the trails partnership to a group of Indonesian representatives here on a tourism fact-finding mission led by Martin Callery, International Port of Coos Bay. The group from Indonesia was very interested in what we are doing here in relation to tourism and asked questions about tourism management, trail building, why people use trails and how the partnership works as they are interested in developing tourism in Indonesia. John wants to give the group a chance to review the presentation before putting the presentation on the website. CRTP and fitness John Bragg met with Small Business Development Director Jon Richards who wanted to know if CRTP could work with the Bay Area Hospital in encouraging the use of trails and outreach recreation for good health. This could expand what the partnership does and give it more of a focus. The Outdoor Act, if passed, would have a lot of funding towards health and recreation. Walt Schroeder, a outdoor trail enthusiast, created a hiking club called “Sole Pursuits”, which is a partnership with hikers and the Curry County Hospital Club. Sole Pursuits has had a lot of success building trails and getting people to use them, using information to educate and created a user group to also help maintain trails. Curry County gets local businesses to donate money for prizes for people who volunteer which also increases participation. Developing a constituency will help with our efforts. Hospital has outreach program which CRTP could tie into to get information out to the community about trail opportunities. CRTP could also develop partnerships with hospitals in Coquille and Bandon. John Bragg and Reg Pullen met with a representative from the hospital, Suzie McDaniels, and came up with a proposal of different hikes that could be used to promote recreation such as South Slough NERR trail walks and Saturday paddling days as well as BLM’s Saturday outdoor hikes. A new focus on trails could be community trails which are easier to access and help with mental health. One possibility is doing trail walks as a function of CRTP. John Bragg said the ball is in Suzie’s court and we’ll have to wait and see what the Bay Area Hospital thinks about the idea. CRTP Bylaws and Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) John Bragg updated the group that the bylaws and MOU are currently being reviewed and he will bring the results to the next meeting. Eden Valley Trail SystemDonna Bishop updated the group that the Backcountry Horsemen met with Carl Linderman of the Powers Ranger District on June 15th to discuss horse camping at Eden Valley. They received “Leave No Trace” brochures and the website also has brochures that could be put at trail heads. Bob Golden would like to come and present on this subject. Lupe Cisneros said the US Forest Service is using Eden Valley as a pilot program. Trail uses will include ATV, foot trails, and equestrian trails. The USFS is currently in the process of finishing the NEPA process. The idea is to help create and potentially maintain trails through stewardship as funds become available. Stipends would be available for local groups to do work on the trails including provision of government supplies and materials. The USFS would work on specs and trail design and would like to build 12 miles of new trails, corrals, foot trails, mountain bike, and horse trails. They plan on decommissioning some roads and making a variety of levels of difficulty, some easy, some difficult. Donna Bishop said both Oregon Equestrian Trails and the Backcountry Horsemen and ready to get to work once the NEPA process is finished. Reg Pullen suggested that potentially the BLM and the USFS could share the work of doing the NEPA process. Lupe will discuss this idea with the coordinator and after an internal review with the USFS and BLM, CRTP could write a letter of support for this collaboration. Next meeting The next meeting will be held on Tuesday, August 17th at 6:30 PM at the Coos Bay District BLM. Respectfully Submitted By Miranda Shapiro |