Great Lakes Basin Ecosystem Team Meeting Minutes

March 4-5, 1998

Introduction

The meeting was convened at 9:30 am on March 4. Janet Smith (Team Leader) opened the meeting with a welcome to participants. Bob Krska (Region 3 Ecosystem Coordinator), who served as facilitator, reviewed the purposes and outcomes of the meeting and the agenda - meeting participants concurred. Joan Guilfoyle and Lynn Lewis volunteered to take notes on March 4.

John (GARD for Region 3) expressed his continued, spirited support for activities of this ecosystem team. John provided some background on the Directorate held the previous week. Although the Directorate did not wish to share the decisions reached at their meeting before March 6, at which time all Regions would simultaneously advise their employees of the decisions, John did indicate that, according to Bill Hartwig (Region 3 RD), the Directorate "came together" at this meeting. The Directorate used the Ohio State University contractor's report as the basis for the issues discussed. Some general comments provided by Bill included that all Regions would be organized the same, that Regional Offices will look like the Washington Office, and that the Service's Ecosystem Approach is here to stay, i.e., ecosystem teams and interagency partnerships will be retained.

John recognized some of the significant Ecosystem Approach accomplishments of project leaders and this team during the past year. These included the following: 1) participation in Michigan United Conservation Club's Outdoor-ama (Service display); 2) development and use of the Great Lakes Ecosystem exhibit last April at the Rayburn House Office Building on Capitol Hill; 3) coordination meeting among the Service and USGS-BRD Great Lakes Lab; 4) Metzgers Marsh restoration; 5) Great Lakes Fishery Trust resulting from the Ludington Pumped Storage Settlement Agreement; 6) Kirtland's warbler activities; 7) Fox River and Saginaw Bay Natural Resource Damage Assessment (NRDA) activities; and, 8) coordination efforts among the Service and EPA via, in part, Rich Greenwood's liaison position.

John offered several challenges to this team. These included meeting more frequently than annually; reaching out to non-traditional partners; conducting self-evaluations of the team - minimize bureaucracy; development of a simple annual team work plan for FY 1998; and use and expansion of the Focus Area concept, emphasizing the Service's four trust responsibilities.

Future opportunities for the team include funding provided through reauthorization of the Great Lakes Fish and Wildlife Restoration Act; employment of flexible funding beginning with the FY 2000 budget, which will likely employ the approach of funding by projects, not offices - this team should consider developing joint, cross-program project proposals; opportunities for increased visibility on declining aquatic resources through the Service's Wounded Waterways initiative, on which the Director places a priority on par with Refuge and Endangered Species issues - this initiative is NOT focused on the Fisheries program - the Director plans to announce this initiative at the Midwest meeting in March - this team and the Ohio River Valley Ecosystem team both have great roles to play in implementing this initiative.

Tony (GARD for Region 5) stated that, from his perspective, the Service is a great place to work, regardless of the decisions reached at last week's Directorate meeting. Tony indicated that our new Director is a decision-maker whose theme for the Directorate meeting was to strengthen programs while supporting the Ecosystem Approach. Region 5 convenes meetings among its ecosystem team leaders and the Regional Directorate annually, which was an offshoot of a self-evaluation of the performance of the Regional Directorate. Results of the evaluation concluded that the Ecosystem Approach is not about money but, rather, working together; that each ecosystem team should identify two or three activities to undertake and to discontinue reporting those accomplishments that would have occurred in spite of the ecosystem teams.

Tony observed that Region 5 should become more actively involved in the activities of the overall GLBE Team, perhaps integrating the Lake Champlain (our newest "Great Lake!") ecosystem team.

Janet Smith (Team Leader) - Janet indicated that the team's Executive Committee (ExCom) focused on identifying basin team and focus area projects, which involved questioning whether these activities are merely reciting what was already being done. Discussions of ecosystem team leaders and ecosystem coordinators during the Region 3 Project Leaders meeting in November 1997 included concerns about the lack of direction being provided by the RO and WO, what were the expectations for the ecosystem teams, was money available to support team activities, etc. Janet identified the team's challenge as seeing how it can add value to our work, which may involve focusing on basin-wide issues, addressing things we don't ordinarily do.

Doug Spencer (Detroit River/St. Clair R./Lake St. Clair Basin Leader) - Doug indicated that activities of this basin team has exposed him to fishery issues he might not normally have been aware of. Alpina Fishery Resources Office has developed proposals with USGS and EPA on lake sturgeon research in this basin. Doug believes the team helps link agencies together and has facilitated cross-program awareness and participation within the Service. Doug expressed concern that Humbug Marsh, which is the last freshwater marsh in the area, is under development pressures; he has helped coordinate the Service's information and response to this threat. Doug has submitted a Focus Area Profile to Bob, has developed grant proposals, and conducted conference calls and communicated via e-mail.

Dieter Bush (Lakes Erie and Ontario Basin Leader) - The Region 5 sub-team identified two focus areas in FY 1997: exotic and migratory species and congressional outreach. Dieter indicated that this sub-team is itself meeting today. He observed that some partners respect/like the Service, while other do not and that we had better know what our legal responsibilities are when undertaking activities (refer to Appendix B of his handout on Strategies). He stated that the Lakewide Management Planning efforts may not be related clearly to activities of this team but they are critical nonetheless.

Jerry McClain (Lake Huron Basin Leader) - This basin team has identified two Focus Areas: Saginaw Bay and Thunder Bay. Jerry stated that he had limited input from other basin team members in identification of these two areas - the St. Clair River/Lake St. Clair Basin Team is more active.

Tom Busiahn (Lake Superior Basin Leader) - The fact that Tom's station's e-mail has been down much of the time has reduced this basin team's effectiveness. Tom stated that the list of candidate Focus Areas needs to be pared down and believes that the Whittlesey Creek Refuge project needs to be identified as a Focus Area. The Preliminary Project Proposal for the Whittlesey Creek Refuge project has been approved, as has the acquisition plan. A concern that is emerging with this project is snowmobile use of the area. The Lake Superior Ecosystem Cooperative, with which Tom's office has been cooperating, is one offshoot of the Binational Program. Tom's office is becoming more involved in the issuance of permits from the Corps of Engineers for the harvesting of sunken logs from Lakes Superior and Michigan. Tom noted that Whitefish Point National Whitefish Point, of approximately 35 acres, is the first refuge on Lake Superior.

Mark Holey (Lake Michigan Basin Leader) - Tom indicated that he, as basin leader, has been consumed by activities associated with Fox River NRDA and Great Lakes Fishery Trust (from the Ludington Pumped Storage Project Settlement Agreement) activities.

A request for volunteers to serve as Doug Spencer's Team Leader-elect resulted in Tom Busiahn stepping forward.

John Perrecone (Phone: 312-353-1149; E-mail: perrecone.john@epamail.epa.gov), serving as EPA Region V's Critical Ecosystem Team Coordinator, presented an overview of pertinent activities in the Great Lakes. EPA's Region V administers the states of Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, and Michigan.

John gave an overview of EPA's National Strategic Plan. This plan includes 10 goals that are organized into traditional "stovepipes." With the advent of the Government Performance and Results Act (GPRA), requiring outcomes and results from the plan, EPA is currently in the process of trying to link its stovepipe approach, though it is proving challenging to meld funding from its various programs.

John passed out an organizational chart for EPA's Region V. Organizationally, this region is still organized into programmatic stovepipes, although it does have initiatives that cut across programs.

He described the Clean Water Action Plan, for which Tim Henry (Water Division) is EPA's contact. A $10.2 billion budget is proposed for this 5-year initiative, which takes a unified approach to watershed management and identifies areas in need of protection. One of the challenges for this initiative is to collate existing data in the next 4 to 6 months.

With respect to EPA's critical ecosystem effort, the an ecosystem team comprised of staff representing all divisions was established and is working on developing internal links to help reach the Region V ecosystem goals. The team has not been provided designated staff (except for John and two ecologist positions he will be filling) or monetary resources and, accordingly, it has been challenged in defining its tasks and direction. The team will be identifying and prioritizing where the team needs to devote its efforts. In 3 to 5 years, the team must show what it has accomplished for its ecosystems. To assist in identifying critical ecosystems throughout EPA's Region V area, a letter was sent to about 130 entities requesting them to identify what they believe are the "critical ecosystems" in need of directed effort, which, it is hoped, will be included in a GIS database to identify areas of overlap among critical areas and to help build connections among these areas.

John indicated that the Environmental Roundtable is being reinstated in November 1998 and will become more of a policy forum than a "show and tell." It will be used as a means to integrate programs, identify critical areas, test new models of ecosystem protection, and advocate for biodiversity.

Rich Greenwood (FWS-EPA Liaison) discussed several areas in which the Great Lakes team may be interested. The Great Lakes 5-year Strategy is one of the highest priorities of the new GLNPO director (Gary Gulezian) and will provide an opportunity for the Service to provide input into the strategy for the next 5 years. With respect to State of the Lakes Ecosystem Conference (SOLEC) efforts, the 1998 conference is focusing on identifying ecosystem indicators. Rich also mentioned briefly the Lakewide Management Planning process and the Binational Executive Committee. Rich concluded that Dave Ullrich (Acting Regional Administrator) is a strong supporter of the Service and is interested in learning more about the Service.

Heather Potter (Phone: 312-759-8017; E-mail: potter@netural.com) presented an overview of TNC's activities in the Great Lakes Ecoregion. TNC has identified high priority ecosystems within the Great Lakes Basin based on concentrations of various elements. TNC has organized around ecoregion, rather than watershed, boundaries, which are sub-divided into smaller planning units. Heather described TNC's planning process, which is composed of several steps. The first step is identifying targets; setting conservation objectives; determining how many occurrences of needed targets, e.g., habitat types, species concentrations, etc., are needed and where; and identifying the best occurrences. The second step involves identifying portfolio sites, identifying data gaps, analyzing threats and feasibility, and catalyzing the next action steps. These activities are coordinated with TNC's field offices and involves site conservation planning. Two local planning meetings have been held to date: southwest and southeast Lake Michigan. At the ecoregion-wide level, the various plans are rolled up, final site selections are made, multi-site strategies are developed, and broad, overarching issues, trends, and challenges are identified.

A discussion item addressed the fact that many entities within the Great Lakes are identifying and prioritizing critical areas within the basin concurrently with little apparent coordination. This may be an opportunity, through the Great Lake team, to contribute to such needed coordination activities.

With respect to TNC capability, it has tended, historically, to focus on terrestrial resources. Recently, however, it is recognizing the need to move into the aquatic resource arena, which is suffering significant declines and threats. TNC has good capability with respect to addressing social issues and identifying and working with various interest groups. Finally, TNC is interested in learning more about the Service's approach to addressing the needs of the Great Lakes Basin.

Ecosystem Team Plan - Dieter Busch explained to the team that the Region 5 sub-team made some modifications to the overall team plan and developed its own Lower Great Lakes Sub-team plan. Among the changes made by Region 5 included adding a ninth goal that addresses the National Wildlife Refuge System, specifically. After considerable discussion, the team decided to not adopt the addition of a ninth goal highlighting the refuge system but, instead, to modify language in existing Goal No. 1 to more clearly highlight Service lands. Accordingly, Goal 1 will read: "Prevent further loss or remaining crucial terrestrial, aquatic and wetland habitat and restore and/or enhance degraded habitats beginning with publicly and Service-owned lands and waters..." (Emphasis added) The next ExCom conference call, to be scheduled, will address any other minor changes to the plan. Bob will distribute the revised plan to all on the team.

There was some discussion about the value of creating a team logo to be used on the team's plan, correspondence, outreach materials, etc. The ExCom will address this issue to explore policy and other considerations associated with this proposal. In the mean time, the team will apply existing Service publication standards in materials the team develops.

Focus Area Status and Evaluation - To date, four Focus Area profiles have been completed. There was some discussion about the distinction between geographic "hot spots" versus "hot" basin-wide issues, as well as ongoing versus areas/issues in need of attention in the future. The team was reminded that the final version of its Focus Area Concept states that both geographic areas and broader issues may be considered as Focus Areas. The team concluded in its evaluation the Focus Area Concept has certainly NOT hurt us and has not achieved its full potential as a means to address important issues in the Great Lakes, as a marketing document, as a means to acquire funding and partners, etc. Accordingly, the team will continue its application of the Focus Area Concept. Basin teams will revisit their identification of Focus Areas, which is the level of organization from which such areas will be identified. While Basin teams are empowered to identify Focus Areas within their individual Basins, cross-basin issues will be addressed through the full team.

Basin-wide issues - Overviews of eight potential cross-basin issues were provided by individual team members.

1) Rich Greenwood offered opportunities for the team to contribute to EPA's 5-Year Strategy for the Great Lakes, suggesting use of the team's goals be provided as input. Tom Edsall of EPA is the contact for submitting Service input.

2) Steve Lewis prepared a short handout that was handed out explaining the status of cormorants, including several recommendations of how the team may contribute substantively to addressing this issue.

3) Jerry McClain gave an overview of lake sturgeon restoration efforts in the Great Lakes, indicating that each lake has sturgeon identified as a fish community objective. Jerry has formulated a "sturgeon team" that that meets annually within the Lake Huron/Lake Erie corridor. Among the large issues being addressed is that of genetics of various sturgeon stocks. Jerry recommended establishing a sturgeon web page to share information and facilitate coordination.

4) Janet Smith presented an overview of efforts to design an upstream fishway for lake sturgeon through the non-Federal hydro regulatory program. Dieter indicated that his office is working on a draft policy on fish passage for Region 5. Jerry is looking into issues associated with passage of contaminated fish - Dave Best (East Lansing ES Field Office) has developed an egg sampling protocol re: contaminants.

5) Mike Tansy presented a slide-show overview of several Great Lakes islands, which are important for resting or neotropical migrants during storms, as well as migrating monarch butterflies. Doug Spencer indicated that the Service can help protect islands through acquisition. Larry Martin highlighted the importance of West Sister Island, which is only 78 acres but provides nesting habitat for 40 percent of the Great Lakes' wading birds. There was some discussion of the values of islands for aquatic and fishery resources but, in general, there appears to be much potential but little specific information.

6) Tom Busiahn discussed Aquatic Nuisance Species (ANS) as a potential issue. Among the opportunities include a public education role, as well as having Tom convene a conference call with refuge staff to educate them about this issue to prepare them for inquiries from refuge visitors and to provide refuges with publications, education trunks, etc., for educating refuge visitors. The Service's "official" contacts for the ANS issues are Pam Thiel (Region 3, LaCrosse Fishery Resources Office) and Sandra Kempner (Region 5).

7) Janet Smith lead a discussion on information management and communication. Rick Nelson suggested considering TNC's capabilities in this regard. Team members agreed that outreach was a component of about all activities of the Service and team in the Great Lakes. A need was identified to distribute to all Service offices in the basin appropriate outreach materials. Doug Spencer stated there would be value in a team roster identifying sub-team leaders and member offices. Bob volunteered to develop such a roster and distribute to all team members.

8) Dieter lead a brief discussion on the need for the team to promptly seek opportunities to facilitate passage of reauthorization of the Great Lakes Fish and Wildlife Restoration Act (GLFWR Act.

After some discussion, the team chose the following basin-wide issues it will address during FY 1998: cormorants, lake sturgeon/fish passage, and reauthorization of the GLFWR Act. Bob suggested that several individuals be identified as a core group for each of these issues and establish a time frame for initiating efforts in these issues. Accordingly, the core group for the cormorant issue includes Diane Pence, Steve Lewis, and Larry Martin; for the lake sturgeon/fish passage issue, Jerry McClain, Lowie, Janet Smith (Jim Fossum), and Weisser; and for reauthorization of the GLFWR Act, Dieter Busch, Kent Kroonemeyer, and Dale Burkett. Finally, these core groups agreed to a 30-day period within which they would convene a meeting or conference call to initiate planning efforts for these issues and will report back to the team on their progress and recommendations.

While these issues represent issues the team agrees to work on during FY 1998, many recognized several other issues that must also receive attention. Accordingly, Rich Greenwood will serve as the team's lead in gathering Service input into development of EPA's 5-year strategy. Tom Busiahn will contact the Region 3 and Region 5 ANS coordinators to address the issue of "inreach" regarding this issue. Joan Guilfoyle and Jim Hudgins will initiate a standing outreach committee. A group of several individuals, including Janet Smith, who will contact Tom Larson in the R3 RO, Doug Spencer, and Rich Greenwood, who will contact Stu of the Service's Gulf of Maine Ecosystem Team, was identified to address the issue of identifying potential islands in the Great Lakes for Service acquisition.

Bob will develop a brief FY 1998 Annual Team Work Plan highlighting the three primary basin-wide issues and the additional issues the team chose to address during the year.

Funding Alternatives - Identification of funding mechanisms for team activities was discussed. Several ideas identified included establishing a "kitty" of funds provided voluntarily by ecosystem team field and regional offices, similar to that established by the Ohio River Valley Ecosystem Team. Other ideas proposed included providing in-kind services, employing ARW's RONS system and Fisheries' FONS system; and identifying and pursuing grant opportunities, such as EPA-GLNPO's habitat grant process. A point was raised about the need to develop a funding process for the future as we proceed with efforts on behalf of the team.

After relatively little discussion, the team chose to initiate a kitty to fund activities of the team. Several criteria were established for setting up this kitty. 1) funding contributions would be based on the ability of stations to contribute - contributions are not obligatory; 2) use of funds must be obligated by July 15; 3) funds of the kitty will be used for projects that are developed by those addressing the three basin-wide issues selected by the team for FY 1998; and 4) the team leader, with assistance of the ecosystem coordinator would administer the kitty, e.g., keep track of contributions and station and cost codes, provide stations spending money from the kitty and contributing stations with notifications that funds are being distributed, etc.

An initial round of pledges to the kitty was undertaken. Contributors to the kitty, as well as pledges made since the meeting as of the date of these minutes (in italics), include the following:

Tony Leger (R5 GARD), $3,000 Larry (Ottawa NWR) will advise, Dieter Busch (LGLFRO) $5,000, Dave Radloff (Pendills Cr. NFH) will advise, Kent (ROFO) $3,000 $500, Dave Huntly (Jordan R. NFH) will advise, Tom (Ashland FRO) not less than $500, Liz (NISO) will advise (0), Rich (EPA-GLNPO) 0, Janet (GBFO) will advise, Mark (GBFRO) not less than $500, Gary (Marquette SLC) $500 (will confirm), Dave Pederson (R3 Fed. Aid) ?, Rick (LaCrosse FHC) will advise, Doug (Shiawassee NWR) $1,000, Jim (Michigan PLO), $1,000, John Christian (R3 GARD), $5,000, Bob Kavetsky (ELFO) - will advise (0).

Bob Krska will offer John Blankenship and Nita Fuller (GARDs from R3) the opportunity to contribute to the kitty.

Kent Kroonemeyer handed out a packet of material and described briefly the Great Lakes Dredging Team and his role on it as the Service's official representative.

Dave Pederson presented a brief overview of Federal Aid activities, including the pending legislation for the proposed Partners for Wildlife (nongame) Federal Aid program.

Time ran out to complete these agenda items. With respect to identifying impediments to the team's implementation of the Ecosystem Approach, it was decided that Bob Krska would solicit via cc:mail impediments from team members and discuss them, as well as identifying remedies to these impediments, as one of the primary agenda items at the next team meeting.

The team decided that meeting once per year is insufficient to develop and maintain momentum of the team, nor are such infrequent meetings conducive to fostering a team "spirit." Some expressed the opinion that the team should meet twice, three times, or four times per year. The team decided, for now, to schedule the next meeting for June 16 and 17. In recognition of the generally inadequate representation of Region 5 (with the outstanding exception of Dieter Busch!), the team will schedule this meeting in Cleveland, Ohio, to facilitate greater participation of Region 5 team members. Tony Leger pledged much greater representation of Region 5 in this meeting.

Decisions reached and commitments made were reviewed (see below).

Bob Krska led the group in an evaluation of this meeting. Bob pointed out that the evaluation of last year's meeting led to improvements and adjustments in the agenda, logistics, etc., for this meeting and, accordingly, is a valuable exercise.

Positive Aspects of this meeting - interactive; facilitated networking among participants; specific activities and projects were identified; willingness of team members to take an active role in various action items and decisions; outside speakers; real progress was made; active participation of Tony and Dieter from Region 5; Rich Greenwood's input; co-location of meeting room in the hotel.

Aspects that should be changed - need greater Region 5 participation; don't delay the start of the meeting (the start time was moved back from 8:00 to 9:30 am); too ambitious an agenda; bring in outside agencies to team meetings at least once per year; greater input of the field into development of the agenda. (Meeting facilitator's note: at least two messages to all team members soliciting input to and comment on draft versions of the agenda were sent to all team members with little response)

The meeting was adjourned at 12:00 pm.

Bob Krska, Lynn Lewis, Dave Pederson, Rick Nelson, Doug Spencer, Jim Hudgins, Bob Kavetsky, Tony Leger, John Christian, Dieter Busch, Jerry McClain, Larry Martin, Dave Radloff, Tom Busiahn, Dave Huntly, Mark Holey, Liz McCloskey, Janet Smith, Joan Guilfoyle, Kent Kroonemeyer, John Perrecone, Rich Greenwood, Heather Potter, Joe Budzyn, Gary Klar, Mike Tansy.

Decisions Reached (from Flip Charts)

• Incorporate aspects of Region 5's Sub-Team Goal 9 into Goal 1 of the Team's plan

• Executive Committee will consider other language changes to the plan

• Apply current publication guidance as it relates to development and use of a team logo

• Continue to apply the Focus Area Concept, as defined by the team

• Basin Teams will identify Focus Areas, and development Focus Area Profiles, on a continuous basis - profiles will be submitted to the ecosystem coordinator, who will distribute to all team members

• Status reports on Focus Area activities will be presented at team meetings

• Bob Krska will develop an updated ecosystem team roster, identifying basin team membership and basin leaders and distribute to all team members

• Basin-wide issues to be addressed in FY 1998

• Cormorants (Diane Pence, Steve Lewis, Larry Martin)

• Lake sturgeon/fish passage (Jerry McClain, Lowie, Janet Smith (Jim Fossum), Weisser

• Reauthorization of the GLFWR Act (Dieter Busch, Kent Kroonemeyer, Dale Burkett)

The indicated individuals will convene a meeting or conference call by April 6 to initiate planning efforts and will notify the whole team of the results of these meetings with recommendations for the whole team.

• All team members will provide to Rich Greenwood input into EPA's 5-year plan, as appropriate

• Aquatic Nuisance Species Inreach - Tom Busiahn will contact the Region 3 and 5 ANS coordinators relative to developing an inreach strategy for Service stations in the Great Lakes Basin

• Joan Guilfoyle and Jim Hudgins will initiate a standing Outreach Committee

• Potential islands for acquisition by the Service will be identified on a continuous basis - Janet Smith (who will contact Tom Larson), Doug Spencer, Rich Greenwood (who will contact Stu of the Service's Gulf of Maine Ecosystem Team) will develop and compile an inventory of Great Lakes islands

• Bob Krska will develop the team's annual work plan for FY 1998, highlighting the three basin-wide issues identified previously and including other activities committed to

• Bob Krska will solicit, via cc:mail, input from all team members their ideas of impediments to more effective application of the Ecosystem Approach by the team - this information will be shared at the next scheduled meeting, which will serve as a basis for identifying ways to improve the team's effectiveness

• Those who could not commit pledges to the team's "kitty" will submit their pledges (or not) to Bob Krska by March 13

• The next full team meeting is scheduled for June 16 (starting at 8:00 am) and 17 (ending at noon) in Cleveland, Ohio - Kent Kroonemeyer will arrange for a meeting room and hotel accommodations

Minutes prepared by: Bob Krska (March 20, 1998) based on meeting notes taken by Joan Guilfoyle, Lynn Lewis, and Bob Krska