Meeting+2008+Jun+5

Wake County Nature Preserves Meeting Thurs 2008 Jun 5 8:30-9:30 This is a classroom just down the hall from our usual room.
 * NOTE ROOM CHANGE FOR THIS MEETING**: 1218 Jordan Hall, NCSU Campus

Present: Cienek, Sinclair, Connors, Blank, Cheshire, Ramsey, C. Smith, Alexander, Flournoy, Shumate, Hess
 * Attendance Notes**


 * Annotated Agenda Items**

//Please add items you'd like to see on the agenda by Tues 3 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.//

- Bill Flournoy, who is now President of Triangle Greenways Council, will attend.
 * Introductions (old and new members)** (5 minutes)
 * Flournoy and Triangle Greenways are interested in learning how we can work together to help manage important natural features along the greenways.

- Report on findings from her course - where are exceptional natural areas in the county and municipalities? - This will be used to start conversations with munis
 * GIS results** (Cheshire confirmed, 20 min)

- Cheshire showed the group the maps and tables available. We agreed on a basic set of tables we'd like to see.
 * NOTES**

- Hess will work with Cheshire to complete.
 * ACTION ITEMS**

- Subcom of Shumate / Sinclair will report on their look at other management plans
 * Management Plans** (Shumate / Sinclair confirmed, 20 min)

Sinclair and Shumate presented plans from Mecklenburg County, Chicago Wilderness, Fairfax Co (VA), and the Eno River Association's Blue Indigo Plan.
 * NOTES**

The recommendation from the committee examining these plans is that the Mecklenburg County Nature Preserve Master Plan (copy linked to resources page ) is a good model for high-level identification and justification of a nature preserve system. It contains background information on each of the nature preserves in the system, including maps of exceptional, outstanding, and other natural areas. Sinclair and Shumate noted that Mecklenburg had identified some 20-odd potential nature preserves but, based on documented criteria, selected about 10 of the most important for their system. We expect that WakeNature would make similar recommendations with partners in the County. The document also included information about the siting of 3 environmental centers within the system. Management plans are not part of this document.

Connors noted that Charles Yelton, who now works at Prairie Ridge here in Raleigh, spent a lot of time working with Mecklenburg Parks and would be willing to talk to us about how their system worked.

Further recommendation is that the Eno River Association Blue Indigo document provides a good model for site-specific management plans. It includes detailed management prescriptions that pick up where the general goals and recommendations of the Mecklenburg Master Plan leaves off. It was suggested that we develop a template / outline based on this document as a model for what should be included in a WakeNature Management Plan. Gary Blank has agreed to make a first cut at this.

We should incorporate existing management plans, for such places as Hemlock Bluffs, into any system of Nature Preserves in Wake - we should not (can not) reinvent the wheel.

Someone asked how we integrate recreation and nature protection an a single property and get these management plans done. Some ideas include possible service-learning courses led by R. Moore and Y-F Leung through NCSU's Parks, Recreation, and Tourism Management Dept; a revision of the Natural Resource Management (NR400) course in NCSU's Forestry & Environmental Resources Dept; and graduate students working on non-thesis masters.

Hess noted that we could use the Eno document as a template / example to show municipalities right now rather than waiting a year for Marks Creek to be completed - at least in initial discussions.

We noted that management plans typically take a natural communities-based approach, but that the natural communities in many of the properties we're looking at are somewhat degraded. We'll likely need a somewhat modified approach.


 * ACTION ITEMS**

The subcommittee agree to report back on the 2 July meeting with the following
 * a list of steps to be take to move forward
 * a timeline of when those steps should be completed
 * resources / people to be used to complete those steps


 * Update on data collection system for the Marks Creek inventory** (Sinclair, Connors, 10 min)


 * NOTES**

- Subcommittee has developed a checklist of expected species that can be used by people with limited experience. More experienced people can use a blank form instead. - The TESC property at Mark's Creek has been subdivided into quadrants. People who don't have GPS units can identify which quadrant species are found in. - Connors took members of the herp club out the other day to orient them to the site. They will be inventorying starting immediately. - Connors noted that the coverboards established during the 1 May workshop have been productive, esp for snakes. - Birds are mostly complete.

- Hess needs to check with Stucky on botanical inventory activity
 * ACTION ITEMS**
 * Update 2008 June 13: There will be no botanical inventory this summer. Stucky's class will concentrate on the site this fall.

- Also see report from Colleen at end of page
 * Database update** (Snow, 10 min)


 * NOTES**

No further report

- Hess out - will someone else run it?
 * 19 June meeting** (Hess, 5 min)


 * NOTES**


 * 19 June meeting is cancelled. Subcommittees will meet during June and report back in July.
 * First July meeting has been rescheduled for Wed 2 July, because of the 4 Jul weekend. We'll meet 8:30-10.
 * I think we're ready to admit that we usually go towards 10A, so we might as well schedule 8:30-10 and be really firm about 10A wrap.


 * Database update** from Colleen Bockhahn 2008 Jun 3

We have made some progress on the database project, so I'm happy to give you an update!

We are in the process of setting up a meeting with Jakeema Dawkins from Wake County IS to discuss the details of the project and the process we need to use to get the database approved and implemented. Jackie Trickel and I met with Chris Snow to discuss the parameters of the database, as well as who we should have as partners throughout the various stages of our project. We decided that we need to keep the project focused on Wake County owned properties, with the potential for expansion to other properties in the future. The initial group of properties includes all existing Wake County parks, future parks, and Wake County open space properties.

After meeting with Jakeema, we would like to schedule another meeting with Tom Howard, so that he can present the database that the State Parks use. We will be inviting other interested parties associated with this project to this meeting, and we are looking at late summer/early fall as a time line for setting this up. Jackie and I are using this project as our practicum for the Natural Resources Leadership Institute. We have added another dimension to the project that your group may also be interested in, which is developing natural resource management plans for each park/property. With all of the knowledge we will gain through conducting inventories at the sites and entering data into the database, we thought it was a natural progression. This way, park managers and other county employees will be better equipped to preserve these resources.

From Jackie Trickel 2008 Jun 5

I just wanted to add a bit to the Management Plan idea. We are actually going to be working on a natural resource management protocol versus a plan. We want to select a few habitat types that exist in most of the county parks that are more sensitive or are in need of consistent management and develop protocols for those areas. We are thinking this would be the first step to developing plans and would show the need for management plans. I definitely see a need for us to get together to see how we can help each other out.