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La Moine River Ecosystem Partnership |
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Meeting Minutes |
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LA MOINE RIVER ECOSYSTEM PARTNERSHIP MEETING
Board members present: Dan Moorehouse, Dana Walker, John Cox, Tim Sullivan,
Trevor Toland, Pat Sullivan, Chuck Ehlschlaeger, and Scott McConnell.
LA MOINE RIVER ECOSYSTEM
PARTNERSHIP MEETING Board members present: Dan Moorehouse, Dana Walker, John Cox, Tim Sullivan, Pat Sullivan and Chuck Ehlschlaeger. Others present: Jim Hemingway and others. President Sullivan called meeting to order at 6:42 Dir Cox motioned to approve the annual meeting minutes seconded by Sullivan and approved. Election of officers: Tim Sullivan was elected as President. Chuck Ehlschlaeger was elected as Vice President, and Dan Moorehouse was elected as Secretary Treasurer. Directors at Large: Pas Sullivan motions we keep our two directors at large Chuck Ehlschlaeger and John Cox. Motion approved unanimously. Committee Reports: Recreation Committee: No report from John Cox. Discussion centered on canoe access on the La Moine. John brought up official IDNR boat ramps on the Spoon River in areas of the river that in not considered public access by the State of Illinois. The IDNR grant to fund water access points/boat ramps is due August 1st. The board discussed possible funding opportunities for constructing canoe access. Dir. Chuck E suggested we try the inexpensive model by buying gravel, a sign, and publish it by a web site. John was concerned just putting in an access without getting it declared public would be considered breaking the law by trespassing. Pat suggested we should put the rules (about trespassing) on the sign and leave it up to the public. The committee agreed to meet in the future perhaps as a conference call. Education Committee: Pat asked about needing a power point for local presentations of our watershed. Dan suggested we need a basic power point using pictures, maps, and basic text about our goals. Pat talked to Farm Bureau and will plant to have a LMREP table. Soil Erosion Committee: No official report however he is working on submitting a new C2000 grant. The partnership needs to keep making contacts with Landowners. Conservation Committee. Dir Moorehouse reported about the meeting with Prairie Hills RC&D about forming a land trust. We understand that the RC&D has a land trust on “paper” but has not protected any land and is at the beginning stages of forming a land trust they call the “Prairie Land Conservancy”. Alice Henry and Dan plan to meet with the RC&D board in December to hash out how we could partner with the RC&D to get them up and running. Dan made a motion seconded by john for the executive committee to put together a support grant and submit it. Motion approved. Pat talked about the watershed day and stated that the collaboration with the Macomb earth day has fallen apart. We are thinking about targeting landowners and combining it with a bus tour. Pat suggested working with Friends of Argyle on our watershed day. The committee will continue to work on the watershed day and report back to the board. Pat brought up possibly working with the clean water association. Dir Moorehouse brought up having a few grant writing workshops in January. Dan agreed to set one up in Macomb (TBA) and Tim will set it up in Rushville Jan 25th 6:00 pm at the High School library. Suggestions for advertising include posting ads at feed, implement, and farm stores. “Conservation grant workshop” “Green for your green”. Landowner conservation grants. Dir Walker will look for possibilities of having a workshop in Carthage. Next partnership meeting: February 7th at Industry school 6:30pm Meeting adjourned 9:04 Minutes submitted respectfully Dan Moorehouse Secretary – Treasurer LREMP
LA MOINE RIVER
ECOSYSTEM PARTNERSHIP President Tim Sullivan brought the meeting to order at 6:39 and welcomed all attendees. Pres. Sullivan talked about accomplishments for the year. Our largest accomplishment is finishing our watershed plan. He talked about our new brochure. We also voted to join the Illinois Watershed Association. We established a partnership with WIU. We received three C2000 grants include VIT school outdoor habitat, La Moine River watershed event, and the Toland Woods Improvement Project. We established plan implementation committees. We put together a tree planting project. We received two leap grants for watershed education in our partnership including purchasing a watershed model. In addition we got funding for honorariums for speaking engagements to talk on our watershed. We helped in getting our watershed a state wildlife grant (SWG) for Brown and Adams county for habitat restoration. Pres. Sullivan introduced Angela Smith, director of Sugar Grove Nature Center, to talk on exotic species. The talk started out by informing us why we can’t ignore exotics. She told us that exotic species are estimated to cost us $130 billion a year. Impacts of exotics can be found in recreation, health, ecology, and economics. She talked on how we as individuals can help this problem by doing simple thins like planting native species instead of invasive exotics and washing watercraft to prevent the spreading of exotic species. She then showed slides of local invasive exotic plants including Garlic Mustard, Dames Rocket, Day Lilly, Bush Honeysuckle, Autumn Olive, Crown Vetch, Multiflora Rose, Kudzu, Canada Thistle, Teasel, Purple Loosestrife, White and Yellow Sweet Clovers, Reed Canary Grass, Common Reed Grass, Lilly of the valley, Perry-winkle, and Butterfly Bush. Exotic animals include Norway Rats, European Starling, Monk Parakeet, Eurasian Collared Dove, House Sparrow, Asian Clam, and Zebra Mussel. What you can do? Learn to ID, Volunteer in eradication efforts, use native plants, monitor your land for exotic plants. Ways to deal with exotics include cutting, mowing, root raking, hand pulling, burning, and herbicides. Break for elections for McDonough and Hancock counties. McDonough County membership elected Dan Moorehouse, Trevor Toland and Scott McConnell. Hancock County membership elected Dana Walker as there representative. Pres Sullivan talked about planning for the La Moine River Day we plan to have next year. Dir Toland talked about VIT outdoor classroom project they got C2000 funding for. He says clean up will begin cleanup this year and planting next year. Trevor also talked about the Toland Woods Project that improves land by fencing out cattle and reforestation of land that borders Ferster’s Woods natural area owned by WIU. Pat Sullivan announced the tree planter which was purchased through C2000 funds was used by 12 landowners to plant 160 acres/70,000 trees. Jeff announced Two Rivers RC&D was awarded $39,000 for gully inventory, cattle survey, stream bank erosion inventory, develop land owner contact list to link a landowner up to a potential project. Jeff says it picks up from our plan and starts putting it to work by finding projects to accomplish the plan. Pres. Sullivan introduced Jim Hemmingway, IDNR Ecosystems Administrator, to give a presentation on C2000 grant program. He briefly went over the program (conservation 2000 or C2000) which deals with conservation projects including natural area protection, habitat improvement, etc. It is a competitive state wide process where grants ranked by the partnership and IDNR. More info on IDNR website click “get involved”. Grant applications due Feb 28th. May 15 – April 30th partnerships rank grants. Grants are announced in the fall of the year. Mr. Hemmingway conveyed that on the ground projects are the projects that tend to be the projects funded. Next partnership meeting December 6th at Industry School 6:30 pm. Meeting Adjourned 8:45
LA MOINE RIVER ECOSYSTEM
PARTNERSHIP MEETING Board members present: Dan Moorehouse, Dana Walker, John Cox, Tharran Hobson, and Trevor Toland. Others present: Jeff Boeckler, William Doe, Chuck Erschuler, Sara Wood, Debbie Fugal, Dave King, Marty Fisher, Debbie Fluegel, Harry Henderson, J. Scott McConnell, Jim Hemingway, Glenna & John Dormire, Gene Hartwey Vice President Walker called meeting to order at 7:05 Committee Reports: Education and Recreation Committee: John Cox informed the partnership that trying to get canoe access ran into problems. First was that part of the land intended for the site turns out to be city property and not park board property. The second problem was the park board wanted legal interpretation of canoe access law between state and federal laws before beginning. John said we should drop it for this year and work on it next year as the timelines are not long enough to get over these problems. Additionally he said that we have a great start and have made many contacts. Jeff Boeckler will put together a list of eligible land owners and payments for potential CREP projects. Jeff sent the list to Alice Henry that will be taking the list and try to get new signups for the program. Dan put together a list of funding sources on website. Jeff announced SWG grant for $90,000 to fund restoration and conservation in the Siloam Springs/Buckhorn Complex. Jeff also announced a grant from IEPA 319 grant for $36,000 on behalf of the partnership that Two Rivers RC&D will manage. This grant will coordinate putting conservation projects together with willing landowners in targeted sub watersheds. Jeff also announced the IEPA has funded the Ralph Welch Gully to fix the erosion problem with 319 IEPA grant money. Harry Hendrickson and Debbie Fluegel came to represent trees forever and give a talk. Harry talked about how he could help our organization by applying for grants to establish stream side buffers in our watershed. He said he is hopping to accomplish 10 projects a year in our watershed. Harry said his program was similar to Eco-watch in helping the landowners with their property and document the results of restoration. He told us that Debbie Fluegel is the local field person for Trees Forever (former Eco-watch trainer) and she could be working up to ½ her time in our watershed. They hope to get some precipitation from our partnership in local labor, local organization, and landowner contacts. They are looking at constructing riparian buffer sites for there program. VP Walker asked what Harry needs from us. Harry said we would need a letter to establish a working relationship with the partnership which will get the ball rolling. Trees Forever will not start before they get funding (not from us) but they/us will apply for a grant. John Cox made a motion to send a letter to Trees Forever to form a partnership with them seconded by Dir. Hobson. Motion unanimously approved. Letter of support for WIU Grant Application. Dr. Bill Doe from WIU talked to the partnership about submitting an Illinois 319 grant by for a local conservation/watershed project involving 12 landowners. This grant would put in $105,000 of federal funds into these projects. WIU would manage the projects and do GIS work. SWCD would provide technical assistance. They have tied their grant into what are partnership goals. The Grant will target upper watershed specifically Drowning Fork Creek and Upper East Fork La Moine River. Dr. Doe asked for support for McDonough County Board and the Prairie River RC&D and would like to ask us for our support. Dir. Moorehouse mad a motion seconded by Toland to provide a letter of support to WIU for this grant. Motion Approved. Need letter by end of week. The partnership discussed a grant to hire a part time watershed Coordinator for our partnership. Jeff recommended a committee search for a grant to hire a coordinator. Jeff wanted to throw this idea out to discuss. Idea is tabled to the next meeting. VP Walker talked about the Illinois Watershed Association meeting in Springfield. He said the plans for getting off the ground and becoming an official organization is getting close to fruition. Jeff Boeckler talked about a local meeting in Macomb to form a group to improve the Spring Lake Watershed. They met to elect directors and will have another meeting soon. Partnership broke up into Committees. Meeting adjourned 8:35 Minutes submitted respectfully Dan Moorehouse Secretary – Treasurer LMREP
LA MOINE RIVER ECOSYSTEM
PARTNERSHIP MEETING Board members present: Dan Moorehouse, Tim Sullivan, Pat Sullivan, Dana Walker, John Cox, Amy Hinchee, and Trevor Toland. Others present: Jeff Boeckler, Dan Wolf, Robin Hinchee, Bill Doe, Glenna Dormire, John Dormire, Kim Erndt, Tim Kelly, Bob Henry, Alice Henry, Chuck Ehlschlager, Kevin O’Donnell, Carolyn Benninghoff, and Martha Sheppard President Sullivan called meeting to order at 6:41pm. He talked about our watershed plan which includes possible action items to help us achieve our goals. His plan for the meeting is to break up into groups to discuss the steps we should take in the 1st year of the plan to achieve these goals. Introductions: Bob Henry, Trevor Toland, Jeff Boeckler, and Jim Hemmingway talked about their projects funded through C2000. Pres. Sullivan and Pat Sullivan also talked about several non-c2000 grants we have received. Several members including Bill Doe, Pat Sullivan, Dana Walker, and Tim Sullivan talked about grants that were submitted this year they hope will be funded. Dir. Cox talked about access to canoes on the La Moine River. He stated that the La Moine River is not considered a public waterway by the State of Illinois; however, it is considered a navigable waterway by the Army Corps of Engineers. He stated that the requirements for a waterway to be public were the same as that the corps uses to label the river navigable. John has talked to other groups who also have this problem which they concluded that you can canoe but not step off onto the bank. In the future John wants to put canoes launching sites on the la Moine. He found that there are several public sites that are on the La Moine that could be used to put an access in. His plan is to write a grant to obtain funds to put in canoe accesses. Martha Sheppard stated that it was only municipalities that could apply for these grants. Some members were concerned over private property rights in not wanting a path that ATV’s could use to get on private land because of legal access to the river. In addition concern was brought up about littering if the river was opened to canoe traffic. Kim Erndt brought up that this problem is the same throughout the state and she encouraged us to keep an open mined to work with landowners and use stream cleanups to accomplish goals that will suit all landowners. Pres. Sullivan talked about breaking into groups to brainstorm in ways to accomplish goals. We will break up into 5 groups (1 for each goal) for 25 minutes to come up with ideas to come up with goals for the 1st year. The groups gathered back together to discuss their groups planning. Goal 1 Natural Communities. 1. List of INAI sites needs to be expanded to include other sites that needs to be protected. 2. Get a database of possible programs for land conservation. We hope to update Bob and Alice database of possible funding sources (Alice Henry) Long-term goal will create a land trust. 3. The conservation committee will contact landowners within priority areas and try to facilitate land protection between willing landowner and other organization (conservation committee). Goal 2 Water Resources 1. Change goal to include lakes with streams in objective A. Contact other entities like DU, pheasants forever, turkey, deer groups by September. 2. Meet with J Boeckler to match up willing landowners with possible projects Match up 3. Mach up one project with a private landowner that’s has high visible that we could get funding. 4. Host workshops along with other groups like SWCD or Farm Bureau, to educate the public on water recourses and funding opportunities (Tim Kelly). Goal 3. Soil erosion and sedimentation. 1. Locate fields with slopes >2 %. 2. Find funding sources for these slopes. Farm Service Agencies, SWCD’s, NRCS. Provide incentive payments for no till on these grounds. A problem they encountered was how to grow list of willing landowners in order to contact them about these programs. Dana walker suggested putting info into the SWCD newsletter. (Chuck E. will do action #1) Goal 4. Education. 1. Increase committee size 2. Put together power point presentation to tell what we do. 3. Conduct watershed tours (somewhat being done) and maybe do an inventory of what is being done. Publicize tours through schools. Put on professional workshops for educators. Maybe have an open farm day. (Pat Sullivan and Carolyn Benningholff) Goal 5. Recreation & Tourism. Identified difficulties with canoe access. Liability for landowners, trespassing, maintenance, access for poaching, 4-wheeler access through the river. Possible solutions: Have a groups or club maintain access. Signs to let people know where private and public land is. 1 Start small with maybe a 10 mile stretch. 2 Find a club or group to be responsible. 3 Work with the landowners to involve them. Look into liability issues. (John Cox) Old business Martha Sheppard presented two awards to Dana Walker and Pat Sullivan for NRCS Naturalist. Next meeting Wednesday July 19th 2006 6:30pm, possibly at Macomb City Hall (Dana Walker will check if available). Pat Sullivan asked the group about a possible meeting about large scale confinement. The meeting that was supposed to happen about he subject was canceled due to a conflict of dates. Dir. Walker moved to adjourn the general meeting and go into executive session; Dir Cox seconded the motion which was approved. General meeting adjourned at 9:13 pm Executive session: 9:20 pm Jeff Boeckler of IDNR informed the board he will no longer be employed at the end of June. Dir. P. Sullivan asked why this happened. Jeff answered that the paperwork that was supposed to transfer his employment from a contractor to a union employee did not get to the right people in time and therefore he was told that his employment would end at the end of June. Dir. Moorehouse moved to send a letter to the relevant officers of IDNR and our elected representatives to inform them that Jeff Boeckler has given out partnership exemplary service in making our watershed a better place to live. In addition we will ask them to do everything in their power to keep Mr. Boeckler employed by IDNR so he may continue helping watershed partnerships across the state. Motion seconded by Dana Walker. Motion approved unanimously. Motion to adjourn made by Dir. Cox and seconded by Dir. Moorehouse. Motion Passed. Meeting adjourned at 9:35 pm. Minutes submitted respectfully Dan Moorehouse Secretary – Treasurer LREMP
LA MOINE RIVER ECOSYSTEM PARTNERSHIP
MEETING Board members present: Dan Moorehouse, Tim
Sullivan, Pat Sullivan, Dana Walker Tharran Hobson, John Cox, Amy Hinchee,
Trevor Toland. LA MOINE RIVER ECOSYSTEM PARTNERSHIP
MEETING Board members present: Dan Moorehouse, Tim
Sullivan, Pat Sullivan, Dana Walker. LA MOINE
RIVER ECOSYSTEM PARTNERSHIP MEETING
LA MOINE
RIVER ECOSYSTEM PARTNERSHIP MEETING
LA MOINE RIVER
ECOSYSTEM PARTNERSHIP President Tim Sullivan brought the meeting to order at 6:48 pm and welcomed everyone to the annual meeting. Tim introduced some of the board members and other active partnership participants. He gave an overview of LMREP and a timeline of Partnership accomplishments and activities. President Sullivan introduced Bill White from the Illinois State Water Survey. Mr. White discussed the Illinois River Restoration Project. He explained how important C2000 is to Illinois River restoration. Mr. White talked about the importance of the Illinois River and how it has declined due to human impact. He talked about the aerial helicopter survey of parts of the La Moine River funded in part by our partnership. Next he showed a power point presentation including video and maps of our watershed. During this presentation he illustrated different types of problems identified on the survey. In the future this data will be linked to a database with other agencies and available to the public. President Sullivan introduced Karen McDermaid, Senior Research Specialist from the University of Illinois. Ms. McDermaid has been working with our partnership for the past 3 years. She presented the results of 3 different surveys. The 1st survey was targeted to random residents of the watershed. 287 responses were received (50% city: 50% rural). There was a general agreement that residents wanted more wildlife; however, they felt that the current amount of habitat was sufficient. The 2nd survey targeted educators regarding environmental education. Teachers who responded felt that their greatest needs were: videos, classroom visits by environmental specialists and additional field trip opportunities. The 3rd survey was sent to rural landowners within the watershed. 514 responses were received from over 2,000 mailings. A goal of this survey was to find willing landowners to participate in restoration projects. The weighted concerns for landowners were: #1 soil erosion / soil loss Election of Directors: Members from McDonough and Hancock Counties caucused separately to elect their directors. The results are as follows: McDonough County – Dan Moorehouse & Trevor Toland Hancock County – Dana Walker President Sullivan introduced Jim Hemingway, ecosystems coordinator from the IDNR Mr. Hemingway spoke on grant funding for C2000 projects. He told the partnership there was no money for educational or research grants and there might be money for conservation and land acquisition for next year. He stated he would be willing to put on a grant writing workshop for the partnership. The partnership unanimously approved the minutes from the previous annual meeting. Meeting adjured at 8:57 pm. Respectfully submitted: Daniel Moorehouse Secretary LMREP
LA MOINE RIVER ECOSYSTEM PARTNERSHIP ANNUAL MEETING President Dana Walker brought the meeting to order at 7:06 pm and welcomed everyone to the annual meeting. After telling a brief history of our organization Pres. Walker introduced the board of directors. Karen McDermaid, Senior Research Specialist, from the University of Illinois presented an opinion survey of residents in our watershed. Its purpose was to identify citizen perceptions of our watershed, land use citizens prefer, how citizens use natural resources in our watershed, and to give citizens an opportunity for public participation. Ms. McDermaid gave an estimated population of our watershed at 52,247. Of these she surveyed 801 random residences with a 40 percent response rate to date. She explained this was the first of 3 parts and a land owner survey and an educator survey still needed to be accomplished. She hoped to have the final summary finished by winter 2004. Dir Moorehouse presented both the treasurers report and the minutes for the last annual meeting. Both were unanimously approved by the membership. Bill White from the Illinois State Water Survey presented a proposal for a “rapid assessment of our watershed”. By using a helicopter and a video camera a large amount of river miles can be served quickly to find problems. Mr. White showed a video from a previous survey of Shoal Creek in Southern Illinois. Using video and GPS he described how we could pinpoint problems areas on rivers and creeks. V.P. Janet Keyes presented the annual report for our organization. Jim Landing, our Ecosystem Administrator, from the Illinois Department of Natural Resources presented a current state of grant funding. So far 1.4 million went out to 16 grants state wide for the first round. He stated there will most likely be a second round but he does not know how much money will be granted. He proposed he could put together a grant writing workshop for our watershed. V.P. Janet Keyes motioned to accept the bylaw changes recommended by the board. Motion passed. Election of Directors: Members from Brown and Schuyler County caucused separately to elect their directors. The Results are as follows: Brown County – Therron Hobson, Vacant Adams County - Vacant Schuyler County – Tim Sullivan, Pat Sullivan Fulton County - Vacant Other Business: Jeff Boeckler from the Illinois Department of Natural Resources presented our ongoing project to map out conservation easements in our watershed. Meeting adjured at 9:20 pm. Respectfully submitted: Daniel Moorehouse
LA MOINE RIVER
ECOSYSTEM PARTNERSHIP MEETING Board members present: Henry, Moorehouse, Pat Sullivan, Tim Sullivan, Walker. Others present: Martha Sheppard, Jeff Boeckler, Jim Hemmingway, and Earl Bricker. President Sullivan called meeting to order at 7:15 pm Pres. Sullivan explained that the primary focus of this meeting was to plan for the upcoming planning meetings. Martha stated we had $450 left in the budget for advertising the meetings. Dir Moorehouse Volunteered to put together ad’s and spend the money to publicize the next three planning meetings. Pres. Sullivan recommended placing radio ads at WJXQ for next Saturdays Mt Sterling Meeting. A discussion was held about how many meals to plan for at the Mt Sterling Meetings. An agreement was reached to provide 35 meals. Dir Henry asked if the survey results will be ready for the meetings. Mr. Boeckler the random survey is done but the targeted survey has about 2 more months of work. Mr. Boeckler showed the board the short presentation he will give before each meeting. He took suggestions for improving the presentation by board members. The minutes were brought up but no action was taken. Next board meeting was set for September 8th 7pm Industry School Meeting Adjourned 9:35pm Respectfully submitted: Daniel Moorehouse
LA MOINE RIVER
ECOSYSTEM PARTNERSHIP MEETING Board members present: Henry, Moorehouse, Pat Sullivan, Tim Sullivan, Walker, and Wood. Others present: Martha Sheppard, Jeff Boeckler, Jim Hemmingway. President Sullivan called meeting to order at 6:35 pm Minutes approved from Jan 12, 2004 meeting. Committee Reports Planning Committee: Dir. Walker talked to Mary Holms and said she wanted $250 a meeting to be the facilitator; however she had a conflict with the 17th of July. Two of the planning meeting dates are set; Aug 7 Carthage and July 17 Brown County YMCA. We still need a meeting date for Macomb if we plan to have one there. Public Relations Committee: Dir. Wood tried to set up a meeting but have been unable to set a date. Dir. Wood further stated she did not know how to publicize the planning meetings as she had little information from the planning committee. Carolyn Benninghoff had an informational booth at the Schuyler County awareness day. Dir. Wood also an informational booth at the environmental summit at WIU. Dir. Walker brought up the cost overrun of the watershed flyover. Dir. Walker stated he did not have a firm idea where to fly and flew the western part of east fork of the La Moine that was not in the plan. The pilot who charges for hours billed us for $5,400 which came out to $589 over budget. Dir. Henry asked if there were any areas of interest or problems they found on the flight. Dana responded yes there was a few. Dir. Walker moved to approve cost overrun seconded by Dir. Pat Sullivan. Dir. Moorehouse stated that the board should have been contacted before paying for the over budgeted expenses and why do we need to approve something after it was already paid for out of our planning grant. Motion approved 4 to 1 Dir. Moorehouse voted no. Logo Contest: Dir. Moorehouse updated the board about the logo contest. Jeff Boeckler wrote the letter, Dir. Moorehouse gathered local library addresses and created a flyer, and Dir. Sears was supposed to gather school addresses and mail out the packets. Treasurers Report: Martha Sheppard submitted expenses for the support and planning grants. Dir. Moorehouse asked what fund we will take from to make up for the $500 overrun in the flight. Martha said it will probably come from the plan writer line item. Martha informed the group we needed to spend the rest of the support grant by the end of the fiscal year. Dir. Walker motioned to give the finance committee permission to spend the rest of the money in the support grant. Motion seconded by Dir. Moorehouse. Motion was approved unanimously. Dir. Walker moved to approve finance report. Motion died without a second. Dir. Henry motioned to table finance report. Seconded by Dir. Pat Sullivan and approved. Deciding locations for stake holder planning meetings: Dir. Walker moved to have three meeting locations; Mt Sterling, Carthage, and Macomb. Motion seconded by Dir. Moorehouse. Motion approved 4 to 1 with Dir. Wood voting no. Pres. Sullivan put fourth tentative board meeting dates for the rest of the year: July 14th September 8th November 10th – Annual Meeting Motion made by Dir Moorehouse to let President set the board meeting dates for the rest of the year seconded by Dir. Henry. Motion approved. Martha Sheppard brought up applications for plan writer. Seven people applied for the job. Martha passed out the applications and asked to board member to score each applicant and return them to her by May 21st. Meeting Adjourned 8:45pm Respectfully submitted: Daniel Moorehouse
LA MOINE RIVER ECOSYSTEM PARTNERSHIP
MEETING Board members present: Henry, Hobson, Moorehouse, Pat and Tim Sullivan, Walker, and Wood. Others present: Jeff Boeckler, Jim Hemingway, and Alice Henry. President Dana Walker called meeting to order at 8:30 pm. Secretary’s report: minutes were approved. A motion was made by Dir Moorehouse and seconded by Dir. Tim Sullivan to move the camera money to general funds. Motion approved. Dir. Pat Sullivan suggested we start having conference calls so we could meet more often with the benefit of not having to drive. Jeff Boeckler informed us that IDNR could do the conference call for no charge. Watershed Logo – No action Illinois Watershed Conference – register by January 22 cost $25. Dir. Pat Sullivan asked to reorder future meeting agendas and stick to the agenda so we can better utilize our limited time. She also asked to set different meeting times to get a better attendance. Pres. Walker brought up appointing at large directors. Directors Tim Sullivan and Bob Henry made a motion to elect Sara Woos and Carrie Boehm as the directors at large. Motion Passed. Ecosystem Administrator Jim Hemingway conducted officer elections: Results: President – Tim Sullivan Contract oversight committee: informed the board that they came up with funds ($2120) for the helicopter flight of the la Moine. The money was shifted from promotion and plan writer budget. Dir. Wood sugested to write letters to the organizations that helped us in obtaining a stream helicopter flight. Grant Schedule - Thursday March 18th 6:30pm Grant presentations Rushville H.S. Library. Wednesday March 24th 6:30pm Grant ranking (if needed) Rushville H.S. Each applicant will have 15 minutes split between a presentation and Q&A. Jeff Boeckler brought up a possibility of having local students name sub watersheds. Dir. Pat Sullivan volunteered to send out information to schools in order to get participation. Jeff Boeckler went over planning grant timelines asking for input. Dir Walker suggested moving back the large meetings to June – August 2004. Jeff Boeckler suggested having committee meetings to define roles of each committee. Dir. Walker motioned to have our next meeting march 24th 6:30pm at Rushville. Seconded by Dir. Wood and passed Meeting adjourned 10:21pm Respectfully submitted:
Daniel Moorehouse
LA MOINE RIVER ECOSYSTEM PARTNERSHIP
MEETING Board members present: Coventon, Keyes, Hobson, Moorehouse, Sears, Pat and Tim Sullivan, Walker, and Wood. Others present: Martha Sheppard, Jeff Boeckler, Jim Hemingway,. President Dana Walker called meeting to order at 9:30 pm. Secretary’s report: minutes were approved. A motion was made by Dir Moorehouse and seconded by Dir. Tim Sullivan for the camera committee to decide what to do with the camera money we budgeted in the wake that the two rivers RC&D has bought a camera. Motion approved. President Walker brought up having a contest to design a logo for our partnership. Dir. Sears volunteered to head this effort up and inform schools about the contest. A motion was made by Dir. Moorehouse and seconded by Dir. Sears to have a prize of $50 for the logo contest. Motion was approved. Pres. Walker asked for suggestions for an article in the Conservation Communicator. Dir Moorehouse suggested having an article about our GIS work mapping CRP and CREP projects in our watershed. Jeff Boeckler of IDNR brought to our attention a possibility to get a helicopter video survey of some local streams. This survey can document problems with the streams and possibly help us center our efforts. He said the air time would be tacked on to another survey and if we wanted this we would need to come up with $2,500 to $3,000. Dir. Pat Sullivan made a motion to give the budget oversight committee the authority to review the budget and see if they could find funds to shift over to the survey. If the committee found these funds they could give spend the money on the survey. Motion seconded by Dir. Wood and approved. Jeff Boeckler said the streams they were looking at were Drowneding Fork, East Fork of the La Moine, Camp Creek, Grindstone, and Troublesome Creek. A motion was made by Dir Moorehouse to have our next meeting in December. Seconded by Dir Coventon. Motion passed. Dir. Tim Sullivan Moved we make the December meeting a committee meeting of the whole board and have our first official board meeting January 14th. Seconded by Dir Coventon and passed. Meeting adjourned. Respectfully submitted:
Daniel Moorehouse
LA MOINE RIVER
ECOSYSTEM PARTNERSHIP MEETING Board members present: Benninghoff, Coventon, Keyes, Moorehouse, Sears, Sullivan, Walker, and Wood. Others present: Martha Sheppard, Jeff Boeckler, Jim Hemingway, Dana Curtiss, and Chris Delany-Barmann . President Dana Walker called meeting to order at 6:38pm and introduced Jim Hemmingway our new Ecosystem Administrator and Dana Curtis also from Ecowatch. Dana Curtis spoke about the governors plan to cut 200 million from the DNR budget and we should write our representatives to tell them what we think about this. She also talked about how budget cuts have affected C2000 by laying off all of the regional trainers which will limit training sessions for volunteers. Her plan for Ecowatch is to establish a level of monitoring to get a hold of what is happening in our watershed. Her hope is for Ecowatch to go from a state wide level of analysis to a partnership level. The goal is to come up with data so our partnership can make sound decisions. So far our partnership is in pretty good shape for the number of Riverwatch sites but we will need more forest and Prairiewatch sites. All said she stressed better and more monitoring of our watershed can help in getting grant money. Treasure’s report: Treasurer Moorehouse submitted the budget and expenses report. Martha informed the board we need to spend the money soon from the partnership grant and that she will put in for an extension so we don’t lose it. Dir. Coventon recommended purchasing a digital camcorder instead of a camera. Dir. Sullivan seconded by Dir. Coventon made a motion to increase the budgeted amount for the camera to $550 and that the camera committee will choose to purchase a digital camera or a camcorder. Motion approved. Treasurer’s report accepted unanimously. Secretary’s Report: Minutes submitted by secretary Moorehouse and approved unanimously. Jeff Boeckler brought up needing at least 5 more prairie-forest watch people (volunteers) to man the new Ecowatch sites. Chris Delaney-Barmann brought up to the board an issue with Macomb using reverse-osmosis to filter the brine out of the well water from their new deep wells that will supplement spring lake. His concern was that pumping 1 million gallons a day of brine water (mixing it with treated sewage to dilute the salt water) into the Kiljordan that will eventually pass through the La Moine River. President Walker correspondence: Pres. Walker informed the board the secretary sent letters of support for Ecowatch and C2000. Got a letter from Kishwaukee River Ecosystem Partnership asking us to send letters in support of C2000. Planning Committee Report: The planning committee submitted a draft grant application for a C2000 planning grant to the board for approval. Comments: Dir. Wood was concerned the planning committee would be making all of the decisions on the plan. Jeff Boeckler said the committee could go to the board if they needed more help and that this is all flexible and that we hope the plan takes everyone into account. Pres. Dana suggested we push back public meetings by a month so we do not interfere with farming in the spring. Motion to accept the planning grant proposal; with the exception of adding up to $3000 more for putting the plan together. Dir. Wood said she thinks we are cutting ourselves short on money and it would be great to get more money so we can put the data on the web. Motion passed. Grant Ranking The board then ranked all the grants submitted to our partnership by averaging the scores of the voting directors. The following were the averages that were voted upon (Table 1). Directors Moorehouse and Wood abstained from voting on grant # 2. Dir Boehm-Corrie submitted her ranking by mail and was included in the voting.
Table 1. La Moine River Partnership grant rankings Dir. Wood made a motion which was seconded to adjust the total of the habitat and capital grants by +5 points and all other grants by +1.8 points. Dir. Wood argued that because these grant categories were more likely to be funded in times of smaller DNR budgets we should prioritize both the habitat and capital grants because these grants would more likely be funded. Dir. Moorehouse disagreed and stated if we should not preference one type of grant over the other because of its category rather we should raise all of the grants equally by 1.8 points so our highest ranked grant can get a perfect score. Motion was approved with Directors Moorehouse and Sears voting no. Next Meeting 7:00pm Monday, June 16th at the board of education office in Rushville, IL Meeting Adjourned 10:15 pm Respectfully submitted: Daniel
Moorehouse
LA MOINE RIVER
ECOSYSTEM PARTNERSHIP MEETING Board members present: Benninghoff, Boehm-Corrie, Coventon, Hobson, Keyes, Moorehouse, Sears, Sullivan, Walker, and Wood. Others present: Martha Sheppard, Jeff Boeckler, Larry Patterson, and others. President Dana Walker called meeting to order at 7:03 pm and invited everyone to introduce themselves in the meeting. Secretaries Report: Minutes submitted by secretary Moorehouse and approved unanimously. Treasures report: Treasurer Moorehouse informed the board we need to spend the money soon from the partnership grant or we will loose it, possibly purchasing the digital camera that was allocated in the budget. Pres. Walker suggested forming a camera committee to suggest a purchase to Martha. Directors Wood and Moorehouse volunteered. Martha also suggested using some of the money for travel expenses or maybe a conference. Maybe hire a professional designer for a logo, stamps, and stationary. Treasurer’s report accepted unanimously. President Walker correspondence: A letter was received from Dave Pittman asking to send a letter in support of Ecowatch. He asked to send letters to elected representatives, the governor and the DNR director. Dir. Wood made a motion to send letter of support, seconded by Dir. Hobson and approved unanimously. A letter from Karen May was received asking for support for HB 442 a regulation concerning isolated wetland regulation. Dir Moorehouse motioned to table this request so the board could get more information about this bill, was seconded by Sears and approved. Technical Committee Report: Dir Hobson reported our first meeting was a success. We had representation from several different fields and a lot of the information we would need to put together a plan is already out there for us to use. Mr. Boeckler said we will be building cost estimates into the plan proposal. Planning Committee Report: Dir. Benninghoff informed the board the committee has a rough draft of the proposal and using the input from the committee we should have a rough draft in a couple of weeks. Karen McDermaid submitted a proposal with cost estimates for a social profile study which will be included in the proposal. Patrick Curry – working with the extension office as a census guru volunteered to help us analyze the survey data set and work with census data. Another suggestion is a possible cold calling survey possibly using LREMP members to call. Dir Walker suggested conducting the survey from May through June as it will not interfere with the planting and harvesting seasons. A motion was made Dir. Coventon to accept Karen McDermaid proposal seconded by Dir Sears and approved unanimously. Pres Walker asked for people wanting to serve on a survey committee. Dir. Walker and Wood said they would serve and Dir Benninghoff and Moorehouse said possibly. The planning committee will try to get the planning grant proposal done by April1st and try to get formal board approval by April 9th. Martha will be sending out grant applications in the next meetings mailings. Our new Environmental Administrator is Jim Hemmingway 309-446-9084 The board decided not to act on participating in the Mt. Sterling Rodeo. Pres. Walker informed the board of possibly having to change our bylaws now that C2000 has new rules. Major revisions include having board members not voting on grants they have ties with and publicizing all meetings. Pres Walker will get back to the board in three months with suggestions to change our bylaws. Dir. Wood suggested we need better publicity for our meetings. Martha said she could but a list together with media contacts to help. Dir. Moorehouse made a motion to appoint Dir. Wood to be chairperson of the publicity committee seconded by Dir. Coventon and approved unanimously. Dir. Wood brought up setting up a table at the Macomb Earth Day. The board decided to drop the suggestion due to lack of attendance at the earth day event. Next Meeting 6:30pm Wednesday, April 9th at the Colchester Medical Clinic, 110 Market, Colchester IL. Meeting Adjourned 8:28pm Respectfully submitted: Daniel Moorehouse
LA MOINE RIVER
ECOSYSTEM PARTNERSHIP MEETING Board members present: Benninghoff, Boehm-Corrie, Coventon, Hobson, Keyes, Moorehouse, Sears, Walker, and Wood. Others present: Martha Sheppard, Jeff Boeckler, Karen McDermaid, Alice and Bob Henry, Jurl Southerland President Dana Walker called meeting to order at 6:40 pm and welcomed all to the meeting. Martha Shepard informed the partnership about the building of a large hog production facility in Brown County north of route 24. Speaking for RC&D she asked the partnership not to take a stand on the issue. Jeff Boeckler announced a new Ecosystem Administrator was assigned to our partnership. Additionally Marvin Hubbell will be leaving C-2000. Jeff Boeckler introduced Karen McDermaid a research specialist in natural resource policy from the University of Illinois and that she is here to help us design and conduct an social survey for our watershed. Jeff talked about the need for a survey to better understand our watershed and the time constraints in which the money must be obligated before the end of the fiscal year. Karen McDermaid spoke about what information a survey could gather. Specifically a survey can gather data on human issues in the watershed including problems, how the public thinks best to address those problems and who should address the problems. The benefits include getting opinions from people in our watershed that are unlikely or have not yet shown up to a meeting. Other survey methods include focus groups, meetings, and targeted questionnaires. She also stated they have had a response of over 50% from past surveys they have done. Some issues in setting up the survey include should everyone in the watershed be sampled or just landowners. Or maybe a random sample of only rural residents or landowners. Jeff Boeckler stated we need to get a proposal in as soon as possible to apply for the planning grant. This plan needs both costs and objectives for coming up with the plan. Basically he stated we need goals, what we want to do, and the cost. This would include the data analysis needs. Jeff also recommends we form a technical advisory committee to recommend what data we need for the plan and the cost in obtaining the data. Pres. Walker recommended Tharran Hobson be the chair of the committee. A motion was made by Dir. Boehm and seconded by Dir. Sears to establish a technical committee and make Tharran Hobson its chairman. Motion Approved. Other Members on the Committee who volunteered will include Pres. Walker, Dir Moorehouse, Bob Henry, and Angella Moorehouse from the Illinois Nature Preserve Commission. Jeff recommended we try to get people from all different disciplines to be on this committee to help us gathering the environmental data we will need. Recommended were professionals from fisheries biologist, habitat biologist, natural heritage biologist, forester, IEPA, geologist, NRCS conservationist and an environmental education specialist. Pres Walker suggested the technical committee should meet sometime in February and the proposal be done by early May to get money for the survey in June. Dana further suggested a timeframe of technical committee in March > planning committee in March/April > and the board taking the suggestions at the March meeting. Karen McDermaid suggested we get together a group to design a survey and look at possible questions. We also must decide who we want to target, a random sample of everyone or a sample of only landowners. She stated the survey will cost about $4 a person which includes mostly printing and postage. Jurl Southerland recommended to the board that we have a table at the Brown County Rodeo ($50 a table) April 26-27 for publicity. Secretary report: The minutes were respectfully submitted by Dan Moorehouse. A motion was made to approve last meetings minutes. Motion approved. Pres. Walker brought up the vacant directors for Hancock Co. Director Wood Motioned we appoint Debbie Sears and Dennis Coventon to fill the vacant positions. Motion seconded by dir. Keyes and passed unanimously. Pres. Walker brought up a letter he got from WINTAG (Western Illinois Network of Trails and Greenways) asking for support. Director Moorehouse made a motion to write a letter of support and it was seconded by Dir. Benninghoff and approved. Dir Moorehouse made a motion to send a letter to C2000 to ask to extend the grant application due date, seconded by Dir. Wood and Approved Planning committee meeting: 5:30pm, March 12, 2003 at the Argyle Lake State Park Office / Visitors Center. Next board meeting: 7:00pm, March 12, 2003 at the Argyle Lake State Park Office / Visitors Center. Meeting adjourned at 9:05pm
LA MOINE RIVER ECOSYSTEM PARTNERSHIP ANNUAL
MEETING President Dana Walker called meeting to order at 7:05 pm and welcomed everyone to the annual meeting. Pres. Walker announced that tomorrow was American recycling day. Also he thanked Schuyler County for hosting the annual meeting. Dana also informed the partnership that there was no word on the grants but he was expecting to here anytime now. Annual Report – VP Janet Keys 2002 Annual ReportJanuary- Two grant workshops were held, one in Rushville and one in Macomb. Jason Beverlin, IDNR gave presentations on how to apply and types of grants that have been funded. These workshops were to encourage and help potential grant applicants applying for C-2000 grants from IDNR. February- The Brown County SWCD and Brown County Farm Bureau requested that the remaining part of the county be admitted to the partnership. This part of Brown county primarily drains to the Illinois River by McKee Creek. The board voted to table the request for 6 months to see if another partnership forms that will include this area. The partnership asked Martha Sheppard to submit a grant on their behalf to hold an event called “La Moine River Day.” March-Fourteen grants were submitted to IDNR from the La Moine partnership area. The board of directors met and ranked the grants according to the ranking criteria the partnership had developed. The grants were then forwarded on to IDNR to compete for funds. May- The meeting was held at the Brown County Soil and Water Conservation District Office in Mt. Sterling. Dan Moorehouse has gotten the website up and running. www.lamoineriver.org July- The meeting was held at the La Harpe Town Hall. IDNR budget shortfalls were discussed and how this would affect the partnerships. The statewide Ecosytem Partnership meeting scheduled for September was cancelled. Jeff Boeckler, IDNR Ecosystem Project Planning Manager gave a presentation on starting the planning process and help that he can provide. It was decided that meetings will be rotated througout the area with members from the host county responsible for meeting site, program, etc. Janet Keyes was chosen to represent the partnership on Conservation Congress. September- The meeting was held in Macomb at the McDonough County Health Department. A program on Natural Areas in the LaMoine River Basin was presented by Angella Moorehouse, Natural Areas Preservation Specialist with the Illinois Nature Preserves Commission. The board voted to include all of Brown County in the partnership and a by-law change was proposed. President Walker attended a meeting with IDNR about the budget and a meeting with The Nature Conservancy at Peoria. Treasurer’s report: Moorehouse said the budget was in good shape. As of 11/1412002 we have spent $344.16. Most of the money went toward mailing and copying expenses. Motion by Dir Boehm to approve the treasurer’s report and seconded. Motion Passed unanimously. Jason Beverlin – The new grant applications are online now. The online grants are due February 28, but if you apply by paper the grants are due by January 31. Due to Budget cuts Jason said that the 6 million asked for was cut to 3.5 million. All of this money must be used for capital projects. Jason also did not know when the approved grants will be announced. Director Moorehouse asked why only capital projects will be funded. Jason: Because the grant money is bonded money and can only be used for programs that last more than 10 years. President Walker brought up the proposed bylaw change that was announced by mail to the members which would add a second director for Brown County in response to incorporating the southern part of Brown County into our partnership. Motion made to approve the change was maid by Pat Sullivan and seconded by Jack Michel. Motion approved unanimously. Election of Directors: Members from McDonough and Brown County caucused separately to elect their directors. The Results are as follows McDonough County elected the following directors: Dorothy David, Dan Moorehouse, and Dana Walker Brown County elected the following directors: Tharran Hobson, Janet Keyes President Walker announced Jeff Boeckler from IDNR who gave a talk about our partnership which included information on: Socio-economic overview Geology Land Cover Water Resources 2002 IEPA Water Quality Data Biologically Significant Features and Natural Communities Pre-settlement and Existing Conditions Comparisons Management recommendations After the Presentation Jeff talked to the membership about the possibility of a socio economic survey and that Karen McDermott was still interested in doing the study. He also informed us of DNR could possibly spent $5,000 to do the study. He also said we would need a proposal for the study and we would need to have this proposal soon. He also said that the planning grant was no longer limited to $10,000. Pres Walker announced a letter he got from Shannon Dunkin of the Western Illinois Regional Council where they asked for help with a plan for their grant “Illinois Greener Communities”. Potential benefits – To take advantage of multiple funding sources, Looks good having partnerships with other organizations, and can be a learning experience for both organizations. Motion to adjourn made by Dir. Boehm and Seconded by Dir. Wood. Motion passed Meeting adjured at 9:30 pm Respectfully submitted: Daniel Moorehouse
LA MOINE RIVER
ECOSYSTEM PARTNERSHIP MEETING Board members present: Benninghoff, Boehm, David, Hobson, Keyes, Moorehouse, Sullivan, Walker, and Wood. Others present: Martha Sheppard President Dana Walker called meeting to order at 9:40 pm and welcomed all to the abbreviated board meeting after the annual meeting.. Secretary report: The minutes were respectfully submitted by Dan Moorehouse. A motion was made to approve last meetings minutes. Motion approved. Dan Moorehouse asked to be reimbursed for $24.95 for a price increase to our web site. Motion approved A motion was made by Dan Moorehouse and seconded by VP Keys to make a proposal to ask for planning money for making a partnership plan. Motion unanimously approved. Next meeting 6:30pm, January 8 2003 at the Brown County SWCD office Meeting adjourned at 9:50pm
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