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Home My WebLink AboutLand and Water 11-03-09 NOTICE OF MEETING AND AGENDA ST. CROIX COUNTY LAND & WATER CONSERVATION COMMITTEE November 3, 2009 —10:40 a.m. Agricultural Service & Education Center 19608 th Avenue, Baldwin, WI CALL TO ORDER ROLL CALL REVIEW OF AGENDA CONSENT AGENDA (Unless separation of an item is requested, all will be adopted in one motion.) 1. Vouchers 2. Minutes of previous meeting — October 6, 2009 3. Date of next meeting — December 1, 2009 LAND & WATER CONSERVATION DEPARTMENT Agency reports FSA NRCS DNR RC &D West Central Area NEW BUSINESS: Director's report EQIP — Local work group APHIS agreement — Black Bear damage Annual WLWCA — Silent auction items OLD BUSINESS: 2008 Strategic Initiatives 2010 budget Wildlife Damage Program — Plan of Administration Grant — TMDL — Lake Mallalieu/Willow River - update PARKS DEPARTMENT NEW BUSINESS: Director's report U.S. Fish & Wildlife Private Lands Agreement OLD BUSINESS: 2008 Strategic Initiatives 2010 budget ANNOUNCEMENTS & CORRESPONDENCE ADJOURN SUBMITTED BY: Robert Heise DATE: October 21, 2009 COPIES TO: COUNTY BOARD OFFICE NEWS MEDIA /NOTICE BOARD COUNTY CLERK COMMITTEE MEMBERS (Items may be taken in different order) *Additions /Changes /Corrections ST. CROIX COUNTY LAND & WATER CONSERVATION COMMITTEE Agricultural Service & Education Center, Baldwin, WI November 3, 2009 Members Present: Linda Luckey, Buzz Marzolf, Bill Peavey, Gene Ruetz Members Absent: Ken Graf, Dan Raebel Staff Present: Director Bob Heise, Parks Operations Manager Dave Larson, Administrative Assistant Arlene Lier Others Present: Harvey Halvorsen -DNR, Steve Pernsteiner -NRCS, Cindy Blonk— Wildlife Damage, County Board Chair Roger Rebholz Ruetz called the meeting to order at 10:40 a.m. I CONSENT AGENDA Peavey made motion, seconded by Marzolf, to adopt the consent agenda approving the (1) Land & Water Conservation and Parks vouchers, (2) October 6, 2009 meeting minutes, and (3) setting the next committee meeting for December 1, 2009. Carried. LAND & WATER CONSERVATION DEPARTMENT FARM SERVICE AGENCY (FSA) Written report by Bob Forrest - County Executive Director was mailed out to the committee. NATURAL RESOURCES CONSERVATION SERVICE (NRCS) Steve Pernsteiner - District Conservationist reported: St. Croix County producers submitted 7 applications for the new Conservation Stewardship Program (CSP). Staff is currently reviewing and entering applications for ranking. This program requires a five -year contract with the producer. DEPARTMENT OF NATURAL RESOURCES (DNR) Harvey Halvorsen - Wildlife Biologist reported: • DNR is accepting 204 acres of land from the Kinnickinnic River Land Trust (Nagel site) and buying another 155 acres (Bliss property) by Casey Lake. Questions always arise about how DNR pays property taxes. Since 1998 the DNR is required by law to pay property taxes. Handout (payment year 2009) indicates under state statutes, the new process to pay property taxes. Town of Baldwin is not included on the handout – old tax law where we pay 88 cents per acre on that property. Annual payments are made to the local town clerks. In 2009, DNR paid $217,487 to local St. Croix County governments as aid in lieu of taxes. • There will be press releases on the I" Build a Wildlife Area (Vern & Becky Nagel property 140 acres) with Pheasants Forever and Kinnickinnic River Land Trust. DNR does not own the property yet but are in the process of getting it transferred to the DNR. When we do get the property we are going to put out our public land signs. • Staff update – We will be losing Service Center staff (Ronda Helgeson and the two part-time staff) in 2010. Customer service will be drastically curtailed. All of the program staff will stay. Ronda will be v Service Center Manager for Eau Claire. We will be open Wednesday and Friday with reduced hours, staffed by two people from Cumberland. Halvorsen announced that due to Ronda's departure in 2010, the Service Center staff feels we need to keep communication going. The Service Center team requests that attendance be on an on -call basis instead of relying on a DNR staff person to attend our meeting each month. LWCD will continue to e -mail the agenda to DNR staff. Heise stated that after April, our committee structure will change due to reducing the County Board from 31 members to 19. RESOURCE CONSERVATION AND DEVELOPMENT (RC &D) Ruetz reported to committee: • Progress with the Greenway Energy Inc. project (treating whey and converting to methane). • Local food program with the hospitals is going well. • Midwest Value Added Agriculture conference will be held at Eau Claire on January 21 -22. WEST CENTRAL AREA Heise reported that he and Ruetz attended the business meeting /Conservation Speaking Contest held on October 29 in Eau Claire. There was an update by DATCP on the "Working Lands Initiative" (an overview of the program for county supervisors). Pepin County gave an update on the storms (intensive rains) they had incurred this past year and the damages. Our representative in the speech contest was Megan Rach (elementary division — from Rocky Branch Elementary School, River Falls). She placed second in the area contest. Next meeting will be in February, 2010. NEW BUSINESS Director's Report Heise invited meeting attendees to the "Christmas Fundraiser Luncheon" which will follow our meeting. EQIP — Local work group NRCS is currently formulating the rules for the 2010 program year. The process requests local input from conservation agencies and employees on how conservation work should be funded. Discussion included protecting groundwater which is a very important resource concern in St. Croix County, especially with all the sinkholes present. APHIS agreement — Black Bear damage Cindy Blonk presented information on the agreement with APHIS to deal with any issues St. Croix County may have with Black Bear damaging crops of local producers. Black bear are becoming more common in the county. The annual cost is $500.00 and is reimbursed from the Wildlife Damage Program. Peavey made motion, seconded by Ruetz, to authorize Chair Ruetz to sign the Cooperative Agreement between St. Croix County and APHIS (Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service). Carried Annual WLWCA — Silent auction items Heise reported that he and Ruetz will be attending the annual conference to be held in La Crosse on December 9 -10. Each year counties are asked to donate items for the auction to support the Conservation Youth Education programs statewide. LWCD will donate a rain barrel and Heise will get an item for LWCC`s donation. Wildlife Damage Program — Plan of Administration Cindy Blonk reviewed the tracked changes in the Plan of Administration with Heise and committee. Blonk has sent the amended plan to the State DNR for review. The only response from the state was an e -mail received by Heise on Monday, November 1. The issue is whether the plan should include funding for permanent fencing or not. DNR pays 75% of the total (installation and materials) and landowner pays 25 %. No county dollars are involved. The program is paid 100% by hunters. Motion by Peavey, seconded by Ruetz, to direct Cindy Blonk to re -word the plan of administration to be consistent with state statutes and bring the document to the December meeting. Carried. Luckey opposed. Luckey gave Blonk her comments to be considered for wording of the document. i The updated plan needs to be approved by December 31, 2009. Grant — TMDL — Lake Mallalieu /Willow River — update Heise reported that we have not heard anything from the DNR on developing an agreement to receive ARRA (stimulus dollars) to develop an implementation plan for the Lake Mallalieu /Willow River watershed. We are also seeking to supplement that grant with two separate Lake Planning grants. OLD BUSINESS 2010 budget No report. PARKS DEPARTMENT NEW BUSINESS Director's Report Heise reported: • Homestead Parklands — For the last 4 -5 years, we have experienced bees burrowing into the sand in our playground area. We are taking the sand out and moving it down by the beach. We are replacing it with wood fibers which have been used at Glen Hills for years and have not had the bee problems. • Pine Lake boat landing — Project is nearly complete. We have to do some seeding on the rip rap area which will be done shortly • Bow hunting - We have moved forward with the bow hunting at Homestead Parklands starting November 1. The signages were done and have worked with the Risk Manager on liability. • The county parks have all closed as of November 1. U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service Private Lands A reement Larson presented the Committee a "Private Lands Agreement" with U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service for consideration. The agreement contains financial assistance for the ongoing oak savanna restoration work at Kinnickinnic County Forest. The agreement is consistent with the forest management objectives. Discussion. Motion by Peavey, seconded by Luckey, for Chair Ruetz to sign the Private Lands Agreement with U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service. Carried. Larson informed the Committee that they would be seeing the bid results for the Park Amenities RFB (Request for Bids) at next month's meeting. OLD BUSINESS 2010 budget No report. Chair Ruetz adjourned meeting at 12:00 p.m. Buzz Marzolf Secretary Arlene Lier Recording Secretary i