Regional Interagency Executive Committee
333 SW 1st P.O. Box 3623
Portland, Oregon 97208-3623
Website: www.reo.gov E-Mail: REOmail@or.blm.gov
Phone: 503-808-2165 FAX: 503-808-2163

Memorandum

Date:

August 14, 2007

To:

Regional Interagency Executive Committee (see attached distribution list)

From:

/s/Anne Badgley, Executive Director

Subject:

REGIONAL INTERAGENCY EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE ANNUAL MEETING AGENDA AND PREWORK FOR AUGUST 21, 2007

Regional Interagency Executive Committee
August 21, 2007 DRAFT Meeting Agenda
Duncan Plaza, Conference Rooms 3A-B, Portland, Oregon

Time

Topics

Purpose

Presenter

8:30 a.m.

WELCOME

Housekeeping

Facilitator

8:40

OPENING REMARKS

Opening

Ed Shepard, Chair

8:50

• Priority Questions and Accomplishments (10)
• Monitoring Program Update (10)

Update

Shawne Mohoric, FS

9:10

• Fire/Owl Model (30)
• Future Fire Subcommittee Activities (20)

Update
Decision

Ray Davis, FS
Kristi Young, FWS

10:00

Break

10:15

• Westwide Energy Corridor (10)
• Pacific Connector Gas Pipeline (5)
• Palomar Gas Transmission Project (5)
• SMG Energy Subcommittee (10)

Update

Mike Haske, BLM

10:45

• Salmon & Steelhead Recovery Planning: Status and Implementation (30)
• Northern Spotted Owl Recovery Plan (15)

Updates

Dave Wesley, FWS

11:30

Lunch

12:30

Decision

Dick Prather, BLM

2:00

Break

2:15

• Critical Habitat
  • Marbled Murrelet
  • Northern Spotted Owl
• Interim Barred Owl Working Group
• Survey & Manage Final Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement
• Coastal Coho Court Decision
• Northwest Natural Resources Forum Update
• SMG Transition Update
• REO Transition Update

Updates

Scott McCarthy, FWS
Scott McCarthy, FWS
Kristi Young, FWS
Mike Haske, BLM
Mike Crouse, NOAA
Frank Shipley, USGS
Mike Crouse, NOAA
Anne Badgley, FWS

2:40

• Assignment/Agreement/Recommendation review
• Future meeting dates and topics

Housekeeping

Kath Collier, Facilitator

2:45

CLOSING REMARKS & RECOGNITION

Close

Ed Shepard, Chair

3:00

ADJOURN

Topic: ADAPTIVE MANAGEMENT & MONITORING SUBCOMMITTEE REPORT: PRIORITY QUESTIONS AND ACCOMPLISHMENTS & MONITORING PROGRAM UPDATE

Sponsor: Cynthia West, PNW Deputy Station Director, and Cal Joyner, R6 Deputy Regional Forester

Presenter/REO Contact: Becky Gravenmier, PNW Station Representative

Issue Statement: Becky Gravenmier (PNW) will present a brief overview of the FY2006 Northwest Forest Plan (NWFP) Interagency Regional Monitoring & Science Accomplishment Report and will provide an update on the development of Management Experiment Templates. Shawne Mohoric (FS) will provide a Monitoring Program update.

Background: After the NWFP Conference in April 2005, the RIEC and IAC identified adaptive management and monitoring as priority topics to address. The RIEC set up a subcommittee led by Tom Quigley and Jim Golden to address adaptive management. A small staff group, led by Lisa Freedman (FS, R6) and John Laurence (PNW) was convened to evaluate tasks that might improve adaptive management and refine NWFP monitoring efforts. The three main tasks of the group were to develop: (1) a process to allow RIEC to agree upon a list of regional priority questions; (2) an adaptive management framework; and (3) management experiment templates that can be used by the field for implementation of experiments.

Completed Tasks: The following products have been developed by the task group for the RIEC:

• Adaptive Management Framework (framework document; revised August 2006)
• RIEC identified 16 Priority Questions to help focus monitoring and research (March 2006; added to Adaptive Management framework document)
• RIEC decisions on monitoring budgets and options (March 2006)
• Development of the Management Experiment Primer (April 2006; added to Adaptive Management framework document)
• Development of a process for Regional Adaptive Management Accomplishment Reporting (August 2006; added to Adaptive Management framework document)

• Review of existing monitoring protocols to refine or suggest changes to protocols as appropriate based on previous RIEC input on monitoring options including annual cost ceilings.

• Develop two detailed management-experiment template examples written in the form of study plans that could be attached, after local modification, to future decision documents:

Action Required:

[ x ] Information [ ] Decision

Topic: FIRE-PRONE SYSTEMS SUBCOMMITTEE UPDATE

Sponsor: Ren Lohoefener, FWS

Presenters: Ray Davis, Umpqua National Forest and Kristi Young, FWS

REO Contact: Kristi Young, FWS Representative

Issue Statement: Kristi Young will provide an update on the progress made by the Fire-Prone Systems Subcommittee and discuss next steps. Ray Davis will give an overview of a model to map at-risk northern spotted owl (NSO) habitat in the dry-forest provinces to improve NSO habitat management planning and consultation.

Background: After the 2005 Conference on Science and the Northwest Forest Plan, the RIEC formed a subcommittee to explore opportunities for increasing fuels reduction treatments in NWFP fire-prone regions. The subcommittee selected three areas for potential improvements–budget, riparian reserves, and NSO habitat management.

Analysis and Options: The subcommittee has made progress on the NSO habitat management issue. In September 2006, Ray Davis and Jim Thrailkill (FWS) presented a conceptual model of landscape-level NSO risk analyses to the Senior Managers Group (SMG). The SMG requested an interagency team be formed to produce "habitat risk" maps for all of the NWFP dry forest provinces. This team includes representatives from FS, BLM, FWS, and PNW. Ray Davis will present an overview of the model and some of the preliminary maps. The team expects to have final maps ready for use by the end of this calendar year.

SMG Proposal: The Fire-Prone Systems Subcommittee has made progress on the risk model but there has been no progress on the other two tasks (budget and riparian reserves). The SMG is recommending to the RIEC that the subcommittee drop the other two tasks and focus solely on the habitat risk model.

Action Required:

[ x ] Information [ x ] Decision

Topic: NORTHWEST ENERGY PROJECTS

Sponsor: Linda Goodman, FS Regional Forester, R6

Presenters: Joyce Casey, FS and Mike Haske, BLM

REO Contact: Joyce Casey, FS Representative

Issue Statement: RIEC reviews of proposed plan amendments related to the Westwide Energy Corridor and Pacific Connector Gas Pipeline are anticipated. The Senior Managers Group (SMG) recently endorsed the creation of an interagency energy policy subcommittee and a technical project support group to coordinate these and similar proposals.

Background:

Westwide Energy Corridor. Website: http://corridoreis.anl.gov

The Westwide Energy Corridor proposal stems from Section 368 of the Energy Policy Act of 2005, which directed agencies to study and designate a series of energy corridors on Federal land throughout the western United States to facilitate energy development. The Department of Energy and BLM are co-lead agencies on this effort; the Forest Service and Department of Defense are cooperating agencies.

A programmatic Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) is being done to address designation of the corridor; it does not analyze project level on-the-ground environmental impacts. The draft EIS is expected later in 2007. Subsequent site-specific National Environmental Protection Act (NEPA) analyses would be completed as individual projects are proposed within the corridor.

As a minimum, a designated corridor must specify the centerline, width, and compatible uses of the corridor. The width of corridors proposed within Late-Successional Reserves (LSRs) ranges from 500 to 3,500 feet. Current estimates show that the corridors could overlay about 5,000 acres of LSR (2,000 acres on Forest Service, and 3,000 on BLM).

The proposed plan amendment would overlay the corridor designation on existing land allocations, and a question has been raised as to whether that overlay constitutes a change in land allocations or standards and guidelines requiring RIEC review. Subsequent proposals for individual rights-of-way within the corridor will likely include changes that require plan amendments and RIEC review.

Pacific Connector Gas Pipeline. Websites: http://www.pacificconnectorgp.com/ and http://www.ferc.gov.

This proposal, sometimes referred to as the Williams Pipeline, involves construction of the Jordan Cove liquefied natural gas terminal at Coos Bay, and a 231-mile natural gas pipeline from Coos Bay to Malin, Oregon. The proposed pipeline would traverse Forest Service, BLM, and private lands.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) will issue draft and final EISs, and decide whether to issue a certificate of public convenience for the pipeline and authorize construction of the terminal. A draft EIS is expected in January 2008, with a final EIS four to six months later. The Forest Service and BLM are cooperating agencies on the EIS, and they will use that analysis to make decisions on whether to issue a right-of-way. The Forest Service and BLM decisions will cover all aspects of right-of-way issuance, including plan amendments, access, timber removal, revegetation, and safety.

Construction and maintenance of the pipeline is likely to be inconsistent with several Northwest Forest Plan-based land allocations and standards and guidelines. Plan amendments associated
with those changes would require RIEC review. The pipeline is also likely to be inconsistent with some Forest-specific standards and guidelines.

Palomar Gas Transmission Project

The BLM recently received a right-of-way application from Gas Transmission Northwest Corporation (GTN) for a 36-inch natural gas pipeline, known as the Palomar Gas Transmission Project. GTN is proposing to construct and operate approximately 220 miles of pipeline extending from its existing pipeline in Wasco County to a delivery point near Molalla in Clackamas County, and from there to a proposed liquefied natural gas terminal near Bradwood in Clatsop County.

The project would cross approximately 42 miles of Federal lands in Wasco and Clackamas counties, including lands administered by the Prineville and Salem BLM Districts and the Mt. Hood National Forest. The majority of the route over Federal lands is within the Northwest Forest Plan area and also within a corridor proposed under Section 368 of the Energy Policy Act of 2005.

The Senior Manager’s Group (SMG) recently endorsed the creation of an interagency Energy Subcommittee and a Technical Project Support Group to provide a coordinated Federal/State response to several natural gas projects proposed for FERC certification in Oregon, including the Pacific Connector Gas Pipeline. The two teams have been formed to support collaborative State and Federal information sharing an coordination efforts where possible. The Subcommittee seeks to understand and support collaborating State and Federal agencies’ positions and needs, and to oversee development of consistent best management practices for these energy projects. The Technical Group is currently focusing specifically on the Pacific Connector Gas Pipeline. The Technical Group is working to:

• Define mutual concerns associated with project impacts and mitigation,
• Identify preferred processes to seek resolution of issues, and
• Define preferred outcomes of negotiation.

At the Technical Group’s August 9, 2007 meeting, the members began discussing the above topics, plus the role of the Technical Group in negotiations, and the need to get all interested agencies to the table during applicant meetings and applicant/FERC negotiations.

Action Required: [ X ] Information

Topic: Salmon and Steelhead Recovery Planning: Status and Implementation

Sponsor/Presenter: Mike Crouse, NOAA-Fisheries Northwest Region

REO Contact: Kim Kratz, NOAA-Fisheries Representative

Issue Statement: The Endangered Species Act (ESA) requires NMFS to develop and implement plans for the conservation and survival of listed species. The NMFS’s Northwest Region has made substantial progress in developing plans and is now focusing on collaborative mechanisms necessary to implement them and evaluate effectiveness.

Background: Recovery plans are being developed concurrently for all 17 listed salmon Evolutionarily Significant Units in the Northwest Region. This massive and complex planning effort–involving Federal, State, Tribal, and local representatives in three states–is complete in several areas and nearing completion in others. The plans for Puget Sound, which were approved in early 2007, were built on efforts at the watershed level. The plans in the Columbia Basin were grounded in the Northwest Power and Conservation Council’s subbasin planning process, but have also engaged State agencies and local watershed groups in Oregon, Washington, and Idaho. All plans will identify goals and delisting criteria and provide linkages between the threats and limiting factors most impacting fish at the population and listed species levels and the most important actions to achieve the goal of conservation and survival.

Most plans are multi-"H" in scope, addressing the impacts, habitat changes, hatchery management, harvest, and hydropower systems. Most importantly, in each area of the Northwest, NMFS has sought to work closely with appropriate Federal agencies, State and local governments, Indian tribes, and other stakeholders. As a result, most plans were developed locally to ensure local concerns were appropriately considered and to enhance buy-in. NMFS’s role in this process has been to provide overall coordination and scientific support (through technical recovery teams and other means) to recovery planning efforts to ensure that final plans meet the requirements of the ESA and are supported by those who need to implement the actions. NMFS’s Northwest Region has facilitated the work of local planning groups and affected stakeholders, and, in a few cases, assumed the lead in writing the plans. Recovery plans will be final in most areas by the end of 2007 and it is now time to look ahead to implementation of these plans.

Given that ultimate success will depend on continued support at all levels, NMFS will continue to work with Federal agencies and others in the region to identify incentives that foster support for implementation efforts. One challenge facing the region at this point is the need for effective inter-jurisdictional coordination and communication involving resources, actions and monitoring. To meet this challenge NMFS will work with its partners to find ways to coordinate and synchronize agency resources with plan goals and objectives. NMFS will also identify key information needs and questions to inform delisting decisions and reporting requirements. This effort may include an evaluation of the contribution of existing research, monitoring, and evaluation programs to decisionmaking needs, filling the gaps between information needs and available data, and developing an infrastructure to facilitate needed data collection and interpretation.

Action Required:

[ x ] Information [ ] Decision

Topic: NORTHERN SPOTTED OWL DRAFT RECOVERY PLAN

Sponsor: Ren Lohoefener, FWS

Presenter: Dave Wesley, FWS Deputy Regional Director and NSO Recovery Team Leader

REO Contact: Kristi Young, FWS Representative

Issue Statement: Dave Wesley will present an update on the Draft NSO Recovery Plan and discuss next steps in the planning process.

Background: The FWS released a draft Recovery Plan for the northern spotted owl in April, 2007. The draft plan identifies criteria and actions needed to stop the owl's decline, reduce threats and return the species to a stable, well-distributed population in Washington, Oregon, and California. The draft plan proposes two different options for managing conservation areas on federal land, and the FWS is seeking public comment on the two approaches.

Analysis and Options: The FWS is currently receiving public comments on the draft Plan. The FWS also requested and received peer reviews of the draft Plan from the Society for Conservation Biology and the American Ornithologists’ Union. In order to facilitate the public’s review of the draft Plan, the FWS intends to post the peer review comments on the FWS NSO Recoveyr Plan website: http://www.fws.gov/pacific/ecoservices/endangered/recovery NSORecoveryPlanning.htm.

Action Required:

[ x ] Information [ ] Decision

Topic: BLM WESTERN OREGON PLAN REVISIONS (WOPR)

Sponsor: Ed Shepard, BLM State Director, Oregon and Washington

Presenter: Dick Prather, BLM WOPR Project Manager

REO Contact: Debbie Pietrzak, BLM Representative

Issue Statement: In anticipation of signing a Record of Decision for the WOPR in 2008, the BLM will present information regarding the Draft Resource Management Plan (RMP)/ Environmental Impact Statement (EIS).

Background: The BLM is in the process of revising RMPs for the Coos Bay, Eugene, Medford, Roseburg, and Salem Districts, and the Klamath Falls Resource Area of the Lakeview District. All six plan revisions are being developed concurrently during a single planning process. The Draft RMP/EIS will be available for public review and comment from August 10, 2007 to November 9, 2007. The Record of Decision is scheduled for completion in late July or early August of 2008. Detailed information, including an electronic version of the Draft RMP/EIS, is available online at: http://www.blm.gov/or/plans/wopr/index.php. Regional executives are encouraged to contact Dick Prather, BLM WOPR Project Manager, at 503-808-6627 if they have questions or need additional information.

WOPR Update: This presentation continues BLM’s ongoing coordination with the RIEC regarding the WOPR. Dick Prather will describe the status of the plan revision effort, including:

• Progress to date.
• Draft RMP/EIS.
  • Relationship to major laws and other plans.
  • Description of alternatives.
  • Summary of environmental impacts.
  • Schedule and next steps.
• Involving others:
  • RIEC, Provincial Interagency Executive Committees (PIECs), Provincial Advisory Committees (PACs)
  • Cooperators (note: four RIEC agencies are cooperators on WOPR: Forest Service, Fish and Wildlife Service, Environmental Protection Agency, and National Marine Fisheries Service).
  • Public.

Coordination with the RIEC: The NWFP (p. E-18) provides that: "Decisions to change land allocations or standards and guidelines will be made only through the adoption, revision, or amendment of these documents [FS and BLM plans] following appropriate public participation, NEPA procedures, and coordination with the RIEC." Additional provisions (i.e., RIEC review and the purpose of such review) apply specifically to plan amendments. At their February 7 meeting, the RIEC adopted a process to review plan amendments. The RIEC made no decisions regarding coordination on plan revisions; they discussed addressing those responsibilities on a case-by-case basis.

Consistent with the February 7 RIEC discussion, the BLM is seeking RIEC agreement on steps to facilitate ongoing coordination with the RIEC regarding the current plan revisions, and to document completion of that coordination in 2008. Two options were developed to reflect recent RIEC decisions regarding meetings and conference calls, the RIEC’s use of subcommittees, and the extensive involvement on the part of those RIEC agencies serving as cooperators. Because these options relate to coordination with the RIEC, they provide opportunities for executive-level discussion. Coordination and involvement at other levels in the agencies, including among staff, is ongoing through other means.

Under either option, meetings and/or other forms of coordination could be scheduled at key points in the revision process, or on a regular (e.g., monthly) basis. Documentation that coordination has been completed is anticipated prior to signing a Record of Decision in 2008.

Action Required: [ X ] Information [X] Decision

Topic: COMMUNICATIONS UPDATE – What’s On Your Web?

RIEC Sponsor: Anne Badgley, REO Executive Director

REO Contact: Kath Collier, REO Management Analyst

Issue Statement: The Internet, and particularly the Regional Ecosystem Office website (www.reo.gov), are critical tools in the transition to a more "virtual" office. The following list highlights sites that may you may find handy in the future:

Page Name and Content

Link Address

RIEC Agenda & Meeting Notes

http://www.reo.gov/library/riec/index.htm

RIEC Calendar

http://www.reo.gov/riec/RIEC-calendar.htm

RIEC Decision Summary

http://www.reo.gov/riec/decisions/riec_decisions.htm

REO contact information for agency representatives and other NWFP-related support staff

http://www.reo.gov/general/REOcontact_List.htm

Interagency Timeline*

http://www.reo.gov/iac/Timeline.htm

Key policy documents and agreements (including an annotated Record of Decision and Standards and Guidelines, charters, etc.)*

http://www.reo.gov/library/policy/

Online Library - Background, reports, analysis, references, links to meeting notes, etc

http://www.reo.gov/library/

Northwest Forest Plan 10-year Monitoring Reports

http://www.reo.gov/monitoring/10yr-report/

Senior Managers Group Home Page

http://www.reo.gov/SMG

Northwest Natural Resources Forum

http://www.reo.gov/NWNRF/index2007.htm