Meeting+2008+May+15

Wake County Nature Preserves Meeting Thurs 2008 May 15 8:30-9:30 1214 Jordan Hall, NCSU Campus

Shumate, Snow, C.Smith, Hess, Cheshire, Blank, Connors, Alexander, Ramsey, Wallace.
 * Attending:**


 * Annotated Agenda Items**

//Please add items you'd like to see on the agenda by Tues 13 May 5PM//

//Please add your pre-meeting discussion of these items under the item right here on the agenda, or on the appropriate linked page.//


 * Introductions (old and new members)** (5 minutes)


 * Marks Creek Status and Planning** (Hess, Connors, 25 min)
 * How is the rest of the inventory going to get done?

- Connors noted that one of largest issues with volunteers is clear boundaries of where to survey. Blank concurred. Connors has herp people ready to go, but needs either GPS or clear boundary markers. - Shumate and Alexander will probably paint-mark the boundary; will coordinate with Snow. - Snow will see if it's OK for us to inventory the "hole" (area not currently owned by County, but under negotiation) while we're out there. This would greatly simplify boundary issues with volunteers. - Connors is doing vertebrates. - Stucky currently planning on doing plants with his fall class. - It would be nice if all volunteers had access to GPS units ... could we possibly find funding to get some loaner units? - Connors / Sinclair / Wallace will meet to create a standardized data form. We still don't quite know how we will store data on the back end. Colleen Bockham and Jackie Trickel are working with Tom Howard (State Parks) and Wake County Info Services on something, and will update us soon. -
 * NOTES**


 * Reaching out to Parks Directors** (Ramsey, Hess, Snow, 15 min)
 * How to proceed

- We've had contacts from Raleigh (M.Salter), Cary, and Holly Springs - Once Cheshire provides list of exceptional natural areas by muni, we can start a conversation with places that have them in their parks systems (Raleigh and Cary certainly do). - What we're after at this point is just a conversation about resources (theirs and ours), needs, best management practices, intended direction, and our mission and goals. We're still trying to build capacity, and these folks can probably help us do that. - Very low-key conversations
 * NOTES:**


 * Further GIS Work** (C. Smith, 10 min)

- C.Smith presented her thought that for her GIS capstone in the fall (this is a new course), she could have the students do an in-depth needs assessment and data management plan. We all agreed this would be a very good idea, as we've been doing a lot of talking about data management, but not much work - and data are starting to come in (e.g., Cheshire's class, the service-learning workshop ). - Connors noted that there are some very neat rock outcrops on the site that could stand to be mapped, including info about whether they are covered by native communities or invasives, whether they are good viewpoints, and so forth. - This might be integrated with the work being done by Bockham, Trickel, and Howard (not a law firm ;-) - Cheshire is cleaning up the data from her recent course and will work with Hess & Alexander to deliver final product - Cheshire offered that her intro GIS course (PRT462) requires a project, has 80 students, and could easily do some very specific task-oriented things for us. - Cheshire also mentioned her graduate Spatial Analysis course in the fall. Several noted that this might be a good venue to actually start mapping the boundaries of Exceptional and Outstanding Natural Areas at Marks Creek - and figuring out how to do that. This might be coordinated with her GPS course, also offered in the fall (though it might be logistically difficult to get the students out there). - What data do we actually want and need, and how will it be used? Points back to the need for a needs assessment. Soon.
 * NOTES:**


 * Summer Meeting Schedule**

If we stay on the same schedule (1st & 3rd Thurs), we would meet ... 5 & 19 June 3 & 17 July 7 & 21 Aug


 * NOTES:** Agreed to maintain meeting schedule.


 * Volunteers**

- This discussion arose. - Hess reported that NCSU's non-profit internship has low enrollment this summer and we might not be able to get an intern this summer. More likely in the fall. - Snow noted that he had a Parks, Rec, & Tourism student interested in doing work on volunteer ID and matching and the he and Shumate would look into that. Snow would hire this student as an intern to start the work - Ramsey mentioned that at the Sierra Club meeting she presented to (see below), someone mentioned a group affiliated with the NCSU Vet School (http://emc.ncsu.edu/ "Environmental Medicine Consortium") that might help do wildlife inventory work. - We clearly need a web site or some other clearninghouse to make these connections obvious.
 * NOTES:**

- Shumate (after meeting) noted that it might be a good idea to have something like our service-learning workshop on a quarterly basis as a way to bring other partners on board and get new people excited about the partnership. This might also be a good way to orient volunteers to our processes. This might be more of a workday than a workshop. Could be both - so orientation in the morning, out to site to do work, lunch, then some people leave and some stay for the back-end service-learning stuff. - Snow noted that he had heard that Raleigh does a natural resources inventory on every property they purchase at time of purchase. Is this true? - Need to go back to our action plan and mark of things we've done - how are we doing?
 * Other items**


 * Reports and Updates:**


 * Update on presentation to the Wake Co. Open Space and Parks Advisory Committee (OSAPAC):** The Committee unanimously expressed its support for the work of the Partnership and for the County staff's involvement. Members made various suggestions, including: recruit volunteers from the NC Herpetological Society, hope that management philosophy and practices would also help greenway areas, bring animals to presentations, include as an element of long range planning, document and report natural springs, cemetaries and archeological sites found in inventorying.