Meeting+2009+May+7

Thursday 2009 May 7 8:30-10 1214 Jordan Hall, NCSU Campus
 * Wake County Nature Preserves Meeting**

Wallace will be absent. Kaytee will be absent.
 * Attendance Notes**


 * Annotated Agenda Items**

//Please add items you'd like to see on the agenda by 5PM Tues before the meeting.//

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

The following things were supposed to happen from the 3/5 meeting:
 * 1) Marks Creek Data Analysis Update:**
 * Cheshire needs data sheets from Lisk.
 * Develop guidelines for mapping points versus areas, consistency in data collection and attributes.
 * Database organization and delivery - who keeps it, where stored, how delivered - ask Wake County
 * Lisk and Snow will look at attribute tables to think about what the items mean in terms of management action, what data might be missing, what data might be nice to have to help them do a better job of prioritizing and managing the site
 * Wake County needs to consider data management information

Will also look at them from an air quality indicator perspective.
 * NOTES**
 * FInal herptile surveys completed - report in progress
 * Cheshire - all May and Nov data completed; has been sharing with Wake County to make sure attribute fields are appropriate
 * Cheshire needs to know what maps are needed for the report
 * Lessons learned for next time - need better management of GPS units for data collection - clearer attributes and lists of item - more stringent procedures for entering and tracking data - standard data dictionaries
 * Cheshire will file a report telling us what's needed to do this better next time - will spec out the attribute tables she believes we should have so that they can be reviewed by all
 * Still need results from the forest inventory from Bullock's forest management class - this is being completed by William Bryant, a student doing the analysis this summer under the supervision of Blank,Treasure, Gavazi (sp), Hess
 * Lisk believes we have a good representation of the property at this point
 * Blank and Connors will work on the management plan this summer. Prescriptions will be developed for managing various aspects of the site. Blank will do further work on creating management prescriptions during his Protected Species course during Fall, 2009 semester. Blank and Lisk still refining detailed objectives for the property, but overall the Marks Creek assemblage will be managed as a natural area for nature-based recreational activities.
 * Bockham on NRLI projects - looks like Wake County will adopt the State Parks database system as developed by Tom Howard et al. Wake Info System team seems favorably disposed, but currently there is no money in the budget. Snow, Alexander, Shumante, Cienek and others are willing to pursue grant money to get this done. Need approx $7K.
 * Trickel - Management prescription recipe book is on hold until fall, when she and Bockham will pick it up again. This will be tied to what is done for the management plan for Marks Creek, coordinated through Blank.
 * Gary Perlmutter - NCDENR Division of Air Quality - works with lichens - doing inventories for his thesis project - has done a report for Umstead State Park, several TLC properties. Willing to inventory Marks Creek site. Will coordinate through Tim Lisk.

Future agenda item
 * Target 16 April: Data management - where housed, what are protocols, what is WakeNature's role (note that there is a meeting on 26 March of a county info services team to further discuss the idea of the state housing our data) - before this happens, the county needs to be able to look at the Marks Creek data - Cheshire needs to complete data first.

Partnership members will provide brief update on site visit at White Deer Park in Garner that was held Tuesday, April 14.
 * 2) Update on White Deer Park Visit**


 * NOTES**

Snow reported. Construction of facilities is under way, including parking lots, sewer line easement with greenways. Wallace has written recommendations (see above). Next steps: Unclear. Some development of interpretive material might be sought. Ball in Garner's court.

Connors: In terms of nature preserve criteria, how do highly impacted places like this fit in? Do we really want to call heavily damaged places like this "Nature Preserves"? Similar issues for Walnut Creek in Raleigh - heavily affected.


 * 3) Roger Winstead photos** -- what to do with them? EVERYONE IS GOING TO IDENTIFY KEY PHOTOS WITH A RATIONALE OF WHY THEY ARE IMPORTANT FOR US TO GET APPROVAL TO USE AND UPLOAD ONTO OUR PICASA SITE. FIND THE PHOTOS [|HERE]. INDICATE WHICH PHOTOS YOU WANT AND WHY BELOW:

George: I was looking for something to use on the wiki home page, but it was so grey and dreary that day that nothing is jumping out at me. Toddi: I nominate 0235 and 0272 and 0276-- good shots of tools/training going on near beaver pond 0322 and 0330-- good shot of people with beaver pond in background 0367-- good shot of john explaining 0383-- measuring boulders 0232-- learning about granite outcrops

Hess will follow up through Tilla Fearn to get permission to use these for web, publications, grant applications, etc.
 * NOTES**

Kaytee-- RSVP count: 18 Total Sabrina Thompson Stephen Bentley Tiffany Frost Kaytee Holcombe Ed Johnson George Hess Jamie Ramsey Tim Lisk Chris Snow Charlynne Smith Jacquelyn Wallace Louise Alexander Leigh Ann Cienek Jackie Trickel Russ Stephenson Nancy McFarlane From Jacquelyn Wallace: I'd like to go on the field trip. I also can take my work truck, and can fit one more person in the truck. I live in Carrboro, though, so if there's anyone coming from the Chapel Hill/Carrboro area, it might make sense for us to carpool and meet you guys there since we'll be 45 mins west of NCSU. Do you think that would work? Do you know if anyone is coming from the Chapel Hill/Carrboro area?
 * 4) Charlotte Nature Preserves trip updates:**

Kaytee: We need to decide where we would like to meet at, but I don't think we will be able to have people park on campus. We may want to meet at a place that has a parking lot and everyone go from there. I am not sure if we will all be able to fit in Sabrina's van, so we may need to get the one from Wake County. Let me know so that I can send out the reminder and details next week.

Thanks!

From Jaime: Good news, if you haven't already heard we will have two Raleigh City Councilors come with us to Mecklenburg Co. Russ (at-large) and Nancy McFarlane (District A, No. Raleigh) __and__ perhaps Julian Prosser or someone from his department. Julian runs the Administrative Services Dept (they do the City-wide sustainability stuff and also real estate, including staffing the Environmental Advisory Board).

Hess will follow up with Holcombe to get agenda finalized and posted.
 * NOTES**

Dear Bronson and all,
 * 4.5) Help with Lichens (Gary Perlmutter)**

I apologize for the inconvenience of this e-mail re-route, but as this is not work-related, I need to use my personal e-mail address per state e-mail policy. That said, I would like to re-iterate my interest in conducting a lichen survey at the Mark's Creek site. This would involve visiting the site for 1 or more days, depending on its size and diversity of habitats, and collecting vouchers of all taxa encountered. Lichens are perennial organisms, so any time of the year is fine for survey work. Vouchers would be deposited in the UNC Herbarium (NCU) in Chapel Hill, where I would determine their identities using laboratory methods (i.e. microscopy and chemical testing). Some specimens would need advanced techniques, which I would send duplicates to experts in the New York Botanical Garden and elsewhere for determination. I've attached one of my publications from a lichen survey conducted at William B. Umstead State Park to illustrate how rich the lichen flora can be in local forests.

Since this work would be on my own time, are there contract opportunities with Wake County or similar funding available?

I visited your website, and if accepted to conduct this lichen survey, would like to join the Wake Nature Preserves partnership, as this is right in my back yard (I live and work in north Raleigh). I think this effort is a great idea and would be honored to participate in its development.

I look forward to hearing from you about further details.

Cheers, Gary


 * NOTES** See Item 1

I (george) **received this email from Kate Dixon (Friends of Mountains-to-Sea Trail) ... Any thoughts?
 * 5) Request for Potential Collaboration

**Date:** 2009 April 3 14:14:48 EDT **Subject:** **conservation assesements and management plans in Marks Creek area** **To:** pete.cowell@ncmail.net, amin.davis@ncmail.net, george_hess@ncsu.edu, John.Connors@ncmail.net **Cc:** sue.regier@ncmail.net, darrell.mcbane@ncmail.net
 * From:** kdixon@ncmst.org

Dear Pete, Amin, George and John:

Sue Regier and I were just talking about the330-acre Riverwalk tract that State Parks has just acquired on the Neuse and Marks Creek in Johnston County. She said that Pete Cowell and Amin Davis of State Parks have been out on the land dealing with management issues related to a gas line.

I mentioned that John Connors (with the NC Museum of Natural Science) and George Hess (with NCSU) are involved in conservation assessments and management plans for land in the Marks Creek area. I don’t know whether this new tract might be incorporated into those efforts, but I thought I would connect you all up by e-mail in the event that it would be helpful to any of you.

Connors suggest sharing our information with them, inviting them to presentations about this area. Pretty far from Wake County's Marks Creek property - will be connected by the Mountains to Sea Trail
 * NOTES**

Thank you for your application for a City of Raleigh 2009 Environmental Award.
 * 6) Environmental Awards**

The Environmental Awards Jury has met and made their selections for the year. Your project was not selected this year, but I would encourage you to reapply next year.

You are also invited to attend the program next week. The Environmental Awards program is an open public event and all interested citizens are encouraged to attend.