QUINCY LIBRARY GROUP MEETING

MINUTES

December 6, 1993, 9 a.m., Plumas County Library, Quincy

1. Reviewed and approved agenda - added items:

a. added discussion from Mike Yost & Ed Murphy;
b. discussion of ordering land base maps;
c. Susan to present the final QLG booklet;
d. John Redd to discuss the recreation concerns;
e. Rose Comstock requested a closed session of the steering committee after general meeting.

2. Review & approval of minutes.

3. Scheduled meetings -

a. High Sierra RC & D, 12/9 Auburn
Lenny Gallegos, Mike DeLasaux, Bill Coates, Mike Jackson interested in the RC & D meeting. Outreach in other areas is difficult because scheduling is tight.

b. Jim Lyons visit
Bill Coates is in the process of trying to get Jim Lyons to come out. Boxer & Feinstein's offices are helping with scheduling. The Jack Ward Thomas appointment preceded a visit from Lyons. There are also other important issues Lyons is trying to resolve such as the RIF (Reduction In Force) in the USFS.

4. National Forest Comm. Stability Proposal Activities

A. Lassen - Keith Crummer

1. Held a field trip

2. Management team meeting with the implementation team of QLG

3. 1 st draft of the funding needs for the QLG ready for Ron Stewart or Jim Lyons. Is not ready for QLG to review because it has not been signed off by the Regional Forester. Stewart is to meet with all 3 forests to review the proposed budgets on the 16th.

Further discussion lead S. Self to recommend that someone from QLG look at the budget before it is in it's final state and sent to Stewart or Lyons. Crummer further explained the reasons for going through this process although there is a possibility of talking to Stewart tomorrow at a regional management team meeting about our concerns. QLG feels strongly that we need to see the budgets before they go any further. (K.Crummer later stated that whom ever might be interested in seeing and discussing the budget that he could do so at the lunch break, per phone call with Lassen National Forest supervisor.)

B. Plumas National Forest - B.Holder

1. The Plumas budget is ready, same format as the Lassen and going through the same process with Stewart.

2. Holder conveyed strong concern about the Option 9 bailout. 10 million can still be pulled from the central Sierra forests to pay for the watershed analysis on the Klamath Province.

Coates suggests that before this week is out that the QLG look at the budgets with the USFS to be able to make sure that our issues are covered. Both USFS supervisors will be called at noon to set up a meeting.

C. Tahoe - Sierra Ranger District - J.Sirski

1. Sierraville proposed budget has been given to Ferguson today.

2. The ID team met 3 weeks ago and went well.

3. Steve Bishop is in DC this week.

5. Field Trips - Self & Blum

A. Lassen trip -Self

1. There was a good turn out from the QLG. Very informative, lots of discussion about meadows, water, etc. good interaction with the USFS & QLG.

B. Tahoe; Sierraville Ranger Dist. - Blum

1. The trip went well, visited 3 ecosystems;

a. pure east side pine, minimal fuel loads

b. cast side pine type, dominated by white fir lots of salvage problems, discussion on long range management problems

c. mixed conifer site, clear cut areas, extensive discussion about how the group selection approach would work here. Bishop wants to submit the project plans to QLG in March for further input.

2. New appeal regulations issued, any project without an EIS will require a 30 day public comment period to resolve any issue that could cause a dispute over the timber harvest project. This is good for all of us.

6. Committee Reports:

A. Phase II - Jackson (not present)

1. John reported that Spanish Creek sediment problems are studied by Plumas Corp.

2. Ed Murphy reported for T. Nelson, that there have been conversations with Lyons & Thomas and they like the local people working together and finding consensus.

B. Transition - E. Murphy

1. Meetings with the USFS went well although the Lassen was less receptive. The message of "open door" came across by showing that we're willing to air our differences. This gives us strength. A number of ranger districts on the Lassen expressed interest in having a better understanding of what we want. The Tahoe ranger district has put the QLG in their top 4 or 5 priorities for 1994, it was a good reception from the Tahoe.

C. Monitoring/Adaptive Management - S. Self

1. There have been a number of meetings with the AM groups, the purpose is to have the AM groups clearly understand what QLG needs.

2. There are concerns from Verner. The Comm. Stab. Prop. is a problem with Verner. He feels the focus should be on forest health. Verner wants more science, more experimental techniques concerning owls, full blown research studies rather than admin. studies, such as long term monitoring, short term experimenting and tracking devices. Working on how we're going to format the experiment, we need to resolve which approach to use.

Ed Murphy met with the Owl EIS team and they were relatively supportive of what we've doing. The response letter to the CASPO EIS (of 7/20) was sent out and it included the QLG in the 9 items for consideration. Tomorrow Ed will speak about the QLG at a PSW lead scientist annual meeting in Redding. Further discussion concerning moving forward with monitoring the proposal. Coates asked for recommendations to chair a committee that could form sub committees to over see specific areas to monitor, i.e., forest health, watershed, social economics, comm. stability, etc. Mike Kossow could chair, others that volunteered to work on this comm.; R. Meacher, J. Redd, G. Pritchard, J. Sheehan, S. Baremore, S. Self, R. Comstock, F. Stewart and E. Murphy. E. Murphy will develop a monitoring process that is needed, list items we need to pay attention to, items that need further refined. Ed feels we are in a prime situation with EIS team as far as being listed with the other alternatives. Verner thinks our group is a way to get the support he needs to get the studies done on the owls.

D. Working Circle Comm. - John Sheehan

1. A meeting was held of the comm. on 12/13/93 in Greenville
2. Minutes of meeting distributed
3 . R. Meacher made a motion that J. Sheehan be appointed working circle chairperson, L. Gallegos second. motion carried.

Further discussion about what the Committee role is; appraisal and bidding discussion, discussion on sub-standard material, multi-product sales. A request letter to be sent to past purchasers requesting information about volume manufactured locally - USFS doesn't have complete data. Recommended that the time period for historical data be shortened from 15 years to 5 years. There is concern about conflict of interest in requesting the data, legal advice could be recommended. Decided that Plumas County could request the data needed. J. Sheehan and B. Holder to discuss the contents of the request letter. J. Sheehan presented information on employment data from timber dependent counties, lumber values off federal lands, increases in AFDC roles in the timber dependent counties.

7. Fire & Fuels Management - J. Maupin, USFS Plumas

J. Maupin presented a 1 hour slide program. Explained how we got to the point that we're at with the fire hazard problem. The East side is facing us with a situation we've never seen before, fire used to visit this area every 15 years. Hazard will peak in 3 to 5 years with the bug kill. Without the use of herbicides it's prohibitive to plant trees. We're loosing 5,000 acres per year to brush. High intensity fires encourage grass and brush encroachment, low intensity fire encourage grass and brush to stay at a minimum. East side fires are just as big now as they were in the 20's because of the fuel loads. It's now at a point that the USFS can't keep up. Mr. Maupin feels that biomass treatment is the light at the end of the tunnel. 400-500,000 acres are in serious risk on the east side. The next 10 years will be critical for the reducing threat of catastrophic fire.

Further discussion about the costs of prescribed bums and what is required to maintain a stand. A blanket prescription doesn't work for all areas, speaking of CASPO, snags pose a huge danger, and snags per acre OK with Verner. $25 million is spent on a 20,000 acre fire, we should be able to divert some of those $ to prevention.

8. Monitoring Economic stability of Communities - G. Pritchard

A. Voiced concern over the declining employment in the Westwood area.

B. Comments, P. Harris, employment is still high at Collins Pine by Westwood folks.
M. Shaffer - Westwood, Greenville should set up an economic zone to encourage other business to come to the area.
S. Baremore - we are about stabilizing the employment issue in industry
L. Blum - Questioned if there were state agencies with resource people in economic development to help these communities.
E. Murphy - Reminded us that Quincy is at as big of risk of loosing jobs as Westwood or Greenville.

9. Concerns of Valley of the Seven Winds Council - G. Ranz

A. His group is bothered by the perception of QLG and what we're doing, concerned about our purpose.
B. His group has a plan for the Sierraville Ranger District.
C. They have established criteria for mapping
D. Would prefer to manage by zones - elevation
E. Would prefer that adaptive management plans are prescribed in a manner that CASPO & PSW have set out
F. There are no details yet on the group's suggestions for different silviculture prescription

10. Silviculture & Timber Management - Mike Yost (Refer to handout from 9/28/93)

A. Discussed the two different kinds of cuts recommended were intermediate and regeneration harvest cuts.

B. Continued discussion about snag retention.

C. Handout is required reading & get back to Yost then discuss at next meeting

Comments from D. Huston, hope that we don't ignore the rest of the stand when we're looking at cutting in watersheds and groups. Lassen looking at taking a watershed per district and doing an ecosystem inventory.

D. Huston will write paper on objectives on single tree selection and E. Murphy to distribute "ball park" objectives paper developed by T. Nelson to the forests

11. Map Distribution -E. Murphy

Ed took a list of folks that need copies of the land base map. Hopefully costs can be kept down by having a large order.

12. QLG document - S. Baremore

Susan presented the final copy. 500 printed for distribution. Charge $1.50 per booklet.

13. Outreach - B. Coates

Outreach to other areas, considering holding next meeting in Susanville. Discussion about whether we should change our name. Decided not to.

14. Date of next meeting decided - 1/10/94.

Should J. Lyons decide to visit, we will change the date.

Any items for the next agenda need to be to Mike by 12/23/93.

HANDOUTS

Copy of letter dated 12/6/93 from John Redd
Minutes & Notes from Working Circle Committee 11/23/93 meeting
Discussion Draft of "QLG `Ballpark' Objectives" - T. Nelson

Submitted by Rose Comstock, Recorder

Sunday, January ,(, /),( 0(:,( AM