Team Arundo del Norte Quarterly Meeting Friday January 28, 2000 3:00-5:00 PM 2124 Wickson Hall, UCD Northern Sac Valley proposal Kristen Cooper-Carter has drafted a proposal that is coordinated with Team Arundo's work and is requesting feedback- contact kcooper-carter@csuchico.edu for a copy. Rich Holman has another draft grant written that addresses Arundo eradication as a flood issue, doing HEC models. The angle is to increase flood capacity, approaches it from the engineering angle. CMARP conference in October CMARP science conference in the Fall- they've asked us to send a rep and talk. Carrie says they want scientific data. Information about the monitoring component and perhaps talking a little about aerial image application. We'll get more information from Kim Webb. CalFed Grant Project (thanks Lois and Caitlin for the yummy deserts and party favors!) Our proposal states that we will take care of the whole Arundo eradication coordination project for CALFED. $818,000 total grant. Three main pieces- 1. Fund eradication in 6 watersheds, 2. An information coordination effort, getting all the Arundo information we can onto the internet to support eradicators, and 3. To fund a position that will act as a technical assistant to eradication projects all around the region. The grant will be admin'ed through the SEC. Discussion EPA SWQCB is concerned with the use of pesticides within the 100-year flood plain and they are starting to set TMDLs for certain herbicides, may be increasing regulation through the Department of Pesticide Regulation. They have questioned the work being done by CDA on other invasives. This is possibly something that will come up. Also the fact that it is State and Federal funding and that triggers CEQA and NEPA compliance. We can look into agreements. Or they might ask us to do water samples which could be difficult. They just have mandates and may require certain actions, regardless of the supposed negligible impact of Roundup. We'll want to check into the possibility of MOUs or arrangements that treat the issue of invasive species control differently. Current word on the timing of the grant is that the money will come in next summer. Maybe we should get some other people- someone from the SWQCB- come to a TadN meeting and help us address permit issues. Ron Unger suggests someone from the Corps, and possibly someone knowledgeable from his firm. Pam Romo asks if we were thinking about getting a blanket regional permit for all the work. Paul Jones was trying to do just that but was frustrated in his efforts. We will be doing the permitting on a case-by-case basis. Joel pointed out the even DFG has no set procedure for the work that they do. This is sort of new territory. The Clean Water Act is changing and the way agencies deal with things and they are affected by the many lawsuits that have come up regarding pesticide use. Get someone representing CEQA. It'd be hard if we need to do CEQA work for each stream project- we should try and get one thing to cover it all. Rich Meravich is someone who may be able to advise us. Speaking to weed management areas with CDA might be a good way to do outreach- they have their own connections and local GIS weed mapping projects. Tamarisk issue is closely tiedŠ in the future we might try and expand into a more expansive riparian restoration effort so we can address other things in the creeks we're working on. Scott Clemens would be a good person to talk with about revegetation and plugging into flood issues. Personnel for the project-Mark Newhouser has been working on related projects for years and is interested in doing the coordinator job. Deanne might be able to work the information technology part into her graduate work. We'll set up a project steering committee that will meet more often- a subset of the Team. We will try and bring issues for decisions to the whole group. Educational materials- Joel Trumbo: Grant is just about done, only about one more month. Educational print materials are ready for distribution. Mark Newhouser is the contact: 707-966-0712, mnewhouser@vom.com. Mark brought the materials and they look terrific! There are only 50 organization brochures and we need to print more- need more money. Monsanto might help out. We'll be getting these materials up on the web in PDF format. War on Weeds grant may be possible- we should submit a proposal, get another thousand or so. Video viewing The video is about twenty minutes long and features a walk through Sonoma creek area where there is Arundo mixed in with native riparian vegetation. Discusses the problems associated with Arundo infestations, how to identify it, and the methods in current use to eradicate it, demonstrated by DFG representative Joel Trumbo. The viewer is urged to contact local groups if they have questions about its control. Discussion We could get the video out to local television stations. Then we thought that might not be the right audience. Editing suggestions should (at that time) be sent to Joel - jtrumbo@hq.dfg.ca.gov (but at the time of release of these minutes the video had gone to reproduction). We may want to add something about the fact that there may be regulations on eradication, contact your weed management area or Team Arundo. A couple of text additions can still be made. Might want to create a more generic tape for a more general audience- maybe a second video someday. This one is good for showing to people that already know something about the problem. Pestmaster's Arundo-eating machines Presentation and video, Bob Carney and Mark Winkel introduced and showed a video demonstrating a mechanical devise with a boom that could get to hard places and deal with large amount of biomass very rapidly- it was shown taking out a fifty-foot mature elm within several minutes. Plants are chopped into a fine mulch that cannot resprout. The surgical applicability and the access to hard-to-reach (like steep) places are features to be considered for Arundo work. The company is already doing large-scale Arundo work in the south and would like to work with us in Northern California. See Pesttmasters' website for further information: http://www.pestmaster.com/arundo.htm Reminder: The TAdN Website is kept up-to-date for your Arundo information needs! http://ceres.ca.gov/tadn ----------------------------------------------------- Deanne DiPietro CERES Technical Projects Coordinator California Resources Agency 900 N St. Suite 250, Sacramento, CA 95814 (916) 653-8614