Metolius MPMT Notes from January 26, 2004 meeting 

Attendees:  Cal Mukumoto, Gregory McClarren, Geoff Babb, Lyle Miller, Wade Fagen, Bruce Berryhill, Phil Blatt, Fara Currim, Elke Dortmund, Marcus Kauffman, Kate Fitzpatrick, Bob Flores, Dave Moyer

Cal Mukumoto opened the meeting.  The approval for the minutes from last meeting will be postponed until the next meeting in February.

Kate from University of Oregon presented her Masters thesis which is titled “Collaboration in Stewardship Contracting Pilots”.  The subjects for her thesis were the MPMT group and the Siuslaw Stewardship Pilot group.  She conducted 28 interviews for her thesis.  She talked about collaboration being a bottom up approach, compared to the traditional top down Forest Service approach.  She also talked about the strengths and weaknesses of both groups and compared the groups in general.  A common theme was trust , mutual learning, and pooling multiple forms of knowledge.    The Siuslaw had six projects with thinning on 3,640 acres, and the resulting reinvestment of stewardship funds, where the MPMT was a diverse group with the focus on monitoring.  Her conclusions for our group were:  1)  diversity built trust 2)  focus on monitoring and 3)  there was a tension between old and new processes.  Her recommendations were:  to create a space for deliberation and to cultivate a cultures that supports innovation.  Her thesis is available on the Ecosystem Workforce Oregon website. 

The meeting was opened for questions and comments.  An issue was brought up about MPMT being involved in contract design.  There is a concern about of a potential conflict of interest with some contractors being at the table.  The issue of FACA (Federal Advisory Committee Act) was brought up in response to the question on whether MPMT could take more of a role in making recommendations to the forest.  Bruce asked if it was possible to do a survey of the community capacity for contracting.  Wade made the comment the if contracts were carried out in small sections, there would be an opportunity to learn about the conflict of interest issues that were mentioned.  Cal asked if Kate could present her thesis to the NFLT (National Forest Leadership Team) which Leslie Weldon, Forest Supervisor attends.   Kate said that she would be open to this.  Bob Flores will try and arrange it.

Geoff Babb presented information from the Ecological Committee meeting – 12/23/03.  He said that this group had asked the question “Are we taking the right approach to monitoring.?”  He said there was a need in this group to define the role of district specialists with MPMT.  This led to a group discussion with agreement that district specialists potentially have a lot of information to offer, and can be utilized in a positive manner.  The group would rather work with them in a collaborative manner than distance themselves.  There was mention from the FS that the specialists have extremely tight workloads, so that questions should be well thought out and organized, and requests for their time should be made in advance. 

There was also mention of the need to be clear about our questions that can be answered by monitoring; ie:  what are our relevant questions?  Gregory  mentioned that we already have a priority list that is ranked with items of importance.  We should use this to work from. 

Marcus from the Watershed Center presented information on Community Fire Planning efforts in three communities in central Oregon, under a National Fire Plan grant.  Sisters / Camp / Sherman could very well be one of these communities, so he wanted to make the group aware of this effort.  He said these fire plans will be required to receive monies under the new Healthy Forest Fire Prevention efforts.

Bob Flores presented an update on Dechutes National Forest planning efforts for this year.  He passed around a timetable.  The Changed Conditions Report for the Metolius Basin Demonstration Project is now expected to be completed in April or May of 2004.  Based on the information gathered, an SEIS (Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement) may also need to be completed.  This would probably take until December of 2004 to complete.

The past four fires have impacted 60% of the Metolius basin.  A Metolius LSRA (Late Successional Reserve Assessment) and a Metolius WA (Watershed Assessment) also need to be completed. 

Bob also mentioned that there is now a Forest Service Handbook for Stewardship Contracting.  He passed around copies. 

There was discussion on the 106 acre project for the Metolius Forest Demo. that we visited in the field.  This area has already been flagged and checked by FS quality control.  Project amount for this area is 50,000.  There are no allocated dollars for this project yet.  Discussion on whether MPMT should support private dollars to fund this project arose.  Gregory recommended that we wait until the Changed Conditions Report is out, as there might be new issues to consider.

Cal brought up the issue of reelection for positions of chair and vice-chair for MPMT.  A motion was made by Phil that we retain Cal and Gregory respectively for these positions.  Wade seconded, and the motion carried.

The next meeting of MPMT is on February 23 from 1 – 4 p.m. at the Sisters Ranger District.