Courtney Staatz reports on Senator Allard’s watershed bill

The meeting was called to order by Howard Hallman at 7:30 am. Howard asked for comments about the Pine Beetle informational insert to the April 29^th  Summit Daily News. The general consensus was that the supplement was attractive and informative and would continue to serve the community well for the next several months.

The task force thanked the businesses who supported the supplement, Sandy Briggs for facilitating the production, and the Summit Daily News for producing the piece for just the cost of the printing.

Since we have  additional copies we need to find ways to distribute these copies to the community. Possible ideas include the county offices, recreation centers, Offices of the CSU Extension and  local real estate offices.

Pat Tormey and Bill Wallace  discussed the reduction of  landfill tipping fees during pine beetle season from $30 to $15.

Courtney Staatz reported that Senator Allard’s  watershed bill  is still making its way through Congress. Emphasis is being made to inform front range communities about the significance of the bill on their watershed issues.  Allard’s office wants to congratulate  fellow  Senator Ken Salazar for his  success in gaining  the approval of his bill to allocate $30 million to the Forest Service for bark beetle mitigation in the western states. Senator Allard plans to use his influence to see that a large portion of the money will be used for projects in Colorado.

Courtney emphasized that this was  money appropriated for this fiscal year. The bill proposed by Allard would add  over 225 milloin over the next five years. Decisions of how the money will be spent on the ground  will be determined by the regional director of the US Forest Service.

A discussion followed about ways the task force members could work together to insure that some of the money will be used to fund local projects.  Mark Morgan  of Morgan Timber products maintained that the forest service would best be approached from the bottom and then climb fast. Requests need to be directed to the local ranger with copies sent to his superiors. Courtney added that her office could apply some pressure from the top down as well.

How can the task force approach the forest service to fund projects that have been NEPA approved and can we also get the forest service to add additional personnel to finish the NEPa process in area’s that need treatment for the Pine Beetle?

Morgan asserted that the NEPA process was an impediment to getting projects underway and needed to be streamlined as well as staffed.

Carl Spaulding felt that this group has established itself  and needs to use its resources to expidite projects in Summit County.  

Getting NEPA  done this year to affect bug flight is not going to happen. For fuel reduction there still may be time to be effective. NEPA  reform is still a big issue.

Brad Piehl  has seen fast work get done in the Pike National Forest. How much process do we really need, how can we get exclusions, how can we get projects expedited.

Bill Wallace sees the problem as a regional approach that could best be handled  through Gary Sieverson and the Northwest Council of Governments. Courtney felt that  if we use a regional  approach money will come to Summit County.

Mark Morgan  believes that $30 million is not a lot of money once it gets spread around to various Pine Beetle projects. Creativity and cooperation in the local community is going to get more done in your local area than anything else. Your ability to facilitate projects locally is going to get more done on the ground that trying to get money from the federal government.

Brad suggested that we work together on a pilot project perhaps in a NEPA approved location that could serve as an example to sources of funding that we are an effective group capable of efficiently  facilitate projects.

Bob French says that the County has received applications form several groups to receive funding from the county for projects that are ready to go.

What can we do to attract industry to the county that will help to make use of Pine Beetle  timber for the highest value use.

Mark Morgan stated that he would need  a site to put grinder in and wood storage, as well as housing  for his  crew. Another key would be a place to stockpile harvest logs in a location that the beetles in the trees would not be able to infect more trees.

ill Wallace stated that the county  has land and would be willing to look at a proposal for a community service project and offer  excellent lease terms  to companies helping with forest management projects.  The County landfill is actively trying to drive costs down. It is now working lowest value materials, but they are  looking for cooperation from private industry to produce the highest value product to offset processing and shipping costs.

Don Sather a local lumber retailer was aked about the market for lumber from pine beetle infected timber.

Don said that new products are difficult to bring to markets. He is not highly optimistic for the future of pine beetle products due  to supply line issues and the demand for the product.

Chris Jennings  asked what might be the top three products that might be offered.

Don said that this is a question is a the mill. What that mill is able to produce and what the transportations costs are.  He added that the  2x4 stud is the largest selling product. Plywood board is hard to keep supplied. Carl Spaulding asked about tongue and groove decking?  Don we have a great supply for T & G at a reasonable price. We need plywood and fiber board. Mills for plywood and OSB board is large mill product and high cost start up.

Can government specify use of pine beetle products in new construction?

New bill in state specifies use of non wood products is foundation and infrastructure of new buildings. While the attempt is to be “green” the use of such material uses much more energy to produce and put in place than the use of renewable wood projects. How do we get the “green movement” to embrace beetle kill wood as a building product.

Howard summed up the meeting by emphasizing that we consider:

Working as a  group to facilitate a  pilot project for pine beetle clean up;

Create  a pilot building project   using blue material;

And to plan a strategy for lobbying efforts to insure that federal funding is made available for Summit County projects.

We need to find out where we are in the NEPA  process along the lower Blue River. John Taylor said he would set up a meeting with Rick Newton and let Howard and Bob French know the time, so that they could attend as well.

The next meeting was set for May 18th. The meeting was adjourned.