Puget Sound Nearshore Partnership

Puget Sound Nearshore Partnership
Steering Committee Meeting
March 16, 2005

Attendees:

Curtis Tanner, Debby Hyde, Doug Osterman, Paul Cereghino, Bernie Hargrave, Scott Redman, Terry Wright, Jacques White, Paula DelGiudice, Doug Myers, Toni Lick, and Debbie Rick

February 16, 2005, Steering Committee Meeting Notes were approved.

Report from the Federal Project Manager

Funding:

Bernie Hargrave reported on the status of federal fiscal year (FY) 2005 funding. The amount appropriated to PSNERP for FY 2005 was $525K, less “savings and slippage.” To date, the Seattle District has received approximately $470K, which represents the actual work allowance plus some reprogrammed funds, which includes some of the amount lost to savings and slippage. Based on this allocation, the Corps has provided funds to University of Washington to support the Nearshore Science Team, including a new NST Social Scientist at an approximate level of 0.15 FTE. After NST support and anticipated Corps staffing requirements, approximately $50K remains for support of priority work plan tasks.

USFWS support for Fish and Wildlife Coordination Act

Bernie is working with USFWS staff to identify and allocate FY ’05 funds for FWCA activities.

LiDAR:

All PSNERP supported nearshore bathymetric data using LiDAR have been released, and are now available from USGS.

Puget Sound and Adjacent Waters

Bernie reported on PSAW selection of four initial projects:

#1 Seahurst Park – construction largely complete
Monitoring construction at pre- and post anniversary; by the City of Burien

#2 Skokomish Estuary
City of Tacoma, Skokomish Tribe, Conservation District
Agreement with the City of Tacoma to be signed this summer

#3 Lake Washington Gravel Nourishment at Seward Park
City of Seattle Parks and Recreation agreement not made yet.

#4 Derelict Gear/Removal

In addition to project #4, a parallel project is emerging sponsored by the Navy Diving School to remove derelict gear. The final exam will be an actual dive to remove derelict gear from two sites. The local sponsor will develop a derelict gear removal plan through WDFW approval.

Future PSAW projects will be identified through “consultation conferences.” The Corp of Engineers sent out invitations to two Consultation Conferences in relation to PSAW grants to be held in mid May: one at NOAA Restoration Center and the other at the Belfair Wetlands Center. Invitiees thus far include County planning commissions, Tribes, NW Straits Commission, Hood Canal Coordinating Council, Salmon Recovery Funding Board, select NGO’s, large and mid-size cities, ports. The Steering Committee suggested that Regional Fisheries Enhancement Groups and the fourteen Lead Entities be added to this list; Debbie Rick will provide contact information to Bernie.

PSNERP Plan Formulator

Bernie announced that Beth Coffey is coming on board March 23 to provide assistance in Plan Formulation. Some priority tasks identified for her included:

Further development of management measures list
Development of Phase 3 – feasibility report outline
Implementation Team participation
Problem statement development (“Clear and compelling outlining goals and objectives.”)

Report from the Nearshore Science Team Co-lead

Doug Myers started his report by describing NST progress on development of research questions for specific management measures. The first discussion focused on bulkhead removal and associated beach nourishment actions. Paul Cereghino inquired about the timeline for completing the research questions task – Doug agreed to work with his co-lead to answer this question.

The Steering Committee expressed interest in this kind of information from the NST, and various forms of quicker dissemination was discussed. One idea discussed was that of
“Flash News” or Blogg – report back on research goals, information flow, reports back on tasks completed. This lead to discussion of the need for a Program Lead Scientist to serve as the science “voice” for PSNERP.

Historic and Current Conditions Analysis

Doug’s report continued with a summary of discussions held recently by the Project Management Team. Based on Bernie’s identified capacity for approximately $50K for tasks in support of the Work Plan, the PMT recommends that the Conditions Analysis, currently being implemented for WRIA 9, be “scaled up” to the next logical planning units. Based on PSAT’s work on the Regional Nearshore Chapter of the Shared Strategy draft Recovery Plan, the idea of adopting TRT/PSAT definitions of regional scale planning units was discussed. The Regional Chapter describes eleven sub-basins, which comprise Puget Sound. Based on this discussion, the Steering Committee requested that the NST provide guidance on this approach. Specifically, should PSNERP use PSAT/TRT definition of Central Sound for next level of analysis? What are the pros and cons, and alternatives for this approach to defining regional planning units, and does it seem logical to “scale up” to a regional unit that encompasses WRIA 9?

Valued Ecosystem Component (VEC) Session Work Session Report

Curtis Tanner reported on the March 2 Steering Committee VEC Work Session. A list of proposed VEC developed at the meeting was circulated and discussed. Topics of discussion included:

Is there a component not addressed by one of these VECs?
Do the VECs provide a compelling problem statement?
Are VECs the symptoms (“poster children”) of ecosystem decline or monitoring –indicators?

Gantt Chart update/review

The Steering Committee that revised Gantt Charts documenting project progress be provided on a quarterly basis.

PSNP Quarterly Budget Review

Toni provided an overview of the attached budget documents. The SC agreed that these documents are exactly what they need to reflect revenue/expenditures.

Status of Technical Documents 1-6

Curtis showed us the covers of the Technical Documents 1 – 3. He indicated that he was disappointed with the progress of this task, as the documents will not be available by the Puget Sound/Georgia Basin Research Conference March 28 – 31, 2005.

He also reviewed a schedule Documents 4 – 6 Tasks include review by the Technical Editor, peer review, graphics and layout and final author approval. The current schedule indicates document publication for the Research Plan, Typology Report, and Conceptual Model Narrative during the July-August time period.

Next Steering Committee Meeting

Gantt chart review.
Steering Committee and the Nearshore Science Team “Summit” meeting in May
une Executive Committee Meeting
NST ongoing tasks