Final Minutes
Technical Committee Meeting
October 16, 2002
Eagle Viewing Center
Ogallala NE
Agenda and Minutes
Paul Tebbel, Technical Committee (TC) Chair, called the meeting to order. No changes to the agenda were made. The September TC minutes were approved as modified.
Status Reports
Governance Committee and Finance Committee - Dale Strickland reported on recent Governance Committee (GC) and Finance Committee (FC) activities. The major discussion topic has been the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) review. A draft scope will be sent to the GC from the DOI within one week. The GC is to agree on a general scope by consensus at their October 17-18 meeting, before it is sent to NAS. A more detailed list of questions to be considered during the review will be developed by the GC, with assistance of the NAS Working Group. A preliminary review is anticipated to be completed by June 30, 2003. Other topics discussed included: black and white aerial photography proposal was approved, peer review of protocols should proceed, GC authorized the ED to write letters of support of Felipe Chavez Ramirez's effort to raise funds for testing his proposal to study the use of radar to monitor migrating whooping cranes, and the reduced channel capacity issue at North Platte, Nebraska.
DEIS/BO Update - Sharon Whitmore reported that distribution of the draft EIS and BO is still planned for January 2003.
Whooping Crane Monitoring - Clayton Derby reported that Greystone Environmental Consulting began observation per the protocol on October 9. A single whooping crane and a pair of whooping cranes have been observed and confirmed to date. The survey will continue until November 10.
Pallid Sturgeon
The GC has scheduled a discussion of the pallid sturgeon issue for their October 31 workshop in Denver. Individuals will present current monitoring/research ongoing in the lower Platte as well as throughout the Missouri River basin. The TC asked that the Executive Director's office contact Darrell Feits, NGPC, regarding his pallid sturgeon database. Specifically, the TC asked that the issues of methods of confirmation, individuals involved, and scope/area of interest be resolved prior to the GC workshop. This information will be presented by Dale as part of his introduction of the topic on October 31.
Cottonwood Ranch Property Monitoring and Research
Paul Kinzel, USGS, was asked after the last TC meeting to review the TC's monitoring and research at Cottonwood Ranch to insure that proper levels of effort are being expended and to see if the correct areas are being sampled now that NPPD has begun tree clearing and other activities at the site. Paul noted that the current "output" grid of transects actually is included in a section where clearing activities are planned. This will compound the problem of identifying geomorphology impacts due to the management (i.e., some of the management is occurring in an area Paul was not anticipating). The TC agreed to recommend to NPPD's FERC Oversight Committee that the group modify the management plan to leave a small strip of trees immediately adjacent to the channel until a later clearing effort. This will help address the issue of conducting management in the output section. John Shadle noted that the TC needs to coordinate with NPPD to insure that monitoring/research activities do not impede NPPD complying with their FERC license.
The TC also discussed the need to propose continuation of the research for one additional year, at a minimum. The original scope envisioned having one year of pre-treatment measurements and two years of post-treatment measurements. As currently planned, the project will have 2.5 years of pre-treatment measurements and only a partial field season (8 transects measured two more times) post-treatment. The TC asked the Executive Director's office to work with the USGS in developing a proposal to continue the monitoring and research for an additional year. The TC will review the proposal before it is distributed to the Finance Committee. The proposal will outline the work conducted to date and a description of the value of continuing the project. Paul asked that the USGS be notified by April whether or not the additional funding will be made available to insure him time to secure field technicians and for planning.
Protocols
R3-1 Data Needs and Protocols
The Executive Director's office compared the current protocols to the FWS's R3-1 Data Needs table and identified several areas in which the protocols do not collect all of the data needs as currently identified. Some of the holes are likely strictly definitional issues (e.g., protocols have not identified channel cross-section measurements with the same terms used in the R3-1 table), whereas other areas of inconsistency are more substantive. The TC recognized that the issue needs to be resolved so that in future years individuals will not be able to say that the Program was not or did not collect all of the information required. The FWS will review the information and provide a proposal back to the TC on how changes can be made. Change may include additions to protocols, rewording in R3-1, or other.
Fish Protocol
Mark Peyton noted that the Districts are planning to conduct some fish monitoring in 2003. They are proposing using methods similar to those used by Chadwick in past years. Mark stated that this would be a good time to also implement an alternative method to allow comparison between methods.
Geomorphology
Clayton Derby reported that the Executive Director's office met with individuals that commented on the latest draft protocol. Comments and direction from the meeting will be incorporated into the protocol for further review.
Future Protocol Development and Budget
Dale explained that the Executive Director's office needs direction from the TC on whether or not the TC is satisfied with the level of work conducted under the original scope of work for drafting protocols and if a proposal to the FC for additional protocol development is needed. No concerns were raised regarding the work conducted to date on the existing scope of work. Most monitoring protocols as identified in the IMRP have been nearly completed or are in draft form. This does not include protocols for pallid sturgeon. Other issues discussed were 1) the need for the TC to begin looking at analyzing some of the whooping crane data collected to date compared to available habitat measurements, 2) development of the 2002 tern and plover report, 3) "clean-up" of current protocols (e.g., addition of information as needed to the whooping crane protocol), and 4) incorporation of comments received via protocol peer reviews. The TC asked that the Executive Director's office develop a proposal for FC consideration that outlines the scope and budget at three levels: 1) clean-up of existing protocols, 2) development of reports and availability analysis, and 3) development of new monitoring protocols. To expedite the additional work on protocols, the TC generally agreed that the Executive Director's office should work more independently in developing and working on any additional protocols. The Executive Director's office will take initial direction and comments from the TC and individuals, but then will work through protocols more independently. The TC will still review and approve protocols.
Charter
Paul Tebbel asked that if individual TC members want specific items in the charter that they need to be identified. Concern was raised that the current method of identifying TC members in the Charter allows GC members to have dual influence, once at the TC level and once at the GC. The TC agreed that the current draft charter should be distributed for inclusion in the Program White Binder.
Future Meetings
December 4-5, 2002, Location is potentially Rowe Sanctuary
Adjourn - 2:30 p.m.
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