Meeting+2008+Jul+2

1214 Jordan Hall, NCSU Campus
 * Wake County Nature Preserves Meeting**
 * WEDNESDAY** 2008 Jul 2 8:30-10


 * Attendance Notes**


 * Annotated Agenda Items**

//Please add items you'd like to see on the agenda by Mon 30 Jun 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, new, and long-absent members)** (5 minutes)

- Draft management plan template
 * Management Plan Committee Recommendations** (Alexander / Sinclair / Shumate - 20 min)

- This discussion was rather far-ranging, so bear with me on the notes (george) - Template looks good, but needs input from Wake County - they are the property owners. Does the template meet their needs? Things missing? - Current goal is to have a draft plan for Mark's Creek by Dec 2008, but it's not clear who is actually going to write it. Shumate's name was mentioned, as her NCSU graduate project, but the timing is not right (she's only starting in the fall). - There could be great value in an NCSU course on developing such plans taught in a service-learning manner, but again the timing is not right. It's also clear that this would not be the answer to all of Wake's needs. Gary would be interested in leading such a course. - Wake has some 100 properties that will need management plans. Clearly, this group will not be able to do all of those in anything resembling a timely manner. - Wake County has some 5-6 overarching goals that can be found in their Consolidated Open Space Plan. These will need to be prioritized for individual sites (ie, they'll be different for each site). - Raleigh hires consultants to do baseline inventory / assessment on all new properties; Wake currently does not do that. How would a consultant integrate with any service-learning work going on around a property? - Connors noted that our group should stay out of the business of general baseline data and focus on management plans for natural areas. He also wondered if the level of inventory we're doing at Marks Creek might be too much to expect for all sites, given resources available.
 * NOTES**

- Again, we talked about potential products of our initial effort and what we might show municipalities
 * List of properties that fit natural area criteria
 * advice about what a management plan should include
 * held with completing the management plan (access to volunteers and resources)

- We need to move forward on contacting municipal partners
 * Need **willing** partners
 * Work from list of project sites, that Cheshire will be providing soon from GIS data, and from people who have already contacted us

- Management plan template
 * Action items**
 * Needs list of overarching goals
 * Needs some additional work to final draft
 * Need direction on what to do next with respect to this template and the Marks Creek plan
 * Ramsey & Sinclair agreed to think about this and report by next meeting (17 July )
 * Snow agreed to review and comment on plan template by next meeting (17 July )

- Contacting municipal partners
 * Snow / Reis / Alexander agreed to develop some ideas on how to do this for next meeting (17 July )

- Jackie is working on database issues and a management plan for her Natural Resources Leadership Institute practicum. She's still in the proposal development stage for her project. She'll fill us in and we'll explore how we can help one another.
 * Jackie Trickel** (10 min)

- Jackie Trickel and Colleen Bockhahn are working on projects for the Natural Resources Leadership Institute. - Focus is on developing an inventory database for Wake County Parks & Open Space, but can add munis later without too much trouble - Also developing very basic management plans for the parks they managed (Jackie managed Crowder, Colleen manages Lake Crabtree) - looking at  a few very specific areas within each park - They don't currently have a natural resource inventory to work with
 * NOTES**

- Details on inventory database
 * currently being developed for Wake County only
 * awaiting approval from County information systems group
 * will keep it flexible enough so that an ownership field could be added later to allow municipalities to join
 * Jackie & Colleen are planning a meeting that would include WakeNature to discuss database specifications

- Lack of NR inventory
 * WakeNature can help by providing volunteer coordination to get inventories done
 * our approaches can be used as a model by any parks

- **Management Plan Catalog / Stewardship Library**
 * Discussion of lack of inventory and management plans led to an interesting new way to think about the management plans being developed. Any stewardship recommendations we make for a particular site can be cataloged and, to some degree, applied to other places with similar issues.  For example, many places have rocks overgrown with exotic plants.  The recommendations for this might be applied in other places.  Management plans for particular properties might then refer to entries in this catalog.
 * We would maintain a catalog of issues / problems and potential management responses.

- Management plan team will consider this stewardship library concept.
 * Action Items**

- Where are we? Where are we going? - Where do we stand with our action plan drafted 2007 October? //Short Term// //Medium Term// //Long term//
 * Review** (Hess - 30 min)
 * Do we have a stewardship coordinator yet?
 * We do not have a white paper
 * We have not presented to all parks directors, but we have presented to all mayors
 * We almost have a list of properties for the county (from Cheshire's GIS / service-learning efforts this spring)
 * Demonstration project at Marks Creek underway
 * We do not have a graduate student
 * We have not obtained any outside funding
 * Jon Stucky doing service-learning in Fall (botanicals)
 * Made contact with Sherry Dutton to get volunteer coordinator in Fall to help develop volunteer network
 * Provide incentives - no activity
 * Adoption of consistent classification - classification in draft form, talked with Mayors, contact with parks depts pending
 * Raise public awareness - no real activity


 * Develop action items** (15 min)