Minutes

Meeting date: 
Thursday, June 8, 2017

Minutes

Herring River Restoration Committee (HRRC)

Friends of Herring River Office

1580 State Highway Route 6

South Wellfleet, MA

Thursday, June 8, 2017

 

Members Present: Tim Smith, Steve Spear, Eric Derleth, Steve Block, Hunt Durey,  Gary Joseph, Hillary Greenberg

 

Others Present:  Margo Fenn, Martha Craig, Christine Odiaga, Don Palladino, Karen Larocque, Helen Miranda Wilson, Carole Ridley

 

Administration/Coordination:

 

Herring River Executive Council (HREC) Update:  Margo Fenn updated the Committee on the June 7, 2017 HREC meeting. The HREC reviewed a proposal to appoint a joint legal counsel to represent the towns regarding permitting and implementation of the Herring River Restoration Project.  The HREC also reviewed and approved a revised proposal for creation of a Herring River Stakeholder Group (HRSG).

The town managers will gather nominations and prepare a slate of proposed HRSG members to present to the HREC at its next meeting on July 24, 2017.

 

Outreach:  The Committee viewed a video of a NBC news feature regarding restoration of the Herring River.

 

Approval of Draft Minutes:  The Committee voted to approve the minutes of the May 11, 2017 HRRC meeting.

 

Schedule of Meetings:  The Committee approved the following schedule for upcoming meetings:

            Tuesday, July 11, 2017                       Consultations with USGS Water Quality                                                                               Monitoring Team

            Wednesday, July 12, 2017                  HRRC regular meeting

            Monday, July 24, 2017                       HREC meeting

            Thursday, August 24, 2017                 HRRC regular meeting

 

Discussion and Updates:

 

CBI Facilitation:  Carol Ridley updated the Committee on a May 30, 2017 meeting with representatives of the Chequessett Yacht and Country Club (CYCC).  At that meeting, the participants reviewed some recent modeling results and reviewed next steps in following through on the non-binding MOU between CYCC and HRRC.

 

Adaptive Management:  David Smith of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and Elise Leduc and Jon Katz of the Woods Hole Group (WHG) joined the meeting by phone to present some of their recent work in developing the decision-support tool for the adaptive management process.  They explained that they have sorted the adaptive management objectives into different categories in order to determine what kinds of models and data are available, and to determine which ones can be used to make predictions about the consequences of different management actions.  The group discussed how to make predictions about some of the social objectives and reviewed a number of possible public outreach techniques.  Carol Ridley asked if there are examples about how such issues have been evaluated for other projects. The group agreed that further discussion is needed on this topic.

 

FY18 Budget Planning:  The Committee reviewed work tasks for the coming year, which will be incorporated into grant requests to the MA Division of Ecological Restoration (DER) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA’s) Restoration Center. Don Palladino and Martha Craig reported on progress in completing tasks in the current work plan, and outlined priorities for the coming year.

 

The Committee discussed monitoring needs.  Steve Block noted that NOAA officials would like to see a comprehensive monitoring plan for the Project.  National Park Service (NPS) staff is working on this.  Broad topics for monitoring will include (but are not limited to) water quality, tide levels, salinity, vegetation change, and sediment movement. The Adaptive Management Plan will outline a more detailed list of measurable attributes to track the environmental and social effects of restoration activities. NPS already has an active monitoring program and this will be augmented, as needed, to address the Project needs.  The Committee discussed how much monitoring is needed to establish reliable baseline conditions for different parameters.

 

The Committee briefly discussed the potential scope of work for determining when a pump would need to be installed and operated in the Mill Creek basin. 

 

Documents Referred to in the Meeting:

            -Minutes of the May 11, 2017 HRRC meeting