Meeting+2009+Jan+08

Thursday 2009 Jan 8 8:30-10 **3213 Jordan Hall**, NCSU Campus
 * Wake County Nature Preserves Meeting**

Bockham, Holcombe, Trickel, Lisk, Cheshire, Steelman (chairing), Ramsey, Hess, LeGrand (new from Natural Heritage), Connors, Blank
 * Attendance Notes**


 * Introductions as needed** (5 minutes)

Harry LeGrand from Natural Heritage will be the new NHP rep to this group, replacing Kristen Sinclair in that capacity.


 * Annotated Agenda Items**

Evaluation of Wake Nature Efforts to date.

Please see.

NOTE: Jamie and Toddi submitted our application to the Raleigh Environmental Awards.

Steelman reviewed how the Partnership came into being. Among successes, Blank noted that in addition to a management plan template the Marks Creek plan is mostly completed and should be up on the wiki on the Marks Creek page. (Hess needs to check with Alexander on that.) (Blank notes that its the Turnipseed 1 document on the resources page)
 * NOTES**

Several pointed out that we've been more successful than noted in volunteer efforts. Lisk noted that we've all been learning through that process and that things will continue to move forward - but that it's just a slow process. The county sees what we've been doing as a big help. Lots of new county open space coming on line, but stewardship end is still lagging.

Connors noted that a simple "parkland" designation does not protect the natural resource values on those lands, because of pressures from other users (mountain bikers, ATVs, etc). We have not finished the plan yet, because we're doing it to a greater depth than we can possibly do for other sites. BUT we hope that we'll have an example that other agencies can use. Sees a goal for this year being to create a set of stewardship guidelines for particular types of resource - the recipe book idea. For example, we've seen lots of rock outcrops at Marks Creek and we should develop some "generic" management prescriptions for rock outcrops.

Connors noted that we really need to keep track of ALL volunteer hours, because these help fund positions. We should develop an approach to tacking this. Connors will send Hess an electronic version of the official tracking sheet for posting on wiki. We should all keep up with this and turn in to Wallace from time to time. Discussion of what the long term vision for Marks Creek is led to discussion of how we get to the point of being able to designate parks or portions of parks as Nature Preserves. Ramsey pointed out that there is precedent already with Hemlock Bluffs Nature Preserve, for example (state preserve, run by Cary, part of Cary Parks system). LeGrand noted that only portions of a park might be designated as Nature Preserves, with other portions being used for more active purposes.

Steelman wondered how we bring together the bottom up process we're currently doing with the top down process of creating a policy that says there will be a Nature Preserve classification. Hess noted that the folks from Mecklenburg would be willing to talk to us about how they got through that process - he will follow up if the group wishes. Ramsey noted that the County has been instrumental as taking a leadership role in this whole process, and that someone has to step up at some point and say "Yes, we will have a Nature Preserve designation."

Ramsey wondered what we expected others (eg, munis) to commit to before we will work with them. Ideally, County might start the ball rolling by designating some portion of Marks Creek a Nature Preserve to demonstrate how that works. Then other munis might go along.

Connors noted the Apex example. They came to our directors meeting, heard what we were doing, got excited. WNNP sent two people out for two hours and gave them a good idea of what they had out there. Hess noted that we might be able to make inroads with the municipalities by working in more depth with Apex. Connors noted that we could go back in the spring, perhaps with students, to do some inventory work on the site. Holcombe noted that Apex is building an environmental ed center on the site and we could have a role there in terms of education. Trickel noted that one thing we might do is help support changes in the location of soccer fields, dog parks, etc to respect the natural resources on the site. We'd like in future cases to see the munis come to us when they buy a property and BEFORE they develop plans to find out what's there.

Blank wondered why the munis do not have to do an assessment, under State Environmental Protection Act, when public funds are being spent on parks. Steelman noted that this is likely not a role we want to play.

Steelman asked if Apex is another good opportunity for us to take a step forward and learn how to transfer the process from one organization (Wake) to another (Apex). Ramsey noted that Garner is also doing a nature park and could present another opportunity. Steelman noted that we want to be able to articulate a clear, step-by-step process for making this happen. We haven't done this yet - we have products, but no step-by-step - that's something that needs done.

Ramsey noted that we still need to have a volunteer coordinator. Not clear that we're ready for this - we need to have clearer ideas of what the roles are for the volunteers.

List of potential goals for this year
 * Start the stewardship guidelines recipe book. (Connors, Wallace, Bockham, Trickel)
 * Connors expects that it will take another 6 months to complete the Marks Creek Management Plan.
 * A step-by-step guide for doing what we think should be done in a form that is clear to the "uninitiated." We can use Apex as the model for developing this. (Blank, Hess)
 * Work with the County to see how we might create a Nature Preserves or similar designation as park of their Parks & Open Space system. (This would likely go through the Wake County Open Space and Parks Advisory Committee as a first step.)
 * Revisit Nature Preserve criteria to see if they need revision. (Ramsey)

Short term action items
 * See if Apex is interested, create a workday for April, invite other munis to come to witness. (Connors)
 * Revisit criteria. (Ramsey)
 * Hess to get list of NHP sites in parks on wiki.

Medium term
 * Target going to Wake County Open Space and Parks Advisory Committee with the Marks Creek example in June. Goal is to get them to recommend adoption of a Nature Preserve category.
 * Working with Apex, assuming they would like to work with us


 * NEXT MEETING** is 22 Jan and must focus on the capacity building workshop in February.