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HomeMy WebLinkAboutLand & Water 02-07-06 ST. CROIX COUNTY y -�' NOTICE OF COMMITTEE MEETING TO: Clarence Malick, Chairman St. Croix County Board FROM: Ron Raymond, Chairman COMMITTEE TITLE: Land & Water Conservation DATE: February 7, 2006 TIME: 10:40 a.m. LOCATION: Ag Center, Baldwin CALL TO ORDER ROLL CALL ADOPTION OF AGENDA DATE OF NEXT MEETING: March 7, 2006 ACTION ON PREVIOUS MINUTES PARKS DEPARTMENT NEW BUSINESS: Director's Report Bills /vouchers Resolution to sponsor Stewardship grant - Star Prairie Land Trust Resolution - Recreational Boating Facilities grant Bid results - Park truck - Park mowers UNFINISHED BUSINESS: LAND & WATER CONSERVATION DEPARTMENT Agency Reports FSA NRCS DNR RC &D West Central Area NEW BUSINESS: Subdivision update ** Vouchers Wildlife Damage Program - Venison Program update ** 2005 claims review /approval* - Greg's Tree Farm Farmland Preservation applications /resolution Schedule performance evaluation UNFINISHED BUSINESS: Staff Reports Priority Watershed Projects ANNOUNCEMENTS & CORRESPONDENCE POSSIBLE AGENDA ITEMS FOR NEXT MEETING: ADJOURNMENT (Agenda not necessarily presented in this order) SUBMITTED BY: Robert Heise DATE: January 24, 2006; amended January 26, January 30, 2006 COPIES TO: COUNTY BOARD OFFICE NEWS MEDIA /NOTICE BOARD COUNTY CLERK COMMITTEE MEMBERS * ADDITIONS /CORRECTIONS /CHANGES UNOFFICIAL Convened: 11:25 a.m. Recessed: 12:11 p.m. Reconvened: 1:05 p.m. Adjourned: 3:20 p.m. ST. CROIX COUNTY LAND & WATER CONSERVATION COMMITTEE Agricultural Service & Education Center, Baldwin, WI February 7, 2006 Members Present: Lois Burri, Bill Peavey, Ron Raymond, Gene Ruetz Members Absent: Jan Zoerb (excused) Staff Present: Director -Bob Heise, Operations Manager -Dave Larson, Land Specialist -Pete Kling, Administrative Assistant - Arlene Lier Others Present: None Adoption of Agenda: Peavey made motion to adopt the agenda, seconded by Burri. Carried. Action on Previous Minutes: Motion by Ruetz, seconded by Burri, to approve the January 3, 2006 meeting minutes. Carried. Date of Next Meeting: March 7, 2006 PARKSDEPARTMENT Director's Report Heise reported: • The Outdoor Recreation Plan was approved by the County Board in January. • We will again be doing a joint mailing with Mulligan's Bar, Grille & Banquet Facility where we will offer the "Free Night Camping — Camp for two nights at Glen Hills Campground and get the 3` consecutive night for free." • Parks Department will also be offering free entrance to our staffed Parks on Saturday, June 17, similar to last year. • The parks map will be reprinting another 10,000 copies for distribution. LWCC reviewed map and suggested some changes /corrections to be made. Staff is seeking sponsorships on advertisements to offset printing costs. • Fish cribs will be installed at Glen Hills on February 9 -10. Dave Larson reported on the timber harvest status: • Kinnickinnic forest was finished 1'h weeks ago. • Pine Lake took 1' /z days. • Glen Hills - One pine plantation is done. Work is being completed at the park proper. • Stanton Forest is scheduled for harvest in October 2006 Bills/Vouchers The February bills list was presented. Motion by Burri, seconded by Peavey, to approve the Parks account bills (total $19,776.17). Carried. Resolution to sponsor Stewardship Grant — Star Prairie Land Preservation Trust Heise stated that the Parks Department is working with the Star Prairie Land Preservation Trust on a project located at the southwest end of Cedar Lake. The Land Trust is interested in applying for a DNR grant to make improvements and provide public access to the lake. The DNR grant that they are applying for does not recognize a non - profit organization as an eligible sponsor. As a result, the Land Trust asked the Parks Department to be the sponsor and act as the fiscal agent for this project. The resolution is being reviewed by Corporation Counsel and a DRAFT was presented to the LWCC for review. The resolution states that there would be no county funds involved in this project. Kling, as a member of the Land Trust, answered questions asked by the LWCC. The resolution will be brought back at our March 7` meeting for approval. Resolution — Recreational Boating Facilities grant Heise explained that the Parks Department is working on a grant application to replace the boat landing at Pine Lake. We will be relocating the boat landing on the north side of the boat landing. Staff will be designing a new area for a turn around. We have $20,000 in the budget, total $40,000 with the 50% grant. Corporation Counsel has reviewed this resolution. Burri made a motion to approve the resolution for a grant application to replace the boat landing at Pine Lake, Peavey seconded. Carried. Bid Results Heise presented bid results for both the lawnmower and the truck. The Parks Department worked with the County's procurement agent to develop a request for bids on both. The truck bids came in from 6 vendors. The low bidder was Anderson Ford (3/4 ton long box pickup 4x4 - $19,378.00). The Parks budgeted $24,500.00 for a truck. Peavey made motion, seconded by Raymond, to approve the Anderson Ford (Baldwin, WI) truck bid of $19,378.00. Carried. Staff met with the Procurement agent and reviewed the lawn mower bids from 7 vendors. The lawnmower bids summary report and the depreciation report were presented. The Procurement agent and staff recommended the bid from Greene Implement Inc. (Osceola, WI) for $9,150 with a trade -in allowance. Burri made motion, seconded by Ruetz. Carried. Recessed: 12:11 p.m. Reconvened: 1:05 p.m. LAND & WATER CONSERVATION DEPARTMENT Members Present: Lois Burri, Jim Cody, Bill Peavey, Ron Raymond, Gene Ruetz Members Absent: Jan Zoerb (excused) Staff Present: Director -Bob Heise, Land Specialist -Kyle Kulow, Lakes Cluster Technician -Tammy Wittmer, Program Assistant -Jonna Fedie, Administrative Assistant - Arlene Lier Others Present: Harvey Halvorsen -DNR, Bob Hendrickson -FSA, Steve Pernsteiner -NRCS, Cindy Blonk- Wildlife Damage, Greg Ziegler- Greg's Tree Farm Wildlife Damage Program Greg's Tree Farm — Greg Ziegler attended the meeting regarding his claim which had been denied in January. Heise explained that we have a 5 -year plan of administration which was updated and approved on October 5, 2004. The County agrees to provide the WDACP with respect to the following: Damage to commercial seedings or crops on agricultural lands (excluding hay ground, damage to orchard trees, Christmas trees, nursery stock - orchard, Christmas, and nursery stock must have been planted prior to 1/1/90) or damage to livestock or apiaries. Ziegler questioned why we did not pay for claims like Polk County. It was explained that each county writes their own plan and may administer their program different than other counties. 2005 claims review /approval - Cindy Blonk presented the 2005 claims. The total is down from last year by $4,000 - 5,000. Motion by Cody, seconded by Bum, to approve five claims and deny one. Carried. Venison Program update - Jonna Fedie reported on the 2006 Venison Program to Feed the Hungry. St. Croix County had 159.5 deer donated. The department works cooperatively with UW- Extension. LWCD receives donations for the Protein Project and then purchases hamburger, tuna, beans, and peanut butter. FARM SERVICE AGENCY (FSA) Robert Hendrickson -County Executive Director reported: • The "big news" today is that we are going to have a new CRP (Conservation Reserve Program) signup from March 27 through April 14` This looks like we will be trying to re- enroll and take in new land during this signup. There will be more details coming on that in the future (Conservation Reserve Program) contracts that are going to expire September 30, 2007. Fact sheet was handed out to explain program criteria. More CRP acres will expire in 2007 than any other year. • We also have 6 contract holders that haven't certified their CRP acres for 2 to 6 years. I will be checking those contracts as I conduct field inspections. • DCP (Direct and County Cyclical Program) signup is going on for 2006 until June I` of this year. After that there will be a $100.00 late file fee to sign up for DCP. • We are currently about 40% complete with DCP sign up. We had around 1,750 contracts last year and so far this year we have around 700 done. • Staff can still make small grain loans and LDP'S (Loan Deficiency Payments) until March 31 s ` of this year. For Coarse grains, corn, and soybeans it is May 31" of this year. • The interest rate for February Commodity Loans is 4.375 and facility loans are 5.375. • The LDP'S for corn today is .00, Barley .37, Soybeans .00, HRS Wheat .00. So far this year we hit a high of .48 cents for corn. • The MILC (Milk Income Loss Contract) program has passed the House and is at the Senate now. It "could" be extended for two more years. NATURAL RESOURCES CONSERVATION SERVICE (NRCS) Steve Pemsteiner- District Conservationist reported: The Baldwin Field Office received 17 applications for the 2006 - Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP). Seven of these are for the Comprehensive Nutrient Management Planning (CNMP). It appears that there will be sufficient funding for most if not all of these applications. NRCS is going to offer financial incentives to EQIP participants to encourage them to install structural practices in a timely manner. American Farmland Trust is offering a program which insures against yield loss on cropland where a nutrient management plan is followed or no -till is tried. This program is being offered in eight Mid -west states. DEPARTMENT OF NATURAL RESOURCES (DNR) Harvey Halvorsen reported: • Pat Collins — Remediation and re- development - One is the New Richmond land fill. The remediation investigation is wrapping up, the feasibility is being drafted to determine how the landfill is going to be remediated. There is going to be a water replacement for those homeowners within that plume of water degradation which currently affects 12 homes. It will also include about 500 acres so future development in that area is to be covered under this feasibility for water replacement program. The town of Warren is beginning their ongoing investigation. They are drilling more test wells this spring. • Wildlife — We are in the process of losing a position. Kris Belling is being promoted to the Area Supervisor, Wildlife staff from Hudson to Eau Claire. Harvey is now Public Lands Manager who is responsible for land acquisition and public lands management in St. Croix County. Kris will retain public lands management in Pierce County. Harvey will still be doing some of the private lands work in Pierce and St. Croix counties. There will be personnel changes by the loss of one person. • Updated the LWCC on the Oakridge project/County property. They are looking at getting all the permits completed. • Deer 2006 — We will have CWD (Chronic Wasting Disease) sampling effort underway. We are looking at volunteers. • Law Enforcement — The Ellsworth vacancy is still open. • Fish Management — Just recently placed 20 fish cribs in Cedar Lake. They will be assisting County Park at Glen Lake to install another 14 structures by the fishing pier. This spring they are going to be doing walleye stocking assessment in the state. • Forestry — Kathy Nelson (former local forester) has recently been promoted from supervisor at LaCrosse to a position with the State, administering the Forestry Tax Law program • Ronda Helgeson— Office Manager — The spring hearing materials are going to be on line. The hard books will be at the Baldwin office soon. • Deer management review will be held for units 60A, B and M at the Baldwin office on Monday night, February 20. RESOURCE CONSERVATION AND DEVELOPMENT (RC &D) Ruetz reported: • Bids are being received for the native seed sales program • They may hire a professional fund raiser to assist RC &D in raising funds. WEST CENTRAL AREA Heise reported that the next area meeting is scheduled for March 23. The agenda is not out yet. Buffalo County will be hosting the summer tour on June 15 . WLWCA Raymond reported that he plans to attend a state board meeting in Stevens Point on Friday, February 10. This will be the first full board meeting since the annual meeting in December. They plan to have four County Conservationists as advisory members of the board of directors. One of the County Conservationists belongs to a county that refuses to pay organization dues. NEW BUSINESS SUBDIVISION UPDATE LWCC reviewed and discussed the following concept — subdivisions. Cong ts : Dulak — Town of St. Joseph, Section 20 Germain Estates — Town of Somerset, Section 1 Hudson Holdings LLC — Town of Hudson, Section 13 Huntington Estates — Town of Star Prairie, Section 9 Smith — Town of Somerset, Section 23 Ten Mile Creek — Town of Richmond, Section 27 The Pristine — Town of Richmond, Section 13 Vouchers Reviewed vouchers. Peavey made motion, seconded by Bum, to approve Chair Raymond's signature on the February LWCD voucher lists in the total amounts of $13,463.57 (2005 budget) and $19,586.56 (2006 budget). Carried. Farmland Preservation Avylications/Resolution Heise stated that this past month we have received a number of requests from landowners to make application for the Farmland Preservation Program Agreements. Staff has worked with the landowners to update their farm plans to meet the new Soil and Water Conservation Standards as well as a compliance evaluation of the NR -151 standards and prohibitions. The resolution Approving Farmland Preservation Program Applications (Leon & Judith Helgeson -Town of Forest, Sec. 9; James & Marilyn Jacobson -Town of Eau Galle, Sec. 24; Allen Hansen -Town of Rush River, Sec. 2) was presented. Motion by Peavey, seconded by Cody to recommend approval of the Farmland Preservation resolution, and present to the County Board on March 21. Carried. Priority Watershed Proiects Kyle Kulow reported: Kinnickinnic We have received our annual cost -share reimbursement allocation (ACRA) for both hard and soft practices. We have approximately $35,000 for nutrient management and cover crop payments and another $143,000 for hard practices. As it stands today, we have approximately $30,000 of the soft practice money committed to nutrient management and cover crop payments, and about $80,000 of hard practice money committed to several projects in the Kinnickinnic. We have a barnyard project underway near the Kinni and have another interested landowner on an intermittent portion of the Kinni who has expressed interest in a conservation easement. We continue to work with the City of River Falls on two projects and have begun to deliver rock to the stream restoration site on the South Fork of the Kinni site on Hwy 29, in Pierce County. South Fork/Hay River Mike Kinney -Dunn County LWCD has been working on the final accomplishment report for the project. We have sent out a short survey to all the participants and expect results back in a couple weeks. These results will be incorporated into the report before it is forwarded on to Madison. John Sours of DNR along with myself have been working with two landowners on Tiffany Creek, just south of the Fairgrounds. They have expressed interest in putting their stream corridors under conservation easements. John and I will meet with the landowners for the purpose of field staking these areas for location purposes. The area will then be reviewed by an appraiser and we'll see at that time if the landowners wish to commit to a conservation easement. Tammy Wittmer reported: Lakes Cluster • This year's Lake Cluster budget is $70,640. Of that, $45,268 has been committed through cost -share agreements. There are (4) rain garden projects in the works including one at Homestead Parklands where we would plan an education event along with it. There were 23 critical sites identified on Bass Lake. Staff will be working with those landowners to accomplish some of our water quality goals. • The 132n Avenue shoreline restoration on Bass Lake is still identified as a project to occur this year, once all necessary permits are obtained. • Pine Lake Park shoreline stabilization project is to occur anytime now. We are waiting for the contractor to decide when the ice is sufficient to move forward. • Squaw Lake and the Prairie Flats monitoring project has not seen much action yet this year. We're hoping for at least one runoff event this year. • The Lakes Cluster Advisory Committee will be meeting Wednesday, February 8 here at the Agricultural Center. Marty Engel -DNR has been invited to give a fisheries update for each lake. Schedule Performance Evaluation Discussed setting time for the evaluation of the Director of Land & Water Conservation and Parks Department. LWCC agreed to meet at the Agricultural Center on Wednesday, February 15, at 2:00 p.m. UNFINISHED BUSINESS None. Raymond adjourned the meeting at 3:20 p.m. Arlene Lier Recording Secretary