Meeting+2010+May+20

Thursday 2010 May 20 8:30-10 1214 Jordan Hall, NCSU Campus
 * Wake County Nature Preserves Meeting**


 * Annotated Agenda Items**


 * Introductions as needed** (5 minutes)

Attending: Blank, Connors, Hess (Notes), Steelman, Willis, Schmidt, Gillen, Ramsey, Scott Anderson (Wildlife Resources), Trickel

PROS received support for continuing involvement in WNPP and approval to apply for Nature Preserve status!
 * County Commissioners Meeting Update-**- Chris, George, Toddi


 * NOTES**
 * Unanimous approval
 * Alexander has application ready to go - will deliver
 * Legwork in advance paid off

Now what do we do ??
 * Application Process-**-

Proposal from Hess
 * Establish working committee for this
 * Set up review rubric / guidelines / checklist or something like that
 * What is the standard for acceptance / denial?
 * What does applicant get once approved?
 * Accept Wake County application
 * Review application


 * NOTES**
 * Management plan is a work in progress - how do you evaluate a work in progress?
 * Do we judge agency's adequacy of resources to do what they say they're going to in the management plan?
 * Standing subcommittee that brings in expertise as needed on a per-application process
 * We will establish a subcomm and work the Wake Application through the process
 * Jacquelyn, John, Scott Pohlman, Chris, George, Amanda W.
 * Report back by 3 June
 * Hess will try to schedule meeting for next two weeks
 * Committee to document process as well as review this particular (Wake County) application
 * Note that application and process are not very conspicuous on the wiki - Hess to follow up

We agreed to move forward using NHP and WAP criteria to see what these look like on 1) "easier" sites where we don't expect much of a problem for designation; and 2) "more challenging" sites that might be more tricky. We will ground truth these in our next meeting while also looking at Eno River criteria and Durham Co OS criteria.
 * Raleigh Nature Parks and Preserves Partnership Task Force Update**-- Toddi, George

No notes - progress is good.

Proposal submitted by students What do we do next? Here's the plan: [|WakeNaureCommPlan.pdf]
 * Communication Plan/Class Update**-- Shawn, Toddi

From George: I love the tag line they came up with (well, a shortened version): **Promising Nature's Future** (their long version was "Protecting, Planning, and Promising Nature's Future") ... as in **//WakeNature Preserves Partnership: Promising Nature's Future//**


 * NOTES**
 * Good strategic foundation for a marketing plan, based on strengths/weaknesses/threats/opportunities (SWOT) analysis - very useful input for future use
 * Threat - why should people care? What will legislators do with respect to open space?
 * There was an alternate tag line - Promising Nature a Future - this kind of answers the "Why should I care?" question
 * Hess to get email contacts for whole team from Tondo so Shawn can follow up
 * Education should be a strong component of anything we offer


 * We need to be coordinating with LaTroya for video footage for the WNPP video
 * Hess has contacted Perlmutter to ask him to contact - Perlmutter has already been in touch with LaTroya
 * Connors and Snow will be in touch as well


 * Candidate for WNPP Logo** (Shawn Gillen)




 * NOTES**
 * Shawn showed two versions of a logo - one for the partnership itself and one as a preserve sign
 * Both are straight black/white silhouette designs
 * Need to consider how to incorporate site / jurisdiction specific details on the sign - overall sense was that the sign should be a standalone that goes out with the jurisdiction's signs
 * County uses routed PVC or signs - white plus one color
 * Will be designed to work both large and small - there might need to be a simplified small version
 * Shawn will continue working on this

What does LaTroya need? What do we need to accomplish over the summer?
 * Summer Volunteer Activities**


 * NOTES**
 * Lupine establishment - plots have been cleared and there is a time scheduled in June to do the work


 * Other items**
 * Snow raised an issue that Mark Vossberg from WakeTech has asked about a class doing some service-learning work at Turnipseed - this is for a biology class. How should we proceed? Chris will follow up and put Vossberg in touch with others as needed.
 * Snow reported Delta Waterfowl has nest boxes on Turnipseed as well - wood duck boxes - has been very successful - again, how do we coordinate and integrate this with WakeNature? Chris will follow up and see if a rep wants to come to a meeting.
 * Trickel reported on database activity. The database has been approved by Wake County and funded for work to create the database using the State Parks database model. Tom Howard (State Parks) will do the work and it will take about 6 months before it's live for the public.
 * Steelman noted that we really will need a good PR campaign when we roll out Turnipseed as a WNPP
 * Snow noted that he'd like to let an NCSU PRTM class design Turnipseed - parking is the biggest issue