Approved Herring River Restoration Committee Mtg Mins

Minutes

Herring River Restoration Committee (HRRC)

Cape Cod National Seashore Headquarters

Wellfleet, MA

August 10, 2016

9:30 am-5:00 pm

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

Others Present:  Margo Fenn, Don Palladino, Martha Craig, Helen Miranda Wilson

Administration/Coordination:

Communications and Coordination with Friends of Herring River (FHR): Don Palladino updated the Committee on FHR activities. He noted that the five-week seminar series at the public library had been completed.  APCC Restoration Coordination Center staff visited the Friends of Herring River (FHR) site last week.  The Wellfleet Board of Selectmen voted to authorize their Chair to sign MOU III, pending town counsel review of the final version.  The Committee discussed some of the counsel comments. The Board of Selectmen also voted to send a letter in support of legislation to allow for a land swap between the National Park Service (NPS) and a private landowner in the lower Herring River.

Don Palladino reported that he had met with both Mark Forest and the former staff of the Penobscot River Trust to discuss possible approaches to project management and fundraising.  The Committee discussed strategic planning and the management structure for the Project in the permitting, construction and implementation phase.

Don Palladino also reported that he had met with Town of Wellfleet and Cape Cod National Seashore staff to discuss how to address blockages in the upper Herring River culverts.

Minutes:  The Committee voted to approve the minutes of the July 26, 2016 HRRC meeting.

Meeting Schedule:  The Committee discussed holding two-day meetings in September, October and November in order to cover some special meeting topics including blue carbon, adaptive management and hydrodynamic modeling.  Meetings with other key groups such as the new Regulatory Oversight Group (ROG) established under the MEPA Certificate and the Herring River Executive Council (HREC) created under MOU III could also happen during these times. The group agreed to reserve the following dates for HRRC business:

            September 14-15, 2016

            October 12-13, 2016

            November 9-10, 2016

Public Outreach and Communications:  Martha Craig is continuing to meet with individual property owners.  The Committee discussed how to improve a draft fact sheet developed by FHR regarding the Wellfleet landfill plume.  Helen Miranda Wilson also stressed that it will be important to reach out to the shellfishing community.

Discussion and Updates:

Adaptive Management:  The Committee discussed funding for the next phase of work.  Funds have been budgeted under the new NOAA grant but the USGS team is also seeking outside funding for this work. Jill Gannon prepared an outline of the Adaptive Management Plan.

Proposed FY17 Work Plan:  Don Palladino and Martha Craig reviewed each task in the upcoming work program with the Committee, reviewing sub-tasks, timeframes and work assignments.

Hydrodynamic Modeling:  The Woods Hole Group is working on several new proposals and is adding staff to work on sediment modeling and analysis.  Steve Block suggested that the HRRC set aside a regular time within each of its meetings to have Kirk Bosma call in with updates on the modeling work.

Legal Issues:  The Committee discussed next steps for legal analysis including follow up on the June Anderson & Kreiger report, analysis of FHR’s roles and responsibilities and coordination with town counsels.

MOU III: The Committee discussed next steps in finalizing and signing the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU III) for the next phase of the Project. The group discussed potential agenda items for the first HREC meeting including:

            -A briefing on the Restoration Project

            -A briefing on the provisions of MOU III

            -Discussion of legal review and coordination with town counsels and the DOI       Solicitor’s Office

            -Establishment of a stakeholders group

Low-lying Road Design:  The Committee discussed how to coordinate design work for High Toss Road and the other affected low-lying roads.  The group agreed that the same approach should be used to coordinate with adjacent property owners.

CBI Facilitation:  The Consensus Building Institute (CBI) is continuing to facilitate discussions between HRRC and the Chequessett Yacht and Country Club (CYCC). HRRC representatives consulted with CYCC officials regarding funding and an implementation plan for raising the CYCC golf course, the adaptive management process, project permitting and other related issues. CYCC has reviewed a draft conceptual agreement prepared by CBI and plans to provide comments in writing. The July meeting with CYCC was postponed so a new meeting date is needed, probably in September.

Permitting:  FHR has issued a Request for Proposals (RFP) for a regulatory permitting consultant.  A pre-bid call is planned for August 11, 2016.

Secondary Management Plan: The Committee discussed what kinds of planning is needed and can be done at this time for secondary management tasks like vegetation clearing and stream channel modifications. The NPS Fire Management team can oversee the vegetation management work on NPS land.  It is not clear whether or not they can work on private lands. Stream channel modifications will be described generically in the permit applications, similar to the existing approach to the Open Marsh Water Management Techniques used by some mosquito control districts. Each year, specific actions will be proposed to the ROG and results will be monitored.

Documents Referred to in the Meeting:

-Minutes of the 7/26/16 HRRC Meeting