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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2009-12-10 KRSMA Board MinutesCALL TO ORDER A. Members Present: Ted Wellman, Joe Connors, Carol Padgett, George Heim, James Czarnezki, Bruce King, Terri Carter, David Carey, Rick Wood, Wayne Ogle, Robert Begich, Jack Sinclair, Tim Stevens. B. The Minutes for November 12, 2009 were approved as written C. Agenda Changes and Approval: Acknowledgment of new board member Terri Carter; Under New Business Bruce King asked that item A. Discussion of the Habitat Committee Watershed Planning Symposium be added. Under New Business Dave Carey asked that item B. Beluga Whale Discussion be added. Agenda changes were approved as modified. II. Public Comments /Presentations Speaker Series Presentations: Robert Massengill of ADF &G Gave the hi story, impacts and control efforts for invasive northern pike on the Kenai Peninsula. III. REPORTS A. Agency and Government Reports Kenai River Special Management Area Advisory Board Minutes Gilman River Center Thursday, December 10, 2009 5:30 p.m. a. State Parks, Jack Sinclair, provided brief summary of law enforcement on the Kenai River to guide advisory committee and KRSMA board. The Office of Boating Safety has a new video for first time boaters. A portion of it was filmed on the Kenai River with some of our rangers showing examples of proper and improper boating. It will come out later this year. Expectations for a larger capital budget are lower this year, $900,000 for Morgan's Landing and Funny River SRS for this winter. We have 2 maintenance people on now. Pam Russell is now statewide permitting officer for state parks and Amber Wheat is now year- round. b. DEC, Tim Stevens, reported they are in the process of going out for grant solicitation, starting in January 2010. Within this they have 3 actions for the Kenai River they are hoping to receive applications on; one is a scaled down hydrocarbon sampling similar to the baseline that the Kenai Watershed Forum has done in the past. The second is asking for continued turbidity testing in the lower Kenai River and third an education campaign for home owners on the Kenai River. c. ADF &G, Robert Begich, next Tuesday the Kenai Soldotna AC advisory committee will have a have meeting at the Soldotna Sports Center at 7:00 pm Tuesday, December 15 The meeting is for overview of the Federal Subsistence Program on Kenai River, guest speaker is Tina Cunning. d. USF &WS, Janet Schmidt, was not present. e. USFS1Chugach, Bobbi Jo Skibo, was not present. f. City of Kenai, Wayne Ogle, the Kenai City Council had a work session on December 8th dealing with dip net fisheries. One item of concern was fish carcasses. The other topic of interest was Beluga Whales; the City Manager is involved with getting a committee together and gathering the facts. Kenai River Special Management Area Advisory Board Minutes December 10, 2009 Page 1 of 3 g. City of Soldotna, Rick Woods, nothing to report. h. Kenai Peninsula Borough, Dave Carey, received word from the Board of Fish that they will not have their 2011 meeting in Soldotna. At the last KRSMA meeting, we discussed borough ordinance 21.18: started assembling working group in which John Mohorcich of the Gilman River Center will be heading. Looking at a two -year program, four, six month schedules. Starting January thru June, the first six months we will look at existing regulations. If there are members of the KRSMA that would like to be part of the process, let him know by email. B. Committee Reports a. Guide Advisory, all members were present. Reviewed goals for 2010. Started discussion on law enforcement. Discovered there are six agencies involved in law enforcement on the river and would like to get input from all six. Discussed in season guide replacement policy. Talked about Carlson -4 Supreme Court decision, resident vs. non resident. b. Habitat, working basically on two issues, the matrix and part of the education program. Prepared to participate in the borough's process and provide suggestions of our own for borough ordinance 21.18. c. River Use had a work session on Saturday December 4, 2009 for about 4 hrs, in which we talked about items that were priority. Talked about voluntary and mandatory education programs. Currently looking at the resources that are available, no decision on whether it should be voluntary or mandatory and what we should tie it to. Will be reporting back on resource availability in January. Also discussed bank sections that have been closed in the past for habitat restoration and whether they should be reopened and what process should be gone through for reopening. In process of taking an inventory of closed areas. Also talked about the 10 ft closed area to something like 5 ft to facilitate hip boot fishing and whether there should be some modification to allow people to tie up to the bank. Third item discussed was whether the KRSMA board should recommend closing the Kenai River corridor to big game hunting, committee decided not to pursue that. Also talked about dealing with the issue that came up about drift only areas like Eagle Rock or places that were traditionally areas where powerboats drifted through. Decided that a sub committee would look at maps and identify possible areas with the intention of filing a board sponsored proposal for the board of fish. Talked about issue of crowding at the Pillars. In the month of July, restricting it to boat launching vehicles only. Committee is going to put this issue on hold until committee hears from Doug Whittaker to see what his recommendations are after the river use study. Talked about getting permits for special events and dealing with restrictions in the comp plan. Will probably need to recommend a change for comp plan to get more definition. Met today to talk about the process when Doug Whittaker's report comes in. Doug Whittaker will be making presentation to board in February with a draft of the plan. About 10 days later, results will be made public. Once report is out and published we would then assign various parts of the recommendations to deal with and see what items would be priority. d. Permits, discussed organized or special events and the potential for conflict when you have multiple events on the same day or time. The other part discussed is in the comp plan in which events are referred to as derbies. In that paragraph, it talks about a certain percentage of the income that is generated is suppose to come back to the river or be spent on the river. This is another part to look at to see if it needs to be dropped, enforced, modified, etc. e. Legislative /Government Activities, Dave Carey volunteered to chair this committee, joining members are Jim Czarnezki, Joe Connors, and Jack Sinclair. f. Board Development, nothing to report. g. Agenda /Board Structure /Housekeeping, nothing to report. Kenai River Special Management Area Advisory Board Minutes December 10, 2009 Page 2 of 3 IV. OLD BUSINESS ACTION ITEMS A. Comp Plan priorities from February 09, Included in packet. B. By Law changes, proposed regulations, Included in packet. C. Letter to DEC, Joe Connors would like to write letter to DEC thanking Lynn Kent. Dave Carey made motion for Joe Connors to write letter to DEC. Bruce seconded. NEW BUSINESS A. Habitat Symposium, Bruce King, referred to handout, habitat committee is in the process of putting together a symposium to educate ourselves and local decision policy makers on what a watershed plan is and what it might be able to do to help us solve some of the issues on the Kenai River. These are sessions that we would invite speakers to talk to us. The reason for bringing this up now is the committee wants to put the board on notice at the next meeting we would like to get the board's permission to set up a steering committee to start this process, B. Cook Inlet Beluga Whales, Dave Carey stated on October 21, 2008 the federal government listed the Cook Inlet Beluga Whales on the endangered species list. Approximately a month later, KPB received just under $800,000 in stimulus money for Beluga Whale research. One of the realities is that they do not know where the critical habitat is for Beluga Whales. On December 1, 2009 National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration basically proposed critical habitat for Beluga Whales, they took in everything in Cook Inlet, including part of the Kenai River. January 31, 2010 is the last day for public to make comments. On January 5, 2010 Dave plans to bring a resolution to the assembly dealing with the issue of the critical habitat listing. Dave would like to prepare a resolution for the board to consider next month asking NOAA to provide documentation that their decision was based on good science. VI. CORRESPONDENCE None VII. PUBLIC COMMENT None VIII. ADJOURNMENT A. Board Comments Jim C. KWF is having a meeting at the GRC next Thursday afternoon to renew memorandum. Rick Woods commented last night the Kobuk outfall was approved during the council meeting. B. Date /Agenda of Next Meeting January 14, 2009 5:30 p.m. Kenai River Special Management Area Advisory Board Minutes December 10, 2009 Page 3 of 3