HomeMy WebLinkAbout2012-01-12 KRSMA Board PacketKENAI RIVER
Special Management Area
"Working together...for the river"
Kenai River Special Management Area Advisory Board
" "" Meeting Agenda***
Thursday, January 12,2012
5:30 p.m. Gilman River Center
CALL TO ORDER
A. Roll Call;
B. Minutes Approval
C. Agenda Changes and Approval
II. Public Comments /Presentations
III. REPORTS
A. Agency and Government Reports
a. State Parks — Sinciair, Russell
b. DEC- Stevens
c. ADF &G- Vania/ Begich
d. USF &WS- Schmidt/Loranger
e. USFS /Chugach- Bobbie Jo Kolodziejski
f. City of Kenai- Sean Wedemeyer
g. City of Soldotna- Peter Micciche
h. Kenai Peninsula Borough- Brent Johnson
B. Committee Reports
a. President's Report
b. Guide Advisory
c. Habitat
d. River Use
e. Permits
f. Legislative /Govemment Activities
g. Board Development
h. Agenda /Board Structure /Housekeeping
IV. OLD BUSINESS
1E7 FRWALTICD
1. Letter to the commissioner about the River Ranger position
2. Resolution 2011 -4, prohibit boat use behind the island at the Russian River Confluence.
V. NEW BUSINESS
State Parks Director, Ben Ellis, message to the board and Q &A time with the board
Ricky Gease- Discussion about the Red Salmon /Habitat Stamp.
VI. CORRESPONDENCE
Vi!. PUBLIC COMMENT
VIII. ADJOURNMENT
A. Board Comments
Kenai Area Office, PO Box 1247, Soldotna, AK 99669, 907 - 262 -5581
Kenai Peninsula Borough, 144 N. Binkley, Soldotna, AK 99669 907 - 262 -4441
Gilman River Center 514 Funny River Road, Soldotna, AK 99669, 907- 260 -4882
Alaska Division of Parks and Outdoor Recreation, Department atural Resources, in cooperation with the Kenai Peninsula Borough
KENAIdz.
Kenai River Special Management Area
Advisory Board Meeting Minutes
Gilman River Center
Thursday, December 8, 2011, 5:30 p.m.
Call to Order
A. Members Present: Travis Moseley, Bruce King, Jack Sinclair, Joe Connors, Tim
Janet Schmidt, George Heim, Brenda Trefon, Brent Johnson, and Ricky Gease.
B. The Minutes from the October 13th, 2011 meeting were approved with changes.
2011 meeting were approved as written.
Stevens, Carol Padgett, Terri Carter,
The Minutes from the November 10,
C. Agenda Changes and Approval, no changes.
II. Public Comments /Presentations
Michelle Martin with the Kenai Watershed Forum gave a presentation over Reed Canary Grass.
III. Reports
A. Agency and Government Reports
a. State Parks, Jack Sinclair, gave handouts for Kenai River Area Statistics from 2006 to 2011 and Kenai
River revenue comparison calendar from 2009 to 2011. The director has made a commitment to come to
our next meeting on January 12th, 2012. He plans to discuss the ranger position, which may be
potentially going away.
Ricky Gease will be chairing a committee to look at options for keeping funding within state parks.
Bruce King will draft a letter for the next KRSMA meeting, regarding funding of the ranger position.
b. DEC, Tim Stevens, signed a contract with the KWF to conduct a review of the turbidity study with the
final report due in February.
c. ADF&G- Vania/ Begich, was not present, but left a handout with information dealing with the Northern
Kenai Peninsula Management Area.
d. USF&WS, Janet Schmidt, we are busy looking at our hiring process for this coming summer. We have
some new events going on, we have added moonlight snowshoe walks. The first one is tomorrow night.
Our cabins are now on www.recreation.gov, you can make online reservations for one of our 14 public
use cabins.
e. USFS /Chugach, Travis Moseley, has restoration work going on at Cooper Creek Campground. We will
go back in there this spring and anchor things in. Right now we are working on an EA to do some
restoration work at the lower end of Cooper Creek. It is contingent on the Cooper Lake Hydro Electric
Plant and their FERC relicensing, in which they will attempt to moderate the water temperatures. Three
options are being proposed to possibly relocate Cooper Creek, as a result of mining activities that have
gone on there. Looking at Invasive Weed Analysis on the Kenai River Forest Service Lands.
f. City of Kenai, Sean Wedemeyer, was not present.
City of Soldotna, Peter Micciche, was not present.
h. Kenai Peninsula Borough, Brent Johnson, nothing to report.
B. Committee Reports
g.
a.
President's Report, Joe Connors, was told by director that we have 2 new appointees; both Ricky
Gease and Dave Carey have been selected. We have one position still open, for the next month if you
know of anyone that is interested. Encouraged everyone to stay positive and keep working hard.
Kenai River Special Management Area Advisory Board Minutes — December 8, 2011
Page 1 of 2
b. Guide Advisory, Joe Connors, met today and had 12 people present. Talked about the ranger position
and its importance. Jack Sinclair brought us up to spend on the intentions of the priorities for law
enforcement for this coming year. One of the things that we do every year on the guide advisory
committee is to look at the Kenai River Guide Stipulations. We looked at those today and we found two
things we'd like to tweak a little; Jack Sinclair will look at modifying those. Something we do every year
and we didn't get to do today is to deal with citations and complaints. We have our middle river issues
and concerns; we received an update about Eagle Rock. Jack Sinclair reported that Eagle Rock will not
be coming online as a State Park this coming year. The same enterprise that ran it last year will be
running it next year, but will be looking at it for the following year. The other item we talked about was
something that we actually started back when we did the Kenai River Working Group; one of the original
working group's recommendations was that all guides be required to participate in a random drug testing
program. The coast guard license guides must have a random drug test program, but those that don't
have a coast guard license certificate, or those that row a boat are not required to have a random drug
test program. It has come back up to review the drug testing program.
c. Habitat, Bruce King, spent the entire meeting talking about the turbidity issues. We spent time putting
together what sort of options we could use to keep us from being listed. There was a lot of disagreement
about what it means. The consensus was that our hope is that we can get ahead of it and not have the
EPA tell us what to do. We want to look at how to let current uses on the river continue.
d. River Use, George Heim, met today and started out with a presentation from Andrew Carmichael about
the new fish cleaning station that will be installed at Centennial. The first item on our agenda was to talk
about the two resolutions that came out of the September meeting. One was to stop the transiting
behind the island, at the Russian River Confluence; the second was to restrict anchoring just above the
Russian River Ferry. We will vote at the next KRSMA meeting on Resolution 2011 -4. Robert Begich
gave us the table of information for Angler days of effort fishing within the Northern Kenai Peninsula
Management Area. Dwight Kramer had submitted proposal to prohibit powerboats below the Soldotna
Bridge. The concern was that drift boat Mondays were getting spoiled because of dipnetting.
e. Permits, did not meet.
f. Legislative /Government Activities did not meet.
g. Board Development, did not meet.
h. Agenda /Board Structure /Housekeeping, Jack Sinclair stated a media release was sent out for the
open KRSMA board seat, extending the recruitment time through January 13' ", 2012.
IV. OLD BUSINESS
V. NEW BUSINESS - none
VI. CORRESPONDENCE - none
VII. PUBLIC COMMENT - none
VIII. ADJOURNMENT
A. Board Comments
B. Date /Agenda of Next Meeting January 12th, 2012 at 5:30 p.m.
Kenai River Special Management Area Advisory Board Minutes — December 8, 2011
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