Wetland Resource Group Meeting March 9 1993

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4 Minutes - Wetlands Resource Group Meeting, ` Tuesday, February 2,1993,1:00 - 3:00 pm Colorado Department of Natural Resources Attending: Noel Cummings, Reeves Brown, Kirk Mlinek, Nancy Fishbein, Lee Carlson, Brad Rock, Dave Mehan, Max Dodson, Jerry Novak, Susan Foster, Mike Hart, Terri Skadeland, Sid Fox, Kevin Lindahl, Steve Dougherty, Bob Crifasi, Kelly Drake, Peter Evans, Kate Jones. Peter Evans called the meeting to order and participants introduced themselves. Kelly Drake asked if there was a new senate bill affecting private property rights that would affect the educational effort underway in this group. HB 1194 and SB 1193 may have something to do with such rights, but Peter did not feel they affected wetlands. Mitigation Banking Steve Dougherty reviewed the intent of Senate Bill 1120 on mitigation banking as it relates to the mitigation banking report he will write. His study should be helpful to the state by providing information about where banking has been put into place, as well as some technical guidelines. He is currently doing a literature review for successful mitigation banking efforts and "tried and true" methods. He passed out an outline for his work plan. He anticipates that the most controversial part will be questions about how to debit and credit the bank. He has a number of people who will review the draft, including Becky Spain from the Department of Transportation; David Cooper, wetlands ecologist; Lee Carlson from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and someone from EPA. Mike Hart also volunteered to join them. Mike asked if we should include a list of technical issues that could be explored in the future. Steve felt we should. Jerry Novak suggested that the issue of maintaining created wetlands should be addressed. Peter Evans said that any technical questions beyond the scope of the paper should be listed. According to Peter, the bill calling for consideration of mitigation banking set up a statutory provision assuming that sponsors of the bill would fund it. They didn't, but the EPA has granted funds to start the research. Since the state did not fund the bill, we were not bound to follow up on making a policy recommendation by January 1993. Steve plans to have some draft chapters available for review by early March. The final report is due by September 30. Peter asked if a later meeting of the Wetlands Resource Group could comment on the draft. Steve said that was possible. He will be considering wetlands creation and wetlands mitigation banking efforts in the west, and is not concentrating on efforts in coastal regions. Wetlands Resource Group Minutes, 2/2/93, Page 1