State Technical Guide Committee Meeting

July 18, 2017

1:00 PM – 3:00 PM

Notes

Attendees:

Greg Kuehl, Denise Troxell, Tom Burnham, Lars Santana, Lynn Larsen, Travis Godeaux, Mitch Cummings, John Gillilan

Greg welcomed everyone to the meeting and asked if there were any adjustments needed to the agenda. None were requested. Greg informed the committee that John Gillilan would be joining the meeting around 2:15.

Greg discussed slight adjustments he believes are necessary to the FOTG Plan; he is looking for feedback and support/concurrence from the committee in order to make recommendations to the STC. Changes include:

  1. Aligning responsibility for keeping standards and specifications (as well as other sections of the FOTG) current to the SRC;
  2. Bringing State Office Discipline Leads into the Technical Guide Committee (while retaining the FO planners as the lead for the Task Forces);For example, select one of the State Biologist from the Tech Team to serve on the STGC, State Agronomist to serve, etc.
  1. Making the SRC the Chair of the SGTC, perhaps with a FO co-chair if supported by this committee.

The committee discussed these changes, and is in support. Comments included:

  • logical, and familiar with previous STGC’s
  • centralized efforts
  • consider having a Plan B in case difficulties are encountered
  • critical that leads remain with FO folks (energy/momentum)
  • no matter what the mechanism, continue to get input from field
  • DCs have an incredible workload and things can get tight when covering office/basin vacancies,

but feel their presence on the STGC is invaluable

  • really like where the committee and Greg are heading, adding State Discipline Leads makes sense—having them in the game versus finding out about things later, and approves of SRC being named chair
  • discussed the potential inclusion of BRCs as co-chairs
  • If discipline specialists are given the responsibility to keep their standards/specs updated, then they should be given the ability/authority to post documents and get it done.

Greg will write up a draft of these changes and get them to us for comment, in order to have it ready for review at the Basin Operations Meeting in August (adopt in October).

Greg requested that all the Task Force Leads send him an email about their willingness to continue in their position for another term. Let him know your preference. He would like to have a minimum of two stay on for continuity.

Greg talked about updating the 3 year plan, including getting names out of it, and instead focus on positions/titles. He will work through the 3 year plan, and distribute a draft for comments (again prior to the Basin Operations Meeting in August).

Changes to eFOTG Posting Procedure was already covered in the changes to the FOTG 3 Year Plan.

Greg asked the group about the best way to recruit new members: take requests concurrent with the bulletin announcing the committee changes (described above)? Solicit nominations (with supervisor concurrence)? Group agreed to continue to solicit nominations informally with supervisor concurrence.

Denise explained the process to get Technical Notes (TN) from where they are now to Sec I of the FOTG. TN are discipline specific, so there are TNs for Agronomy, Range, Wildlife, Forestry, etc.… Currently there is a link to them. They are many in number—for instance Agronomy has over 50, and some are very old. In order to place then onto the FOTG, they need to be cleaned up, made into PDFs, and as 508 Compliant as possible. On average Bob G calculated each TN would take 4 hours. While recognizing that getting into them FOTG is important, there are sections of the FOTG whose update is a higher priority at present. So work will continue with the Tech Notes in a prioritized manner, which can be re-visited by a future SGTC.

Denise asked the group what they would like to see in Sec I. While pursuing other updates, she noted that almost everything in there is old or empty. She will check to see if the folder arrangement is dictated by policy. The group requested Denise continue to do what is necessary to make minor edits and updates to Sec I, seeking input from members as needed, or elevate to the larger committee if necessary.

Updates to Section IV

Biology: no items to report

Engineering: discussed John Gillilan’s work to use updated Macros in their specs

Forestry: Continuing Work, Job Specs

Lars: the Task Force met prior to Bob G.’s departure so they could come up to speed and insure items are covered. Re-thinking what the Task Force is going to look like. Has been speaking with SWB member who is interested, also Deschutes basin member interested. The fence spec is being updated: currently there are 6 spec for fence and they’re looking at getting this down to 2 (electric, all others). Sent materials to STGC members prior to the meeting; looking for feedback. Deploy in September.

Agronomy: Lynn and Denise have been making good progress on updating Agronomy practices in Section IV. Standards, Job Sheets, and Statements of Work have been completed for: 328 (Conservation Crop Rotation), 329 (No Till), 330 (Contour Farming) 331 (Contour Fruit Orchard And…), 332 (Contour Buffer Strips), 333 (Amending Soils with Gypsum), 334 (Controlled Traffic Farming), 386 (Field Border), 376 (Field Operations Emissions Reduction), 393 (Filter Strip), 484 (Mulching), 585 (Stripcropping), 588 (Cross Wind Ridges), 589C (Cross Wind Trap Strips), 601 (Vegetative Barrier), 603 (Herbaceous Wind Barriers), and 609 (Surface Roughening). Standards and Statements of Work have been updated for 327 (Conservation Cover), 340 (Cover Crop), 342 (Critical Area Planting), and 412 (Grassed Waterway).

Updates to Section III

Part of the 3 Year Plan included an update of Sec III, but other sections requiring attention took priority. Denise described where the STGC left off relative to Sec III: no decision as to whether I&E materials should go in Sec III or on a SharePoint site. Denise described the development of the Wiki Planning Portal—and its use for the Planning Course 2018 and beyond (as a storehouse for I&E documents). Some I&E is already in Section III: Grazing Land Inventory forms and the WHEGs—which makes a stronger argument for putting everything there. Discussed limitations of the Wiki page for our partners (access). Before making any decisions or having further discussion, the group requested Denise send the link to the Wiki Planning Portal, so they can see what it looks like and how it functions. Comment that FOTG is clunky, slow, and not reflective of current technology—is there a way to pass along this concern to national (through the STC)?

John Gillilan discussed the update to the Skills Matrix. There will be two: a new Master, and an archived version (this will be used for spot checks when needed). Eco Sci and Engineering need to firm up details about practices that are co-owned, and translating current JAA to the new Controlling Factors. This will happen 7/20/17, and the new Master should be available shortly after this. It will be SharePoint accessible. Group agreed the new Skills Matrix and its use would be a great topic for the Technology Transfer webinar the 3rd Monday of each month.

Submitted by

Greg Kuehl, Denise Troxell

7/21/17