Call to Order
Minutes from the July 27th Meeting
Minutes for the July 27, 2000 STAT meeting were approved by all
members present.
News from other elements of the SDCP
Maeveen Behan distributed copies of two articles from the local
newspapers about the status of interjurisdictional cooperative
efforts. A schedule for future SDCP reports was also provided
to the STAT. In addition, Maeveen distributed copies of two memorandums
for the Mountain Parks and Cultural/Historic preliminary reports.
Criteria for permits subcommittee
Bill Shaw distributed a copy of the revised "Standards for
Recommending Species for Section 10 Permits." The last sentence
under "Knowledge Standard" (Page 1) was added per comments
made by Doug Duncan since the July 27th meeting. STAT voted to
accept the standards as revised (August 21, 2000).
Bill Shaw stated that he has recently provided an update to Laura Hood, peer reviewer, on the activities performed by the STAT and others for the SDCP. The standards mentioned above will be provided to her along with some of the other reports so she can continue her review of the STAT's work.
Coordination with The Nature Conservancy
During a recent discussion with Bill Shaw, Rob Marshall from TNC
stated that they are still working on cleaning up the data files
and metadata files used for the Sonoran Desert Ecoregion Plan.
Ultimately, TNC will be transferring the files to compact disc
and releasing them for sale to the general public. However, it
will still be quite some time before this process is completed.
Rob had said that TNC would be able to release individual GIS
layers to the STAT at the meeting on August 29th. STAT will obtain
a list of the individual data layers from TNC and provide it to
RECON so that they can determine what they need prior to the meeting.
In addition, the STAT and RECON will continue to prod Rob for
his input into the activities for the SDCP.
Technical Review of Priority Vulnerable Species Information
E. Linwood Smith has been hired on as the coordinator for the
technical review of the priority vulnerable species information.
He provided a list of the review team to the STAT. Two names were
unintentionally omitted from the list: Troy Corman, Arizona Game
and Fish Department, who
will be reviewing Passerines and James Hoffman who will review the talussnails. The STAT is encouraged to add names of any individuals who they feel should be on this list.
The technical reviewers will be responsible for reviewing the species accounts and habitat data analysis, as this information relates to their expertise, and providing comments on any obvious errors and omissions in the text or significant omissions to the referenced literature. Peter Stine suggested that they may also want to determine what information deficiencies exist, and how to go about filling in the gaps. Bill Shaw stated that the STAT should focus on the overall picture first, such as improving the vegetation community maps, before looking at the information needs for individual species.
Reviews on the habitat analysis are due by September 10th. Reviews on the data compilation are due by September 15th, at which time all of the information will be passed on to RECON.
E. Linwood Smith suggested that the STAT may want to make the technical review team a permanent part of the SDCP process. No vote was made by the STAT regarding this item during this meeting.
Decision-Support Model subcommittee
The first meeting of the advisory committee was held on the week
of August 7, 2000. The focus of the meeting was to show what the
model can do and what it cannot do. Work still needs to be done
on understanding how the model will help the SDCP process.
So far, the STAT has identified three conservation targets for the Decision Support Model (DSM): Cactus ferruginous pygmy-owl, Pima pineapple cactus and cottonwood-willow gallery forests. Ranid frogs were determined to be a constraint by the subcommittee formed for this conservation target. The DSM team still needs more conservation targets from the STAT to make the model an effective reserve design tool.
A discussion was held by STAT to determine other conservation targets for the DSM. The new targets and people in charge of the subcommittees responsible for providing information on the targets are as follows:
€ Desert Tortoise Cecil Schwalbe
€ Desert Bighorn Sherry Ruther
€ Mountain Lion Sherry Ruther
€ Desert Kit Fox Natasha Kline
€ Sacaton Grasslands Mima Falk
Both the desert bighorn and sacaton grasslands may be considered
as constraints for the model. Robert Steidl is using the information
from TNC to develop a synthetic conservation target which will
combine a suite of species.
The ultimate goal for the selection process is to select as few
targets as possible (8-12) that cover as much of the biodiversity
of the region as possible. Peter Stine suggested one way to accomplish
this is to look at species over different elevation ranges (i.e.,
high, medium and low). The STAT may add some more conservation
targets in the future.
Peter Stine announced that he will be moving from the U. S. Geological Survey to the U. S. Forest Service. He will still be available to work on the DSM team, but will have a more limited responsibility. Mike Gilpin will be the main liaison for this project, at least for the next few months.
Species/Community Goals and Reserve Design
There was a brief discussion on species and community goals for
the SDCP. Sherry Ruther informed the STAT that the Arizona Game
and Fish Department has management authority over population goals
for non-listed species. She suggested that a formal dialogue with
the AGFD would be needed. STAT agreed to continue setting biological
goals for the SDCP, and to let the land managers implement the
goals with AGFD and other agencies.
A progress schedule was distributed by RECON to the STAT. A discussion was held regarding the work schedule and deadlines for the major documents. Some of these are listed below:
December 2000 Draft MSCP outlines will be made available to
the STAT
March 2001 RECON will issue a draft reserve design
March - July 2001 Details for the reserve design will be worked
out
July - Dec. 2001 Minor adjustments may be made to the reserve
design
September 2002 Final copies of the MSCP, Environmental Impact
Statement, Implementation Agreement and overall SDCP are due
RECON will provide a schedule of meetings to review future
draft documents at the next STAT meeting. The starting time for
the next meeting was changed (see "Next meeting date"
below).
Riparian committee
The preliminary riparian element report will be delivered to the
Pima County Board of Supervisors this week. It will be made available
to the STAT and the general public shortly thereafter. This report
primarily summarizes the other riparian reports produced by county
staff and others for the SDCP. It also defines some goals for
the riparian element and discusses the STAT's evaluation of current
and potential effluent related restoration projects.
The riparian subcommittee met to discuss a suitability analysis for cottonwood-willow communities for the Decision Support Model. They will meet with Lisa Harris on September 6th at 2:00 P.M. to go over the riparian mapping effort. This meeting will be held at Harris Environmental Group's office on 1749 E. 10th Street. An e-mail will be distributed to STAT for further notification of this meeting.
Recreation impacts
Neva Connolly is currently working on a report which will describe
impacts from recreation to natural resources within various reserves
in Pima County. A lot of information has been gathered so far,
it now needs to be synthesized.
Potentially problematic species
A draft report on "potentially problematic" species
was distributed to the STAT for their review.
The report utilizes an ecosystem approach to describe the effects
of non-native species on the native environment. This approach
proved to be more difficult to develop, but should be more useful
for the STAT's purposes. The document includes contributions from
Neva Connolly's report on non-indigenous species in Pima County
and Phil Rosen's report on native aquatic vertebrate conservation.
Topography, landform and climate information
Pima County is currently working on obtaining three resources
of information on the Geographic Information Systems database.
Thirty meter DEM topography for Pima County is available for use
on the SDCP. RECON is working on a contract to convert hardcopy
maps from PAG (PAG 208 maps) that display vegetation, soils and
geology for the entire county. Pima County is working on a contract
with Joel Michaelse to create various GIS layers that will display
maximum/minimum temperatures and precipitation on a seasonal basis.
A suggestion was made to include "no freeze zones" as
a layer to this database. Peter Stine has drafted a scope of work
to improve the vegetation information (excluding riparian) for
Eastern Pima County.
Announcements
Gary Nabhan is leaving the Sonoran Desert Museum and moving to
Flagstaff. As a result, he will no longer be working on the STAT.
Bill Shaw asked for any general thoughts on replacing his position
on the STAT.
Nathan Sayre thanked the STAT for their participation on the field trip to the Arivaca area. The Ranch Conservation Technical Advisory Team is planning another field trip to Empire-Cienega, probably for late September. Nathan welcomed the STAT to attend the ranch team's meeting on Friday, August 25th.
Maeveen Behan gave thanks to Nathan for his report on the "Importance of Conserving Resources in Altar Valley."
E. Linwood Smith offered to give a brief presentation on the URS Corporation's work on habitat characterization of areas downstream from effluent outfalls. This presentation will be included as an agenda item for the next STAT meeting.
Next meeting date
STAT Members Present:
William Shaw School of Renewable Natural Resources, University
of Arizona
Steve Prchal Sonoran Arthropod Studies Institute
Mima Falk U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service
Sherry Ruther Arizona Game and Fish Department
Cecil Schwalbe U. S. G. S. & School of Renewable Natural
Resources, University of Arizona
Natasha Kline Saguaro National Park
STAT Members Absent:
Robert Steidl School of Renewable Natural Resources, University
of Arizona
Doug Duncan U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Tucson)
Staff:
Julia Fonseca Pima County Flood Control District
David Scalero Pima County Flood Control District
Neva Connolly Pima County Flood Control District
Others:
Sherry Barrett U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service
Lori Woods RECON Environmental, Inc.
Paul Fromer RECON Environmental, Inc.
Leslie Smith RECON Environmental, Inc.
Ken Kingsley SWCA
E. Linwood Smith URS Corporation
Joe Platt URS Corporation
Maeveen Behan Pima County
Peter Stine U. S. Geological Survey/Decision Support Model
Team
Nathan Sayre Arizona State Museum; Ranch Conservation Technical
Advisory Team
Trevor Hare Tucson Herpetological Society
Christina McVie Desert Watch