Wetland Resource Group Meeting July 13 1993

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MINUTES - Wetlands Resource Group Meeting - May 4, 1993 Colorado Department of Natural Resources, 1313 Sherman St., Denver Attending: Chase Davies, Bob Crifasi, Kate Jones, Lee Carlson, Dale Vodehnal, Brad Rock, Nancy Fishbein,' peter Evans, Kelly Drake, Susan Foster, Jon Scherschlight Peter Evans opened the meetings with introduction of attendees and a review of the intent of the grant and current issues of concern to the Department of Natural Resources in wetlands management. The Wetlands Workshops Susan Foster provided an overview of progress in developing the wetlands field workshops scheduled for June 13 (Steamboat Springs), June 18 (Ft. Morgan), June 21 (Breckenridge) and July 28 (Gunnison). Flyers have been mailed to about 10,000 people with the assistance of the Colorado Municipal League, the Colorado Cattleman's Association, the Colorado Department of Natural Resources, the Colorado Water Workshop, the CSU Cooperative Extension and Thorne Ecological Institute. The response by telephone and mail is going very well. Field logistics are beginning at each of the sites in order to identify excellent locations for teaching. Once again, she urged members of the committee to notify her of important contacts in each of these communities. Lane Wyatt is assisting with logistics in Breckenridge and Jackie Loughridge in Steamboat Springs. It was suggested by members of the group that western wetlands, in- stream flows and grazing issues are becoming increasingly popular topics in anticipation of the revision of the Clean water Act and the possibility that the State of Colorado will consider developing its own wetlands policy. It will be important to get the participants to look toward the future on issues such as how wetlands protection may be an imposition on private property owners. How can wetlands of different values be protected? The legislative needs may be to get a brochure and slide show together, to demonstrate that we are making a concerted effort to bridge between the federal government and property owners and pull together an up -dated version of what's going on with Colorado's wetlands. There is still a need for a well - structured survey of wetlands to serve as a basis for decision - making. We should emphasize to the legislators that citizens often do agree about wetlands. We should be careful about filling buses with federal agency representatives. The private land owner is very important on this issue. People from the Arkansas Valley need to be asked to attend. Mitigation Banking Update: In the absence of Steve Dougherty, discussion of the Mitigation Banking Report will be delayed to the next meeting. Susan Foster reported that he is continuing his research on the topic. Wetlands Resource Group Minutes 5/4/93, page 1