Meeting Minutes

Cheyenne River Watershed Partnership

November 28, 2007

West River Ag Center

 

 

Present at the Meeting:

Patty Beck                               Shannon Co. Cons. District

Lynn Denke                              East Pennington  CD

Bernard Beer                            Ziebach County CD

Tate Lantz                                NRCS Sturgis

Teresa OConnell                     Haakon CD

Roberta Vaughn                      Pennington Conservation District

Gerald Moller                          Bureau of Land Management

Steve Tymkowych                   Custer County Conservation District

George Zimmerman,                 Black Hills RC&D Coordinator

Terry Hall                                Tatanka RC&D Coordinator

Nathan Jagin                            Meade County Weed and Pest

Scott Guffy                              Pennington County Weed and Pest 

Virgil Smith                            Haakon County Weed and Pest

Roger Gates                            South Dakota State University

Arvid Meland                          Black Hills RC&D

 

Lynn Denke called the meeting to order at 1:00pm.

The attendance sheet was passed around with everyone signing. Introductions were made.

 

Lynn asked if there were any additional items to add to the agenda.   No one had any additional items to add.

 

Lynn moved Scott Guffy up on the agenda to do a presentation on Salt Cedar control. 

 

Scott provided a power point presentation to the group on the origin of Salt Cedar in South Dakota and the control measures for it.  He said that the plant is associated with riparian areas although some people have planted it in town as an ornamental planting.  It is currently on the state noxious weed list but not on the federal list so places like Walmart and Menards can still sell them.  Treating an infestation is very expensive and can run as high as $200 per acre.  Trying to cut it, burn it or pull it out does not seem to work.  The biological controls seem to be promising, they have been using a beetle that will defoliate the plant and eventually kill it in about 3 years.  Scott completed his presentation with more discussion on control and plant identification.  George then suggested that he work with Scott and the other weed and pest specialists to formulate a proposal to present to the RC&D areas to apply for grant dollars.  Everyone agreed that pursuing the project would be a good idea.

 

Lynn then brought up the next item on the agenda of any changes to the By-Laws.  George said that he had a few requests to clarify in the By-Laws as to who could represent the District at the meetings.  George had made some a suggested change in section 2.2.  After some discussion the agreed upon change will read:

 

Each Conservation District will designate a voting representative that may or may not be a Conservation District Board member.  In the event that the voting representative is not present a District board member will be the voting representative.

 

Section 3.2 was changed to: and each officer will be a Conservation District Board member.

 

Section 5.1 was changed to: the meetings of the partnership shall be held quarterly and scheduled at the convenience of the partnership members.

 

Section 5.4 was changed to: A quorum exists when at least five of the voting members are present.

 

After some discussion all agreed to the changes in the By-Laws.

 

Virgil asked if we had included Dewey and Stanely counties in the Partnership.  George said that technically those counties don’t fall into the hydrologic unit but that since Lake Oahe water levels have dropped some much they probably would fall into the unit.  After some discussion it was agreed that the partnership invite Dewey and Stanely to join the group.  Lynn then suggested that we should also send out the letters to the Wyoming and Nebraska districts and invite them also.  All agreed that should be done.  Pennington conservation district agreed to send out the letters.

 

George suggested that we begin to send out a notification to all the various organizations and local governments that the Cheyenne River Watershed Partnership has been established and invite them to come and participate.  All agreed that was a good idea and to begin the process.  George said he could draft a letter.

 

The next item on the agenda was a discussion of Rapid Watershed Assessments.  George said that he thought it would be a good idea if the group were formed about Rapid Watershed Assessments.  He said that the Belle Fourche Watershed group has had one done and it was a benefit in identifying areas of potential projects that could be prioritized.  George said he has been talking to RESPEC and Cindy Steele in the NRCS State Office and they could come down and put on a presentation on the development and benefits of completing Rapid Watershed Assessments.  All agreed that they would like to be more informed on the process.  The group set a date for the next meeting to be January 16th, 2008 and that George would try and pull together a presentation on Rapid Watershed Assessments for that meeting.

 

The meeting adjourned at 2:30

 

Next meeting January 16, 2008, 1:00 – West River Ag Center