ADVISORY COUNCIL ON WILDLIFE & FRESHWATER FISH MINUTES

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 26, 2010

Richardson and Robbins Building Auditorium

89 Kings Highway, Dover, Delaware

Phone 302-739-9912, FAX 302-739-6157

ADVISORY COUNCIL DIVISION OF FISH & WILDLIFE PUBLIC

1. Edward A. Montague, Chair 1. Greg Moore 5 Visitors

2. J. Richard Berry, Vice Chair 2. Pat Emory

3. Ted Palmer 3. Rob Hossler

4. Charles H. Golt 4. David Blaasch

5. Al Townsend 5. Joe Rogerson

6. Raymond F. Burris 6. Karen Kennedy

7. Robert C. Nichols (Absent)

8. Neal Dukes

9. Garrett Grier, Jr.

Taped micro-cassettes of this meeting are available for listening at the Richardson & Robbins Building in Dover. For further information contact the Wildlife Section at (302) 739-9912.

The meeting was called to order by Chairman Montague at 7:30 PM.

Agenda Item 1. Approval of Minutes (Chairman).

A motion was made and voted unanimously to approve the September 28, 2010 minutes as written.

Agenda Item 2. Management of the Poplar Thicket Property (Director Pat Emory).

Director Pat Emory talked about property called Poplar Thicket and showed a slide of the map. This property is located at Long Neck, Delaware in Sussex County. The property was visited by Council members and Division staff in August of this year as part of a wildlife area management tour. The Nature Conservancy donated half of the property to the Division about two years ago and the Division of Fish & Wildlife purchased the remainder. This property consists of 230 acres. Mr. Dallas Wright is the current agricultural lessee and tills about 40 of the total tillable acreage. Director Emory recommended to the Council that this property be used for mentored youth hunts similar to hunting like Scot’s Run. Director Emory then introduced Mr. Jim Kimble to talk about the 4H Shooting Sports Program.

Mr. Kimble spoke about the 4H Shooting Sports Program and especially the youth hunts at Scot’s Run. This program which is open to all youth has been very successful in the past. Mr. Kimble reported that 71 deer had been taken by youth at Scot’s Run in the last three years, all instructors and youth in the program are insured, and that a potential team of instructors are under consideration for a possible Poplar Thicket mentored hunt.

Mr. Kimble also introduced Mr. David Price who is the Coordinator for the 4H Shooting Sports Program.

A motion was made by the Council and voted unanimously to support the Division’s recommendation for youth mentoring hunting at Poplar Thicket.

Agenda Item 3. Impoundment Management (Greg Moore & Rob Hossler).

Greg Moore provided an update to the Council regarding Division efforts to develop an adaptive impoundment management strategy for coastal impoundments relative to sea level rise. Mr. Moore stated that the impoundments represent valuable bird and wetland wildlife habitat but may be lost if the projections for sea level rise come true. According to the Department’s projections for sea level rise three possible scenario have been evaluated; .5 meter, 1.0 meter and 1.5 meter rise in seas level in the next 100 years. Virtually all three scenarios will result in a loss of tidal wetlands and the creation of large unvegetated open water areas. Basically this would result in a loss of management capability for all of our coastal impoundments as well as many of our recreational structures and buildings situated along the coast.

To proactively address this issue, the Division has created an internal committee representing all interest in the Division to evaluate and develop an adaptive strategy for managing our coastal resource. To date this committee has developed a white paper outlining the decision steps we will take to determine which impoundments to save and which to abandon, what measures will be needed to fortify and make resilient those impoundments we intend to keep, implement and evaluate pilot projects to build resiliency and/or replace loss wetland functions and implement new research to provide information to increase the efficacy of management decisions. Several research projects are currently under consideration, including a monitoring project with our sister agency the Coastal Program and a Black Duck energetic study done by staff.

Rob Hossler next explained the Structured Decision Making process that members of the committee used to develop an adaptive strategy for managing the impoundments. This process identified the objectives, alternatives and consequence for decisions associated with water level management and improving impoundment resiliency to anticipated sea level rise impacts. Mr. Hossler mentioned two studies that will provide support for the new strategies. The Impoundment Monitoring project will collect water level and salinity data to more effectively manage impoundments and develop better water management plans. The second project, an Impoundment Waterfowl Use & Carrying Capacity Study will look at the importance of impoundments to waterfowl and the impact sea level rise will have on food availability. Mr. Hossler briefly commented on implementing a “No Regrets” Impoundment Habitat Infrastructure Projects. Examples could be new water control structures, sediment augmentation, cell creation within impoundments and upland management replacement.

Mr. Hossler concluded with some brief remarks about Waterfowl Aerial Surveys. These surveys have been collected statewide since 1970. Surveys are flown once per month from October – January. The Division may consider changing the survey protocol to sampling only on core focus areas. Under the new protocol the Division would sample a specific area/unit multiple times a month to obtain better waterfowl use data and seasonal variation. Rob indicated that the Division cannot do both methods due to cost and manpower issues. He suggested that a hybrid of the two methods may be considered. Collect data statewide for 2 months a season and use the data as surrogate. Rob maintains this approach will continue the long term statewide data set while obtaining more seasonal data for our impoundment work.

Agenda Item 4. Cyber Data (Rob Hossler & Joe Rogerson).

Joe Rogerson gave a brief presentation on the five automated sportsmen registration systems the Division maintains. The following is a list of those systems along with when and why they were instituted:

1.  Harvest Information Program (HIP) Registration (migratory bird hunting) instituted in 1997/98 season - required by USFWS

2.  Phone and internet deer registration instituted in 2003 – due to over burden on check stations and cost savings

a.  Currently in the second year of phone and internet deer checking only

3.  Fisherman Information Network (FIN) started in 2009 – required by law to track all recreational anglers

4.  Snow Goose Conservation Order Permit issuance started in 2009 – required by the USFWS

5.  Licensed Exempt Hunter and Trapper Identification instituted in 2010 – helped the Division conduct surveys as well as identifying all of the hunters in Delaware.

The Division recognizes there are some growing pains with each of these systems and is working towards making them more efficient and user friendly. These systems provide for fast/timely acquisition of data. This data is in an electronic usable format (no longer need to manually enter information) which saves the Division time and money, and provides the hunter “on-the-go” a quick and easy option. An example of the usefulness of these systems is that the Division can keep track of the deer harvest as the season progresses rather than reviewing the harvest results months after the season ended, as in the past. As of 10/19 there has been 3,062 deer harvested across the state. This compares to the 2,748 harvested at the same point last season. Comparatively, the harvest is up 10.3% (314 deer) this year.

KUDOS

Chairman Montague thanked Director Pat Emory and staff for their work with Bill Wolters at Owens Station to set up a hunter education center for Sussex County. He also thanked Greg Moore and his staff for their presentations on impoundment management.

AGENDA FOR THE 11/30/2010 ADVISORY COUNCIL MEETING

1.  Approval of Minutes (Chairman Montague).

2.  Land Acquisitions (Greg Moore).

3.  Deer Harvest/Fox Seasons (Joe Rogerson).

4.  Youth Hunt – Waive $20 Fee (Director Pat Emory).

5.  Restoration Efforts/Natural Resources Unit (Director Pat Emory).

6.  Report on Deer/Turkey Research Projects (Joe Rogerson & Matt DiBona).

There being no further business, a motion was made, seconded and carried that the meeting be adjourned at 8:39 PM.

Sincerely,

Karen Kennedy

Recording Secretary