Meeting+2016+Mar+3

//**WakeNature Preserves Partnership Meeting**//
Thursday 8:30-10 Location: Go inside the Stevens Nature Center at Hemlock Bluffs Nature Preserve, 2616 Kildaire Farm Rd, Cary, NC 27518

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 * Attendance Notes**

Connors, Shouse (presiding), Teten, Jeffries, Mark Johns (Town of Cary, Hemlock Bluffs), Amy Mackintosh (Town of Cary), Hammerbacher, Blank, Hess (notes), Massa, Fowler, Sarah Justice (Town of Cary, Env Outreach)


 * Introductions as needed**

Round of introductions - welcome and thanks to Town of Cary representatives for hosting the meeting.

// **Steering** // ** Committee ** (David Shouse, chairman) GOAL: ** Increase momentum ** by growing active signatory membership.

NC State has signed the MOU, so on board until 2021 Feb 11

Discuss inviting potential partners strategically for each of our upcoming meetings. April is at Umstead -


 * NOTES**
 * Shouse reviewed the MoU process and encouraged the Town of Cary to sing the MoU
 * Mark Johns indicated that if we send him the MoU he would forward to superiors for consideration [ Hess sent to Mark ]
 * Next meeting location
 * We going to hold at Bass Lake in Holly Springs in April (Trickel arranged)
 * Fowler will try to move May to Umstead

//**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.


 * Calendar of WakeWonder events
 * Each event has to include some information about WakeNature and why the site is a WakeWonder
 * Prairie Ridge 20 Feb - Twilight on the Prairie 16:30-18:30.
 * Connors and Goforth did the program
 * Joint WakeNature - NC Museum program - Connors + Smith on advertising
 * Hemlock Bluffs WakeNature tag-a-long event coming up March 19 - after Mark's adult botany class from 2-4 pm
 * Our event starts at 4P for about 2 hours
 * Mark to lead hike, talk to folks about Hemlock Bluff habitat, wildflowers, and amphibians after his Botany class
 * Deborah Fowler to give an intro to WakeNature, what a WW is, and why Hemlock was chosen as WW
 * Friends group is small and Mark said they don't usually come out for programs, but he said he can tell them about WN and see if anyone wants to join
 * How to market this and handle registration for additional participants? Up to 20 can sign up - Deborah can help with registration if Kaytee isn't able
 * TLC Swift Creek April 2 2-4P Mike Shafale - spring ephemerals, working in floodplains, etc - 15-20 registration limit
 * Longleaf 21 May. 11A-3P. Gary Perlmutter will do lichen hikes along peninsula trail
 * Blank will man WakeNature table.
 * County does wagon rides every 30 min into the longleaf area with interpretation.
 * Might also be some hikes scheduled into longleaf, with registration.
 * Brian Avery (Angier) will do a naval store exhibit - including re-enactment. Google "tar pitch and turpentine" for Youtube videos.
 * Wake County will handle registration.


 * NOTES**
 * Prairie Ridge
 * 20 Feb hike did NOT occur - result of miscommunication about advertising
 * Date not selected yet
 * Hemlock Bluffs
 * Comments as above
 * Mackintosh is co-chair or Native Plant Society and is often looking for locations to host events - would be interested in visiting WakeNature sites
 * Sarah Justice - Town of Cary has an Arbor Day festival coming up and has room for a booth - 20 March Sunday afternoon 1P-3P - downtown Cary, Page Walker Hotel area
 * Sarah Justice - fb page CaryItGreen
 * Should we do a booth
 * Hammerbacher and Fowler will attend to do a joint WakeNature / TLC booth
 * Sarah Justice will help market our 19 March event - Lobsinger will send her information
 * TLC has an event at the Frontier Center, RTP, on 9 March (next Wednesday)
 * TLC registration for Swift Creek Bluffs event is []

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

Walnut Hill BioBlitz - 2nd-3rd Week of May (Connors will work with Hammerbacher to select a date)
 * Open fields (130ac) in Conservation Reserve Program - where are the native plants?
 * NHP sites
 * Ephemeral pools with sphagnum moss and possible 4toed salamanders
 * Resource professionals and education & outreach people to attend
 * Alternatives to "BioBlitz" - over the next 2 months, have various focused inventories, but spread out rather than all on the same day (Connors) OR ask the people we need to come out on a specific day to collect data without calling it a Blitz (Hess)


 * NOTES **
 * Moving bioblitz to June (May too busy) to help TLC with planning for it as the next TLC / WakeNature preserve in Wake
 * This changes to some degree the species that we will see
 * Timeline to open is about 2 years
 * Thinking about a Friday / Saturday event with the Saturday afternoon being a public hike

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

Our discussion from last month about this year's training session was postponed to this month:

Training sessions - which ONE do we want to do
 * Hemlock Bluffs might be a good one - visitor management - fall
 * Robertson - beaver management - maybe March; Massa will follow up in WRC [ too soon? ]
 * Prairie Ridge or Harris - prescribed burns - maybe Harris can do a small demo - need to do during week - Fowler will follow up with Harris; Connors with Prairie Ridge - maybe May [ conflict with bioblitz ]
 * Swift Creek possibly for invasive plants [ fall could work ]
 * other options?

Beaver management workshop - Deborah Fowler & Brooke Massa Greg Batts, District Biologist for Wake County, will speak about an hour on managing beaver dams and lodges, and how to get assistance, etc. Will suggest March as the best time to manage beavers to 1) help reduce flooding problems in the summer, and 2) to have better visibility of beaver structures (i.e., no leaves on the trees), but this workshop will take place in the summer or fall at Turnipseed Nature Preserve, where the dam is more visible from the shoreline

Is this the workshop we want to do?


 * NOTES**
 * Spring is too busy so we're going to do a beaver workshop during the fall
 * Blank & Fowler will coordinate on a day in October - looking at Thursday afternoons to involve Blank's NR484 class in helping run the workshop; Hess' conservation students might also be interested in helping
 * Different agencies have different approaches - Massa will talk with Batts about the details here - there are lots of alternatives
 * Burns (Connors)
 * We should really be doing more burns and do training in burns - target is land managers, not open to the general public
 * We need to have a list of people to be notified if there's going to be a burn in the area so that they can see what it's like as a training experience
 * NC Forest Service and County agencies do some of the burning
 * TLC uses a private contracted because the Forest Service does huge plow lines
 * Could also bring people to places where burns have occurred, a year later, for an educational outreach
 * We should be planning to do this for next year

//**Other Business**//
February 24th invasive species removal workday at Turnipseed was cancelled due to inclement weather; will be reschedule