Meeting+2014+Mar+6

//**WakeNature Preserves Partnership Meeting**//
Thursday 8:30-10 Historic Yates Mill County Park, Lake Wheeler Road (visit park website for directions)

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 * Attendance Notes**

Snow (presiding), Pohlman, Connors, Hammerbacher, Perlmutter, K. Smith, Hess (Notes)

// **Steering** // ** Committee ** (Scott Pohlman, chairman) GOAL: ** Increase momentum ** by growing active signatory membership.
 * John Connors and Scott Pohlman brief on February 6th presentation at NC Museum.
 * Apex Nature Park update.


 * NOTES**
 * Connors and Pohlman talked at the NC Museum of Sciences last month right after our meeting - this is a professional development activity for the Museum
 * Attended by about 20 people, mostly Museum and DNER people
 * Talked about WakeNature and the Brain Dump - new name ... WakeNature Data RoundUp
 * Some people indicated interest in doing field work as needed
 * Apex Nature Park
 * David Wood will be lead at Apex Nature Park once the Environmental Education Center is built, which could be 5-7 years off - he is point of contact
 * Wood is interested in a management plan, trails, interpretive signage
 * Park has now been built - there are parking lots and some active recreation areas
 * Connors (leading), Massa, & Pohlman will revisit approx May to take a quick look. Once they do that and report back, Hess & Blank will look into setting up an independent study for a group of undergrads or a project for a grad student to work on an inventory and management plan

//**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.


 * Planning for the May Un-Conference: Also known as the "Brain Dump' of 'Gray Matters,' Kaytee Smith and John Connors have already begun talking through the day-long event, and will bring an update and questions to the broader group.
 * Location is 4th floor of Nature Research Center

> > Goal: Bring together people who have a connected history to natural areas for the exploration in Wake County on public and/or private land, for the purpose of protection and stewardship. > > This is your (other naturalist/educators/scientists) opportunity to highlight naturally rich areas in Wake County and share with other areas that are ecologically significant. > > WakeNature is particularly interested in sites that may have been overlooked or locally rare, but do not rise to the level of SNHA or EOs.
 * **WakeNature Data Roundup 2014**


 * Resources we may need:
 * Maps – printed natural heritage or Triangle Land Conservancy.
 * Sticky Arrows – staples willing to donate.
 * Digitally –


 * Tables will be specific groupings: Birds, Mammals, Plants, Reptiles, Amphibians, Invertebrates, Geology, Natural Communities
 * Moderators at each table
 * Highlight plants, animals and communities.
 * Assign duties as needed.
 * Promotion snail mail and email


 * NOTES**
 * We need to keep an eye on our space, because DNER is changing the way it was done
 * Open drop-in sessions 9A-2P
 * Sessions organized by taxa to concentrate expertise, but people can come any time (eg, birds 9-10A; mammals 10-11, etc)
 * Who do we invite? Museum people, NC State people, agency people
 * Could WakeNature give a talk at the daily planet?
 * Crowd-sourcing network that people can add to beforehand - google maps based (Hammerbacher & Hess will work)
 * Would be nice to have paper maps, digital maps, digital and paper resources
 * Pohlman will work on figuring out what maps we need and how to format them
 * Consider printing County in sections / quadrants
 * Neat to have a crew of tech people working in real time to take information from paper maps and get it loaded onto google maps, which is projected live on a wall
 * Hess will pull together some people from NCSU (himself and through C Smith)
 * K Smith will check resources with Museum
 * Pohlman will check resources with DNER
 * Ask people to bring photos and have a scanner available - vintage photos
 * Set up a flickr site so that people can upload photos in advance
 * How do we divide invertebrates?
 * What kind of funding and sponsorship do we want - K Smith will lead
 * coffee, snacks, juices, lunches for volunteers


 * State of the Museum Address happened yesterday (2014 Mar 5)
 * Hosting annual Association of Science-Technology Centers conference ... 2014 Oct 18-21
 * We could report on the WakeNature Data Roundup at this conference


 * Kaytee is doing videos for the museum and blogging - can highlight WakeNature through this


 * Hess' class will be presenting work from their Raleigh greenways study at the Nature Research Center on 29 April 1.30-3.30PM
 * Perlmutter gearing up for field work on lichens at Mitchell's Mill, Schenck Forest, Harris Lake for his thesis.


 * Brochure is about ready to be printed - will print about 100
 * Hess needs to change name of Raleigh Parks on the websites

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


 * NC Musuem preparing management plan for Blue Pond. Should we see about making it the first Wake Wonder?


 * NOTES**
 * Trickel wants Harris Lake to be the first WakeWonder (semi-joking)
 * Jerry Reynolds (NC Museum) is developing a management plan for Blue Pond - has Tiger Salamanders - probably some time in 2014

//**Capacity Committee**// (Gary Blank, chairman) GOAL: ** Bring resource managers together ** to carry out appropriate stewardship of the highest quality natural areas in Wake County.
 * Service Raleigh takes place in March. John Connors notes that Anderson Point is using some NCSU vol for habitat work.
 * Barwell Road


 * NOTES**
 * None of the WakeNature sites are using Service Raleigh this year.
 * Doing invasive species removal at Anderson Point
 * Barwell Road
 * Melissa Salter worked with Dale Suiter on the Michaux sumac last year - sumac was in good condition and they removed some of the invasive plants and "released" the sumac by removing adjacent vegetation
 * Hammerbacher will see if she can get a more organized approach to this within Public Utilities (where she now works)

//**Other Business**//

 * Any word on moving sumac from Gary Blank's yard to Turnipseed?? Hess will check
 * We can create multiple populations - one at power line, one where we had planted the lupine
 * Reaching out to Native Plant Society - Pohlman emailed but hasn't heard; will call
 * Need to check back with TLC about Swift Creek Bluffs - Hammerbacher will touch base with Rutledge
 * Next month we will meet at Yates Mill - what about after that?
 * K Smith will check room at Museum for May, June, July
 * Steering committee will meet the Thurs before each WakeNature meeting