Great Lakes Basin Ecosystem Team Meeting Minutes

3-5 April 2001      Minneapolis, MN

Welcome & Introductions

Review purpose of meeting; review and approve agenda

Review action items from previous meeting

Progress Report on Lake Sturgeon Activities: Rehabilitation Plan,GIS database, Needs Assessment and Team Response etc.

The Service's presentation on lake sturgeon activities in the GLBE at the Council of Lake Committees was successful and took place in January.

Fifteen team members are serving on the Lake Sturgeon Committee's rehabilitation plan working group. The group had a conference call on February 20 and will be moving ahead on an outline for the plan at this meeting.

The Lake Sturgeon website was recently updated. The site can be viewed at http://midwest.fws.gov/sturgeon/.

The committee submitted two full proposals to the Great Lakes Fishery Trust. The proposals request funds for lake sturgeon genetics and coordination meetings for the next three years.

The lake sturgeon brochures have been distributed. The video "Lake Sturgeon: Dinosaurs of the Deep" has been distributed to all FWS Regional Offices. The Regional Offices in turn are responsible for sending them out to the field offices in their region.

The committee's working group on the lake sturgeon tributary database met in conjunction with the Lake Committee meetings in March. When completed, this database will be available on the web and will have datafields such as historic and current accounts of population, spawning and recruitment information, biological information, harvest information, and rehabilitation activities.

Progress Report on Great Lakes Islands and Related GIS/DSS Project Activities The Lake Michigan islands GIS/DSS pilot project has been contracted out to Michigan Natural Features Inventory and the USGS LaCrosse

The GIS/DSS committee will be meeting with members of the islands and lake sturgeon committees during the first full week of May. The plan is to have the Lake Michigan pilot ready to demonstrate at this meeting so that feedback can be solicited. In the near future, the GIS/DSS and islands committees will be transitioning into other lakes. The Flexfunds that this project received for FY '01 will be used in part for developing the GIS/DSS in other lakes.

Rich Greenwood distributed the draft Strategic Plan for the GLBET GIS/DSS and asked for feedback from team members. The GIS/DSS committee will be briefing the R-3 and R-5 RMT and RDT's this summer about the Strategic Plan.

Other issues that the islands committee is working on include a committee plan, island acquisition prioritization, outreach materials, and a list of needs from the GIS/DSS committee.

Updates on other Team Activities Website: The contractors are currently completing the first phase of the team website. When the first "draft" is complete. The team will have a chance to review and comment. The site should be ready for review by the end of April.

Video: The Mattison's are working on assembling the video footage and on the script, based on the outline that the team's video working group gave to them.

Action item: If stations want footage of their work videoed, they need to contact Doug Spencer as soon as possible to arrange a time for the Mattison's to visit.

Action item: The GLBET video working group will approve the content of the video script.

Action item: Doug Spencer will work with NCTC and make certain that the appropriate forms are completed and submitted for the video.

Action item: It is important that official USFWS review is completed on the script. Doug will inform the Mattison's of this requirement.

Migratory Birds: The Migratory Birds committee met in East Lansing January 30, 2001. The committee discussed committee priorities described in the GLBET Annual Workplan for FY 2001. Six action items resulted from the day-long committee meeting that related to these priorities. Committee tasks will include coordinating with the island committee on migratory bird issues, developing a stewardship program for common tern colonies, and cooperating with the regional working group of the North American Colonial Waterbird Conservation Plan.

Dr. Francie Cuthbert, University of Minnesota, recently completed a draft of the status of waterbirds in the Great Lakes.

A presentation on the Cormorant Environmental Impact Statement was not given at this April's full team meeting because the EIS is not yet far enough along for a report.

USFWS Great Lakes Lake Sturgeon Rehabilitation Plan/Ecosystem Conservation Strategy This is a Service Plan. Partners will be asked to review. It will identify the Service's roles and responsibilities in regard to Sturgeon rehabilitation. The Service has several niches in lake sturgeon rehabilitation including working with private landowners, FERC re-licensing, contaminants, sea lamprey, and actions under the Endangered Species Act. The Service can also provide the lead among other federal agencies in coordinating priorities to attract the interest of Congress and funds

The draft outline for the plan that was drafted by lake sturgeon committee members and further developed at this meeting follows: 1. Introduction 1. Great Lakes 2. USFWS - mission/policies/authorities 3. Native species responsibilities - policies/authorities 4. GLBET 5. Purpose/Objective of plan 1. Relationship to other lake sturgeon plans 1. SGLFMP, lake committees, state, tribal, provincial 2. SOLEC indicator 2. Lake Sturgeon 1. Taxonomy and classification 2. General biology 3. General habitat requirements 4. Threats - past, present, future 3. Lake Sturgeon Management in the Great Lakes 1. Historic 1. Distribution 2. Abundance 3. Fishery 2. Current 1. Distribution 2. Abundance 3. Fishery 4. Limiting Factors to Rehabilitation 1. Information gaps 2. Research needs 5. USFWS Goal 1. Priorities 2. Role 1. Coordination/Standardization, FERC, contaminants, ESA, sea lamprey/ANS, NFH, LE, NWR, 3. Strategies (pre-ESA listing) 4. Time-line

Open discussion at the Ecoteam meeting regarding the plan and/or outline included:

1. The document needs to have an implementation plan to be most effective for monitoring our progress.
2. We should keep in mind a marketing strategy for the document, particularly Regional and Washington endorsement or approval.
3. We discussed partner participation, specifically who, when, and how much. There was unanimous support that the USFWS, with all our branches, should take the federal lead to prepare and implement this plan. The USFWS will solicit participation from other federal agencies in the basin at the necessary time. Other partners, such as state, provincial, and tribal agencies should also be solicited at the appropriate time. The appropriate time was not clearly identified; however, general consensus was that it does not have to be at the beginning of the process, but definitely should not be at the end. General support was to include partners after we have a clear picture of the plan, with something for them to respond to.

Action item: An outline of the plan will be prepared by the end of April.

Lake Sturgeon Committee Field Work Commitments The following stations committed to the projects identified as needs by the lake sturgeon committee for this field season.
* New York Field Office: 3-4 staff and a boat
- lower Niagara River
- Genesee River
- lower Great Lakes genetic sampling
* East Lansing Field Office: 2 staff for several days
- any upper Great Lakes project (wherever the greatest need is)
* USFWS EPA liaison office - Rich Greenwod;
- will announce needs on the Detroit River to EPA staff who are interested in volunteering
* Northern Indiana Suboffice : Liz McCloskey
- Detroit River
* Shiawassee NWR
- Detroit River
- will also announce volunteer needs to Friends group
* Horicon NWR
- staff for any priority; will make an attempt for availability upon notice

Action item: Each FRO will take the lead in contacting the above volunteers for their specified projects. If a project need has not yet been filled, the FRO will email Leslie TeWinkel asap so that she can relay the outstanding need to the team.

Action item: News releases may be appropriate for the lake sturgeon field work. Field stations can contact Joan Guilfoyle for assistance with press releases associated with this field work and/or to invite the Directorate or others for a day of field work. Islands/GIS Commitments and Activities The list of GIS/DSS needs for islands that was previously emailed to team members was distributed at the meeting and discussed.

Action item: Slides and videos of specific islands for use in the DSS should be forwarded to Jason Rohweder at the USGS Upper Midwest Environmental Sciences Center.

Action item: Craig Czarnecki will forward Fox Island information to Jason Rohweder - USGS.

The group also discussed a land ownership document that was prepared by Walt Quist.

Action item: CD ROM copies of this land ownership document will be distributed to appropriate ES and FRO field stations in order to pare the list down to just islands. This information should be forwarded to Patti Myers.

Action item: Patti Myers will organize a conference call after the CD has been distributed to gauge the level of work involved and also to develop a time-frame.

Additional volunteers joined the islands committee.

Team Involvement in Special Events: Outdoorama 2001 The team decided that it would not support Outdoorama as a team, but rather individual field stations could support booth(s) separately or jointly.

Outreach Assistance from the Regional Office Joan relayed that Regional Office Outreach Assistance is available for helping to startup a project and to provide guidance for outreach projects. However, because of staff size in the RO, legwork on outreach projects typically needs to be taken care of by the field.

Nominations and Election of Team-Leader Elect Individuals who were nominated and present at the meeting included:
Craig Czarnecki
Chris Lowie
Rich Greenwood
Joan Guilfoyle

Rich Greenwood agreed to serve in the position. His term as team leader elect began at the close of this meeting and term as team leader will begin at the close of the GLBET's Spring 2002 meeting.

Status of Team Kitty Donations and Questions on Proposals Kitty donations will be accepted for a couple of weeks following the meeting. An email with a final call for donations will be sent out to notify stations of the deadline. Donations can be emailed to Leslie TeWinkel; please remember to include the cost code to be charged.

Team ranking of Kitty Proposals Each team member present at the meeting was given three votes for the eight proposals. Only one vote was allowed per proposal per person. Proposal amounts are listed; for proposals for which there is a match, the match is listed second. For example, the first proposal requested $10,000 from the team kitty and had a partner match of $20,450.

Lake Sturgeon Restoration - Commercial Fishers $10,000/$20,450 14 votes
Predator Control - Piping Plover $5,000/$8,000 13 votes
Second Phase - Team Website $2000 12 votes
Great Lakes Sturgeon Website maintenance $2000 8 votes
LE GPS $4762 4 votes
Habitat Evaluation - Piping Plover $500/$1000 1 vote
LE Boat Canvas Cover $2000 0 votes
Lake Sturgeon Plastomounts $2750 0 votes

Action item: The proposals will be funded as possible given funds donated starting with the first ranked project and continuing down the list, with one exception. The Lake Sturgeon Restoration project will be funded to $5000 first, then the next two top ranked proposals will be fully funded. After the second and third ranked proposals have been funded, then the Lake Sturgeon proposal will be funded to its full level.

Issues from Region-5 Ecosystem Team Leader meeting David Stilwell gave a review of the issues discussed at the recent Region-5 Ecosystem Team Leader meeting. Discussion topics at the meeting included:

- flexfunding for FY 2002 - equal ranking of field station and ecosystem team proposals
- land acquisition approvals by ecosystem teams
- the definition of landscape-level projects
- number of paperwork requests asked of team leaders
- BRD Research proposals (short turnaround time)

For the FY 2002 flexfund round, Region 5 will be asking teams and field stations to indicate which funds may be appropriate for a given proposal, but will not be asking for exact amounts to be specified from each fund. This will allow the flexfund managers latitude to fund the projects where there is money for them.

One of the continuing function's of the GLBET ExCom will be to communicate with the R5 and R3 flexfund managers about the team's flexfund proposals in order to garner support.

Action item: Leslie TeWinkel will communicate the new Region-3 ARD assignments for ecosystem teams to team members.

Pendill's Creek National Fish Hatchery Lake Trout Production Program - Faber Bland

Flexfund 2002: Status Report - Rollin Siegfried A current calendar of the inter-region coordinated flexfund schedule for FY 2002 was distributed and questions were answered.

Other items of interest: * It is important to input team accomplishments into the Accomplishment Reporting System. Team accomplishments have a separate login password to differentiate the team accomplishments from the station accomplishments. An email on this login password was sent out several months ago. Remember that Leslie TeWinkel would be happy to assist you in preparing a report for the team.

Action item: Leslie TeWinkel will re-send the email message with instructions for entering a team accomplishment.

* The FY 2000 Region-3 Annual Report had a separate section for each R-3 ecosystem team. This is different than the previous year in which all field station and team accomplishments were included in the GLBE section.

Action item: Leslie TeWinkel will distribute the Great Lakes Basin Ecosystem section of the R-3 Annual Report to team members as a PDF file.

* Chuck Ledin of the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources shared some information about a proposed initiative for the Great Lakes basin that would involve establishing riparian buffers through local NRCS offices. This proposal will be presented to the U. S. Policy Committee on May 8 to try to get endorsement for a "10,000 miles of protected stream corridors over 5 years' goal. To achieve such a goal would require matching resources from various federal, state, and local agencies.

Next meeting dates and location: Tuesday, October 30, 1PM - Thursday, November 1, 12noon Chicago, Illinois Hosted by: Rich Greenwood, EPA liaison and the Chicago Ecological Services Field Office

The meeting will include a briefing on the team's activities for EPA staff and other interested partners.

Attendees: Leslie TeWinkel, Patti Meyers, Doug Spencer, Rollin Siegfried, Joan Guilfoyle, Laurel Bennett, Roderick May, Faber Bland, Joe Dowhan, Charlie Vandemoer, Chris Lowie, Fred Griffiths, Dan Fitzpatrick (USGS), Rich Greenwood, John Gannon (USGS), Tony Leger, Elizabeth McCloskey, Gary Klar, Henry Quinlan, Mark Dryer, Mark Holey, Craig Czarnecki, David Stilwell, Chuck Ledin (WI DNR), Heather Enterline, Rob Elliott

Draft: 17 April 2001
Final: 01 May 2001