Meeting+2011+Dec+1

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

Tweet about this meeting ... media type="custom" key="10130153"


 * Attendance Notes**

Attending: Pohlman, Cook, Holcombe, Blank, Steelman (presiding), Hess, (notes), Blank, Snow, Lobsinger, Sullivan, Perlmutter, Carr, Miller, Connors, Leung


 * Introductions as needed**

from george ... Need someone or some group to pull together a short history of WNPP for the new website. It would be cool to include things like a photo of Cup-a-Joes (too bad we didn't take any pictures at the time), us talking in meetings (anyone have any), etc. I'd be willing to help but prefer not to take the lead. http://wakenature.wordpress.com/about/history/


 * NOTES**
 * Hess will follow up with Lina Distillio
 * Holcombe will start looking at the information on the wiki to see what she can pull together

=Promotion Committee= 1. Fulbright eco-leadership grant submitted 11/.8.11: Hello Toddi, This is just to confirm that we have received your application for an Eco-Leadership award. Thanks and good luck! Jesse

2. Website feedback and launch - the website has been connected to www.WakeNature.org

3. Temporary signs for Turnipseed came in. Chris and Kaytee will report.


 * NOTES**
 * Fulbright is in and we should hear early next year
 * Holcombe is going through the website and cleaning up, as has Hess
 * Holcombe is working to consolidate photos from our events
 * Holcombe has created a welcome page on our WakeNature Facebook site. It links through the WordPress site
 * Question - should our Facebook site be a clearinghouse on which we post current news and information about our partners as well as WakeNature activities.
 * What is the process for getting news on the WakeNature site?
 * We should send news items to Holcombe for posting on the WakeNature site, and it will be automatically linked to our FaceBook page.
 * Marin County Parks in California has a really neat website with maps and field guides for all of their parks systems - check it out at @http://www.co.marin.ca.us/depts/PK/ParkRes/ - we'd need grants to do something like this. Blank suggested cultivating ties with some of the local computer / web development companies to get some //pro bono// work. Steelman will talk to a media contact at SAS to see if anyone's interested.
 * Holcombe brought a sample sign in 10x14-inch size with our logo, tag line, and QR Code - they look great
 * Holcombe brought a sample sign in 10x14-inch size with our logo, tag line, and QR Code - they look great

=**Inventory Committee**= //From Gary P.:// I tabulated the list of significant areas with their significant elements (natural communities, rare plant and animal species) from NHP's Wake County Inventory Report (2003), and posted it on the InventoryCommittee page of the wiki. Considering the age of this report, I included all sites, and have highlighted those held in private property. Can we discuss which, if any, have been transferred to public agencies and which could be potential WakeNature sites? This is to give an overview of what properties are out there.

//From george:// When I look at this list, the US Army Corps of Engineers cries out as an agency we should be making contact with and trying to get on board with our MOU.

David Carr is collecting the data to redo the analysis of open spaces in Wake County v. Significant Natural Heritage Areas and Element Occurrences.


 * NOTES**
 * Perlmutter has created a list of sites in the Natural Heritage document for Wake County (see link on InventoryCommittee page)
 * How do we prioritize? Pohlman suggested going after places where we're pretty confident we'd have a positive effect.
 * Snow noted that Army Corps is updating management plans around Falls Lake right now - suggested bring this to USACE's attention
 * Connors noted that USACE and State Parks and similar large orgs have their own inventory biologists
 * What are we asking of / offering to them? We'd like them to take on WNP designation and create appropriate natural resource management plans
 * Let them know who we are and what we're trying to do
 * Ask them if they'd like to work toward WNP designation, sign MOU
 * Let them know that we can help with public education
 * Should we put out appeals / queries to various jurisdictions to gauge interest NOW, because it takes so long to get things to happen? Yes - once we prioritize from the lists.
 * Carr is working on redoing the parks / natural heritage overlay analysis

=Capacity Building=

The FOR 784 class will present its findings and a Draft Management Plan for the Swift Creek Bluffs Assemblage to clients and interested parties on 14 December at 1:30 in Jordan Hall, room to be determined (probably 1214).


 * NOTES**
 * Draft will lay out findings and a list of issues that need to be resolved before this area could be designated a WNP
 * It will //not// be a management plan
 * Sullivan talked about work at Lake Raleigh Woods
 * Developing prescription for removal of Autumn Olive, and invasive shrub species - doing research on various mechanical / chemical approaches to removal.
 * Has been working with the Intro to NR class (service-learning)
 * Will include cost analysis and effectiveness
 * Testing 4 herbicides combined with mechanical removal
 * Cook noted that WRC would be very interested in the results, because they are now fighting this species in many places
 * Miller is working to build a volunteer database and requested input from anyone who knows past volunteers
 * Holcombe knows someone who has started to set up a website to serve as a volunteer clearing house; she will pass the information to Miller
 * Would like to know kinds of tasks we need help with for the next year
 * At Turnipseed we need the ponds pumped, some trash cleared, some invasive plants removed, more lupine planted
 * Pohlman noted that NC Forest Service has a program to grow out seeds to plants - we could do this for some plants on a restoration site
 * Would be nice to do some education and inventory work while we're out there too so that participants can do more than just brute labor
 * We need to be precise about what we want to do and start organizing now
 * Lobsinger or Sullivan will work with Miller on details of needs