Attendees: Elke Dortmund, Wade Fagen, Gregory McClarren, Geoff Babb, Stephen Clarke, Scott Melcher,
Phil Blatt, Kate Fitzpatrick, Cal Mukumoto, Bob Flores, Jerry Smith, Dave Moyer, Vickie Dunaway, Scott Thompson, Dan Parazoo, Cindy Glick (notetaker) (Candace Rosberry arrived after the meeting, confused from the change of meeting times.)

1. Immediate Business:

All members of the MPMT are invited to the June 12th and 13th regional stewardship meeting to be held at the Environmental Center in Bend. Cal, Gregory, Vickie, Bob, and Cindy will give the presentation for our team at ths meeting. On June 11th, the FS is holding an internal contracting regional meeting to discuss the administration and implementation of the pilot authorities.

The next MPMT meeting on June 23rd from 1-4 pm, will be held in Camp Sherman at the Community Hall with a trip to the field site to discuss data collection protocols. The teachers start work that day, so any interested MPMT members can meet with the teachers in the field in the morning (11:00 am) to discuss data collection protocols.

Wade Fagen and Stephen Clarke will join the ecological committee. (I think the next meeting for this committee is on June 3rd at 0830, please contact Geoff Babb for more info.)

2. Subcommittee Reports:

The socio-economic committee recommended the creation of the Government Administration Effectiveness Committee. Suggested to be on it were Kate Fitzpatrick, Bruce Berryhill, Candace Rosberry, Marcus Kauffman, Bob Flores, Sustainable Northwest, the Ecotrust, FSC (green certification program), and Cindy Glick. Although the decision to create this committee was tabled until the next meeting, discussion occurred that this committee would track long and short term costs for the total cost of implementation of the stewardship contracting authorities and help to define "acceptable normal business practices" that the authorities allowed. Much of Kate Fitzpatrick's study to determine how well collaboration builds trust over contentious forest management issues will be a major contribution to the subcommittee's work, so the committee needs to work more with Kate. Prior to the next meeting, Gregory will summarize in chart form what this subcommittee will try to monitor.

Some discussion occurred about contractors being present on the team and the potential for conflict of interest issues if these contractors choose to bid on the contract. Dan Parazoo, Service Contracting Officer, noted that he is obligated to award the contract based on an "even playing field," meaning that all contractors have equal access to prior information about the contract. It was suggested that the MPMT's goal is to monitor, so the group needs to stay away from specific discussions about selections of work and contractors. But it was also felt that to create a do-able project, contractor input and perspective is vital for the success of this project. In pursuit of providing an "even playing field," the FS is going to present info covered at the MPMT meetings at the Timber Contractors Meeting (May 28th at the High Desert Museum form 830-1200) and at the Stewardship Contracting Training Session (all day, June 27th at the Sisters Elementary School). Also the FS has been writing up the MPMT meeting notes and posting them on the website.

The ecological committee gave the group their chart of issues to monitor, suggested methods on how to do the work, and a possible list of whom could conduct the monitoring. The list is enclosed in this email, updated with comments made by the group. The group agreed that to derive appropriate monitoring tools, some consultation is needed with some FS specialists as Rob Schantz, on stand exams; Maret Pajutee on weeds; and Rod Jorgenson/Pete Sussman on soils. The issue of road impacts in the Metolius Basin arose and the group determined that there is a lack of representation on the MPMT from user groups as off highway vehicle users, equestrians, and mtn. bikers. Recruitment efforts to obtain this representation are needed.

3. FY 03 Monitoring Efforts:

An active osprey nest has been found within the unit to be treated this year, so there is a seasonal restriction that allows no machinery use between Mar 1- Sept 1, within ¼ mile of the nest. The Sept. 1st date for the end of restriction is about when the FS thought the operations would begin anyway, so this should not be an impact. Currently the presale crew is marking and cruising the trees in the area, while the wildlife biologist, monitors the birds' behavior. A suggestion was made to mark the other half of unit to not disturb the birds. The FS will investigate this opportunity, but it was noted that the project cost is becoming higher than anticipated. It was also discussed that costs associated with forest management protocol could carryover to the contractor, particularly when considering that the value of the removed material may be as low as $1500, in areas in the WUI similar to this stand.

Two teachers are being hired to gather baseline data this summer and they will be at our next MPMT meeting on June 23rd. The following chart defines the group's consensus for baseline data to be collected with this year's project, called Tier 1 and also identified monitoring efforts in other projects in the Wildland Urban Interface (WUI), called Tier 2.

Baseline Issue	Tier 1	Tier 2
Roads and trails	Closed/not; density	Same
	Effectiveness of closures	Same
Soil Compaction	Closeness of skid trails	Same
	FS protocol, shovel test	Same
	Revegetation, photo points	Same
Watershed Health	No riparian areas	FOM protocol
Wildlife	Osprey nest	Based on wldf found in unit
	Snags/DWD-before, after	Same
	Focal Spp habitat changes	Same
	Population changes	Same
Sensitive Plants	FS protocol: Pepe, Agoseris monitor pop.	Monitor plant presence and effects after treatment
Weeds	Survey, map and flag	Same (3-4 yrs out)
Fuels	Use fuels series classification	Could do fuels transects in some areas
	Shrub cover, % and spp	Same
Vegetation	BA, tree size, density, vigor	Same
	Prescription compliance	Same
Scenery	Photo points	Same
Air Quality	Biomass tonnage removed	Same
	Suggested to monitor days burned with inversion	Same
	Suggested to monitor the impact of burning day	Same
	Suggested to track nephelometer readings from Big Lake	Same
	Suggested to collect pieball info, use global warming study measurements	Same
	Suggested to monitor from Green Ridge LO	Same
	Suggested to monitor the No. of complaints at FS front desk	Same

 

4. Budget Development:

The FS noted that the program of work for the next 5 years in the Metolius Basin will be at a level of 800-1200 acre/year. Based on this treatment goal, each committee needs to provide by June 5th an estimate of the dollars needed to conduct the monitoring work that they recommend. General cost activities include equipment needs, mileage, travel/perdiem, contracted services, cost of teachers for data collection, and monies needed for administrative overhead. Cal and Gregory will develop the overall budget.

5. Summary of Agreements made during the meeting:

1) The socio-economic (S/E) committee needs to communicate with Kate Fitzpatrick from the U of O to more fully develop the Government Administration Effectiveness (GA/E) committee.
2) No decision was made to create the GA/E committee, the decision will be tabled until the 6/23 meeting.
3) The baseline data identified above in these notes will be the starting basis for the monitoring effort.
4) The committees will provide budget info to Cal by 6/5/03.
5) The hat was passed to help pay for meeting coffee and snacks.
6) Cal and Gregory will attend and present our project at the regional stewardship meeting on June 12th and 13th, but all members are encouraged to attend. It offers a great opportunity to network and check out what other teams are doing.
7) Effort needs to be made to recruit an off-highway vehicle user, an equestrian, and/or a mtn. biker to the MPMT to obtain broader representation on the team.

6. Meeting Critique:

• The matrix/table that the ecological team provided was excellent. Gregory will use this model for the socio-economic committee.
• There was too much on the agenda, more discussion is needed on the topic of contractor conflict of interest issues.
• Self discipline is needed to manage our time better.
• Team Members are proud of what we have accomplished so far.

7. Next Meeting 6/23/03 Agenda Items-(meeting is from 1-4pm at the Camp Sherman Community Hall)

• Stewardship Partners Convention in Los Angeles from Nov 17-20th, decide whether to attend/present
• Develop Budget
• Meet the teachers/monitors
  
• Proof the FY 03 baseline data collection effort
• Decide whether to create the Government Administration Effectiveness Committee