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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2009-03-12 KRSMA Board PacketKENAI RIVER Special Management Area "Working together...for the river" CALL TO ORDER A. Roll Call B. Minutes Approval C. Agenda Changes and Approval 0. Public Comments Kenai River Special Management Area Advisory Board Meeting Agenda Thursday, March, 2009 5:30 p.m. Kenai River Center Presentation: Alaska Statewide Comprehensive Outdoor Recreation Plan (SCORP) Presentation Tom Campenella: Human Waste Option on the River 01. REPORTS A. Agency Reports a. State Parks Sinclair, Russell b. DEC- Stevens c. ADF &G- Vania/ Begich/ d. USF &WS- West e. USFS /Chugach- Skibbo B. Committee Reports a. Guide Advisory b. Habitat c. River Use d. Permits e. Legislative /Government Activities f. Board Development g. Agenda /Board Structure /Housekeeping IV. OLD BUSINESS ACTION ITEMS V. NEW BUSINESS VI. CORRESPONDENCE Commissioner's response to discharge of firearms regulation change request VII. PUBLIC COMMENT VIII. ADJOURNMENT A. Board Comments B. Date /Agenda of Next Meeting April 9, 2009 5:30 p.m. Kenai Area Office, PO Box 1247, Soldotna, AK 99669, 907 262 -5581 Kenai Peninsula Borough, 144 N. Binkley, Soldotna, AK 99669 907 262 -4441 Kenai River Center 514 Funny River Road, Soldotna, AK 99669, 907 260 -4882 Alaska Division of Parks and Outdoor Recreation, Department o kturral r Ree s s ources, in cooperation with the Kenai Peninsula Borough 1IER KENAI E N T E R 0 i f 1. CaII to Order Kenai River Special Management Area Advisory Board Minutes Kenai River Center Thursday, February 12, 2009 5:30 p.m. A. Members Present: Milli Martin, Wayne Ogle, Peter Micciche, Brenda Trefon, Robin West, Bobbie Jo Skibo, Tom Vania, Jack Sinclair, Tim Stevens, Joe Connors, Ted Wellman, Carol Padgett, Richard Dykema, George Heim, Adam Reimer, James Czarnezki, Bruce King. B. The Minutes for January 8, 2009 were approved as written. C. Agenda Changes and Approval: Tim Martin and Doug Whittaker presentations moved to Public Comment portion of the agenda. II. Public Comments Tim Martin commented on his home in Rapids Avenue and problems with public access in state parks and borough easements. Doug Whittaker, the contractor for recreation use study, gave an update on the study. Robert Ruffner gave a presentation on 2008 Turbidity Study work on the lower river. Ken Tarbox commented regarding Robert Ruffner's turbidity study. III. Reports A. Agency Reports a. Kenai River Center State Parks Report Jack Sinclair, ADNR/Parks, gave a status report on the bill regarding Kenai Lake and Kenai River special management lands addition. The bill is still being assembled and a land status check is still being conducted. Jack stated some state park staff participated in training with the borough's office of emergency management last week. Jack stated the state is also dealing with the hiring freeze, right now they have to request any seasonal employees, mainly the Alaska Conservation Corp workers, that are coming back to be approved by the office management and budget. The capital projects are still on board for this next year, two of these are Bing's Landing restoration and Pillar's Dock rebuild. Pam Russell, ADNR /Parks, stated that state parks is up and going for the 2009 guide season. b. Tim Stevens, DEC, Final Report for Kenai River Petroleum Assessment, reviewed the process of water quality sampling for new board members. Stated the good news from the report is that all the water quality samples, some 190 taken, met water quality standards for petroleum hydrocarbons. It appears that the legislative action taken by both DNR and ADF &G were successful in their actions to reduce the conventional 2- stroke engines on the Kenai River in July. They plan to collect hydrocarbon data again this summer. The policy to remove the Kenai from the impaired water body status requires having 2 years of data to say the river is meeting standards. This year's data says it was met for one year, last year they didn't have an exceedence at river mile 10.1. They are proposing to only collect samples at river mile 1.5. One reason is cost, and the other reason is that data collected for 2 years at river mile 10.1 says it is clean. They want to sample at river mile 1.5, because if they can show it is clean, they can demonstrate to EPA that they have solved the hydrocarbon issue on the river. c. ADF &G, Vania /Begich, nothing to report. d. USF &WS, West, nothing to report. e. USFS /Chugach, Skibo, researched FERC's regarding the hydro -power proposals. It will be FERC's environmental process that will be followed rather than USFS. At the Russian River Complex, we are looking at a change in fish carcass management. In the past, they have encouraged people to stop, chop, and throw, however this year, they are going to encourage taking the fish out whole or gut and gill in an effort to minimize conflicts with bears. Looking for good ideas on how USFS can manage fish carcass disposal. Would Bike to talk to the other agencies and how this will affect them. B. Committee Reports a. Guide Advisory, Joe Connors reported the committee met and had 13 members present. They were able to get through 2 of the 5 items on their agenda. First item on the agenda was a voluntary guide PFD program and they hope by the next meeting to have a proposal for a PFD program. Second item discussed was the state park permit issues for groups of 40 or more people in the KRSMA area. The guide advisory committee is looking at possibly adding some stipulations to this permit. Lastly, a new topic brought to guide advisory committee was a new form of guide suspension for those who do not turn in logbooks. b. Habitat, Bruce King, stated they have about 12 or so members. Bruce reported most of their time has been spent working on the management actions matrix. It started as a way to look at what is being done on the Kenai River and make sure they have the right background for talking about the issues. They plan to focus on getting agency input for the management actions matrix. For the next year, the committee has elected to Kenai River Special Management Area Advisory Board Minutes February 12, 2009 Page 2 of 4 educate itself on the turbidity issues on the Kenai River. Also, the habitat committee is interested in what the borough comes up with in the analysis of the 50' Habitat Protection Ordinance. The committee would like to have more training on the habitat planning process. Brenda is seeking participants for a video regarding the benefits of the 2- stroke motor restriction limitation and the motor buy back program. The habitat committee is also in the process of requesting an update on the Cooper Landing Sterling Highway bypass project. c. River Use, Ted Wellman, reported they had an all day work session on Monday February 9 2009, where they primarily talked about the river use study. They had a lot of items on the agenda; two of the items discussed were the PFD issue and education. The committee is in the process creating priorities for 2009; primarily looking at river study because it will take a lot of time. Top priority is to look at how they relate to and deal with river use study. They looked at the habitat committee's matrix to see where it might be used in making decisions in the river use committee. Ted asked if anyone has issues related to river use to contact him so they can be put on the agenda. Ted will be sending out an email for comments on scheduling the river use meeting on a weekend. d. Permits, Jim Czarnezki, committee did not meet. Jim gave a brief history of the permit committee. e. Legislative /Government Activities, committee did not meet, Joe Connors will work on setting up a chairperson. f. Board Development, Jack Sinclair reminded everyone on February 21, 2009 from 9 -3:00 pm, they are going to reconvene to refresh everyone's knowledge of Kenai River Comprehensive Management Plan. IV. Old Business Action Items A. Habitat Committee Draft Letter to Legislature to restore Deferred Maintenance funding to State Parks. Jack Sinclair will make changes to draft letter and send out to everyone on the KRSMA board to review, before sending to the legislature. V. New Business A. President's report- Committee assignments and member responsibilities, Joe Connors gave a review of KRSMA history. Joe asked that each KRSMA member provide a backup for attending the KRSMA meeting. B. Issues for Committee Assignment: Zoning and land use issues adjacent to the Kenai River, Ted Wellman commented regarding zoning and land use issues adjacent to Kenai River Special Management Area Advisory Board Minutes February 12, 2009 Page 3 of 4 the Kenai River. Ted stated it's time to have assignments to committees to get some kind of focused strategy to influence the borough assembly. VI. Correspondence None VII. Public Comment Monte Roberts president of KR Professional Guide Association, spoke on turbidity issues and asked for follow -up on duck hunting regulation. VIII. Adjournment A. Board Comments Bruce reminded people about Brenda Trefon needing participants for movie. Joe gave update on Kenai River Guide Academy, currently 2 seats open in the 4 remaining classes. B. Date /Agenda of Next Meeting March 12, 2009 5:30 p.m. Kenai River Special Management Area Advisory Board Minutes February 12, 2009 Page 4 of 4