Great Lakes Basin Ecosystem Team Meeting Minutes

March 2-3, 1999

John Christian provided opening remarks. He stressed looking at resource issues from a landscape perspective, looking at the big picture, and working together. We're working closely with the Great Lakes Science Center, continuing a positive working relationship. The Director's priorities include the Ecosystem Approach and her visit attests to her interest. The other priorities include migratory birds, invasive species, and refuges. John mentioned the Implementation Team's effort to integrate the Ecosystem Approach into the Service's activities. John provided an overview of our new organization. He also described briefly Region 3's Regional Resource Conservation Priorities, which are based on species. John mentioned the FY2001 budget priority exercise; Region 3 solicited input from the ecosystem teams and forwarded them to the Director.

John described some opportunities, including reauthorization the Great Lakes Fish and Wildlife Restoration Act, the Great Lakes Fishery Trust, the Saginaw Bay Natural Resource Damage Assessment, Great Lakes Conservation Fund, competitive grant opportunities through EPA and others, and our Refuge Operations Needs system (there is now a counterpart in the Fisheries Program - FONS).

Sherry Morgan explained that she became GARD for this team in November 1998; this is her fourth team meeting in the last 6 weeks. One of the biggest challenges is funding priority resource projects. Region 5 convenes annual meetings among the ecosystem team leaders and Region 5 Regional Office - the next meeting is April 27 & 28 in Cape May, which provides an opportunity to view a team project in the field. The Director, as well as several representatives of the Implementation Team, has been invited to sit in on this meeting. Another opportunity and need in Region 5 is GIS. Dieter recently resigned from the Service to take a position with the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission.

Bob Krska gave a brief overview of the I-Team's meeting in Port Canaveral February 17 through 19. Issues addressed at the meeting included development of a Director's Priority document, which identifies action items to strengthen implementation of the Ecosystem Approach by addressing leadership, communication, support for ecosystem teams, budgeting, and policy/definitions/planning. The I-Team also developed a list of general functions and roles of the Washington Office, which will be shared with the Directorate. The document that identifies roles and responsibilities of the ecosystem teams will be revised based on comments received from ecosystem teams and will distributed to the Directorate for a short turnaround review, before being finalized and distributed throughout the Service. Bob reminded Team members to contact any of Region 3's or 5's representatives on the I-Team with comments, concern, or recommendations (Brad Johnson, Pam Thiel, Bob Krska - Region 3; Tony Leger, Kari Duncan - Region 5).

Representatives of the Team presented an overview of the Team's structure and function for the Director upon her arrival. The Director then presented some comments to the Team. She indicated that the Great Lakes Ecosystem Team is serving as a model for how other Teams should be functioning. The fact that the meeting was being convened at a USGS-BRD facility highlights the fact that we need to stay linked to research to carry out our mission. She also referenced active involvement of Law Enforcement and Federal Aid. While the Director acknowledged the need to address day-to-day "fires," she also said we need to look to the future to determine where we want to be. We need to maximize efficiency given our current and projected budget situation. We can't get there by managing species-by-species - we need to look at a bigger picture. Compared to other Federal agencies, the Service is a leader in implementing an Ecosystem Approach, which is recognized by the Secretary. She said an Ecosystem Approach will continue to guide the Service into the future.

Her four priorities include 1) invasive species, which, in some respects, pales the impacts of contaminants on fish and wildlife 2) migratory birds, which serve as sentinels of ecosystem health - we need to re-ignite the public's passion and our management capability 3) refuges, and 4) the Ecosystem Approach. Jamie mentioned that the Implementation Team has been working hard addressing difficult issues. With respect to outreach, we need to profile successes through outreach; Fish and Wildlife News will dedicate a page of each edition to the Ecosystem Approach.

Jamie observed that this Team is operating as it was envisioned Teams should operate. Establishment of a Team kitty has demonstrated trust among Team members; pooling resources this way is impressive! Regional Office has the best opportunities and biggest challenges within the Service. Support of the GARDs for the ecosystem teams is critical. We want greater involvement of regional directors in identifying priorities through the Teams. Jamie encouraged the Team to continue to "think outside the box," to expand partnerships, and to leverage resources. The Director indicated she would continue to be an advocate with the Secretary, NGOs, and Congress.

After the Director's comments, she and Doug presented outreach certificates of appreciation. Recipients of outreach certificates for developing the Service's Great Lakes ecosystem display included Ed DeVries, Denny Lavis, Jim Hudgins, Bob Krska, and Joan Guilfoyle. Bob Lumadue received an LE outreach certificate and a 20-year certificate. A cormorant outreach certificate was presented to Fred Caslick. Several certificates were presented for outreach efforts related to the Lake Erie water snake, including Kent Kroonemeyer, Melissa Hathaway, and Joan Guilfoyle. Finally, a certificate from the Team was presented to John Christian for his continued support.

After the presentation of awards, the Director entertained several questions from the Team before departing the meeting.

Doug gave an overview of the team leader's role. It takes about 25 percent of his time but it is rewarding. He's plugged into current activities, which need to be shared with the field. Fortunately, Doug has good staff to cover for him on refuge issues. For small stations, the workload associated with team leader activities and of routine work needs to be considered. Doug and the other team leaders participate in Region 3's weekly regional resource meetings, hearing about what other teams are doing, what concerns are, etc., which is beneficial. Another issue is participation on Environmental Roundtable related activities. Participation in weekly Region 3 conference calls on Monday mornings is an expectation. Activities as team leader included development of FY2001 budget priorities and identification of research needs. Doug expressed frustration in not hearing from many team members in reply to requests for information, updates on status of activities, etc. John Christian referenced Region 3's intent to fill the ecosystem coordinator position to maintain support for the team leader and team; Sally Hopp (East Lansing Field Office) also has a supportive role. John encouraged a Region 5 representative to consider volunteering.

There were no volunteers among present team members to become team leader-elect. Nominees were solicited, which included Dave Pederson, Rich Greenwood, Bob Lumadue, and Dave Stilwell. Ultimately, Dave Stilwell was selected as Team Leader-elect, who will succeed Tom Busiahn as Team Leader in April 2000.

Tom Simon presented an overview of the coastal wetland project and Environmental Management and Assessment Program. Part of this effort includes assessment of impaired uses and indicators. A high percentage of the 43 Areas of Concern have impairments related to biological community indicators. EMAP uses a probabilistic approach to monitoring, though it has some shortcomings, i.e., can't assess site-specific concerns. The idea behind the project is to get an unbiased assessment of the status of coastal wetlands, which has implications for wetland restoration efforts, across political boundaries of states. A wide range of partners is typically involved.

Technical approaches of these projects include conference calls, training sessions, determination of baseline reference conditions, and determination of ambient surface water conditions. A series of indicators are looked at, including fish community and macroinvertebrate community assemblages, and habitat (quantitative and qualitative). A series of hypotheses and questions are identified, addressing whether or not target resources are impaired. Approximately 200 coastal wetland sites will be sampled over a period of 2 years. This effort will result in development of multi-metric indicators across the Great Lakes Basin, including an Index of Biological Integrity. Involvement of partners will be sought to become involved in this project, which will begin in 2000.

Randy Eshenroder presented an overview of the GLFC's strategic vision. One milestone addresses habitat classification, i.e., classifying and inventorying gains and losses of aquatic habitats by 2005. The GLFC is looking at this milestone by convening a workshop to develop an approach. Recommendations were made to Randy to consider existing efforts going on in the Great Lakes, e.g., National Wetland Inventory status and trends efforts in the Great Lakes, to build on existing efforts.

Dave Ewert explained that TNC has recently reorganized to include divisions, state, and local offices, including an overall Great Lakes Basin Office in Chicago (Helen Taylor). Ecoregion planning includes identifying globally important targets and where to protect them. Issues being addressed include identification of stresses and threats, and integration of ecological and socioeconomic factors, considering broad scales and more site-specific scales. Implementation of conservation actions has included traditional conservation approaches, including inventory (heritage data bases), participation in species recovery teams, and site design, acquisition, protection, and preservation, as well as landscape level activities. Great Lakes eco-region planning is scheduled to be completed by May 1.

Dick Pierce described some of DU's activities to encourage greater partnership with the Service. Dick provided a brief history of DU, describing that DU started by addressing habitat in Canada, eventually evolving to addressing habitat needs (wetlands and grasslands) in various locations throughout the U.S. DU is initiating a Great Lakes Basin program that will expand fund raising capabilities and expanding partnerships. Two sides of DU include 1) field offices that do fund raising, and 2) a function to restore hydrology on public and private lands. DU has the ability to do wetland restorations easier and quicker than can the Federal government or private contractors. Dick invited Team members to a reception at its office in Ann Arbor after the day's meeting.

After some discussion, the Team decided to expand the ExCom to include Committee chairs. This would give greater representation on the ExCom of the Team's resource priorities and would provide a larger pool of Team representatives to respond on short notice to requests for information, input, etc.

The Team's next meeting will be June 22 & 23 in Buffalo, New York.

After discussions by the committees during the break out sessions at the beginning of the day, each committee chair described proposed projects to be funded through the Team's kitty, which had a total of $23,550. Projects were placed in priority order (project amounts and contact are identified in parentheses):

Lake Sturgeon

1) Genetics standardization workshop ($1,000 - Chris Lowie)

2) Development and layout for a brochure ($200 - Henry Quinlan)

3) Maintenance of the sturgeon web site ($1,700 - Tracy Hill)

4) Hatchery and wild parasitic fauna in Lake Ontario ($9,000)

5) Assessment of sturgeon movement - equipment ($5,500)

Outreach

1) Development of a professional display and graphics ($5,000 - Jim Hudgins)

2) Purchase a nomadic display system to be available for the Team's use ($3,400 - Ed DeVries)

3) Develop a Team display for the "Sustainable America" conference in Detroit in May ($2,000 - Doug Spencer)

Migratory Birds

1) Piping plover protection - volunteer support ($4,000 - Rachel Miller)

2) Tern nesting ($3,000 - Tom Jasikoff)

Cormorants

1) Cormorant/water bird outreach - table-top display materials ($3,250 - Fred Caslick)

It was decided to fund all of the proposals except Nos. 4 and 5 of the Lake Sturgeon Committee.

Offices that contributed funds to the kitty were requested to send via cc:mail within 2 weeks cost structures for their contributions to Doug and Bob, who will distribute contributions among the projects and send a memo to the leads for the projects, to the contributing offices, and appropriate Administrative Officers. The leads for the projects will notify contributing offices when funds are withdrawn from the accounts.

Lake Sturgeon Committee - This Committee has identified research priorities and will develop write-ups, which will be distributed to committee members and to the Region 3 research coordinator and to Sherry Morgan, who will share it with Region 5's research coordinator. A proposal for electro fishing research was rejected because the Upper Mississippi Science Center was outside the Great Lakes Basin - the Committee (John Weisser) will verify that the reason the proposal was rejected was because it was in the Great Lakes - if this is true, he will prepare a draft letter that will be sent to BRD (Denny Fenn) by the Team Leader expressing this concern.

Cormorant Committee - Research funded through last year's kitty is being completed. Before Region 5 takes action related to requests for cormorant control permits in New York and Vermont, additional information is needed. The Islands Committee needs to look at impacts of reduced cormorant habitat, which is contributing to cormorant impacts on remaining habitat.

Migratory Birds - This Committee has not yet identified research needs yet but will.

Islands - This Committee doesn't yet have any research needs identified but will in the future.

A letter to BRD will be drafted requesting one research vessel for each of the Great Lakes - Lake Michigan currently does not have a vessel. The draft letter will be forwarded to Mark Holey who will review it, then pass it on to the Team Leader, who will send it to BRD on behalf of the Team.

The ExCom will address the concern of providing a mechanism for providing access to Team members of information that may be of interest to them, such as on the web or a mail box on cc:mail. They will look specifically at the master list of research needs, and will determine how to package this list and decide to whom this list should be distributed.

Doug gave a brief overview of Executive Committee's activities, which included Quick Response Research and development of FY2001 budget priorities.

Focus area leads provided updates of activities in each of their areas. Tom presented a revised Focus Area profile for Duluth-Superior and explained that there are a variety of opportunities for the Service to address important trust resources in this area.

Tom Jasikoff described three focus areas that have been identified for the Region 5 portion of the ecosystem: St. Lawrence Valley, Montezuma Wetlands Complex, and Niagara River. These focus areas will be added to the existing six focus areas of the Team, for a total of nine.

The concept of Basin Teams was discussed, including whether this organizational unit should be continued. The Team agreed to maintain Basin Teams even though they are not particularly active at the moment. It was decided that the Lake Erie Basin Team would be co-chaired by Larry Martin and Koffi Fynn-aikins; Lake Ontario by Dave Stilwell; and the St. Lawrence Basin by Tom Jasikoff. Region 5 will consider establishing a Niagara River Basin Team.

Jenny Wilson gave a brief overview of some of the strengths and problems associated with GIS use. She asked questions pertaining to the level of need for a broader base of support for GIS activities throughout the Basin. There was much discussion and interest in this topic but because there was insufficient time to address this issue in much detail, it was decided the ExCom would address this issue and develop recommendations for consideration by the Team, as appropriate.

1)    The Team Leader-elect is Dave Stilwell (Cortland ES) to serve at the conclusion of Tom Busiahn's term, which begins May 1, 1999.

2)    A group comprised of John Rogner, Dave Pederson, Tracy, Hill, and Committee Chairs (McClain, Hudgins, Martin, Tansy, and Meyers) will seek to schedule a Great Lakes Basin Ecosystem Team symposium at the 61^st Annual Midwest Fish and Wildlife Conference in Chicago in December 1999. This group will plan a half-day symposium that will include an overview of the Service's GLBE Team, as well as invited technical presentations by Team members and others. A proposal will be developed and submitted the conference planning committee by the end of March.

3)    The Team Leader will develop a memo thanking the Director for attending this meeting.

4)    The Team's next meeting will be June 22 & 23 in Buffalo, New York

5)    Project Leaders will send to Bob and Doug via cc:mail within 2 weeks cost structures associated with contributions to the kitty. Bob and Doug will distribute kitty funds among the nine projects and send a memo to the project contact, offices contributing funds, and to appropriate Administrative Officers. Project contacts will notify contributing offices when funds are withdrawn from the contributors' accounts.

6)    The ExCom will review within 60 days the "master" list of research needs identified by individual member field stations, will format the list, and decide to whom the list should be sent (Region 3 and 5 research coordinators, others)

7)    The ExCom will address methods of communication among Team members and others via cc:mail boxes, the internet, etc., for items that may be of interest to many Team members but may be too extensive to distribute to all Team members.

8)    A letter to BRD concerning the need for a research vessel for each Great Lakes will be drafted - Lake Michigan does not have a vessel assigned to it; the letter will be forwarded to Mark Holey for review, who will then forward it to the Team Leader who, in turn, will send the letter to BRD on behalf of the Team.

9)    The ExCom will begin to address the Team's GIS needs, opportunities, problems, etc.

10)    John Weisser will verify the reason for BRD's Upper Mississippi Science Center rejection of an electro fishing research need on behalf of sturgeon work; if it was rejected because the project was located within the Great Lakes, he will draft a letter to BRD expressing concern for the Team Leader to pass on to the Science Center.

Cormorants

Discussion of the Team's kitty (clarify basis, project selection, reports at project completion, etc.)

GIS

Status of planning for the GLBE Team symposium for the Midwest Fish and Wildlife Conference

Outside speakers (2 or 3): New York Department of Environmental Conservation, Cornell Ornithology Laboratory, invasive species

Representative of USGS-BRD (Great Lakes Science Center and facilities near Buffalo) will be invited to attend the meeting

Positive aspects: completed agenda; stayed on the subject/agenda item; good facilitation; break out sessions; presentation by the Director; meeting location (BRD facility); addressed substantive issues; Ducks Unlimited reception

Aspects to change: Need more time for break out sessions; need more refreshments; too many outside speakers; some may be interested in participating in more than one break out session; did not have a representative of Michigan DNR (though we tried); plan a field trip; we need either a longer meeting or a shorter agenda

Bob Krska, Nancy Milton, Tom Busiahn,Doug Spencer, Jim Hudgins, John Christian, Gary Klar, Dave Devault, Kent Kroonemeyer, Terry Ott, John Rogner, Denny Lavis, Rich Greenwood, Art Kitchen, Liz McCloskey, Roger Gordon, Henry Quinlan, Dave Huntly, Dave Radloff, Ed DeVries, Bob Kavetsky, Pat Hudson, Jon Parker, Dave Pederson, Tom Jasikoff, Dave Stilwell, Sherry Morgan, Jerry McClain, Mike Tansy, Mark Holey, Bob Adair, Walt Quist, Lance Keuster, Kofi Fynn-aikins, Ellen Kiley, Christy Smith*, Joan Guilfoyle, Jenny Wilson*, (* denotes Day 2).

Draft notes prepared: March 3, (1999 by Krska)

Final notes prepared: March 19, (1999 by Krska)