PECAN Meeting Notes
5:30-7:30pm, Tuesday, Nov. 15
West Valley Housing Authority Meeting Room
In attendance: Jim Clawson, Dolores May, Barbara Nicholls, Donna Michaelson, Sheri
Beehner, Joyce Wahl, Kathy Hadley, Bob Feldman, Darrell Ward, Amy Garrett, Brad
Withrow-Robinson, Derek Godwin
Future Meetings: At West Valley Housing Authority Meeting Room, 5:30 – 7:30pm
Feb. 28, 2012
April 17, 2012
June 5, 2012
Speaker: Brad Withrow-Robinson, Extension Forestry Program for Yamhill, Polk
and Marion Counties
Brad provided an overview of his education programs, target audiences and critical
issues he addresses. He left a few handouts for us to place in our office. Here are a few
notes from his presentation.
The mid-valley region is diverse in terms of ecology (terrain, land types, rainfall, soils,
etc.), urban and rural areas, population and land ownership. The area he covers goes
from the coast range to the Cascades. There are a few large cities and many small
ones. There is also the influence of Portland Metro in Yamhill.
In terms for Forest ownership, 20% of forest land is small private non-industrial, 20% is
large private industrial, and 60% is public land (USFS, BLM, State). Brad’s education
program focuses on the management of the small private non-industrial lands (a.k.a.
Small Woodlands, or Family Forestland). These forests are mostly located in the foothills
and in patches among farm land in the valley.
Family Forestland owners manage their property for a wider range of interests and
priorities than is typical of other private land. These include stewardship, profitability,
sustainability of resources, environmental health and recreation. This means that Brad’s
education programs are very diverse in subject as well as the many different people,
forest workers and partners with whom he works.
Brad has developed several areas of emphasis over the years of serving in this position.
These include native woodland restoration and conservation (Oak woodlands, riparian
area restoration, habitat management on farm land); intergenerational transfer –
succession planning (how do we keep this forest land in forest landscape from one
generation to the next); and training and supporting Master Woodland Manager
volunteers.
Brad has developed several publications and resources related to these and other
education programs. He showed us a recent publication on successful tree
establishment in riparian zones, Ties to the Land workbook and DVD for succession
planning, and a few other resources.
Brad plans on delivering several Ties to the Land workshops next year. The one in the
Mid Valley will be in February/March.
Brad finished a Master Woodland Manager training last year. Most of the graduates
were from Polk County. This is an extensive training that occurs in a couple of areas
around the state each year. A training is delivered in this area about once every five
years. The Master Woodland Managers are a community network of volunteers that
receive 85+ hours of class and field training. Then they “pay-back” these hours by
working with their neighbors, conducting site visits, and outreach to help others
understand management techniques and issues/concepts and connect them with
information, other resources and training opportunities.
Jim asked if he covers Christmas Trees. Brad said that he does some work with
Christmas tree growers, but they have been mostly served by Chal Landgren (Specialist
at NWREC), Mike Bondi (Clackamas County), and Rick Fletcher (Linn-Benton Counties).
Brad writes a newsletter six times per year - 3 hard copy and 3 electronic. If you would
like to receive this, send an email request to Deb.Zaveson@oregonstate.edu in Yamhill
County Extension office.
Challenges/issues that face clientele, faculty, etc.:
Family forest landowner distribution is skewed, a lot with a few acres
He does well reaching mid and upper size but not to the smaller owners, how do we
effectively engage this very diverse group of people?
Communications – he has a committee that helps with newsletter/communications, but
this is an ongoing challenge.
Change in Farm Bill has caused financial assistance programs to come through through
NRCS. Forest landowners aren’t as familiar with NRCS as agriculture landowners.
These programs help with conservation management, but it’s a challenge to get this
information out.
Reports
Administrative Report – Derek:
Derek announced that he has been appointed as the West Central Regional
Administrator which serves Benton, Linn, Marion, Polk and Yamhill Counties. His home
office will be Polk. He is responsible for the overall leadership and direction of Extension
programs in the counties, supervision of faculty and budget authority for each county
budget.
Derek announced that Pamela Rose will be the County Leader for Marion and Polk
County (20% of time each, 40% total). County Leader positions are new for Extension.
The funding is from OSU (different from Extension) with the intent to provide outreach to
communities on the overall Outreach and Engagement services OSU could provide. This
is good news for several reasons. Pamela has 25+ years of Extension programming
experience in 4-H, leadership and overall Extension activities. She lives in West Salem
and will have enough time to serve in this position for two counties rather than have a
small amount of time that becomes low priority. Furthermore, we will not be losing 20%
of an existing faculty’s time in Polk County to devote to this position.
MOU – Derek & Tina
Derek worked with Tina Anderson, Greg Hansen and others to create a draft MOU
between the Polk County Fairboard and OSU Extension Service. This was sent out to
folks for review. Derek will be setting up a meeting after the holiday to meet and finalize
the MOU. The MOU explains what uses at the Fairgrounds are included with this
agreement and paid for with the $60,000 budget allocation.
Building –Barbara
Polk County received a letter from the Soil and Water Conservation District concerning
the process to build a facility that would house Extension, the Fairgrounds, Soil and
Water, and the Federal Agencies Natural Resources Conservation Service and Farm
Service Agency. The Federal Agencies (from Washington D.C.) decided to extend their
current rental lease for NRCS, FSA and the SWCD for two more years. The SWCD
voted to continue their commitment to stay with the NRCS and FSA rather than split
apart to join Extension and the Fairgrounds. The building committee is waiting for
Commissioner Craig Pope to call a meeting together to discuss next steps.
Extension District Meeting – Jim
The Polk County Commissioners convened a quarterly update of the Extension District
in October. Derek gave an update regarding the current expenditures and the various
positions that have been established. Jim Clawson gave an update on the PECAN and
priorities for this year. Mike Bondi, Administrator for North Willamette Research and
Extension Center, delivered a short presentation and requested $8,000 to be paid to
support NWREC.
At a follow up Polk County District meeting, the commissioners approved a payment of
$8,000 from Economic Development funds for NWREC. They also requested that the
NWREC request be included with the Extension budget request process next year.
PECAN Business
Strategic Plan Framework - Derek
Derek handed out a draft framework for the Strategic Plan and talked about a process
for completing this. The Strategic Plan will build on the information gathered from the
needs assessment process conducted by faculty and PECAN last year. It will include a
projection of priorities and how programs will change over the future 5-10 years.
Derek will work with faculty and the PECAN steering committee to develop a draft plan
by the end of December. This plan will be reviewed and modified by the various advisory
groups from each program and the PECAN at the February meeting. The final draft is
expected to be complete by May in time for the budget process.
Revised PECAN Description
Derek presented a revised description of PECAN and a description of the PECAN
working groups. The functions of the working groups were discussed. The group
requested that Derek talk with the faculty and have them identify at least one person to
serve as a program liaison between the faculty and PECAN.
Tasks Ahead
Complete draft Strategic Plan and set up meetings with advisory groups for review and
modification.
Set up a communications group meeting with Pamela Rose, Derek and Judi Peters to
talk about needs and outreach efforts.