Meeting+2013+Jan+10

//**Wake County Nature Preserves Meeting**//
Thursday 8:30-10
 * Room 609 Raleigh Municipal Building **
 * 222 West Hargett Street **
 * Park in the municipal deck and passes will be provided. **

Map to municipal building Map to parking deck (enter from McDowell just south of Morgan) - there is a bridge on the 2nd floor of the deck that leads to the municipal building In the municipal building ... go to 6th floor, take a left off the elevator and follow the hallway around two corners, you’ll find 609 on your right directly across from the women’s restroom.

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Pohlman (presiding), Snow, Hess, Connors, Salter, Jen Beedle, Brooke Massa, Lobsinger, Yu-Fai Leung, Charlynne Smith, Kevin Brice
 * Attendance Notes**


 * Introductions as needed**

Main goals to day are to ...
 * Finalize priorities for this calendar year and assign leadership for each item.
 * Review Anderson Point signs


 * Overall Organizational Items**


 * Select chairman and vice-chairman from Steering Committee**
 * MOU calls for chair and vice-chair to be selected from among the 3 steering committee members in January
 * Steering committee is Hess (term through 2013), Pohlman (term through 2013), Snow (term through 2013).
 * Pohlman has agreed to be chairman for one year; Snow has agreed to be vice chairman for one year.
 * **We need approval from the voting membership - any discussion, and then vote.**
 * FYI on longer term thinking ... Hess plans to step off the steering committee in 2013; with approval from membership next year, Pohlman and Snow plan to continue. We'll be looking for at least one new steering committee member toward the end of this year.


 * NOTES:** NCSU, Wake County, Wildlife Resources, Raleigh, Natural Heritage were present and voted "Yes." As this is a majority of signatories (5/9) no further votes will be solicited.

**Need a meeting place** - Wetland Center? Lake Johnson? Raleigh Muni Building? Yates Mill.

**NOTES:**
 * February, March, and April 2013 meetings will take place in the 10th floor conference room of the Waverly F. Akins County office building located at 337 S. Salisbury Street, Raleigh. WakeNature attendees should park in the Wake County public parking deck (entrances on Cabarrus and Davie Streets) and walk a block up Davie Street. Snow will provide a voucher to cover parking.
 * Massa will check Wildlife Resources for after that.

The steering committee will typically meet on the last Thursday of each month - details on the steering committee page.


 * Big Picture**

The steering committee met on 3 January to prepare for this meeting. We have a proposal, based on that discussion and the discussion during the December, 2012 WakeNature meeting. We asked ourselves the question "What do we think WakeNature needs to do to be successful?" and came up with one key item for each committee. Our intent is to have a succinct catch-pharse to describe the goal and focus of each committee for this year.

Steering committee: **Increase momentum** and grow active signatory membership. Promotion committee: **Tell the story** of the highest quality natural areas in Wake County and the stewardship the have and need. Inventory committee: **Places on the ground** - designate publicly accessible WakeNature Preserves. Capacity committee: **Bring resource managers together** to carry out appropriate stewardship of the highest quality natural areas in Wake County.

WIth this in mind, and building on last month's discussion, we outline below what we think are priorities for each committee.

//**Steering**// **Committee** (Chairman to be elected today) GOAL: **Increase momentum** by growing active signatory membership.


 * Item 1: Priorities **
 * More signatories to help us **increase momentum** - shall we go after one or all of ...
 * Cary (esp focus on Hemlock Bluffs)
 * State Parks
 * US Army Corps of Engineers (Falls Lake)
 * Holly Springs (Bass Lake Natural Area coming online in 2013)
 * Others?
 * Maintain John Connors' involvement so that he can **increase momentum.**
 * Find ways to get parks directors involved and talking to one another about natural resources management to **increase momentum.**


 * NOTES:**
 * State Parks seems most appropriate to start with, given their interest at Mitchell Mill State Natural Area - Pohlman and Snow will pursue
 * Connors is interested in official membership. He will check with Audubon before the next meeting to see if they want to become signatories, in which case he would represent Audubon as a voting member. Otherwise, he will seek at large status. This will be on the February agenda.
 * Snow will lead effort to get park directors together.
 * Brice will be talking to City of Oaks Foundation about becoming a signatory.

//**Promotion Committee**// (Kaytee Smith, chairwoman) GOAL: **Tell the story** of the highest quality natural areas in Wake County and the stewardship they have and need.


 * Item 1: Review Anderson Point signs (Salter)**

Please review these sign drafts and bring comments to the meeting. One of the things Salter wants to know is where to put the logos ... in the left-side bar as in these drafts? horizontally along the bottom? elsewhere?

This sign presents information about early successional habitat and highlights its use by birds found at Anderson Point.

These two signs focus on the habitat at Anderson Point. The only difference is the tall grass photo (right column, center) - which do you prefer?
 * Version 1 has a closeup of meadow flowers, but a grey sky
 * Version 2 shows the meadow further away, but has a blue sky




 * NOTES:**
 * General agreement that signs were pretty much good to go
 * Brice asked if there was going to be a common brand - some discussion ensued. Discussion was essentially that WakeNature needs to respect that each municipality has its own sign program and look for ways to work within it.
 * Any final comments to Salter by Friday (11 Jan)
 * It was suggested that some of the photos on the signs show people enjoying the park
 * Let designers decide where logos fit best


 * Item 2: Priorities**
 * Complete NC Forest Service grant work - each of these items helps **tell the story**.
 * Complete and install signs at Anderson Point (already contracted, design underway)
 * Create WNPP brochure for distribution to munis and other interested parties (under way, but not complete - contract in place with Kaytee Smith; part of NCFS grant)
 * Develop ecosystem services fact sheets for a set of Wake County properties (under way, not not complete - contract in pace with Emily Schieffer through TLC; part of NCFS grant; Hammerbacher is leading)
 * We said we were going to do an award program in concert with Raleigh's environmental awards as another opportunity to **tell the story**. Aim is to be ready to go for 2014. (Blank & Pohlman said they would lead, with Hess helping)
 * Said we were going to get an article on N&O science pages - we need some publicity!! Possibly focus on interactive mapper. We can view the WakeNature Mapper as an important way to **tell the story.** (K. Smith said she'd lead)
 * Organize an event around the installation of the signs at Anderson Point, which **tell the story** of that place. (Ander & Salter)


 * NOTES:**
 * Agreement that priorities are appropriate
 * Connors noted that Wake Audubon will help with the event around the installation of signs at Anderson Point

//**Inventory Committee**// (Scott Pohlman, chairman) GOAL: **Places on the ground** - designate publicly accessible WakeNature Preserves.


 * Complete Swift Creek Bluffs Assemblage review process, giving use one **place on the ground** (Salter)
 * Get one or two more **places on the ground** ... possibilities include ...
 * possibilities include Lake Raleigh (NCSU), Hemlock BLuffs (Cary, retry), Blue Jay Point, Yates Mill, others being highlighted on mapper.
 * There's a 3-acre site on Barwell Road that has lots of Michaux sumac, owned by Raleigh Public Utilities. They have $$ to help pay for management, but nobody seems to want to take it on. (Salter mentioned this)
 * Potential WakeWonder site
 * Lobsinger will coordinate a WakeNature member volunteer day in April to clear vegetation around existing plants (Pohlman, Connors, Salter, Beedle, and Massa have committed)
 * Salter will contact Raleigh Utilities about necessary permits, volunteer waivers, etc.
 * Bass Lake in Holly Springs is getting ready to come on line with a preserve area of some kind
 * Continue work on and promote WakeNature interactive mapper to highlight current and potential **places on the ground**

NOTES
 * Hess reported on Blank's findings that Lake Raleigh is very unlikely to be granted WakeNature status, because of University politics. However, Schenck Forest has potential and could be done through the College of Natural Resources. Preliminary inquiries with Joe Cox, Forest Manager, were favorable and Blank is putting together a proposal for the College Forest Committee to review.
 * A small team led by Lobsinger will look into the Raleigh Public Utilities site on Barwell Road. Notion is to do the work and perhaps garner some publicity from it.

//**Capacity Committee**// (Gary Blank, chairman) GOAL: **Bring resource managers together** to carry out appropriate stewardship of the highest quality natural areas in Wake County.


 * Item 1: Priorities**
 * Develop a stewardship assets and need inventory county-wide, to position ourselves for how to recruit a volunteer network, develop a multi-jurisdictional resource-sharing position, and otherwise **bring resource managers together** (Blank). This need was pointed out by Hammerbacher, so that we can better position ourselves to make a funding pitch to get things started.
 * Regular workshops as a way to **bring resource managers together** to focus on particular needs and assets
 * Spring workshop on management planning (March)
 * Fall workshop (Sept) on what topic?
 * increased communication among natural areas managers in County
 * target continuing education units
 * Workdays
 * Said we were going to get a volunteer days program coordinated with Raleigh for their nature preserves - maybe Service Raleigh 23 March (Miller)
 * Potential workday at Mitchell Mill State Natural Area - Fall?


 * Item 2: March Workshop**
 * The tentative target date for the open space management planning workshop is still during spring break. Charlynne Smith and Jen Beedle (RRS) will assist Blank with planning the program. Through their upcoming contacts with Parks Directors and personnel across NC they will explore the question of best dates and also publicize the availability of the workshop. Hess suggested contacting Michael Kirshman (Charlotte) about participating.
 * Advantage of spring break date is availability of rooms on campus for holding indoor sessions; disadvantage is some possible participants (Moore, Hess) may not be available.


 * NOTES**
 * C. Smith will talk with Blank about details. Concerns expressed that early March might be too soon.
 * It was suggested that Blank and Miller resubmit the Service Raleigh proposal from last year for the Turnipseed work - Snow agreed.


 * Item 3: Volunteer Coordinator**
 * Blank asked Ms. Jamie Vincent (senior undergraduate doing a directed study focused on proposal writing) to investigate expected duties of volunteer coordinators (in organizations that have them), usual compensation rates, and potential funding sources, so she can begin constructing a proposal draft.
 * Blank and Vincent will be meeting weekly through the spring semester and develop a draft that could be modified as needed.


 * NOTES**
 * Connors is interested in volunteer coordination

//**Other Business**//

 * NOTES**
 * Lobsinger noted that the Delta Waterfowl group that has been managing and maintaining the wood duck boxes at Turnipseed is disappearing. This is unfortunate, because the boxes have been working really well. There have also been prothonotary warbler nests on the backs of some boxes. Connors said that he can likely get Ducks Unlimited or Wake Audubon to take over these duties.