Corrected and Approved Minutes July 21, 1999
5:40 pm meeting brought to order. Committee members present: Leschyn, Hearn, Izmerian, Paglieri, Hodges, Purcell, Frahm.
No Minutes
No changes to agenda
No public comment
Introduced Ann Moser as prospective new committee member. She is involved with the Sequoia Audubon Society.
Staff liaison Gary Lockman made the staff report. David Moore was promoted to assistant Park Supervisor. Seth Elliot is new Park Intern. He is working on identifying park inventory and property easements among other tasks. Pat Kelly, Mary Burn’s secretary, is taking a new county job, a temp is filling the position right now. the position is open. Bob Breen is out sick, hopefully he will be better and back around mid August. The 75th birthday celebration at Memorial Park was a success Tour of the Peninsula Bicycle Tour scheduled for August 1. Parks Department is beneficiary, Julia Bott looking for volunteers. County Fair Aug 13-22, Park booth needs volunteer staffing, Nick Ramirez is contact. Huddart Park main parking area improvement is starting this Friday. Seymour Bridge project is moving forward. Grant approved by Board of Supervisors. Redwood City is providing an old railway car for the bridge. Redwood City, County and State of CA, are all part of the project. Maintenance will revert to HMB, it will be part of the Coastside Trail. The Coyote Forum yesterday was a success.
Fitzgerald master plan meeting ongoing. San Bruno master plan ongoing. Trails EIR changes are being made to the original master plan document. Coyote Point Master Plan going out to bid for a consultant to start work on it. Airport Runway Expansion could have a serious impact to the natural resources of Coyote Point. A popular windsurfing spot could be destroyed. The north shore of the point could be irrevocably altered. Gary distributed copies of a memo from Mary Burns to the Board of Supervisor via Paul Koenig re the issues. Park jurisdiction does extend into the bay. July is Park and Recreation month. Harbor seal monitoring project at Fitzgerald will continue in Bob Breen’s absence. Coyote sightings continue on Sawyer Camp Trail. Gary also distributed copies of the 1999-2000 budget.
Subcommittee chair Richard Izmirian made the streams subcommittee report.
Pescadero Creek Projects: The Streams subcommittee met with John Kenny at Memorial Park, and a review of the meeting was emailed to committee members and copies were made available tonight. The proposal for replacement of the vehicle crossing of Pescadero Creek with a Bailey Bridge is under review. Bank erosion and sewer problems were discussed. A wetland of uncertain origin was shown to the subcommittee, Tim is investigating generating some interest in a biological inventory project of the wetland.
Bradley Creek water rights meeting coming up. Richard discussed Keith’s request to invite someone to pose a request to discuss water diversion invitation.
Guest Chris Fisher reported on CRMP work plan and showed slides of the RCD work projects including Waterman Gap, Mill Creek, and Arroyo Leon.
Subcommittee chair Mary Paglieri made the wildlife subcommittee report. She reviewed the Coyote Forum held yesterday. She said there was good attendance from a variety of agencies state wide. An overview of ideas on nonlethal coyote management was presented. Mary also discussed her own proposal which she presented in cooperation with Chris Papouchis of the Animal Protection Institute on coyote vexing which brought together components of public eduducatio and instilling the fear of humans in coyotes. She also discussed Lynn Fritz’s request that the Wildlife subcommittee work on a media package. Wade passed out early print copies of the coyote brochure made for the Coyote Forum. Gary Lockman discussed the volunteer patrol for Sawyer Camp Trail including setting up volunteer tables at the trailhead, passing out of brochures, and training of internal personnel, as the top priorities. Quantity printing of the coyote brochure should happen later this week and bulk quantities will be available for the County Fair.
Commission liaison Jerry Hearn reported on Park Commission business. The June budget discussions included $165,000 extra allocated for coast side education, the Sanchez Adobe project sewer project, and money for the mid coast. The three new ranger positions were put on hold pending conclusion of labor discussions. $12,000 in budget rollovers and $8,000 in RCD money was dispersed. Jerry made copies of a letter he wrote to Supervisor Rich Gordon concerning the future of the committee, where he discussed the issues as he saw them and also requested to be removed from future discussions on the issue. There will be a meeting July 30 between representatives of the Parks Commission, Board of Supervisors, and staff concerning the committee’s recharter request. Committee members were not invited to this meeting. Wade has a one on one meeting scheduled with Supervisor Gordon.
Alpine Creek Trail: Jerry made recommendation to the trails trails committee that they and F&W work together on the trail issues because maintenance and improvements (or the lack thereof) to the trail will almost certainly affect Los Trancos Creek. The trail is not located on park land but is under park jurisdiction. Currently sediment from bank erosion is flowing into creek, portions of the trail is not stable and the trail is squeezed between the creek and road in places. Moving of the road would be required to maintain the trail and stabilize the stream banks. Jerry has written a letter making these recommendations. Motion made to approve the letter for presentation to the Parks Commission as a committee recommendation. Motion passed.
member purcel left.
Kelp Harvest Closure: Keith Mangold was not present so Wade chaired the discussion. Invited guests Becky Ota of California Department of Fish and Game, and Lyle Wagner of Princeton Abalone were not present. Becky however did send an alternate, Eric Larson, Senior Marine Biologist Research, Management, and Enhancement for the Department. Wade reported that Lyle told him in an earlier telephone conversation that Lyle was definitely interested in harvesting kelp off the San Mateo Coast, another one of the aquaculturists told Wade that he was not interested because of the rough water, distance from the Santa Cruz harbor, and the small size of his boat.
The following is a summary of a discussion lead by Eric Larson. He said that an appeal for closure of the SMC kelp beds would be appropriately directed to the California Fish and Game Commission. The Commission would refer the request to the Department for a recommendation. The Department is committed to renewing and revising the coastal EIR document at 5 year intervals. The next revision is due December 2000. The EIR includes recommendations on kelp management. The Department would most likely recommend to the Commission regarding a SMC kelp harvest closure to defer to the scheduled release of the EIR and to go with the recommendations contained therein.
Eric passed out copies of California Code of Regulations Title 14 of Fish and Game Commission code re kelp closures, also copies of portions of the Fish and Game code. There are only two beds in SMC containing a relatively small amount of kelp .06 square miles in bed 224, and .00 square miles in bed 225. The restrictions on kelp harvest is only on the depth of cut. There is no tonnage regulation.
Kelp management includes a good deal user conflict management. Section 165.5 of California Code explains the process for closure. There are increased user group conflicts due to increased demands of aquaculturists and traditional kelp harvesters. User conflict is the conflicting interests of one kelp harvester against another. There was also conflict between jurisdiction of regulation between the Coastal Commission and Fish and Game.
The Coastal Commission has defered to Fish and Game for the purposes of regulationg kelp harvest in San Mateo County.
Users can’t be regulated by two different agencies, therefore the Coastal Commission has deferred to Fish and Game regulation of kelp bed harvesting.
Bull kelp is more commonly found north of point Montara. Kelp beds in south and central SMC are mixed species. In Monterey Bay Macrocystis predominates. North of Point Montara bull kelp predominates.
Bull kelp is killed if harvested below 2 ft.. Kelp may only be harvested by hand north of Point Montara. Macrocystis may only be taken to 4 feet by commercial harvesting, hand harvesting does not go that deep. Harvesting can actually preserve Macrocystis beds by reducing density of beds, minimizing damage to the kelp beds during storm conditions.
Kelp is in decline of the SMC coast. The decline is thought not to be due to harvesting but possibly to sea level and temperature changes, and more severe winter storms. Kelp does provide habitat for sea otters. Can kelp beds be artificially expanded? No, kelp will grow where it grows. Detrimental human impacts to kelp beds are thought to be caused by sewage outflows. SMC does not have any sewage outflows affecting kelp beds.
No new business
Motion to adjourn made and passed at 8 pm.
Respectfully submitted:
Wade Leschyn