Moffat County Land Use Board
| Minutes of Meeting |
| February 10, 2003 |
| Minutes Moffat County Land Use Board February 10, 2003 7:00 p.m. The Moffat County Land Use Board met at the Moffat County Courthouse Annex Building on February 10, 2003 at 7:03 p.m. President, Burt Clements, called the meeting to order with a roll call. A moment of silence was observed. The following members, staff and guests were present. Members: Richard Blakley Burt Clements Wayne Seick Dean Gent Wendy Schmitzer Rick Hammel Tom Deakins Jean Stetson (on speaker phone) Bob Grubb T. Wright Dickinson Guests: Marvin Pearson, Public Lands Foundation John Husband, BLM Staff: Les Hampton, Ex-Officio, Moffat County Commissioner Ann Franklin, Ex-Officio, County Natural Resources Specialist Jeff Comstock, County Natural Resources Policy Analyst Approval of Minutes: December 9, 2002 and January 3, 2003: Burt Clements presented the minutes of the December 9, 2002 and January 3, 2003 Moffat County Land Use Board and asked for any corrections or additions. Rick Hammel noted one correction. Dean Gent moved the minutes be accepted as corrected, Wayne Sieck seconded the motion. The motion was unanimously approved. General Discussion: Election of officers - Dean Gent nominated Burt Clement for chairman. Wayne seconded the motion. Rick Hammel moved that nominations ceased and Burt be elected by nomination. Richard seconded the motion. Motion passed. Burt Clements was elected as president for a third term. Rick Hammel nominated Dean Gent for vice president. Wayne seconded the motion. Burt nominated Richard Blakley for vice president, Dean seconded. Rick moved to close nominations. Dean Gent seconded. A paper vote was held. Dean Gent was nominated for vice president. Les Hampton asked if the ex-officio is allowed to vote. It was verified that the ex-officio is not allowed to vote. Dean Gent moved that Rick Hammel be retained as secretary/treasurer. Richard Blakley seconded. Dean Gent moved, Wayne seconded that nominations cease and Rick be elected by nomination. Motion carried. The officers elected this evening will take office at the March 2003 Land Use Board meeting. RS2477 - Rick Hammel mentioned that an article written in the High Country News did a poor job of portraying the RS2477 rights-of-way inventory, assertion and maintenance process. A picture was included with the article that misrepresented the process because it portrayed a bulldozer on a well-graded road and the title of the article was Road Warriors Back On the Offensive. Rick Hammel volunteered to write a letter to the editor that explains the inventory protocol. John Husband is concerned there is a perception in the community that all the routes are now open to public use when they actually may or may not be open, depending on the agency’s management plan. John is worried that this may cause unnecessary public confusion/perception. Jeff suggested that this could be addressed in the form of a press release. T. Wright said the County Attorney should review the press release before it is released to the public, so the County does not give up any rights. Wendy asked that the LUB get a chance to review the press release prior to going public. Pilot Project - John Husband said the BLM would be interested in pursuing a pilot project in the County. He stated that the project would be broad-based and inclusive of all viewpoints. The current political and legal positioning has not been getting anywhere; therefore, the BLM would like to entertain the idea of getting the County and the agencies together to talk about how to proceed with the Pilot Project. T. Wright talked about how the community feels like it has been left out of important decisions on federal lands in the past. He is interested in how the community can be involved in place-based decision making for public lands to create the outcomes that are desired. T. Wright is encouraged by the BLM’s interest in moving forward with this idea. Jeff and John will come up with guiding principles to put in an agreement/MOU as to how to move forward. Four issues have been discussed already including travel management, desired plant communities, fire management planning, and archeological issues. Fire management may be an immediate way to implement the pilot project. There is opportunity for education in the realm of Coordinated Resource Management or something similar to help people learn how to work together. Issues will be picked to work on and anyone will be welcome to participate if they so desire. The issues will probably dictate the interest. T. Wright has encouraged the agencies to take on issues that have a large enough scale to encourage people to participate and to accomplish something. In the past, the CRM’s have not been large enough to include everyone. Rick Hammel suggested that the County work on the Travel Management Plan with the BLM. T. Wright does not advocate that we work on only one project. The BLM and LUB can think about what the priorities might be that affect enough people across the County and other groups beyond the County that would encourage many people of varying interests to participate in the process. The projects may be on a different time-line but they will work together and affect one another. Rick suggested the LUB determine what specific goals to work toward right away. John Husband suggested that nothing specific be selected right away. He suggested that principles and a statement of intent be arrived at first. He also recommended that all the different interests be brought together to get buy-in from the whole group first before a specific project is selected. John Husband’s goal is to get out of the political and legal maneuvering to get things accomplished. The BLM State Director is very interested in getting stewardship going that is more citizen-centered and community based. Les Hampton said that Ron Winker, BLM State Director, met with himself, Darryl Steele and John Husband last week to ask for their support and inquired how the County would be involved. Les stated that the County’s goal is to be more involved with decision-making on federal lands. Bob Grubb suggested that one land area be selected to serve as a demonstration of what the County is actually striving for beyond just control and preventing the designation of wilderness. John Husband said this could be a possibility but suggested that the project could have much more strength if more groups are included in the process at the very beginning. T. Wright supported Bob’s idea that we should take on areas that are not quite so contentious right away but once we prove we are working toward our goals, we should move forward to solve problems in more and more areas. He also stated that we cannot stand still just because some groups don’t agree with the process. Jeff Comstock talked about the four areas of opportunities that have goals a partnership can strive towards to help identify where to focus. John Husband stated the next step might be to get all the agencies together to talk about community-based stewardship. John talked about getting people who are familiar with community-based decision-making partnership training to attend the meeting followed by some publicity afterwards. Rick Hammel asked how we are going to prevent spending a lot of resources to fight lawsuits. T. Wright stated that as long as the proper process is followed and if people are included from the beginning then many more people will be supportive. All of the stakeholders will have to be invited and involved. John proposed that another meeting be held with “partnership series training” educators in the near future to move the process forward and establish a direction. T. Wright stated this is a watershed event and a huge priority. BLM Environmental Assessment (EA) Process - The BLM and the County signed an agreement in 1996 to share information at the beginning of projects. John Husband talked about the opportunities for the County to participate in the NEPA process. A website is available to view what the BLM is working on. Jeff handed out information on a proposed 3D Seismic project by Western Geco in northwestern Colorado and information on the wild horse gather in the vicinity of Powder Wash. Wendy talked about the BLM’s prioritization meetings held every Monday to identify projects and priorities. There is an opportunity to get the notes from those meetings. Wendy also said there is a difference in the level of NEPA coverage of different projects. Tom Deakins made a motion for the LUB to send a letter in support to the BLM for their decision to gather wild horses that are migrating into Moffat County from Wyoming. Rick Hammel seconded the motion. Motion passed. The Conservation District in Wyoming is bringing forth a lawsuit to encourage the appropriate management of wild horses in their herd management areas and to remove the horses when they stray beyond the herd management area. Committee Reports: · Sage Grouse – The working group has began meeting again and the next meeting will be held on Tuesday, March 25, 2003 at the Courthouse Annex. Closing Comments: · The Master Plan second review meeting will be held on Wednesday night. The Land Use Plan will be included in the Master Plan as Volume II. Announcements: · The next meeting of the Land Use Board will be Monday, March 10, 2003. Adjournment: Dean Gent motioned to adjourn tonight’s meeting, Richard Blakley seconded the motion. Unanimously approved. Meeting adjourned at 9:00 p.m. |
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