Executive Committee

Conference Call Minutes

June 15, 2011

The Executive Committee met on June 15th, 2011 beginning at 7:37 a.m. by telephone conference call. Those present were Nick Schultz, Chair; Dean Rogge, Vice Chair; John Chase, Upper Reach; Dick Iversen, Lower Reach; Ron Garwood, Reservoir Reach; Jim Beck, Upper Reach; Paul Gies, Middle Reach; Karl Christians, DNRC; Laurie Riley, Coordinator; and Carie Hess, Secretary.

Approval of Minutes: There were none as the last conference call there was not quorum on the line so the minutes from March were approved via an email vote. There was no Executive Committee call in May as the council held its quarterly meeting.

Financial report and approval of bill payments: The budget, financial, and unpaid bills reports were read. John Chase moved to approve as submitted and Dick Iversen seconded; the motion passed unanimously.

Coordinator’s Update:

Bison- no update,

Noxious Weed/ AIS – no action on EWM in Ft. Peck due to high water and the headwaters task forces met and decided on a coordinator and is working on their framework.

CMR NWR CWG- it was noted that there is a CCP Cooperators meeting July 20th in Lewistown, the council is setting a meeting with Mary Sexton about the land swap going on with the nature conservancy on the CMR- Dick, Nick, Paul and Dean were interested in going.

String of Pearls – Julie Goss sent out a 50 page packet of information to all the meeting attendees when they met with Nick Kazor. The USFWS had called and said that they cancelled it. Jim Beck is scheduled to talk to Beaverhead CD on June 16th about the site on the Big Hole.

Monuments - no update.

MRRIC/ ACOE – Volunteered to act as MRRIC liaison for the social, cultural, and economic technical teams for conservation lands and developed lands and agriculture. This consisted of a 2 hour conference call and webinar with some additional time committed to preparing notes. Laurie had sent a notice soliciting sponsors for the July MRRIC meeting reception in Great Falls. Julie Goss with the LoMo CRM has some money for the MRRIC reception to send to the council.

BLM RAC- nothing to report other than both Laurie and Dana have applied to the Central Montana RAC and are awaiting a response, the next meeting is September 20-21 in Lewistown. Paul commented that the council has had a hard time getting people on the RAC and Nick stated that all we can do is apply and try to get more people on it.

Cottonwood Regeneration – the council will follow up with the BLM regarding their plans to monitor regeneration following the high water/ flood flows. It is hoped that the partner agencies will do some type of monitoring on these high flows.

River Rendezvous – No update.

State Water Plan – no update and Jim will just report on this at the quarterly meetings. Residential Development – The council has contacted the State regarding aerial photo flights of high water/ flooding. Karl checked with the DNRC Floodplain Program Mapping Coordinator who is also working in cooperation with the Dept. of Trans. They may have it all covered, but we want to know the plans. We may have some funding to contribute; we want to assure that photos of areas of particular interest/ concern to the council are covered.

Additional Business: The 2012 budget was discussed and it was noted to start with the $112,000 and fill in for cuts when the amount is in. The 2012 Work Plan was discussed this was started at the quarterly meeting and Laurie will follow up with details.

The National Resource Partnership was discussed and it was noted that Laurie was in charge of the next meeting.

The FSA Roundtable with Bruce Nelson and Senator Tester was discussed and Laurie stated that she would finish up her notes and send out this week.

MFU AG Summit on June 24 – 25 was discussed and it was noted that the council should set up a vendor booth for &75.00 to get more publicity for the council. The entire Executive Committee agreed and Laurie would forward the registration on to Carie for payment.

Laurie brought up the U of M Graduate Student and noted that she has given them some suggestions as to who to talk to. Dean mentioned that the council needs to get some boundaries of where this is headed.

Nick brought up the possibility of putting together a curriculum on Sage Grouse and Sage Grouse habitat that also focuses on what ranchers are doing to promote the habitat. The committee thought this was a good idea but was unsure of how to move forward with it at this time.

Karl has been working with Dick Iversen to try to get someone from the Omaha District to speak about the flooding issues. They have had no luck getting someone to call them back. Dick mentioned that down in Richland County there is 1-3 feet of water over their crops and a lot of pivots are under water. In some places forested river bottoms are in 3-5 feet of water and that there are a lot of pump sites that are under water and will be unable to be used this year. Karl thought that the council could maybe get something going and either try their contacts or sponsor a community meeting with FSA and the Corp of Engineers with a Q and A with the effected landowners.

Next Conference call time & date: The next conference call is scheduled for July 21st, 2011 from 7:30 a.m. to 9 a.m.

With no additional business being brought before the Committee, the call adjourned at 8:45 AM.

Approved by unanimous vote on July 25th, 2011

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Nick Schultz, Chairman

Submitted by:

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Carie Hess, Secretary