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Minutes - Open Space - January 14, 2009 Approved 3/I //2009. OPEN SPACE BOARD OF TRUSTEES Minutes January 14,2009 BOARD MEMBERS PRESENT Pat Billig Kay Tauscher Bill Briggs Allyn Feinberg STAFF PRESENT Mike Patton Dean Paschall Jim Reeder Steve Armstead Eric Stone Ann Goodhart Cecil Fenio Jean Koszalka Ronda Romero Pam Prentice Jim Schmidt Deb Kalish CALL TO ORDER The meeting was called to order at 6:00 p.m. AGENDA ITEM 1-Approval of Minutes Bill Briggs moved that the minutes of December 10, 2008 be approved as read. Kay Tauscher seconded the motion. The motion passed unanimously. AGENDA ITEM 2 -Public Participation Donna Post, Eldorado Springs, said that having multiple access gates dispersed visitors across Open Space and by closing them people were forced to drive their cars to a congested main trailhead. Not only does this waste gas but it adds to the danger of having overcrowded trailheads. Ms. Post requested that the neighborhood gates remain open. Madison Post, Eldorado Springs, prefaced his remarks by saying he was not opposed to having cattle grazing on Open Space and hoped that practice would continue. He did believe that the neighborhood gates should remain open to allow residents access to the adjacent Open Space. He voiced his frustration with staff's responses to his concerns. An article on cattle gazing and grassland birds provided to him reflected Open Space and Mountain Park's (OSMP) policy. Mr. Post said he was able to find a lot of information supporting contrary results and believed the department was using biased science. Mr. Post explained how 300 head of cattle would have much greater impact on the ground-nesting birds than a handful of visitors. He asked that staff reconsider the ground-nesting bird closures. Karen Hollweg Boulder, was pleased that the West Trails Study Area (WTSA) Targets, Amibutes and ]ndicators (TAI) document was organized based on habitat types. However, she was concerned that only one animal was singled out as an indicator in a particular habitat. She said that literature supports monitoring for the rich diversity of organisms that live in particular habitats rather than to monitor for one species. Ms. Hollweg acknowledged that it would not be feasible to monitor every single species but encouraged staff to monitor more than one. Raymond Bridge, Boulder, commented on the WTSA planning process. He said that initially the intention was to begin the WTSA process with a full natural resource inventory yet only one contracted inventory has been completed. Asking for responses to the TAI report prior to having access to the full inventory was disruptive to the whole process. 1 In response to some of the comments, Mike Patton pointed out that closing gates was pazt of the Visitor Master Plan (VMP) intended to funnel access to the trailheads. He acknowledged that staff lmew this would be troublesome to neighbors of Open Space but reminded everyone that the TSA process that was called out in the VMP went through extensive public review. Although there are no plans to reverse this decision, staff is continually reviewing its management practices and makes changes when and if they are needed. Pat Billig asked for more clarification about the reasons to eliminate access in this particular neighborhood. Mike said that this policy will be carried out across the system and there have already been gate closures/removals in other areas. He stressed that the grazing cattle, ground-nesting birds and gate closures aze all separate issues. Steve Armstead indicated that one of the two gates close to Highway 93 was closed because it was redundant. The other will be closed for the ground-nesting bird closure (May 1 -July 31) and will be open the rest of the year. Other neighborhood gates in the area are closed/removed as an effort to direct people to the trailhead. Pat Billig asked if the cattle grazed at the same time the birds were nesting and Mike affirmed that they do. Jim Reeder said that the number of cattle and the timing of the grazing are different every yeaz. He offered to do some research to get more specific information. Kay Tauscher asked if there are any concerns about the safety of neighbors having to walk along the road to get to the trailhead. Mike said that walking on a road is probably more dangerous than off road, but as it is, many of the neighbors have to cross the road to get to one of the gates anyway. Allyn Feinberg asked if there would be a presentation on TAI, referring to Ms. Hollweg's comment about the need for monitoring multiple species. Eric Stone said that after the public comment period the final TAI report would be redistributed in late January. He said the inventory report was a separate document that has its own lengthy process. Dean Paschall will be organizing two workshops for public participation that will occur prior to any discussion about recommendations. Eric anticipated the draft inventory report would be available by mid-February. Kay Tauscher asked if it would be possible to amend the TAI after the inventory report comes out and Eric said that it would. He also clarified that using only one species for monitoring was a misconception; the goshawk, for example, is a "nested target" not an indicator, and will not be the only species monitored. Mike said that staff will provide the Boazd with a general timeframe for reports, meetings and availability of materials. Dean Paschall clarified the process: determine where we are, where we want to be and how to get there - in that order. AGENDA ITEM 3 -Director's Update Mike Patton introduced Deb Kalish, a new assistant city attorney. Deb told staff and the Boazd that she would be available to attend any meetings where her services are needed. Jean Koszalka, Lead Ranger, and Eric Stone, Division Manager, reported on the 41s` Street fire and the Olde Stage fire. Jean described how the high winds hindered containment. She gave various statistics about the fire including that over 3000 acres were burned and 27 OSMP staff worked on the fire in some capacity. The affected trails have either been opened or would reopen soon but on- trail travel in the bum area will be required and dogs, where allowed, must be on leash, on corridor. These restrictions will probably remain in place until late spring. Eric explained the work of the Bumed Area Emergency Response (BAER) team. These staff members assessed the various ecological impacts of the fire. He aclmowledged that, aside from property damage, the burn ended up having characteristics of a perfect prescribed burn. He noted some areas that may require some erosion prevention efforts. Some local user groups (Boulder Trail Runners and Boulder Mountainbike Alliance) were supportive and sent information to their constituents alerting them to the closures. Mike Patton gave an update on the budget. After analyzing the November revenues, it appears the decline from the projected revenue will be 2.5% rather than the 2% expected. The OSMP CIP 2 should be in good shape and lottery funds will help this year's budget. For the time being, hiring seasonals will be postponed at least until April. AGENDA ITEM 4 -Matters from the Board There was some discussion about the upcoming Board meetings. It was decided that there would be a combination meeting/study session on February 25 and there will be some type of public participation included as part of the study session. Pat Billig offered a suggestion that staff create some kind of graphic display that shows how the management plans, TSAs and VMP are related. This could be displayed at the various public meetings. Kay Tauscher said it would be helpful to provide some type of glossary for the new terms being used. AGENDA ITEM 5 -Consideration of an amendment to the Lynch Conservation Easement Jim Schmidt gave the presentation and reminded the Board that, originally, this was a joint purchase with the county. He explained how amending the initial conservation easement provided the needed protection to the property and was a more direct approach than creating two new conservation easements. The Conservation Easement Policy provided the guidelines for this process. The amended easement now covers the entire 35-acre parcel. Both the city and county will be grantees and the county will monitor the easement. Jim explained that this will not need to be approved by the City Council. Public Participation None Return to Board & Staff MOTION Kay Tauscher moved that the Open Space Board of Trustees approve the amendment to the existing Lynch conservation easement as described in the memorandum dated January 14, 2009. Bill Briggs seconded. VOTE The motion was unanimously approved. ADJOURNMENT -The meeting adjourned at 7:15 p.m. These minutes were prepared by Pam Prentice and Cecil Fenio. APPRO Y• 8 l>/ ~ / Allyn mberg /'7 `~y Boar Chair DATE 3