Washington Department of Natural Resources User Groups Meeting

The Washington Department of Natural Resources (DNR) holds user group meetings (TAG) every other month on the first Thursday. The next meeting will be December 3th. Meetings are held at the Woodland City Hall building upstairs from 6:30 pm until we get done. The open door will be around the back. 100 Davidson Ave, Woodland, WA.

Anyone who is interested in riding DNR lands in south-west Washington should try and attend these meetings.  Jerry DeRuyter attends these meetings on behalf of NWTA and mountain bikers, but having several people attend is always a good thing!

 From the Portland/Vancouver area drive north on I-5 and take the Woodland, exit 21 to the Woodland City Hall.

The minutes from the October meeting are as follows:

TAG Meeting Oct. 1, 2009, 6:30PM-8:30PMWoodland City Hall

In Attendance: Kira Dominiak, Rick Dominiak, Bill Manbeck, Bill Hutchens, Ken Nelsen, Renee Pierson, Hank Bergquist, Jeff Dunlap, Ron Schultz, Greg Snyder, Fred Wyland, Dave Terry, Crystal Crowder, Judi Masters, Roddie Anderson, Gary Collins, Evan Hull, Jerry DeRuyter, Becky Terry, Eric Albers, Bruce Wells, Jessica Kimmick (DNR), Nick Cronquist (DNR), Josh Riepe (DNR), Kyle Buckmiller (DNR), Ryan Siebold (DNR), Aaron Nelson (DNR), Joe Berry (DNR), Officer Steve Rhodes (DNR), Shawn Bushnell (DNR)

Groups represented: Pistons Wild, Pacific Northwest 4x4 Assn., Poor Boy Offroad, Chinook Trail Assn., Dirt Church ATV, Jones Creek Trail Riders Assn., Backcountry Horsemen, Northwest Trail Alliance, Cold Creek Mountain Bikers

 Timber Sales Discussion

Sold sales; Happy Dance- expires 2010, Iron chef, expires 10/31/2009, Hot tub expires 10/31/2010, Remington Steele, expires 2013, Corn Palace expires 10/31/2010, Berry Nice expires 10/31/2011, Loafer expires 10/31/2011

Corn Palace: directly impacts Tarbell, Murphy Grade, and L1000.  Rocking roads is almost complete, will be hauling right of way wood around middle of next week.  Will be inactive for a bit, but will start winter logging- expires Oct 31 2010.  Road construction: Aril 15-Oct. 15, currently in the cable logging timeframe. 

Loafer: sold last month, next to Corn Palace, will affect Tarbell trail next summer.  1210 road will have work done, Coyote Creek users may want to be cautious of potential rolling materials.  Expires Oct. 31 2011.  Harvest window April 15-Oct 15.

Thrillium: goes to auction in February.  Tarbell Trail protected in the sale unit’s  RMZ and leave tree islands- signage posted, but minimal impact to trail.  Old grades will be blocked and abandoned due to talus buffer protection.  Expires 10/31/2011.  Trail closures and work will be posted.

Berry Nice: sold a couple of months ago, began road building and will be hauling right of way tomorrow- impacts Bells Mountain with a crossing, but minimally.  Construction: April 30-Oct.15. 

Happy Dance: starting with some cable logging.  Unit 2: moving over there in about a month.  Roads are built for sale- log trucks will be hauling on 1500, use caution.  When logging near Jones Creek, DNR will reroute onto 1500.  Will be logging during seasonal closure, so little impact to recreation.  After its done, they have 15 days to clear out trail.

Iron Chef: may have little activity for next month, but won’t be near Tarbell trail- expires at end of month and sale is over.  Trails are all open. 

Hot Tub: currently inactive

Remington Steele: no known interest to build or log yet- 4 year contract.  Contract states that no activities will be over trail, trail usable during weekends and holidays during open season, closure signage posted during cable yarding, damaged will be repaired within 15 days of harvest activities.  Stay tuned.

Planned sales: Polelander- FPA approved: Dec. sale.  Located in the Rock Creek area near Tarbell trailhead.  Affects small part of Tarbell- trail protections in place.  (S150 clause, harvest requirements, etc.)

Sloppy Joe: auction: July 2010.  Will affect the Bells Mountain trail.  Year-round logging will occur with restrictions.  Expires Oct. 2012.  Cable setting in area of Bells Mtn. and trail will need to be closed during yarding activities.  Same trail protections are in place the same as in other contracts

Coyote Creek: auction July 2010.  Impacts Tarbell and Appaloosa trails.  Protections will be discussed with Kimmick.  Shovel tractor ground, no cable yarding.

Recreation Permit Process for Events  A region wide effort to standardize process has been underway, as Capitol Forest has many events and Yacolt anticipates many more with the planning effort.  Cronquist gave background about user group input gathered at north end user group and TAG meetings, and many requests for the same day for events becoming problematic.  LULs are required when there are 25 participants or more, as this can overwhelm trail systems.  Application window will be Nov. 1-March1.  Event season is June 1-Oct. 31.  Participant limit of 500 individuals per day. Limit of 1,000 participants per organization for each event season.  No events will occur on consecutive weekends on the same trail segments or out of the same trailhead.  Event permits / licenses will identify specific requirements for each event.   

Collins: several groups have problem with sign up window.  WACs say 60 day notice, now the region says 3 months.  Cronquist: WAC gives DNR permission to deem events suitable.  Don’t need all information, just want to get a ballpark of the event timeframe to create calendar.  This is to mitigate problems on trail systems.

Question: what type of turnaround time will you give to ensure it’s a go?  Cronquist: Once everything is received and calendar is formalized, you will be notified, but if all works out and all criteria is correct, you will know pretty much right away. 

 Recreation Planning Process Update

Kimmick: Recreation Planning Committee, along with the Planners and prominent members of user groups met to gain feedback on the potential expansion at Rock Creek, Cold Creek,  the proposed motorized trails, and the new motorized campground.  New drafts are coming out for review from internal meeting with the DNR map Cartog and coming up with new proposals based on the feedback from that meeting.

Bill M. asked about open comment times if those will still be available.  The answer is yes.

  Training Dates

Cronquist passed around draft agenda for volunteer trainings, and the TAG discussed what types of trainings would be valuable to them and what they felt they could forego.  After discussion, the group agreed that a date in February would receive the most attendance. 

M&O and E&E Updates

Non-motorized: Buckmiller: work on a fence (Tarbell access: 1000 to Corn Palace) has been completed with the purpose of blocking where trucks were getting onto Tarbell.  Bells Mountain trail signage has been completed through an Eagle Scout project- they worked with de Ruyter.  Signing Tarbell trail mileage was completed just a couple of weeks ago through another partnership with the Eagle Scout program. 

Motorized: Riepe: Jones Creek- not a whole lot new- been gone on dispatch.  Jones Creek has work party planned for the 25th- Riepe will connect.

 Facilities maintenance: Merrill lake bridge repair is underway, campground hosts leaving Sunday, but snow is coming.  Cold creek- crew going in tomorrow to do some clean up.  Bear sighting today with cubs, be cautious.  Open year round with hosts.  Rock Creek- crew in today cleaning up and emptying horse stalls.  Dougan has hosts- through the end of October.  Mitchell peak trailhead- clear to Mitchell peak, clear to black hole, connector trail needs some work.  3 corner rock culvert has been repaired, bridge at bottom was planned to be repaired, but rough cut lumber has turned up missing. 

Kimmick: PUB: excellent success- DNR thanks the volunteers and sponsors, Pistons Wild, PNW4x4, Woody’s 4x4, Les Schwab, Sunbelt Rentals, Reynolds High School in Gresham.

Winter and spring work maintenance schedule to be created within the next week or 2. 

E&E: Bushnell: posted signage on Jones Creek B/C loop for Paprika sale- keeping folks up to date with hauling traffic issues.  Road maintenance is covered in contracts.  Spoken to a number of people who are unclear about undesignated motorized trail use on power lines.  There are 3 no motorized use signs posted on the way up.  Where C loop crosses Baz Road is the last point where motorized use is allowed.  Because of Jones Creek Poker Run route, many people don’t realize that the undesignated trails used are illegal to use any other time.  Firewood permits are necessary for collection on state lands.  Rumor of nails on trail out of Rock Creek, we’re looking into it.  Hunting season- stay safe and report cut locks.  ORV tags are reciprocal with Oregon- you must live in OR, register in OR, etc. for that OR ORV tag to work.  However, if you live in WA, but register in OR, it’s a citable offence.  Discussion ensued about how this works.  The only state that doesn’t honor other state tags is Colorado.  Trip permits- 3 day permit in lieu of having an ORV tag.  Remember to put them on the bike.  Spark arrestors: have seen a lot more compliance lately, as well as with helmets (state law).   Continually have issues with party bonfires.  Crowder stated they have been doing unofficial patrols at night and have seen crazy stuff.  After PUB, they saw vehicles with trailers full of pallets.  Officer Rhodes: my goal has been to establish relationships with PDs, have Clark County reserves to spend time in state lands.  Have done 3 nighttime emphasis patrols, but that only works while it’s happening.  ORV Safety Summit happening in Spring for education purposes.  Another idea is to have ROTC (high school) students providing information about rules and regs, trash bags for car, etc to help get users on board with understanding  what the issues are and what you are allowed to do.  Seeing many generational abuses, working to educate.  Overall, thinks things are improving.  Hull: do you have a sheet with tips of what to do for folks when they encounter someone doing something wrong.  Not yet, but it would be valuable to provide information about where to find rules and regs.  Question about a way to have a census on how many people use forest.  Currently the only data available is through campground registrations.  Crowder: have noticed a big difference other than the smaller amounts of trash, in previous years of staying over prior to PUB has been scary, but this year has been vastly different and they slept through the night.  Discussion about FWP and Tillamook’s public watch ensued, anecdotes and experiences of making public contacts.  Manbeck: thank you Officer Rhodes, for your efforts.  You’ve gone the extra mile for folks, so it’s appreciated. 

Hutchens: asked about undesignated trail use, some allowed some not- what’s the story?  Kimmick: it has never been anything but technically illegal to utilize the undesignated trail systems.  Discussion ensued about signage, recreation planning process (and reasons for it) and other issues regarding undesignated trail use.  ORVs allowed on forest roads that are not gated, posted closed or otherwise blocked, but not on chip seal, as that’s state law.  Discussion about fixing potholes in roads and undesignated trail use ensued: signage, solutions, etc.

Riepe: for grants, motorized has 288 hours left until the end of the year for working on trails.  Encouraged volunteers to help DNR out on Jones Creek and Bradley trails.

Roundtable

 Shultz, Dirt Church ATV: working on Nicholai project in OR, but wants to get involved with Jones Creek- the club is all over Oregon and Washington. 

K. Dominiak: Pistons Wild: hosting 4x4 cruise in at Woody’s 4x4 on Sunday (Manbeck’s 29th birthday)- everyone’s welcome.  Pistonswild.com.  Effort is to raise awareness about Yacolt illegal use and planning process and to raise money to implement trails. 

Nelsen, Poor Boy Offroad: have been going around and checking out different OHV areas.  Working with USFS at Santiam Pass on OHV area- trying to get involvement.  Also work with ODF/Tillamook. 

Crowder, Pistons Wild: in addition to PUB discussion- 18 organized groups were represented  in the volunteer turn out that day.  Raising funds with shirts, sponsored effort.  Already about 2000 in trail fund.  Hope to have about $5,000 by the end of the year for the trails.  JCTRA is the next sponsor for the shirts.

Wells, JCTRA: Poker Run a success- 250 or so riders.  Gearing up for new trails and winter work parties.

Albers, Cold Creek: going to be riding this winter.  Hoping to do winter maintenance, doesn’t want puddling on Cold Creek  part of Tarbell trail

Collins, BCH: horse group is winding down.  Working with county on Whipple Creek project, which will last all winter, some FS trails that need logged out and hoping for a nice winter so that can be done.  Getting ready for training sessions and legislative projects coming up in March.

Hull, CTA: thanked Hank, Jerry and Phil (Delany) for all their hard work on the Bells Mountain trail.  DNR agrees- they rock… literally!  Hauling gravel to harden spots…

Kimmick: FWP training: will be doing that this fall, separately from the volunteer training day.  Working on electronic refresher course.

Meeting adjourned at 8:35 PM