Draft PRRIP GC Minutes June 2014

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PRRIP—ED OFFICE DRAFT . 06/13/2014 309 Barels asked if the group has considered a buffer to keep users away from private property boundaries to 310 enhance the Good Neighbor Policy. Heaston said we could include that in the list of good practices that 311 accompany the permission slips. Otherwise, it would require marking all the boundaries and we do not 312 have the resources to do that. Barels said adding it to the list of good practices would be a good first step. 313 Barels asked if on the land where we allow waterfowl hunting we own both sides of the river. Heaston 314 said no. Barels said that is often a problem on the Platte with sheriff departments because of the "thread 315 of the stream"property issues. Schroeder said we have not had complaints about waterfowl hunters being 316 off property so far. Heaston said rifle deer hunting is the activity that seems to raise the most concerns. 317 318 Platte River Habitat Partnership 319 Heaston discussed the idea of creating a more formal partnership to deal with vegetation management and 320 other in-channel activities with the Program and several other entities. The request of the Program is to 321 use money the Program is already spending for cost share on phragmites spraying to contribute to this 322 effort. Farnsworth said the phragmites effort is winding down because of the large spraying effort that 323 has occurred but we don't want to stop management because it will come back. While spraying phrag is 324 good, the Program is looking at management on this 90-mile stretch of river and looking at what has 325 happened in the channel. The objective is to maintain a wide, unvegetated channel and over time channel 326 widths have declined especially when vegetation management is not completed. The idea is to broaden 327 out from just vegetation management to expanding channel conveyance. This would help to expand the 328 potential for land to "count" during the Second Increment given that the acquisition of 10,000 new acres 329 may not be likely. Heaston said this would provide a standard to present to a landowner as options for a 330 project. This is money the Program is already spending. Heaston's proposal is asking for permission to 331 leverage that funding in a grant application to the Nebraska Environmental Trust to build this new 332 partnership and related channel metrics. Taddicken asked Schroeder what it cost to do this kind of work 333 on a large scale in the past. Schroeder said the average cost to run a disk for a 50-mile stretch was about 334 $3,000 per mile. 335 336 Taddicken asked how this work would be related to Program management. Farnsworth and Heaston said 337 it would be tied to Program management objectives and also tied to best practices according to the 338 location of any property in question on the river and what is necessary in that location. Taddicken asked 339 if you have an idea of landowner participation upstream of Kearney. Heaston said we have had a lot of 340 positive feedback about other actions available beyond just spraying. Schroeder asked if the position to 341 be filled for this work would be able to coordinate work no matter the location. Heaston said yes. It 342 would be a continuation of the work being done by Rich Walters. Taddicken asked if the money would 343 be used to fund a full-time position and related activities. Heaston said yes. LaBonde asked about 344 timing. Heaston said grant applications are due at the beginning of September and the money would be 345 available in spring 2015. 346 347 Schneider said it makes sense not to give up ground we have already gained through spraying. But, he 348 does not want this to become a slippery slope that we go too far and then are locked into maintaining the 349 whole channel from Lexington to Chapman forever. Schroeder said large-scale clearing started with the 350 Trust in the 1980's and the work has continued and scaled up since then. Schroeder said the point is more 351 power to those entities but that is not what this Program is all about. Kraus asked who the partners are 352 and what the proposal will look like. Heaston said the grant would be administered by the RBJV and 353 TNC would host the position. The purpose is to match and build on Program funds that are already 354 committed. Berryman asked about the duration. Heaston said it would be a three-year grant. Kraus 355 asked if would be Program dollars in 2014 or 2015. Farnsworth said we would continue to allocate about PRRIP June 10-11,2014 GC Meeting Minutes Page 8 of 11