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Board Meeting – April 19, 2007
Northeast Washington Forestry Coalition
Recreation Committee

April 26, 2007 Meeting Notes:

  • Colville National Forest Travel Planning update from Craig Newman: Craig gave an update on the Colville’s travel planning process, including sharing copies of the route “screening” process the FS will be using to look at each of the proposed routes submitted by ATV riders and other trail enthusiasts at the series of public meetings over the past several months.  Craig suggested that our committee might be able to offer suggestions on how the Colville NF might go about engaging the public for final input on proposed routes; we will be discussing this opportunity further at an upcoming Motorized Project sub-committee meeting (see bullet point below). 
  • Motorized Project Sub-Committee: It was suggested at the meeting that interested motorized and non-motorized user group committee members form a “Motorized Project” sub-committee to begin discussions about opportunities and challenges surrounding motorized recreation on the Colville
  • GPSing Proposed Trails: We will be setting up a meeting with someone from the Colville NF to train us to use their highly accurate GPS systems sometime this spring.  E-mail dknowles@conservationnw.org if you would like to attend this training.  Once we know how to use this equipment, we can then begin planning for getting out in the field to GPS any routes that need better mapping, including motorized and non-motorized routes and trails and many of the proposed trails in our non-motorized proposal.
  • Committee Structure: Since the Recreation Committee first formed in June of 06, John Eminger, owner of 49 Degrees North Ski Area, was chair of the committee.  Recently, however, John had to resign as chair to take care of other responsibilities, thus leaving us with the need to establish a balanced leadership structure.  Since the committee must have at least one co-chair who is on the Northeast WA Forestry Coalition (NEWFC) board, Derrick Knowles with Conservation Northwest was elected to the board in March to keep us in compliance with the Coalition’s bylaws, but that still left our committee with a need for a more balanced leadership.  Temporarily we asked Jeff Lambert with the Spokane Mountaineers to serve as a non-motorized co-chair and Alan Dragoo who is a member of the Pacific NW 4-Wheel Drive Association to serve as a motorized co-chair, joining Derrick Knowles with Conservation Northwest, who is the conservation co-chair.  There is still a need for better balance, so at our meeting on the 26th, we decided to ask each user group (ATV, equestrian, hiker, dirt bike, snowmobile, mt bike, etc.) to nominate someone from their ranks to serve as a co-chair of the committee through the rest of the year.  Please have your nominations figured out by our next meeting in June so that we can have a discussion on what sorts of responsibilities each co-chair will have, as well as how our committee will interact with the broader NE WA Forestry Coalition.
  • NEWFC Project Committee and Stewardship Projects: We discussed that one of the main reasons the Recreation Committee was formed in the first place was to attempt to link trail proposals (like maintenance, roads-to-trails projects, environmental analysis, planning, and/or construction costs) to Stewardship projects that NEWFC is already working on with the forest service.  This could be a great way for us to try to get some of our motorized and non-motorized trail projects partially funded by linking them to the great work the Coalition is already doing.  We are in the process of trying to pick a pilot Stewardship/timber sale project to figure out how all this would work and hope to make some progress in this regard by the next NEWFC Project Committee meeting tentatively set for May 17.  Contact dknowles@conservationnw.org if you are interested in helping to move this effort forward.
  • Letters of Support for Recreation Grants: While our Recreation Committee does not have the capacity to apply for grants at this time, the committee is willing to consider writing letters of support for grant proposals your individual organizations apply for.  It can really make a difference to grant makers if a grant proposal has a letter of support from an organization like NEWFC that has diverse membership and the support and involvement of many recreation interests.
  • NEWFC Membership: Any organization or individual can become a member of the Coalition.  There is no fee and it is as easy as filling out and mailing in an application by visiting the Coalition’s web site: http://www.newcommunityforestry.org/
  • Next Meeting: The next Recreation Committee meeting is set for Tuesday, June 12 at 6PM (Deer Park Pizza Factory).