Meeteetse Conservation District (MCD)
News and Information
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To view the MCD Spring 2006 Newsletter click here!!!
April 4, 2006
SHOSHONE
FOREST PLAN REVISION: Steve submitted comments
on Recreation Desired
Conditions.
o
Monday, April 17 in
Thermopolis, Public Meeting
o
Monday, April 24 in Cody,
Public Meeting
o
Wednesday, (9 am to 3 pm)
April 26, Dubois, Government Cooperators’ Work Group
Shoshone
Cooperating Agency Coalition (SCAC) of Conservation Districts & Counties met
with ERG in Meeteetse on March 28th. Had a conference call on April 4th.
BHB
Soil Survey: Steve
presented to Park Co. Farm Bureau Board March 9th.
Nephi Cole presented to Powell-Clark’s Fork CD and is ready to go back
to Park Commission with CD & FB support.
Uses:
¨
Economics (current/projected market conditions).
¨
Weather information (NOAA and data entered by producer).
¨
Species composition and estimated forage production (using
fieldwork done by FRAMS team and producers, as well as PHYGROW, which is a
hydrologic based plant growth simulation model that estimates available forage
production for a site).
¨
Nutritional monitoring (NIRS/NUTBAL PRO, which is a software
program used to describe nutritional intake, requirements, and balance for
protein, net energy for maintenance, and net energy for gain. It also provides
the most cost efficient feed alternative).
March 7, 2006
Shoshone
Forest
Plan Revision:
Steve attended
Wildlife Desired Condition
meetings.
·
o
Monday, March 27, 6 p.m.
Public Meeting, Thermopolis
o
Tuesday, March 28, 6 p.m.
Public Meeting, Cody
o
Wednesday, March 29, 9
a.m. Government Cooperators’ Work Group, Cody
Shoshone
Cooperating Agency Coalition (SCAC) of Conservation Districts & Counties
will meet with ERG in Meeteetse March 28th.
·
Grant application
supporting SCAC with State FNRPA funds appears to be on-track.
·
Responded to ERG
questionnaire.
·
SNF Recreation Desired
Condition comments should be completed by meeting time (Deadline March 9th).
·
MOU’s should be ready
soon.
MCD
Open House:
·
303(d) list – Comments
due March 15.
·
Watershed Assessment
Grant Proposal – Ginger Paige, UW Water resources Extension Specialist &
State Water Quality Coordinator will be at Open House.
·
Will do an intensive
sampling program at the Meeteetse Gauge site beginning March 11th.
·
Grant application for Sheets
Flat project was approved.
·
Commented on South Big
Horn Conservation District Watershed Plan.
BHB
Soil Survey: Was presented
to Commissioners Feb 21. Followed
up with March 3rd letter from Clara Mae.
Other
Activities: Steve attended CCD “Living on a Few Acres’” Feb.
25th and the WFB Legislative
Meeting Feb. 27-28.
January - February 2006
Be sure not to miss the Shoshone National Forest Revision Fair on February 4th. You will be able to see how inventories and assessments are conducted. All forest users should attend. It is from 8:30-3:45 at Big Horn Federal 643 Broadway in Thermopolis. Check out MCD's online calendar for other important events: http://www.meeteetsecd-wy.gov/page16.html
Steve will be attending WFB legislative meetings in Cheyenne, as well as Owl Creek Watershed planning meetings and the Shoshone National Forest Plan Revision meetings during the month of February. He also attended the NRCS Work Group Meeting in Cody on January 26th.
MCD is also exploring the possibility of becoming involved with Spatial Decision Support System for rangeland watershed assessment with Dr. Ginger Paige and Scott Miller from the University of Wyoming, Dr. Guertin from the University of Arizona, and Dr. Heilman from USDA Ag Research Service in Tucson, Arizona. MCD hopes to use this technology to further involve local stakeholders, examine the reasons for fecal coliform impairment of the Greybull River and move towards de-listing.
On February 23rd, Emily will work with the children enrolled in Meeteetse Recreation District After-School Odyssey program. They will learn about basic tree anatomy. They will also learn how tree rings can be used as an indicator of drought and determining the age of a tree. For a lesson plan click here.
MCD's Sampling and Analysis Plan for water sampling has been officially approved by the Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality. An online version of the plan will be available soon. You can also contact the office for a copy.
Do you have a specific interest or topic you would like to learn more about? Contact the office via email or phone and let us know. We would like to have workshops that are of the public's interest.
December 2005
With the temperatures plummeting, it is really beginning to feel like winter. Taking advantage of the warmer indoor temperatures, MCD has been busy getting all of the end of the year documents and reporting requirements finalized. Other business continues as normal.
On December 15th, Emily will attend the South Big Horn Conservation District (SBHCD) Watershed Steering Committee meeting in Greybull. Since SBHCD's watershed is located easterly and downstream of MCD's watershed, we feel that is important for us to be involved in their watershed planning process and collaborate with SBHCD when feasible. MCD's Water Sampling and Analysis Plan is in the final draft stages and is currently under review.
Steve and Emily met with Jim Kelly, Biological Tech (GIS) for NRCS in Buffalo, Wyoming. He loaded the latest version of ArcMap, ArcGlobe, and ArcCatalog on MCD's computer. He also went over some basics of GIS mapping and using the Arc software.
We hope everyone has a happy holiday season and enjoys the new year!
November 2005
This is the month the WACD convention will be taking place Nov. 14-18th in Riverton, Wyoming. Some of the forums and discussions that will take place include: wildlife issues forum, water development issues forum, stewardship contracting forum, and Farm Bill partnership discussion. For more info contact the MCD office or visit the WACD website: www.conservewy.com/
An important deadline is Dec. 1st for Environmental Quality Incentive Program (EQIP) applications. This voluntary program (administered by the NRCS) offers technical assistance, cost share and incentive payments to producers who put conservation measures into practice on suitable agricultural land. For more information contact the MCD office or NRCS.
Steve Jones has now completed the Draft Sampling and Analysis Plan for MCD. It will now go under review in its Draft stage and will be finalized shortly. Once the final copy is approved by Wyoming DEQ, it will be available by contacting the office and on the MCD website.
Animal Tracks activities took place on November 2nd at Building Blocks Daycare with pre-schoolers and on November 4th at Meeteetse School with elementary students. 9 pre-schoolers and 16 elementary students participated in the activities. Tracy Renner, MCD Board Member, helped out with the elementary program. We hope to do more fun things in the future.
MCD would like to congratulate WACD for 60 years of dedication and service. Thank you!!!
October 2005
Well, we started the month off on the right foot by receiving 3.5 inches of snowfall at the MCD office during the snowstorm event the first week of October. Let’s hope more moisture will follow before Halloween rounds the corner.
Speaking of weather, MCD will become a participant with CoCoRhas (Community Collaborative Rain, Hail and Snow Network, which is a volunteer weather monitoring program. Rainfall/snowfall will be measured at the MCD office and be made available on the CoCoRhas website. For more info to to: http://www.cocorahs.org/
Other projects MCD is involved with is the Forage Risk Management System (FRAMS) with Texas A & M University. This system is designed to help ranchers use a web-based risk management tool to evaluate and monitor grazing systems in conjunction with weather conditions and economics. If you are a producer and are interested in using this technology, please contact the MCD office and we can help you get started.
September
2005
Please come join us for MCD’s open house Sept.
20th from 3 p.m.-8:30 p.m. A discussion with Joey Johnson, Meeteetse
School Ag/Industrial Arts Teacher and FFA advisor will be from 4:30 p.m. – 6:00
p.m. Immediately following, will be discussions with Dick Loper from the Wyoming
State Grazing Board and Kathleen Jachowski, Guardians of the Range. The open
house will also give you an opportunity to see what programs the District is
working on. Refreshments will be provided. Come stop by and pick up a brochure
on topics such as: weeds, West Nile virus, range, soil, trees, and much
more.
Another event that is open to the public is Shoshone's National Forest Plan Revision meeting. This meeting will be on Sept. 26th at Big Horn Federal in Cody from 6:00 p.m.-8:00 p.m. MCD encourages everyone to attend and voice your opinions and/or concerns. The Shoshone National Forest is in our backyard and it is important that we let the Forest Service know how we want them to manage it. For more info, contact Susie Douglas (307) 578-1214 or spdouglas@fs.fed.us.
MCD is in the final stages of revising its Plan
of Work and compiling its Annual Report. Once these documents are finalized they
will be available on the MCD website or by contacting the office. Comments are
always welcome. We are also finishing MCD's Sampling & Analysis Plan for the
District's Surface Water Quality Monitoring Program. This document will also be
made available once it is completed.
MCD is also looking into buying additional equipment for its weather station to measure snowfall. Look for snowfall readings in the bank bulletin soon. Soil moisture readings continue to be collected and the data will be summarized monthly and made available in the bank bulletin and MCD website. Until next month, enjoy the cooler temperatures.
August 2005
This
month MCD will take more range clippings at Little Buffalo Basin. We will focus
on looking at type of plants and quantity of forage produced. We will also use
our soil moisture data and NRCS's range site classifications in order to help
interpret the results. Range monitoring data collected last month will be
summarized and available on the MCD website in the near future.
MCD will
also be working on its water quality monitoring Sampling and Analysis Plan. This
plan will detail how the fieldwork will be conducted for water quality
monitoring done by the District and how samples will be handled in order to
satisfy Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality’s requirements for gathering
credible data.
There will also be a Sage Grouse Working Forum in Riverton
August 23rd – 24th. The meeting is sponsored by the Wyoming Game and Fish
Department and the Wyoming Department of Agriculture. Registration deadline
August 19th. For more info and/or registration call 1-877-733-3618, ext 1;
307-766-2124; or go to https://outreach.uwyo.edu/eventmanager/OnlineRegistration.asp?EventCode=40R
Ronee
Hogg will no longer be working for the District, but we appreciate all of her
hard work over the last 20 years. She will be missed. Emily Ewart will take over
her duties.
Other business will continue as normal. If interested in a
specific topic, please contact the office. We have many informational brochures
and some videos on a wide array of subject matters.
July 2005
Summer is here and we hope you have been enjoying the warm weather. It seems the grass has been taking advantage of the past rains and the warmer temperatures. With this in mind, Jim Gould, Steve Jones, and Emily Ewart will begin their range monitoring this month. Grass clippings and soil samples will be collected and analyzed. Results will be published on our website in the near future.
Other news related to MCD, is our budget revision. MCD will have its annual budget meeting for the fiscal year 2006 on May 21st at 7:00 p.m. at the MCD office. Everyone is encouraged to come, review the budget, and make comments. Also, our preliminary budget has been placed on the Meeteetse Bank of the West's bulletin board, Meeteetse Town Hall's bulletin board, and on the Meeteetse Post Office's bulletin board for public review.
The MCD board will also have a work session this month to cover the following topics for the Shoshone National Forest Plan Revision: timber, transportation, wilderness, and special uses. The next Forest Plan Revision public meetings will be in September and October of this year.
During the last week of July, Steve Jones and Emily Ewart will attend Water Quality Courses in Casper, Wyoming. The first class they will attend will be Principles of Watershed Management taught by Dr. Skinner of the University of Wyoming. They will also attend Principles of Water Quality taught by Dr. Reddy. For more info go to: http://www.conservewy.com/ . The classes will be from July 25th - July 29th so there will not be any staff in the MCD office that week.
Other business continues as normal, such as: soil moisture collection, water sampling, and weather monitoring. Feel free to stop by the office, give us a call or send us an email.
June 2005
June is yet another busy month. Steve Jones attended the Cody Commissioner's meeting and made a statement on behalf of MCD as to why the Cody Conservation District needs funding. MCD also drafted comments in regards to the Wyoming Game and Fish Comprehensive Wildlife Conservation Strategy (CWCS) and the Strategic Habitat Plan (SHP). See June 2005 news (following newsletter) to read comments.
Steve Jones also attended the Natural Resource Discovery Rendezvous in Worland. Meeteetse was awarded a Nature Resource Discovery Tool Chest. Steve and Emily Ewart will work this summer to develop lesson plans and work with the school administration to develop an educational program for the upcoming school year. The tool chest has many hands-on activities so Meeteetse kids will have the opportunity to increase their knowledge regarding agriculture and hopefully have fun at the same time.
Emily Ewart also continues to develop educational activities for kids to do on a monthly basis. These activities can be found on the Education page of the MCD website. We are also working towards adding other educational activities to our plan of work as well as preparing our FY '06 budget for presentation in July.
MCD will also attend the June 22, 2005 Forest Plan Revision Public Meeting in Cody prior to attending the June 29 Cooperating Agencies Work Group meeting in Lander. The public is encouraged to attend. It is important to participate and voice your opinions/concerns regarding water, socioeconomic, range, timber, and other topics in order to help the F.S. revise their plan. If you are interested in attending and want to carpool or have any comments/questions please contact the MCD office. You can also contact Steve at home: 867-2426 joneslightningc@tctwest.net
Other MCD activities continue as normal, such as water sampling, soil moisture monitoring, and weekly weather updates. If you have any suggestions or ideas for programs you would like to see MCD implement please contact us and let us know.
June 2005 News
 |
The Final Draft Grizzly Bear Occupancy
Management |
|
Wyoming Game and Fish Commission proposed “Comprehensive Wildlife Conservation Strategy” (CWCS) and the included “Strategic Habitat Plan” (SHP). For more info go to: http://gf.state.wy.us/habitat/StategicPlan/index.asp |
Meeteetse Conservation District's Comments on the Wyoming Game and Fish Comprehensive Wildlife Strategic Habitat Plan:
June 7, 2005
Whereas the Meeteetse Conservation District Board of Supervisors has been
duly elected by the citizens of the District pursuant to "Wyoming Conservation
Districts Law", and
Whereas the Meeteetse Conservation District
desires to execute its duty pursuant to "Wyoming Conservation Districts
Law",
Therefore, Meeteetse Conservation District adopts and submits
the following comments to the
1.. Insufficient time has been
allowed for the public to review and comment on such a complex and important
State policy. We request that the comment period be extended until July 8,
2005.
2.. The SHP does not properly address human habitat needs.
3.. There
are insufficient safeguards in the CWCS to ensure credible data.
4.. There
are insufficient economic safeguards in the CWCS to ensure protection of
Wyoming’s fiscal resources.
5.. The collection of biological data and quality
control for that data should have Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality
oversight, and be conducted under a Sampling and Analysis Plan, a Quality
Assurance Plan, and a Standard Operating Procedure similar to that used by the
DEQ in assessing water quality.
6.. We submit that there are insufficient
safeguards within the CWCS to protect the Wyoming agricultural community from
economic damages caused by unjustified ESA listings brought about by allowing
politically motivated organizations to participate in collection and compilation
of wildlife data.
7.. We believe that providing funds for politically
motivated groups to “study” wildlife and wildlife habitat for the Wyoming game
and Fish Department (WGFD) is improper.
8.. The list of Species of Greatest
Conservation Need is oversized. This CWCS should be initiated with the
investigation of those species of maximum concern and expanded as funding and
need dictate. Investigation of the common garter snake or bullsnake, for
example, just because you want to know more about them, should be secondary to
investigating species with known conservation needs.
9.. The 5-year review
process is economically unattainable.
10.. WGFD has consistently stated that
Wyoming’s wildlife should not be under the control of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service (FWS), yet WGFD has put itself directly under the control of the FWS.
This CWCS must be approved by the FWS or Federal funding must be returned. WGFD
should return the Federal funds and return control of Wyoming’s wildlife to
Wyoming.
11.. Meeteetse Conservation District reserves the right to comment
further on the CWCS and the SHP.
Executed this 7th day of June, 2005, by
the Board of Supervisors, Meeteetse Conservation District.
Original
Signed
Clara Mae Yetter, Chairman
Ken Beer, Vice
Chairman
James F. Gould IV, Secretary
Craig Geving,
Treasurer
George T. Renner, Member
May 2005
Meeteetse Conservation District (MCD) is pleased to announce that they have hired Steve Jones as the new Resource Management Coordinator.
MCD will continue to collect data from the soil moisture site located south of town. It will be hard to beat the 36.03% saturation level that we saw in April, but one can always hope. Check out the MCD's soil moisture page for the latest information.
The Natural Resource Discovery Rendezvous will be June 14th - 16th, 2005 in Worland/Tensleep. The rendezvous will help educators teach topics related to agriculture and natural resources. Registration is $25.00 and is due May 25, 2005. Another workshop entitled "Using the Landscape as a Classroom" will be July 18 - 20, 2005 in Thermopolis. This workshop will focus on rangeland and outdoor education (including a 2 day local ranch field study). Registration is $30 and is due May 1, 2005. For more information go to their website: http://www.wyomingagclassroom.org/workshops.asp
This month Emily Ewart (MCD's Resource Specialist) will work with Meeteetse's 4th and 5th graders on soil sampling and learning about soil texture at the Pitchfork Ranch, May 17th. Students will collect soil samples ranging from soil collected by the river to soil collected on a bluff. Students will also test the soil by the "feel" method in order to determine what type of soil texture it is. For more information go to MCD's education page.
Steve Jones and members of the Board will also attend several Forest Service Planning meetings in Thermopolis. These meetings are for Shoshone's Forest Plan Revision and finalizing the Memoranda of Understanding (MOU) documents. May 23, 2005 at the Park County Courthouse, Barling Room, 1002 Sheridan Ave in Cody, there will be a meeting that is open to the public (from 6:00 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.) regarding the Forest Plan Revision.
Water sampling will also take place this month as usual. Soon MCD will develop a Sampling Analysis Plan for collecting water sampling data. Also, previous water sampling data will be analyzed and interpreted.
Next MCD board meeting will be on June 7th at 7:00 p.m.
