“Draft” Minutes
Meeting of April 3, 2013
Stakeholders Present:
Bob Baumgartner
Stephen Cruise
Jan Curry
Kristel Fesler
Ahne Oosterhof
Teresa Parker
Carla Staedter
Rich VanBuskirk
Dave Waffle
Sewer Districts Primary Representative, Clean Water Services
County Alternate Representative, Washington County
Parks Primary Representative, City of Hillsboro
Water Districts Primary Representative, City of Hillsboro Water
Department
Environmental Primary Representative, Tualatin Riverkeepers
Fisheries Alternate Representative, NW Steelheaders Assn.
Nurseries Primary Representative, Blooming Nursery
Citizen at Large Primary Representative
Washington County Small Woodlands Association, Primary
Representative
Chamber Primary Representative, Hillsboro Chamber
Washington County CPO primary representative
Parks Alternative Representative, City of Tigard
Education Primary Representative, Pacific University
City Primary Representative, City of Beaverton
Staff Present:
April Olbrich
Coordinator
Guests Present:
Wayne Auble
Abby Cain
Oregon Department of Forestry
TRWC intern, Pacific University student
Ron Garst
Doug Hunt
Michael McMahan
Jan Miller
Tom Nygren
Welcome and Introductions: The meeting commenced at 7:00 p.m. with introductions
and an icebreaker on Tualatin Basin & Watershed Council iconic images. Kristel Fesler
was introduced as now an official member filling the role of water purveyors. Jan asked
everybody to provide ideas of pictures that represent us, when people say “Watershed
Council” what do you think of. A wide variety of good ideas were suggested.
Approval of March 2013 TRWC minutes: The February Council meeting minutes
were approved. Jan Miller moved to adopt the minutes; Tom Nygren seconded the
motion. The minutes were adopted by consensus.
Public Comment/Updates: The council was reminded of the Saturday, April 20th
native Plan sale from 9-4 at Jackson Bottom.
Presentation: Dairy-McKay Culvert surveys on private lands
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April provided background for the presentation. About 1 – 11/2 years ago the council
applied for a grant from the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), Stephen helped with
the grant and training, Rich V., helped move the grant along and provided guidance. The
county has done work to identify fish passage barriers associated with county roads, this
project was a related effort to look at fish passage barriers on private roads. Rich V.,
introduced Abby Cain, a senior Environmental Biology Major, presenting her Senior Cap
Stone Project. Abby noted that she segued her summer job into her Cap Stone project.
Abby noted that there has been a lot of work done on defining important habitat;
however, culverts can block access to that habitat. The work she did was a cooperative
effort with BLM and Washington County addressing fish passage at culverts. The BLM
is looking to develop a statewide inventory on culverts that may block access to their
lands, similarly, the County is looking to prioritize work on, or replacement of culverts
where it may help fish access habitat.
Abby focused on private lands, which she noted covered 231 mi2, or about 85% of the
land in the basin compared to 5% BLM with small state and county holdings. Abby
noted that lots of culverts inhibit fish movement or block access, and if the impediment is
removed, it can open habitat. Anadromous fish can be greatly affected. Abby noted
different fish can be important for different reasons, examples included:
 Winter Steelhead are threatened
 Cutthroat Trout, relatively weak swimmers compared to other migratory salmon
 Coho, an important sport fish
The methods used were presented including the use of LiDAR to identify potential
blockage, paired with aerial photographs to matchup up with roads. Where blockage or
sudden changes in stream topography was indicated which was associated with a road, it
may be a culvert.
In forested areas it is often difficult to see roads in aerial photographs; also the method
does not describe flow, seasonal flows or volumes which may influence the quality or
importance of habitat. Initially, the screening methods resulted in quite a few sites being
misidentified. The original estimate was about 1073 identified culverts, 63 of which were
unlikely to be a problem (leaving 1021). Out of this population of culverts 178 high
priority sites were selected, based on proximity to essential habitat as identified by the
Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife (ODFW). They then contacted over 70 land
owners receiving permission for 13 sites. Surveys of the culverts and qualitative habitat
surveys were conducted for the 13 sites.
Example slides were provided showing 2 culverts, 1 perched which created a jump which
would be difficult to get fish above, and one culvert where stream pooling showed the
culvert was about ½ blocked which would likely impede migration. They did severity
rankings on 4 culverts that appeared to create blockage. The ranking method had been
developed by Washington County and incorporated 4 factors, severity of the blockage,
proximity to essential salmon habitat, habitat quality and habitat area. Scores ranged
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from 1 -13, with 13 indicating blockage of good upstream habitat. The scores were then
compared to those previous priorities identified by Washington County. Washington
County has a prioritized list of 20 sites, which now contains two (2) of the sites from this
study
The presentation generated a substantial amount of interest, questions and discussions.
The bullet points below attempt to capture the following discussion and response to
question:
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These are just some of the 1000’s of culvert sites out there, there are likely many
more that would rank as high priority sites
The size of the potential problem is not really known and difficult to extrapolate
from the current data, more groundwork is needed
There is still some funding from BLM, hopefully we can do more surveys
The focus was on potential upstream habitat, it is reasonable to assume there are
other barriers
Out in the field it can be really surprising and interesting the things people do to
put culverts in when they want to move water
Need to do more than just restoration, need to remove barriers so that fish can get
to restored sites, some think should first barriers should be removed first
Council Discussion: Senator Merkley Letter
The Council then moved to a discussion of the Senator Merkley letter regarding
continued Pacific Coast Habitat funding which currently provides about $13-$14 million
to Oregon. Following the discussion, which noted the draft letter routed to the council
looked pretty good, the council unanimously voted to approve the letter.
Council Discussion: Capacity Building Strategy
April introduced the discussion by reminding us of the directive from OWEB that
councils should diversify their base of funding. April noted that the steering committee
has been brainstorming on how to build capacity. April turned the discussion over to
Tom N., who walked us through a handout he had prepared for this discussion
Tom noted that we should be looking at several aspects of diversification and thinking of
resources, sweat equity, as well as cash. Tom laid out ideas that may be helpful for the
watershed council and walked us through the handout. Some of the discussion points
included
 We need more than an event, perhaps we should step back to look at the
bigger picture
 We should look to our mission and if we have the capacity to meet our goals
 Can we identify our needs, and do we have the staff capacity to achieve those
needs
 How can we increase participation by partners
 How do we develop a strategy?
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Tom N., lead the group through a discussion of what a strategy could be. A three point
strategy was outlined:
1. The strategy should define the needs of the watershed and the council
2. Identify opportunities, examples included grants, agencies with similar goals,
understanding of forum and function, how to overlap agencies goals and find
common interest and funding base, education was cited as a broad goal with
extensive common interest.
3. Develop and participate in venues to bring opportunities into maturity
Tom noted that getting started was the key, and pointed to the last two (2) points (A and
B) and observed that there was nothing there, need to get started (A) and then develop the
business plan (B).
Jan Curry noted that she (and Jackson Bottom) have experience as a volunteer
coordinator and we could work to get volunteers involved. Jan noted that if we can
harness the energy of young people that would be helpful, to get them involved. To do so
we would need coordination, and good planning. The discussion agreed that volunteer
outreach would provide one way to the council more visibility.
Jan C., provided
examples with teachers and service learning credits.
Dave noted that Portland State University (PSU) has a program tract for non profit
programs, we could get their help to find a champion Cap Stone student to develop a
business model. A student may be interested and very helpful with the outreach, letters,
and details associated with fund raising.
Carla described a project that she would be interested in championing. Carla noted a
highly urbanized creek would benefit from Christmas trees project and that she felt the
project could be coordinated with the Council. Carla observed that she has had positive
encouragement from Trout Unlimited and believed there would be others willing to
participate. Carla reviewed the potential project as getting a student in marketing,
engineering, somebody who could do the survey work to provide the basis for
demonstrating the benefit of placing Christmas trees in the stream channel. Carla felt the
project would provide good partnering and exposure opportunities, and perhaps be the
basis for a couple master’s thesis.
Kristel, noted she has an PSU student as an intern to do marketing in partial fulfillment of
a masters thesis, (200 hours)
Kristel, Jan, and Bob noted that they believe opportunity exist to reaching out to the
business community and industries in the basin. Ducks Unlimited was also identified as
a potential partner
Tom N., noted that he was pleased with the conversation and identified 3 points:
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1. We need to continue to talk about our goals, what are the key things we as a
Council want to achieve
2. How are we going to do the diversification, there has to be mutual benefit and we
need to understand what our partners would get out of interaction with the
Council
3. Marketing, how do people know about us, and what do we want them to know
about us
Continued discussion by the steering committee following Tom N’s., three points is
warranted.
Coordinator Update: Upcoming Volunteer opportunities:
April 13, 10 am – 1 pm, Washington County Historical Museum, Free Family Earth
Day activities; TRWC will be there
April 20, 9 am – Noon, SOLVE-TRWC workday at Rippling Waters
Stakeholder Updates:
April 20, Jackson Bottom Wetlands Preserve Native Plant Sale, 9 am – 3 pm,
April 20, 9 am – noon, SOLVE Derry Dell planting through City of Tigard
April 23, 7 – 9 pm WCSWA mtg with ODF Forest Grove office District Forester
The meeting adjourned at 9:00 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
Bob Baumgartner
Co-Secretary
Refreshments for May 1 meeting: Carla Staedter
Roving Steering Committee member for April 18: Kerry Nussbaumer
Roving Steering Committee member for May 16: Carla Staedter
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