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HomeMy WebLinkAboutLand & Water 03-04-03 X ST. CROIX COUNTY NOTICE OF COMMITTEE MEETING TO: Clarence Malick, Chairman St. Croix County Board FROM: Art Jensen, Chairman COMMITTEE TITLE: Land & Water Conservation /Resource & Education Committee DATE: March 4, 2003 TIME: 9:00 a.m. LOCATION: Ag Center, Baldwin CALL TO ORDER ROLL CALL ADOPTION OF AGENDA DATE OF NEXT MEETING: April 1, 2003 ACTION ON PREVIOUS MINUTES NEW BUSINESS: Resolution - River Protection Grant Application(Willow River) Wildlife Damage Program - Designate supervisor for Tri- County Committee County Implementation Strategy for NR -151 - Questionnaire Subdivision Review - 10:00 a.m. Vouchers UNFINISHED BUSINESS: Staff Reports Natural Resource Management Plan - Update Municipal Waste - Regional - Update Education Activity Priority Watershed Projects Agency Reports FSA NRCS DNR RC &D West Central Area ANNOUNCEMENTS & CORRESPONDENCE POSSIBLE AGENDA ITEMS FOR NEXT MEETING: ADJOURNMENT (Agenda not necessarily presented in this order) SUBMITTED BY: Robert Heise DATE: February 18, 2003 COPIES TO: COUNTY BOARD OFFICE NEWS MEDIA /NOTICE BOARD COUNTY CLERK COMMITTEE MEMBERS * ADDITIONS /CORRECTIONS /CHANGES 7f UNOFFiCiAi, Convened: 9:00 a.m. Adjourned: 11:30 a.m. ST. CROIX COUNTY LAND & WATER CONSERVATION/RESOURCE & EDUCATION COMMITTEE Agricultural Service & Education Center, Baldwin, WI March 4, 2003 Members Presents Leon Berenschot, Lois Burri, Jim Cody, Art Jensen, Ron Raymond Members Abs en Chris Bethke (excused) Staff Present: County Conservationist -Bob Heise; Land Specialists -Pete Kling, Steve Olson; Secretary - Arlene Lier Others Present* Bob Baczynski, Kris Belling -DNR; Bob Hendrickson -FSA; Bill Berndt - Visitor Meeting called to order by Chair Art Jensen. Burri made motion to adopt agenda. Berenschot seconded. Carried. Raymond made motion to approve the February 4, 2003 meeting minutes. Cody seconded. Carried. Next meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, April 1, 2003 at 9:00 a.m. RES 01111110 N — RiVER PROTECTION GRANT APPi ICATiON 00110A nvv D7t ER) Kling presented a letter of support and a resolution authorizing the St. Croix County LWCD to apply for a River Protection Grant. Raymond made motion to approve the resolution, Burn seconded, carried. WILDLIFE DAMAGE PROGRAM — DESiGNATE SUPFRViSOR FOR TRi- COUNTY C OMMITTEE Heise reported that the terms of the Wildlife Damage agreement with Burnett County required a supervisor from St.Croix County LWCC to serve as a representative on the Tri- County Committee, with Burnett, Polk Counties. This commitment will require meeting annually. Raymond volunteered to accept this commitment. COIINTY iMPi,EMENTATiON STRATFGY FOR NR -151 - QUESTIONNAIRE Heise referred the committee to the NR -151 questionnaire handout in their packet. Heise reported that the LWCD staff had discussed and deliberated on the questionnaire. Heise directed the committee to the department's responses and asked the committee for opinions and inputs. Heise stated that there are many unknowns about the new NR -151 rule and the amount of workload associated with these rules. Heise informed the committee that the questionnaire is to be returned to the DNR by March 4` Discussion. Committee concurred with staffs responses that a non - committal approach is probably the best direction at this point and informed Heise to return the document to DNR as written. COUNTY ORDINANCES Jensen reported on the PZ &P committee last week where the committee concurred that the highest priority for the committee is to allow staff to complete county ordinance rewrites and amendments. The PZ &P committee has agreed to take whatever action necessary to allow staff to complete the ordinances by the end of the year. Staff is to submit to the PZ &P committee the proposed ordinances to be completed with an estimated timeline. Staff is to provide the PZ &P committee suggested workload redirection that would allow additional time for staff to concentrate on ordinances. NATURAi RESOURCE MANAGEMENT PLAN — UPDATE Heise reported that the citizens and technical advisory committee met with Cheryl Bursik on February 25 and are beginning the process of amending the LWRMP. The Technical advisory committee will be meeting at the Ag Center on March 20, at 9:30 a.m. MUNiCiPAi. WASTE- RFGiONAi. - UPDATE Heise referred the committee to the letter written by DNR stating their new position on the wastewater issue for the I -94 communities. The letter allows these communities to treat the effluent to much higher standard (best available technologies) while allowing the discharge of the treated effluent to exception water resources. This was not an acceptable option to these communities two months ago. Heise informed the committee that county staff from Pierce and Polk were invited to attend a short meeting a week ago to bring those counties up to speed with the RFP and the current waste water issue and how this regional waste water approach may affect their counties. Another meeting is scheduled for March 12` with the wastewater workgroup to discuss the RFP. VOUCHERS Reviewed vouchers. Motion by Berenschot, seconded by Raymond, to approve Chair Jensen's signature on the March voucher list. Carried. EDUCATiON ACTIVITY Burri announced the winners in the Senior division of the poster contest. Lier reported that the location of the Conservation Awards dinner scheduled for March 27 will be held at the Ag Center instead of the American Legion as originally planned. PRIORITY WATERSHED PROJECTS Steve Olson gave an update on the media day for the Pine Lake easements that is set for March 6th at 1:00 at Ag Center building. Committee was invited to come to thank landowners for their donations. SUBDIViSiON REViFW No subdivisions to report. DAR Kris Belling: Deer report — Gave update on Tuesday night's meeting There was a small number of people attending. Not as many deer were killed as we expected. About 10 % less licenses were sold due to Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD). Population estimates are basically right around our goal. Antlerless quota — came in slightly under. There still are plenty of deer out there, but there is a lack of hunters. Bob Baczynski reported: Looking at the positive side of the budget, there are no reductions. There are travel restrictions for the West Central watershed bureau people. Held St. Croix Partners Team meeting on February 19. Discussed NR -118 (riverways). Approximately 50% showed up. Meetings are scheduled every two months. Next meeting is scheduled for April 16 (election of officers) at the government center at 7:00 p.m. More people (including land use advisory groups) should be encouraged to attend. Discussed the grand opening of the new county park, Homestead Parklands, on Perch Lake, scheduled for Saturday, June 7. FARM SERVICE AGENCY Robert Hendrickson reported for FSA: • The State FSA Office is sending out a newsletter for all counties this month. • There has shown to be a slight increase in CREP participation. • Matt is in Kansas City for two weeks of training on CRP and assisting in national testing for CRP software. • The commodity loan interest rate for March is 2.375 %. Ex., you could receive roughly $9,300.00 on a 5000 Bu. corn loan for 9 months (March 3 through December 30) for only $181.54 of interest. • DCP (Direct and Counter Cyclical Program) sign up is approximately 36% completed. Farmers should be reminded of the April 1 deadline. Some changes have been made in the way yields are figured. Now we can assign some yields in some cases and producers "MAY" be able to certify some in other cases! • The MILC( Milk Income Loss Contract) program is coming along good. We are now making monthly payments to the Dairy producers. We don't have March's payment rate yet, however February was $1.55. We now have approximately 250 MILC contracts. NATURAL RESOURCES CONSERVATION SERVICE Heise provided the NRCS report. Referred committee to a handout discussing adding organic crop production to the Local Working Groups list of eligible conservation practices. Heise reported that there is some interest in the county from producers practicing organic crop production. Discussion. Heise stated that a written request would need to be submitted to the NRCS State office in Madison to have this considered as an eligible cost -share practice for St.Croix County. Motion by Berenschot, seconded by Raymond, that a request be submitted to NRCS requesting organic crop production practices be included as an eligible conservation practice for producers in St. Croix County. Motion carried. RC&.D Berenschot reported that he attended the RC &D Council National Leadership Forum in Washington D.C. Met many Washington dignitaries. Speakers were from top end of government. • Requested $250,000, received $550,000, to enhance rotational grazing program in Wisconsin. Staff and legislatures were very well versed. Letters should be sent to thank the legislatures. Promoted new council for S.E. Wisconsin. Rep. Sensenbrenner called Eau Claire and asked questions for support. Language will be added to the Ag appropriations bill. Council meeting was held last week in Eau Claire. Discussed ideas on how to get young people (FFA groups, educators, etc.) involved in conservation. Pilot program — maybe can be done nationally. WEST CENTRAL AREA No report. ANNOUNCEMENTS & CORRESPONDENCE Heise informed the committee that he is slated to provide a department report at the March 18 County Board meeting. Heise briefed the committee that Jennifer Emmerich has accepted a position with the Zoning Department. Friday, March 7 th will be her last day with the LWCD. Heise discussed options of filling the position with the Personnel Department. Because of the relatively short time since our past interview process, there are a number of options that the department can pursue to fill this position rapidly. Discussion. The committee directed Heise to move forward with the hiring and if there were a need for supervisors to participate in an interview process, Berenschot and Raymond would volunteer. Burn made motion to adjourn meeting at 11:30 a.m., seconded by Cody, carried. Jim Cody Secretary