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Puget Sound Nearshore Partnership
Steering Committee Meeting
April 20, 2005

Attendees:

Elaine Kleckner, Beth Coffey, Bernie Hargrave, Debby Hyde, Andrea Copping, Terry Wright, Curtis Tanner, Doug Myers, Rob Koeppen, Scott Redman, Jacques White, Paula DelGiudice, Doug Osterman, Tim Smith, and Debbie Rick

Notes from the March 16, 2005, meeting were accepted once Paula’s name was corrected and some minor adjustments made to the full sentence at the top of page 2. It should read, “The local sponsor will develop a derelict gear removal plan through WDFW approval.”

Two new additions to the Nearshore Partnership were introduced:

Implementation Team co-leads:
Beth Coffey, USACE
Elaine Kleckner, WDFW

Announcements:

Scott Redman – Dave Christensen of the Hood Canal Coordinating Council (HCCC) has talked with Scott about a grant proposal he is developing for EPA's Watershed Initiative.

HCCC is attempting to develop and lead a broad partnership to: extend the Coordinating Council's efforts at Community Nearshore Restoration to five or seven additional "neighborhood" locations (beyond the work to date at Northshore and Dewatto) to apply their proven approach to facilitate shoreline landowner education and involvement in restoration projects. Projects could address bulkhead removal, establishment of native vegetation, repair and/or replacement of septic systems, etc.

Dave is looking for partners that will bring something to the endeavor. For the Nearshore Partnership, he would like, at least, to describe how their proposed effort builds from and would be useful to our work. Beyond that, he might like the Partnership to offer some service or other resources to the effort. Scott was not sure what the Partnership could offer – perhaps some assistance with design (and implementation) of monitoring to understand the off-site benefits of restoration actions.

Tribes and governors nominate the EPA Watershed Initiative grant proposals. Dave is working to have the Skokomish and Port Gamble S'Klallam tribes nominate this project before the proposal is due. He has asked PSAT staff to help facilitate getting the Governor's support of this project.

Jacques White – Reported on upcoming US Senate hearings regarding The Nature Conservancy on land acquisition policies. This is in response to last year’s Washington Post series on this issue, which also lead to an internal audit and a better system of appraisal.

Tim Smith – The state government plans coordination of a major Puget Sound initiative in the fall. Elliot Marks, Governor’s Office, has formed a workgroup to determine what the Governor’s initiative might look like.

The Governor re-appointed Brad Ack to the Puget Sound Action Team.

Shared Strategy confirms that it will go away June 30, 2005. Since it will no longer exist there will need to be another mechanism in place for implementation.

Andrea Copping – Jim Brennan has joined the staff of Washington SeaGrant as a nearshore science expert.

Paula DelGiudice – Passed out a report entitled “Fish Out of Water.”

Report from the Nearshore Science Team Co-Lead – Doug Myers

As a response to the Steering Committee expressing an interest in some type of “Flash News” or blogg, Doug provided the Steering Committee with a copy of the notes taken at the March Nearshore Science Team meeting. The notes are quite detailed (attached).

The Steering Committee discussed bulkhead removal and beach nourishment as management measures. A better use of the NST notes might be to apply NST actions to the management measures and identify NST needs for the Steering Committee to address.

Questions raised: What are the implications of the NST discussions? What is the division of duties for the Implementation Team, the Project Management Team, and the Nearshore Science Team?

Puget Sound/Georgia Basin Research Conference – The Partnership had a significant presence at the conference. The Nearshore Partnership presentation had a very large turnout of about 150 people staying for the entire presentation. The Program booth, staffed throughout the Conference, attracted many participants.

Social Scientist Selection Workgroup Report – Debby Hyde

Participants: Bernie Hargrave, Fred Goetz/Doug Myers, Curtis Tanner, Andrea Copping and Debby Hyde

On January 31, 2005, the Project Management Team finalized the list of potential candidates for the position of Social Scientist on the Nearshore Science Team. A total of six individuals were contacted for an initial indication of their interest; five replied affirmatively and submitted Curriculum Vitae (CV) for consideration.

February 25, a short list of three candidates was identified for interviews. Short list candidates were Clare Ryan, Tom Leschine, and Trina Wellman. A position description was developed by the Workgroup, and forwarded to Steering Committee and NST member for input. A revised position description was then sent to the three candidates.

March 24, interviews with the three candidates. We used the position description and we developed a standard set of questions that were presented in a uniform manner to each candidate.

All three candidates had particular strengths that made them good candidates for various social scientist disciplines. After the interviews, two candidates - Tom and Clare - ranked together higher than Trina. Unable to reach consensus, we felt we needed additional information in order to make a final recommendation. Andrea followed up.

The Workgroup met again on March 31 at the Puget Sound Georgia Basin Research Conference. Andrea reported the references had not provided any information that would rule out one of the candidates. We continued our discussion on the trade-offs associated with the two leading candidates.

The group recommends to the Steering Committee that we offer the position to Tom Leschine, Director of Marine Affairs, University of Washington. In addition to the qualities each of the three potentially brought to the program, Tom brought these additional items:

• Tom has interest in this specific program. He has steered students such as Brie Van Cleve towards it; he has participated previously in NST meetings; he attended the Nearshore Session at the PS/GB Research Conference;
• Tom may be able to obtain additional student resources that can be valuable to the Program;
• Brings a national level recognition that could prove helpful.

ACTION: The workgroup asked that the Steering Committee concur and support Tom Leschine's addition to the Nearshore Science Team. Terry Wright moved; Scott Redman seconded. The Steering Committee approved the workgroup’s selection of Tom Leschine.

Battelle Pacific NW National Laboratories – Andrea Copping

Andrea has had several conversations with managers and researchers from the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) in which they have expressed interest in participating in PSNP in a substantive way. Battelle manages the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory for the US Department of Energy.

Andrea proposed adding PNNL personnel to the Steering Committee, the NST, and the Executive Committee. Some of the advantages she pointed out were:

• PNNL has a large and substantive presence in Western Washington with expertise in many aspects of marine science, policy, and management. Some of the best-applied research in nearshore habitat in the region has been carried out by PNNL personnel at their Marine Research Organization located in Sequim. They have knowledge in several relevant social sciences including resource economics, sociology, and behavioral psychology.
• As a U.S. Department of Energy national laboratory, as well as working with other federal agencies (USCOE, EPA, NOAA), PNNL has a large nation-wide presence that allows them to tap expertise and experience from other regions, including coastal areas that have successfully established large coastal restoration programs.
• PNNL is funded by some of the largest federal agencies; they have networks and contacts to both agencies and decision-makers at the regional and federal level. They are in a position to steer effort and funds to advance PSRP activities. For example, as part of a program PNNL manages for NASA, PNNL recently allocated $100K to PSNP to further understand and advance the use of geospatial data for Nearshore restoration.

The disadvantage of adding PNNL:

• PNNL would not be able to apply for Nearshore Partnership funds to carry out tasks and projects if they were part of the decision-making bodies (SC, NST, Exec.)

Andrea indicated that

1) PNNL has made it clear that they will not bid on Nearshore restoration work in Western Washington. Should the Corps or other agencies wish to engage PNNL on Nearshore Partnership projects, they can be reached through inter-agency agreements with the US DOE;

2) it is clear that Nearshore Partnership has already established several precedents for getting money to organizations represented on the Steering Committee and/or NST or Executive Committee.

***** Discussion*****

Andrea – Nearshore Partnership should engage PNNL in Partnership funding.

Paula - Contract question – Project Management Team to develop a scope of work across the program defining tasks to complete work plan. Where is the pot of money coming from?

Curtis – Suggests that Rod Quinn, Assistant Director of the Lab, be an Executive Committee Member. Ron Thom, at the Steering Committee level, with access to the science through PNNL.

Bernie – Populate the Implementation Team with new members. Bring in someone new with no connection with the project. The Implementation Team’s role is to network with the restoration community, to identify demonstration and early action projects, and to develop the feasibility report and/or the interim feasibility report.

Terry – Has a concern about the funding draw. Battelle is a “non-profit” consulting firm that has been contracted to operate the Pacific Northwest National Lab and the Marine Science Lab in Sequim.

Jacques – Recommends that we address the Executive Committee with our recommendation and get approval.

Andrea – will follow up with PNNL.

Report from the Federal Project Manager – Bernie Hargrave

The US Army Corps of Engineers (and US Geological Survey) has been invited to the White House Conference on Cooperative Conservation on August 29-31, 2005, in St. Louis, MO. More information is at http://www.conservation.ceq.gov/. Both the Corps and USGS have provided one-page "case studies" on collaboration in Puget Sound for submission to the conference organizers. Decisions have yet to be made on which of the major cooperative conservation efforts will be discussed at the conference.

Bernie thanked the Steering Committee members for writing endorsement letters for the Puget Sound and Adjacent Waters Restoration Project.

Bernie participated in the Shared Strategy federal summer chum/Hood Canal meeting.

The WRDA bill (S. 728) now in the Senate, as they requested, may have implications for Nearshore Projects under the new authority for restoration in coastal areas.
http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d109:s.00728:

The bill includes provisions for:

Regional Sediment Management – investigations for construction authority on environment mission areas.

Researching beneficial use of dredge materials.

Estuary and coastal habitat restoration.

Gantt Chart Update/Review – Curtis Tanner

Puget Sound Nearshore Partnership
Program Work Plan/Gantt Chart
Stage One Issues

General

1 Many tasks indicate Steering Committee endorsement of NST/IT technical products. What does this process look like?

Finance strategy
Guiding Principles
Ecological Principles

2 Generate new category of annual “program maintenance” tasks to deal with recurring items, i.e.

a. Review and update policies and procedures
b. Review program membership
c. Review program Work Plan

Stage 1

Work Plan revisions to be complete by May 2. The initial review will focus on an update of factual issues – schedule, status, descriptions of tasks in Stage 1 and 2. Following the May 20 Summit and the June 3 Executive Committee meeting, an update reflecting any decisions or guidance regarding changes in Program scope, Stage 3 products, or other “substantive” modifications will be developed.

Steering Committee and Nearshore Science Team Summit – Curtis Tanner

The Steering Committee will hold its regular monthly meeting on May 18. A program “summit” meeting including the Steering Committee, Nearshore Science Team, and Implementation Team participation will follow on May 19. The regular monthly NST meeting will take place on May 20. All three meetings will be held at Ft. Worden with overnight accommodations provided.

The purpose of the Summit meeting is to prepare for the June 3 Executive Committee meeting. Specifically, the growing discrepancy between the Project Work Plan and our progress in completing the tasks, driven largely by less program funding than anticipated by the original Project Management Plan. In advance of the Summit, the Project Management Team will distribute:

• 1st revision of Work Plan (described above)
• Description of alternatives to be discussed
• Agenda/discussion topics

June Executive Committee – Tim Smith

Below represents revisions to what Tim presented at the Steering Committee.

Executive Committee
Friday, June 3, 2005
9:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m.
Room 172, NRB
Olympia, Washington

Draft Agenda

To be provided as handouts and “read-aheads”:

Budget
FY ’05 Budget Status (Curtis)
FY ’06 Outlook (Tim)
FY ‘05/07 Outlook (Tim)

Welcome/Introductions (Koenings/Lewis)

Membership

Transitions/New Members (Tim)

Puget Sound Partnership Issues

Governor’s Puget Sound Initiative (Tom Fitzsimmons/Elliot Marks/Brad Ack)
Implementing Salmon Recovery in Puget Sound (Bill Ruckelshaus)
Status of Nearshore Projects
- Hood Canal (Duane Fagergren)
“Lessons Learned” for NGOs and Citizen Support (Paula/Naki)
Valued Ecosystem Components
List review and Discussion (Steering Committee Rep)

Gut Check

Executive Committee Members Discussion

Status and Accomplishments
General Investigation Time/Cost Analysis (Mona)
Work Plan (Curtis)
Recommended Actions (Tim)
Defining an “Interim Feasibility Report” (Beth)
Puget Sound Georgia Basin Conference “Slim” Presentation
Puget Sound and Adjacent Waters Restoration (Bernie Hargrave)

Next Steering Committee

Work Plan
Executive Committee Agenda
NST Report
Implementation Team Report