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Community meeting at 6.02 on the 29th of April hosted by the Deschutes Planning Commission.

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It's the second one we had had one previously, and the content this evening will essentially

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be the same in terms of the presentation. What I'd like to do before we start though,

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if I may, is to introduce the other planning commissioners who will be on the call with

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us. First of all, Commissioner Susan Altman. Susan, could you introduce yourself and also

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your area that you represent and say something about, perhaps, if you wish, your interest

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or comments on the topic? Susan, could you unmute yourself, please?

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Why Alt A if you don't unmute from the grab? Okay, so Vice-Chair Jessica Kieras, you're

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also muted. If you could unmute yourself, please introduce yourself, and we'll go back to Susan.

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Okay, I'm Jessica Kieras. I represent the Redmond area and live in between Redmond and sisters.

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I'm very interested in this meeting tonight and in the project in general, because I'm very

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interested in supporting wildlife, and I'm curious to hear where the most important areas

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are for them and see what I can learn about that tonight. Thank you.

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Let me try going back to Commissioner Altman, please.

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Can you hear me? We can indeed. Thank you.

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My name is Susan Altman. I think there might be some feedback. My name is Susan Altman. I represent

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Redmond. I love wildlife. Sorry, I got to fix my audio, but I'll get that fixed. I'm happy to

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be here. I love the talk. Okay, Susan, you're going in and out. If you don't mind, I'll move

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on to Commissioner Steve Swisher, who has just joined us. Steve, we're just going through brief

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introductions, the areas we represent, and also interesting to hear about.

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Yeah, I've been here from the beginning. I'm Steve Swisher, and I represent the sisters area,

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and ultimately, I live out in the Tollgate area, and again, we are inundated with wildlife here,

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mule there in particular, and a variety of other species all the way from Cooper and an occasional bear.

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One of the interesting things that happened last week that I was really interested in was

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driving into Bend as we approached Tummullo, right on the right-hand side in an open field,

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we're about 35 head of elk, and I've never seen any personally there in that particular place,

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so might be able to help the inventory because now I know where the elk lives.

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So in any event, it was a magnificent sight seeing those animals.

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Very good. So, Commissioners, this evening, the meeting is going to be moderated and the

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presentation is made by the staff. So, throughout the meeting, if you have any

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questions you wish to ask of the moderator, please raise your hand electronically,

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and Peter will actually pick up the question or indeed a speaker, if in fact it's while either

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Wendy or one of our experts are speaking. For the general public, our meeting this evening is

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going to be very broadly similar in terms of the information that we're going to be giving

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than the meeting we actually had on the 15th of April, although we're hoping that the

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question and answers will actually cover different areas. You may have noticed that in the agenda

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packet that was sent out by the county, all of the questions, those that were answered live,

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and those that were answered afterwards, as well as the answers to those questions

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were included in the briefing document for this meeting. So, if your question has already

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been answered, you of course are free to ask it again or you can read the answer as we have given

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in the paper and ask a different question. To have a choice this evening of appearing live

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rather than simply typing in your question, so that's entirely for your own choice.

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If you want to make a comment or a question and be seen, then we would be very pleased to

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have the chance to see you rather than just simply responding to your text. With that said,

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I'm going to hand over now the meeting to Tanya Saltzman, who is a senior planner with the shoots

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planning department, and she will give you the information relevant to how to ask questions

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and so on and so forth. I'll come up back at the end to wind up the meeting. Please, Tanya.

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Great. Thanks, Chair Hudson. Yeah, my name is Tanya Saltzman. I'm a senior planner here with

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the shoots County. Thank you very much for joining us on this balmy evening. We're very

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appreciative of every one of you who decided to join us tonight on Zoom and on Facebook Live.

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One technical note, it's our understanding that our video through the traditional County

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meeting portal is having some issues. Probably if you're looking at that, then you will not

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hear me say this, but we'll try to rectify that. And in the meantime, you can view it on Zoom or

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Facebook Live. So I'm going to first go over some just tidbits of housekeeping, just the

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technical and logistical issues, and then we'll go into the meat of the presentation.

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The meeting is being broadcast by a Zoom and by a Facebook Live,

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and it will be recorded if you want to view it later. This meeting is also

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featuring simultaneous interpretation in Spanish. Thank you very much to Mark and Chris,

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our interpreters, who will be both working to translate this as we speak. Click on the globe

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button in Zoom. This is only available in Zoom where it says interpretation. I believe that's

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what it says. And that will lead you to a channel that broadcasts the audio in Spanish.

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A recording of that will be made available as well.

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Everything to do with this project, including the link to the story map,

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as well as the survey, it's available on our project website. And the URL for our project

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website is www.deschutes.org slash wildlife update. All one word. We have a nice shortened URL

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from the last open house. You can also go to our community development page just on the

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county website, and it's listed under prominent projects. So you don't have to remember

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the website. But I'll pop it up again at the end. That's where you'll find the story map,

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which is going to be the guiding document for this presentation tonight. The survey where

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we want to hear your opinions is embedded into the story map. It's found at the end of that.

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So while we're going through this document tonight, I encourage you all to look at it

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on your own as well because there's maps and fun things to play with. We can only delve

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so deeply while we're in this public meeting. But if you want to look at it on your own and go

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in more deeply, we would appreciate that. That's why we created it. So

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as Chair Hudson said, this is the second of two open houses. And you will be afforded the

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opportunity to ask questions, either typing them or saying them, speaking them on video.

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That will largely take place after the presentation, although we might take

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some questions throughout, depending on the chair's discretion. For those using Zoom or

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Facebook Live, there should be a Q&A box at the bottom of the screen. You can type your question

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in there. To ask your question on the video via Zoom, use the raise hand feature. And once

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you're recognized, it might take a little time, you will then be elevated to a panelist,

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which lets you speak and be seen. It takes a couple of seconds. So you might pop out for a minute

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or a couple seconds, excuse me, before you come back in and then you can speak. And we'll all see

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you. You can ask your question live. And all of the questions and answers tonight will be

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captured on a document that we will share, both on our website, well on our website. As

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Chair Hudson mentioned, we did that for the first open house. That's currently available

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on the project website as well. I encourage you to look at that. We covered a lot of questions

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and answers on that, including some that were not able to be answered during the last open house.

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So a couple of follow-up things there. And lastly, I just want to introduce our team.

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In addition to myself, we have Dr. Wendy Wenty from Mason Bruce and Gerard,

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our consultant firm. And she'll talk more about all of her amazing qualifications shortly.

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We also have from Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, Andrew Welch and Sarah Gregory.

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And I believe we have additional representatives from ODFW watching. Thank you for that.

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And for County staff, we have our Community Development Director, Nick Lillac, Planning

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Manager, Peter Gattowski, and Associate Planners, Kyle Collins and Brandon Herman. So thanks

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so much to everybody for keeping these wheels moving. And with that, I'll actually get to

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the fun stuff. And we're going to go, I'm going to share my screen and show you the story map.

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And I'm going to go through it, and then I'll hand it off to Wendy, who will talk about the

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actual wildlife that you all are here to hear about. So bear with me for one moment while I

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share my screen, please. You should be able to see that.

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Okay. So this is the Deschutes County Wildlife Inventory Update. These are just some

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instructions on how to use it on your own. A project overview. This is a pilot project,

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and we were funded by a grant from the Department of Land Conservation and Development,

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otherwise known as DLCD, to update three different wildlife inventories, all of which are extremely

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old over 30 years. And they're relating to elk, mule deer, and bald and golden eagles.

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Bald and golden eagles are kind of lumped into one inventory for the purposes of this study.

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So we really, we get four for three, essentially. These inventories are produced by ODFW and

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US Fish and Wildlife. I should also mention that we do have someone from US Fish and Wildlife who

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can respond to questions at a later date, if there's specific questions for that agency.

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This grant is really the beginning of a project. It's all about the data collection.

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We're presenting this data, and we want to hear from the public regarding

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just your thoughts about how this data was produced, what it might mean,

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where it applies. We're going to show you a bunch of maps. So we're not,

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to be clear, we're not yet proposing anything right yet. We're not proposing zoning changes or

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comprehensive plan changes, any regulatory or non-regulatory changes. That could be a whole

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separate process that would occur later, and we'll explain that later. But the purposes

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of this is to present the data and tell you where, why, and how about all of that data.

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And then I'll just note quickly that part of this potential directions forward, and again,

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we'll touch on this at the end, could be integrated into our comprehensive plan update.

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That is a project, a very large project that will take into account, not just wildlife, but

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wildfire, housing, transportation, all of the things that influence development patterns in

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our county. This is just one facet of it. So it remains to be seen exactly how these pieces of

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the pie are going to fit together in terms of how we approach the project. But note that,

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eventually, it will all be considered in a holistic fashion to the best of our ability.

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And ultimately, our main goal is if we are directed by the Board of County Commissioners

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to pursue this project, we're looking to achieve a balance. And that's what a lot of

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planners aim to do. We recognize the critical importance of wildlife protection,

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and you'll hear more about all of those details soon, and recognizing that people do have

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development expectations and entitlements. And these things don't have to be mutually

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exclusive. It's not an either or. And we're going to strive to achieve that in later

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phases of this project. And with that, I'm going to turn it over to Dr. Wendy Wenty

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to talk about the actual species and inventory and all of that. And Wendy, as last time,

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you can just guide me and tell me when to advance and when to pause, if that's good.

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All right. Thank you, Tanya. And good evening, everybody. Thanks for taking the time to join

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us. And I'm hoping that this is a good and informative session for you and that you get

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to ask questions that you're interested in and get some answers from the panel this evening.

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So what I'm going to do is introduce myself and then I'll walk you through the inventory update

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process that we went through for this project. So as Tanya mentioned, my name's Wendy Wenty.

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I am a biologist and a wildlife biologist and an ecologist. I work for a natural resources

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consulting firm called Mason, Bruce and Gerard. And I've worked in the central and eastern

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Oregon areas for the past 20 years. So I worked for USGS studying amphibian decline in eastern

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Oregon for a number of years. And then in 2005, took the position with Mason, Bruce and Gerard

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and have been working on wildlife related impacts and issues in central and eastern Oregon since

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then. And so I was quite happy to help the county with this with this project.

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So let's scroll on down to the information collected part of the story map. Thank you.

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Yeah, so I'll walk through how we went through this process and then where we landed. So essentially

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we set up two different groups at the outset of the project. The first is called the TAC.

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That's the technical advisory committee. And that's essentially the steering committee that's

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The decision-making group. I facilitated as the consultant, but this group consisted of several folks I'll list who it was, but they discussed and selected the inventories.

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So their role was to essentially pick the inventories to be updated in this pilot project and then also to review the data and the results and the report that we prepared at the end of it.

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So the members of the TAC were Tanya Saltzman and Peter Gutowski, both of whom are with us this evening from the county.

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But then also Sarah Gregory, Corey Heath, Andrew Walsh, and Joy Vaughn from ODFW.

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And we have Sarah and Andrew here with us as well on the panel this evening.

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Emily Weidner represented the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

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And then from DLCD we had Amanda Puntin and then Scott Edelman.

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So it was a good group of folks who came together back in August of 2020 and then again in February of 2021 to essentially look at the results of the update.

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Now the second group was called the Interagency Working Group.

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That's the IWG.

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And that was essentially the doers.

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Those were the species experts who came together to actually gather the data for the inventories.

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And they overlapped the TAC.

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It made sense to have them on both groups.

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But essentially their job was to collect the updated information and pull it together as these new inventories.

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And the folks who were on that group were Andrew Walsh and Sarah Gregory again from ODFW who are with us this evening.

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And then Emily Weidner from Fish and Wildlife Service.

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And then those folks pulled in information from other species experts as needed.

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If they were like for example Emily reached out to the BLM and the Forest Service to gather more information on the Bald and Golden Eagles in the county.

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Myself, I was pretty much the facilitator of that group.

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And I had assistance from a couple of folks at MB&G, Jesse Roper and Kate Custer who are biologists and also GIS experts.

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So they helped with the inventory pulling together.

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So the IWG met more times than the TAC.

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We met in October and December of 2020.

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And then again in January of 2021.

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So let me scroll down and we'll briefly introduce the three data sets.

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All three of the sets that were selected for inventory update are essentially they're old.

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That was the biggest issue.

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They're old.

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So they're out of date and there have been quite a lot of changes with them over the time frame since they were initially put into place.

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So let's go down to the top one.

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The first was the Mule Deer Winter Range Habitat.

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And again, I'm just going to briefly introduce these and then I'll go into a deeper discussion of the data set so that you can get a better understanding of it.

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And then hopefully we'll get your questions about it during the panel discussion.

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But the Mule Deer Winter Range Habitat was very out of date and the usage patterns have changed over the intervening years.

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So that one was selected for update.

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So let's go ahead and scroll down to the next.

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The second one is this is actually a part of a bigger inventory as Tanya mentioned before.

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This is the sensitive bird habitat, but specifically the attack elected to update the bald eagle and golden eagle nest sites.

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So there are other species that are included in that inventory, but these two have seen a lot of change and are very out of date.

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And they also tend to be involved in development conflicts.

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So land use comes into play with these species quite a lot.

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And then the third was the Elk Winter Range Habitat.

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So this was similar to Mule Deer in that the inventory is very old again.

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And so it was selected by the attack because this is one that also ends up having a lot of conflict with land use changes.

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And there have been some significant changes in how the elk are utilizing the winter range habitat in the county.

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So let's go into detail on these.

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I do want to put in a plug here.

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If you're watching this zoom, I'm hoping you get a chance to go and take a look at the story map.

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It does have these interactive maps.

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So you can go in there and look at the inventory is current and the new information and kind of toggle back and forth and take a look at that yourselves.

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But we will walk through that here.

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Okay, so the Mule Deer Winter Range, the tan colored polygons here.

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What are the Mule Deer Winter Range?

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Yes, Mule Deer Winter Range.

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Sorry, I heard some talking in the background.

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So that's what it is.

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And this is the current winter range.

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And this is called the WA zone.

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I think I'm hearing the interpreter speaking at the same time as everybody else hearing that or is that just me?

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I'll keep going because I can just talk through it, but I don't want it to be distracting for folks.

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So the current WA zone covers approximately 315,847 acres.

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And you can see that polygon there in the tan.

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So the IWG relied on a number of different data sets to update this.

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And again, I would encourage you to go look at the story map to see these.

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These are sort of snapshots of the data that were provided by ODFW.

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But the data sets consisted of first the biological Mule Deer Winter Range, which is essentially a general outline.

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You can look at this map.

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It's all of Eastern Oregon, Central and Eastern Oregon, essentially from the Cascades to the East.

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And it lays out where habitat is used by the deer, typically from December through April.

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And that's driven by both abiotic and biotic conditions, things like vegetation communities.

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But then also elevation and precipitation amounts, so those types of data that go into there.

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Another data set were aerial and ground survey observations that are collected by ODFW.

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So the ODFW biologists relied on their most recent data, which were collected between 2015 and 2020.

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And you can see that on these snapshots as well.

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Another set of data were a Mule Deer Resource Selection Function Model.

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This is a model that was based on a very large set of GPS collared deer.

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So they had GPS collars placed on them, and their locations were collected over the course of this study.

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And so that can, and taking into account the different types of habitat characteristics,

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like whether or not there are juniper covers or juniper forest coverage across the landscape,

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or, again, precipitation amounts, could be used to essentially model the probability

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that deer would use a particular area as winter range.

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And so that's this co-at-all study.

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We're lucky enough to have one of the co-authors on that with us, with Sarah Gregory.

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So she'll be a panel member and was involved in that study.

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And then finally, there are deer density polygons shown here.

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They're kind of the funky, green-looking polygons sort of up in the northern part of the county there

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that were for some groups of deer that were collared.

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Yes, thank you, Tanya.

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So that were collared to kind of fill in a gap of deer GPS data from that co-at-all study.

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So these were just additional deer that were collared to gather additional information on winter range use by the species.

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So all of that fed into this proposed mule deer winter range inventory.

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So you can see here the existing winter range, which is, again, kind of those tan polygons.

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That's the current WA zone, and that's about 315,000 acres.

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Now, the blue polygons are the new areas that have been identified by the IWG,

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and they cover about 188,000 additional acres.

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So the total amount of winter range would be 503,979 acres

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because the inventory would include both the old and the new.

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So the old areas are considered to be important, and the new areas are important as well.

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And essentially, when I say important, I mean that these are areas that were identified

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by the ODFW biologists as being important for the long-term maintenance of the species in the county

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and by providing the winter range habitat that they need to be able to persist.

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Okay, so let's move down to our second inventory.

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This is the sensitive bird habitat.

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So you can see here it's a little bit harder to see on this one just because they're smaller.

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But you can see these small dots in here.

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These are the existing Deschutes County bald and golden eagle nest locations

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and their surrounding protected habitat areas.

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So essentially, this existing dataset includes five bald eagles and 20 golden eagle nest locations,

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and each of those was buffered by a quarter-mile radius of this sensitive habitat area.

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Okay, so the blue polygons you see popping up here, those indicate the new inventory.

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So they are including both the old but then the new is on this page.

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And essentially, this inventory was based on a number of data sources just like the mule deer inventory.

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The main one being the Oregon Eagle Foundation dataset,

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which is a database for the state of Oregon that Fish and Wildlife Service,

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US Fish and Wildlife Service relies on.

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So it's a very important nonprofit organization that maintains these information on eagle nest use

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and the occupancy data and whether or not it's an active nest.

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The data also relied on Forest Service, their database,

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but then also biologists from the Forest Service who had information on eagles using nest sites on forest service lands

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and then Bureau of Land Management local biologist records as well.

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So this new inventory is a little different.

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It does buffer the nests differently for golden eagles.

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But one thing I do want to say first is that the increases in the numbers of nests

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are indicating five to 116 bald eagle nest locations.

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And then the inventory increases from 20 to 103 golden eagle nest locations.

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I don't want that to mislead you into thinking that all of a sudden

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there are a whole lot more bald and golden eagle nests in the county.

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And there are a couple of things that you should understand about that.

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One is that this inventory, the new inventory here,

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it includes all of the nests in the county.

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It covers nests that are even solely on public lands.

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So those don't necessarily interact with the land use code or anything like that

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for Deschutes County, but they are included in the inventory updates

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simply because they are known sites on public lands for those species.

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And the second point is that the new approach that was used for these

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essentially created nest polygons for pairs that have multiple or alternative nest sites.

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So for example, there are 41 golden eagle territories that are represented

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and there are 103 nest locations.

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So some of those territories include two or more nest locations for that pair.

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But back to talking about the buffering.

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So for bald eagles, the IWG elected to stay with the quarter mile radius

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from the nest site to determine the sensitive area for that species.

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But it was extended to two miles for golden eagles and you can see that

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when you see some of the individual nests that appear to be indicated

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in the inventory you can see the wider circle that would be associated with those.

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That is thought of by Fish and Wildlife Service as sort of a threshold

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or a trip, a distance to bring them into the conversation

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on any land use changes or things that may affect that pair

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because they can vary quite a lot.

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There's a lot of flexibility in how the individual pairs handle disturbance,

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for example, but they have seen some pairs that are very sensitive

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and so this two mile buffer captures essentially the extent away from the nest

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but any given pair may be sensitive.

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So that's why it is larger.

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So if you think numerically the existing inventory is about 2,297 acres

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that fall within that sensitive habitat area and this proposed

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what you see here on the screen for the whole county is 344,778 acres

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included in all of the polygons that you see there.

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Yes, I think we can go on down to the elk.

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Okay, so the third inventory like I mentioned before, that's the elk winter range

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and you can see on here the polygons for the current elk winter range.

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The wildlife area combining zone for elk winter range is about 51,717 acres right now

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and similar to the mule deer data update, the IWG considered a number of data sources

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and we have a snapshot here that was provided by ODFW to capture these different data sources

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but they included again similarly to the

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The deer, the biological elk winter range. So this is the area that ODFW typically understands that

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species will utilize the winter range essentially east of the crust of the Cascades.

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The second data set were winter observation data, again, that are collected by ODFW between

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2015 and 2020. So they are using the most recent data sets that they have to determine this.

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And then finally, the third piece of the puzzle here is ODFW biologists' professional knowledge

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of winter range habitat use patterns by local elk herds. So where the local elk herds are seen

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throughout the county, throughout the winter. And it helps, you know, each of the herds,

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they understand their movement patterns in the general areas that they utilize in the winter.

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So that was fed into this inventory as well.

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So you can see here, the proposed elk winter range inventory includes both, again, the existing

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WA zone and these new blue polygons that are outlined in sort of that teal coloration there.

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So the, this is a, again, a couple of areas that are thought of by ODFW as the significant winter

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range. So those are, those are based on the data inputs that I just walked us through in the

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last slide. But these are areas that are thought to be important for the long-term maintenance of this

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species in the county. So the blue polygons that are identified here, there's essentially one big

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one, the triangular one up in the north and then there's one down in the south part of the county.

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Those cover approximately 359,000 acres. So altogether, if you take those along with

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the existing WA zone, you end up with about 411,190 acres that would be included in this new inventory layer.

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Okay, so I'm going to hand this back over to Tanya to kind of go through the next steps.

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But I do encourage you, again, to go to the story map. You can

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actually this last screen that she's going to scroll down to in a minute.

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You can look at all of the inventories overlaid together for the whole county. Yeah, it's kind of

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kind of nice to be able to see them before and after. And so I will pass it back to you, Tanya.

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So thank you very much, everybody. And I'm hoping we will talk very soon on the panel.

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Great. Thanks, Wendy. Just a quick note. As we were going through this,

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I realized that I forgot to mention that all of the photographs you see in this story map

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were actually taken by the project team here. There's little credits on them,

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but I thought they're fabulous photographs, so I wanted to give them a shout out.

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And also, the person responsible for making this story map and generating these maps

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from the data provided is Ines Kurlin from the county, and she did a

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fabulous job of putting this together in a really, I think, a really visually

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interesting and accessible way. You can play with these maps. You can zoom in.

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You can do all kinds of fun stuff, including the older, excuse me, the maps

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before that Wendy was just explaining. And perhaps now it's time to check in

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with Chair Hudson about if you'd like me to keep going in terms of

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the rest of the story map and process, or if you'd like to take a pause and have me

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unshare and have some Q&A opportunities. So why don't you go straight into the

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moderated Q&A and start with the anybody who wants to come live, basically.

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Okay.

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Looks like there's one raised hand. I believe Ted Netter. I'm seeing this. I don't know.

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This is just to help Peter Gatowski out with his moderation.

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And, Aila, if you could elevate Ted Netter.

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He's transferring over to the other side.

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Takes a minute. We need to fill the space.

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Hello. Can you see me and hear me?

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Yes.

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All right. Well, my name is Ted Netter. I'm a farmer and rancher in the lower bridge area of

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the county. So I'm here kind of representing the lower bridge subzone, meaning based on the

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land use planning directives. And that's about 7,600 acres.

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That are not included currently in the wildlife area out here, which is primarily a mule deer

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winter range. And so also I represented the Farm Bureau with the last ODF and W

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Commission group on landowner and mule deer tags in the Metolius unit. So my questions are based on

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population data. I see that you guys have collected and gathered the data sets from

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the Department of Fish and Wildlife. Comments on that, at least from my perspective in

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dealing, trying to work through the interactive map, your story map. From the outside, it looks

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really good. I haven't been able to figure out how to make it interactive. So like when I try to

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zero in on the actual population data in the acreage that is not in the wildlife zone

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already, I haven't been able to make that work. So it's kind of hard to see what your

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guys' gathered numbers are. To go along with that, it seems like your guys' inventories that

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you're talking about are acres. Habitat and especially winter range habitat needs to start with

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a population and then the amount of habitats that's there because not all ground is the same.

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So meaning irrigated agriculture, less acres provides a lot more habitat.

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So those were a couple of things that I think need to be considered in this decision.

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And the other thing is that irrigated agriculture, which just to give you an idea,

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yeah, 7,600 acres, not all of that's irrigated, but it represents about 4% of the increase

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but out here in Lower Bridge, and you can check this with the local biologists,

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we provide the majority of the winter habitat on private land, the irrigated agriculture.

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We regularly receive damage from deer and especially elk, and that has an economic

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impact that we are expected to bear basically joyfully. And we do love our wildlife. I mean,

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I see deer and elk on a daily basis, elk on a weekly basis,

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and I've had as many as 10 eagles landing on one pivot at one point in time.

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Now with that said, I receive approximately $10,000 worth of crop damage from deer a year,

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and I've received up to $20,000 in crop damage from elk in one three-day period.

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I've also had a bald eagle kill a calf right in front of me.

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So we love our wildlife and we want to support them, but we want everybody to be cognizant of

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what's happening on the ground and what we're doing to support

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the wildlife, and then also what we have to bear in the support of those wildlife.

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So Ted, thank you for participating and being our first Deschutes County resident

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and farmer to offer those perspectives. So there was a lot of information there,

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and let's start with our, first of all, I'm Peter Gutowski, Deschutes County's planning manager,

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and tonight let me just acknowledge before I elevate one of our colleagues to respond to

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your questions and comments. Staff tonight is going to obviously balance the Zoom attendees who

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will, I suspect, will continue to receive questions and we want to answer them.

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And then there's also, we have Facebook live, we have the Zoom chat feature, so we have colleagues

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who are monitoring both of those platforms. So as questions come up that are typed in,

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I should have the ability to introduce them when it's appropriate.

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One last thing, I just want to recognize again that our planning commission is hosting

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tonight's open house. In addition to Chair Hudson and Vice Chair Jessica Curis, we have

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Planning Commissioner Steve Swisher, Planning Commissioner Susan Altman, and Planning Commissioner

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Maggie Kirby. Okay, so what I heard significantly is there's an acknowledgement

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and Ted, bear with me, I'm going to try to capture some of your comments that in the lower

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bridge area, there are areas that are currently identified as being part of this new wildlife

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set of inventories. There are areas of lower bridge that are not included. There's a recognition

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as well about the importance of population counts and data and emphasizing those distributions

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or those data points in relationship to acreage and how to reconcile the two of those.

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So with that imperfect overview, at least in your first comment, I want to turn it over to

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Sarah Gregory or Andrew Walts with our Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife here in the

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Central Oregon District to hear your thoughts about Mr. Netters' observations to date.

413
00:41:00,880 --> 00:41:04,640
Yeah, thanks, Peter. I think Sarah got cut off momentarily. Hopefully she's

414
00:41:04,640 --> 00:41:10,480
able to get back in. Yeah, hi, Ted. Good to hear from you. Andrew Walts, Oregon Department of

415
00:41:10,480 --> 00:41:17,680
Fish and Wildlife in the Bend office. Yeah, so I think Ted's spot on with how important

416
00:41:17,680 --> 00:41:23,200
the lower bridge area is for wildlife, especially wintering mule deer, it certainly is

417
00:41:24,240 --> 00:41:31,120
the crucial winter range and that's why we used the different forms of data to

418
00:41:32,480 --> 00:41:37,840
inform that recommendation for increasing the habitat protections up there in the northern part

419
00:41:37,840 --> 00:41:45,520
of the county. The mixture that you can see on that story map with our observations from

420
00:41:45,520 --> 00:41:53,360
the helicopter surveys, the mule deer model habitat model for winter range use that was informed

421
00:41:53,360 --> 00:42:02,960
by GPS-colored mule deer amounts that's cutting-edge data and that certainly is the most crucial area

422
00:42:02,960 --> 00:42:08,000
for wintering mule deer that's not currently protected in the county. That was our task

423
00:42:08,000 --> 00:42:13,840
as a part of the group was coming with data to inform the county to bring this

424
00:42:14,800 --> 00:42:21,760
proposal forward or potential polygons to bring to the commission.

425
00:42:28,000 --> 00:42:34,320
Great, thank you, Andrew. And then there is an acknowledgement

426
00:42:35,280 --> 00:42:45,440
that Mr. Netter spoke about in terms of the impacts that wildlife can create on private property

427
00:42:46,720 --> 00:42:51,920
as certainly for commercial farmers in this region. It's not lost on any of us.

428
00:42:53,520 --> 00:43:01,760
Are you aware, Andrew, or when Sarah comes back, are there programs with the department

429
00:43:01,840 --> 00:43:05,520
or with your department or with the department of agriculture that

430
00:43:06,960 --> 00:43:18,640
offer opportunities to offset those impacts or, I guess, articulating in a different way?

431
00:43:18,640 --> 00:43:23,200
What type of resources are available that you're aware of at the state level that

432
00:43:23,920 --> 00:43:33,040
can be made available to farmers in this case to coexist with farmers? As Mr. Netter noted,

433
00:43:33,760 --> 00:43:38,320
and you acknowledge as well, Andrew, that the lower-bridge unit is very important. These are

434
00:43:39,280 --> 00:43:45,760
areas in our county that have our largest commercial farms. And the fact that there's

435
00:43:45,760 --> 00:43:51,040
just not a lot of development relative to other places in our county certainly provide,

436
00:43:51,040 --> 00:43:57,760
presume, a significant refuge. But in light of that, any resources that you're aware of that

437
00:43:57,760 --> 00:44:05,040
can be made available, again, to try to do the best we can to coexist with our farmers and

438
00:44:05,760 --> 00:44:12,640
the wildlife that live and migrate in that region? Yeah, absolutely. And

439
00:44:13,600 --> 00:44:21,680
ODFW is mandated in statute to address wildlife damage. And that certainly is part of the reason

440
00:44:21,680 --> 00:44:27,200
we're here and part of what we do. And that, in addition to what Ted was getting out with his

441
00:44:27,200 --> 00:44:33,920
comments of how vital that private land is for harboring wildlife, especially in times

442
00:44:33,920 --> 00:44:40,720
like the winter, those critical times of year. The majority of quality wildlife habitat

443
00:44:40,800 --> 00:44:44,400
is often on private lands, especially in places like eastern Oregon.

444
00:44:46,000 --> 00:44:54,880
So yes, we have several different ways, especially for deer and elk. We have a budget to supply

445
00:44:55,600 --> 00:44:59,840
fencing and other supplies for folks. And we've worked with Ted and his neighbors on in the

446
00:45:00,000 --> 00:45:07,000
You know, protect their haystacks in their fields. We're able to give out damaged tags,

447
00:45:07,000 --> 00:45:11,880
you know, special hunting opportunities to try to keep those animals, you know, moving

448
00:45:11,880 --> 00:45:16,120
around a little bit more, not just, you know, camping out, you know, herd of 100 elk camping

449
00:45:16,120 --> 00:45:23,120
out for a week just in one field is not good for anybody. So yeah, you know, there's several

450
00:45:23,120 --> 00:45:28,520
hazing permits and lots of tools in the toolbox that we use, you know, on a very

451
00:45:28,520 --> 00:45:32,400
regular basis, especially in the wintertime, to help help private landowners and maintain

452
00:45:32,400 --> 00:45:36,160
the relationship between private landowners and wildlife.

453
00:45:36,160 --> 00:45:45,600
Great. Thank you, Andrew. That's very informative. Anyways, as we shift, I have a question that

454
00:45:45,600 --> 00:45:52,240
came in over Google Doc as, well, I think we'll try to alternate between those that

455
00:45:52,240 --> 00:45:59,840
are attendees and please raise your hand. Don't be shy. This is a group that welcomes

456
00:45:59,840 --> 00:46:06,440
these types of questions. This is exactly the form to receive any questions that are

457
00:46:06,440 --> 00:46:14,320
coming up. But a question that came up over Google Doc and, Wendy, we heard this at

458
00:46:14,320 --> 00:46:20,280
our first open house on the 15th, but I think it's worth echoing just for today's

459
00:46:20,360 --> 00:46:28,040
audience is how did the technical advisor committee or this internal work group select

460
00:46:28,040 --> 00:46:35,160
these three inventories? What made these three inventories separate from others that, you

461
00:46:35,160 --> 00:46:42,600
know, I'm sure are important for wildlife biology and for disjutes County as a region?

462
00:46:44,440 --> 00:46:49,760
Yeah, thanks, Peter. So it was the tack that actually made the selection, the technical

463
00:46:49,760 --> 00:46:54,240
advisory committee. But of course, there is overlap between the IWG members and the

464
00:46:54,240 --> 00:47:00,320
tack. But essentially what the tack did was review the the existing significant

465
00:47:00,320 --> 00:47:06,000
goal five inventories. And there are about 12 of them, depending on how you slice

466
00:47:06,000 --> 00:47:09,840
and dice it. Some of them have different groups of species that are mixed in there.

467
00:47:09,840 --> 00:47:14,560
So it's all under one inventory and it gets a little more complicated that way.

468
00:47:14,560 --> 00:47:20,840
But essentially, the tack looked at what the county had and considered things

469
00:47:20,840 --> 00:47:28,720
like how outdated the data are. So are there a lot more resources available today

470
00:47:28,720 --> 00:47:33,560
scientifically that weren't available in the past in the 1990s when these were

471
00:47:33,560 --> 00:47:40,000
originally set up? So they looked at that. They also looked at inventories

472
00:47:40,000 --> 00:47:47,680
where there's a lot of conflict. So which inventories are essentially coming up a lot

473
00:47:47,680 --> 00:47:53,200
in land use discussion? So bigger geographic inventories tended to fall in that.

474
00:47:53,200 --> 00:47:59,840
And then inventories that are species that seem to be not doing as well today. That was a bit

475
00:47:59,840 --> 00:48:06,560
of the discussion to particularly for the mule deer inventory. But essentially the attack

476
00:48:06,640 --> 00:48:14,800
made the decision based on the existing inventories and selected these three for this pilot program.

477
00:48:14,800 --> 00:48:21,840
But they also did select two alternatives that were kind of second tier level of importance.

478
00:48:21,840 --> 00:48:28,960
And one of those was the deer migration corridors, that data set, because there is a

479
00:48:28,960 --> 00:48:34,240
much more up-to-date set of data for that today. And then the other one was threatened

480
00:48:34,240 --> 00:48:39,840
and endangered species, and in particular the Oregon spotted frog. So those are species that

481
00:48:39,840 --> 00:48:45,520
are protected by the Federal Endangered Species Act. And the inventory for the Oregon spotted

482
00:48:45,520 --> 00:48:51,360
frog was discussed simply because it is a species that's listed in the county. So

483
00:48:52,960 --> 00:48:57,840
again, I would stress that this is a pilot program and it was taking essentially the three

484
00:48:58,400 --> 00:49:04,320
top tier inventories out of that group of existing inventories that seemed

485
00:49:05,040 --> 00:49:14,160
like they would most benefit from an update. Thank you, Wendy. Let me pause. Aila, who's a

486
00:49:14,160 --> 00:49:23,120
colleague of ours who's the person behind the curtain here to make this meeting as productive

487
00:49:23,120 --> 00:49:30,480
as it is. I'm looking at our attendees. We have several people in attendance. I see some familiar

488
00:49:30,480 --> 00:49:40,720
names. I just want to pause to see if anybody has a question that is worth introducing to the

489
00:49:40,720 --> 00:49:51,600
audience, to our panel. Please raise a hand. I will circle back occasionally just to make

490
00:49:51,600 --> 00:49:58,080
sure that this group that's here and listening, if a question does arise, there's an opportunity to

491
00:49:58,080 --> 00:50:06,320
share it. So I'm not seeing any hands, so that must mean that a lot of the information that we

492
00:50:06,320 --> 00:50:16,800
provided presumably at our first open house has been conveyed, excuse me, and is relatively

493
00:50:16,800 --> 00:50:23,840
understood. Mr. Chairman, let's take this moment before I go back to a Google doc

494
00:50:25,440 --> 00:50:30,400
that's collecting our written questions. Don't want to check in with the planning commissioners.

495
00:50:30,400 --> 00:50:35,440
Commissioners, this is your second open house. Any questions or observations that

496
00:50:36,240 --> 00:50:42,560
you might want to offer to tonight's audience? I'll turn it over to the chair,

497
00:50:42,560 --> 00:50:48,160
but want to make sure we're giving you ample time to ensure that any questions you have

498
00:50:48,160 --> 00:50:53,520
or comments that you feel like are important can be made at this relatively early hour as we're

499
00:50:53,520 --> 00:51:01,040
into this just for almost 60 minutes now. Okay, Peter, thank you very much indeed.

500
00:51:01,040 --> 00:51:06,720
So planning commissioners, any questions or comments for the speakers or indeed

501
00:51:07,360 --> 00:51:14,080
this whole topic? Please, if you could raise your hand electronically just to help me see on the screen.

502
00:51:22,400 --> 00:51:27,840
So I don't see any pressing questions from the planning commission. Peter, one of the things

503
00:51:27,840 --> 00:51:33,680
you may like to consider, I mean, the last meeting and this meeting, the experts are very

504
00:51:34,320 --> 00:51:42,000
kindly sat and listened and only spoken when they've been posed a question or

505
00:51:42,960 --> 00:51:50,880
had comments made in their direction. It would be interesting to just have their general reaction

506
00:51:50,880 --> 00:51:58,000
or comments on if you like the meaning of the data or the importance of the data or indeed the

507
00:51:58,000 --> 00:52:05,840
limitations of the data and really the big problem of balancing wildlife with a county which is

508
00:52:06,400 --> 00:52:13,440
continuing to grow. So really any aspects of the whole situation including Wendy,

509
00:52:14,320 --> 00:52:20,320
just their general comments on the process they very kindly went through with the county.

510
00:52:20,720 --> 00:52:30,560
Well, thank you, commissioner. Sarah, if I can elevate you just to follow up on our chair's

511
00:52:31,680 --> 00:52:39,200
comments relating to the data and it's not lost on any of us that the

512
00:52:39,200 --> 00:52:46,800
Schuetz County's wildlife inventories are 30 years old and a lot has changed and continues

513
00:52:46,800 --> 00:52:54,720
to change daily here in our region as so many individuals and families and businesses relocate

514
00:52:54,720 --> 00:53:03,040
here. But we would love to hear your thoughts on how the magnitude of these inventories,

515
00:53:04,400 --> 00:53:10,240
how they relate to the inventories 30 years ago and why it's so important to have this

516
00:53:10,240 --> 00:53:14,800
conversation that will ultimately be shared with the Board of County Commissioners about how to

517
00:53:14,800 --> 00:53:20,480
proceed. Sure, yeah, thank you for giving me the opportunity, Peter and Char Hudson,

518
00:53:20,480 --> 00:53:24,960
the rest of the planning commission and I apologize for disappearing a few minutes ago,

519
00:53:24,960 --> 00:53:29,120
my internet just fell off the cliff so hopefully it's not going to happen again here midstream.

520
00:53:29,120 --> 00:53:36,160
But I've been thinking about the job that Andrew and Corey and Emily and the rest of us did

521
00:53:37,200 --> 00:53:40,720
to put these inventories together and I think we actually had the easy job

522
00:53:41,680 --> 00:53:46,480
at you all are going to have a much more difficult task carving all of this out.

523
00:53:47,280 --> 00:53:50,960
That's something that goes on paper for protections for our wildlife and

524
00:53:51,840 --> 00:53:57,520
when we say these inventories are old, just to make sense that's true but the landscape

525
00:53:57,520 --> 00:54:04,080
that these animals are relying on is the same. The technology that we've developed to track

526
00:54:04,080 --> 00:54:12,320
their movements and interact with them on a seasonal basis and whatnot has enhanced and

527
00:54:12,320 --> 00:54:19,760
improved and that's given us these really fine scale data sets and allowed us to display

528
00:54:19,760 --> 00:54:25,200
these maps and things that tell the story to the rest of us and to our community. So these

529
00:54:25,200 --> 00:54:30,880
animals need these landscapes to move around, they're large-bodied animals, they're fairly

530
00:54:30,880 --> 00:54:36,480
long-lived, they have these seasonal ranges between winter and summer, up the hill, the

531
00:54:36,480 --> 00:54:41,840
cascades, down the hill, back to the shrub step and there's so many obstacles in the way as they

532
00:54:41,840 --> 00:54:50,320
try to move and although those obstacles contribute to their mortality with mule deer for sure,

533
00:54:50,320 --> 00:54:55,280
those mule deer that migrate have a higher survival rate. So our mule deer populations

534
00:54:55,280 --> 00:55:01,680
depend on migrating and on being able to use that landscape and probably the same thing goes for

535
00:55:01,680 --> 00:55:05,840
elk. Unfortunately we don't have the fine scale data for elk or information about elk but we're

536
00:55:05,840 --> 00:55:13,680
gathering that too so it's just important that we recognize that and it's all about where we

537
00:55:13,680 --> 00:55:18,320
put our values, you know, how we want to rank things and I understand that economics and all

538
00:55:18,320 --> 00:55:22,880
the social implications with that but that's that for us but I'll just take a step back

539
00:55:22,880 --> 00:55:27,280
and let the rest of you guys sort it out. So thanks for giving me a chance to speak.

540
00:55:28,480 --> 00:55:29,280
No, thank you.

541
00:55:29,280 --> 00:55:33,520
And happy to answer specifics about the data too, I just wanted to kind of give a general comment.

542
00:55:34,240 --> 00:55:42,640
Thank you. Andrew or Wendy, any follow-up remarks that you have as Deschutes County embarks on

543
00:55:42,640 --> 00:55:52,080
updating three significant inventories on wildlife species that are well known and I think

544
00:55:52,080 --> 00:56:01,600
revered in many places that help, you know, really create or add to the quality of life or

545
00:56:01,600 --> 00:56:07,360
contribute to the quality of life that makes this region so special. Andrew, I see both you and

546
00:56:07,360 --> 00:56:13,120
Wendy have unmuted so maybe we'll go with Andrew for your thoughts and perspectives.

547
00:56:13,760 --> 00:56:19,120
Sure, yeah. I mean, Sarah covered everything wonderfully and I'll let that stand. I'll

548
00:56:19,120 --> 00:56:25,280
just add the one, you know, kind of highlight that I'll throw in there for low light depending

549
00:56:25,280 --> 00:56:30,080
on your perspective but it is the state of the Mulder population in Central Oregon.

550
00:56:31,280 --> 00:56:38,000
Just, you know, it's in the last decade give or take, you know, Mulder across the west have

551
00:56:38,000 --> 00:56:42,880
really been having a hard time with Central Oregon, certainly no exception and you know,

552
00:56:42,880 --> 00:56:50,800
right now we're averaging about a 10% decline per year in our intensive surveys, you know,

553
00:56:50,800 --> 00:56:56,560
and the units in Central Oregon that make up, you know, portions of Deschutes County

554
00:56:57,680 --> 00:57:02,960
are anywhere from a quarter to half of what their management objective should be for

555
00:57:02,960 --> 00:57:08,880
population-wise. You know, what we and the public have decided the number of Mulder should

556
00:57:08,880 --> 00:57:16,160
be on the landscape where we're not close and where that gap is getting wider and it's a

557
00:57:16,160 --> 00:57:23,200
myriad of things like Sarah was hinting at but it's a good conversation to have right now

558
00:57:23,920 --> 00:57:31,200
and we really appreciate the opportunity to bring this data forward and present it to

559
00:57:31,200 --> 00:57:34,560
the public and the county and and see where it goes from there.

560
00:57:37,280 --> 00:57:42,400
Thanks Andrew. Wendy, your thoughts as well would be greatly appreciated.

561
00:57:43,680 --> 00:57:49,520
Sure, just a really high level I'm just thinking as an ecologist and a biologist that

562
00:57:50,160 --> 00:57:56,240
it's very encouraging to see the county reconsidering these datasets, understanding

563
00:57:56,320 --> 00:58:01,680
that the data we're all and that things are changing on the landscape and so there are these

564
00:58:01,680 --> 00:58:09,840
pressures and so I see the county is responding to where they're seeing these areas of conflict

565
00:58:09,840 --> 00:58:17,440
that have to do with resources that the county values, that the people who live in Deschutes

566
00:58:17,440 --> 00:58:22,560
County value, which is both on the economic side but also on the wildlife side and so I

567
00:58:23,040 --> 00:58:31,120
guess I would just offer encouragement and say that I was happy to be involved in a project

568
00:58:31,120 --> 00:58:37,120
that was looking at paying attention to the new science, the best available science that we have

569
00:58:37,120 --> 00:58:42,960
for these three species, well actually four, you're talking about bald and golden eagle,

570
00:58:42,960 --> 00:58:50,800
so the three inventories that were selected to be updated so yeah I think that is my summary.

571
00:58:51,520 --> 00:59:01,760
Great, Tanya, I have a question for you that's been asked on our Zoom Q&A extension.

572
00:59:03,200 --> 00:59:09,840
I'll just read the question and let you provide context and let me know if there's, you know,

573
00:59:09,840 --> 00:59:14,000
if you want me to offer any supplemental remarks but I certainly think this is,

574
00:59:15,280 --> 00:59:20,160
as the grant coordinator and as the leader of this project, this is right up your alley.

575
00:59:20,160 --> 00:59:24,560
The question is, would Deschutes County be interested in applying to the Department of

576
00:59:24,560 --> 00:59:30,480
Land Conservation and Development for more grant money to expand the scope of the inventory update

577
00:59:30,480 --> 00:59:35,920
to more species, you know, whether those are threatened in endangered species or certain

578
00:59:36,480 --> 00:59:43,600
native species, you know, they're native trees or, you know, vegetation that is noteworthy,

579
00:59:44,400 --> 00:59:48,000
other, you know, basically getting to those sensitive habitats,

580
00:59:50,080 --> 01:00:00,080
like wetlands and whatnot, so your thoughts on this process and how it relates into other opportunities.

581
01:00:00,000 --> 01:00:04,200
Opportunities in coordination with the Department of Land Conservation and Development.

582
01:00:04,200 --> 01:00:13,360
Thanks, Peter. That's a very good question. More grant money. I have kind of two parts

583
01:00:13,360 --> 01:00:19,920
of that. One, obviously, additional funding, which provides additional resources to further

584
01:00:19,920 --> 01:00:26,240
study things is great. However, I would also say that this is, I personally would like

585
01:00:26,240 --> 01:00:34,880
to see this process through first as this is a pilot project, as we've noted before. Technically

586
01:00:34,880 --> 01:00:40,760
counties don't actually have a regular mechanism to keep updating these inventories, so you could

587
01:00:40,760 --> 01:00:46,560
kind of sit there with a static inventory forever. And so we're delving into this new

588
01:00:46,560 --> 01:00:51,800
kind of universe, at least for us, of updating these three. So I think, well, yes, I think

589
01:00:51,840 --> 01:00:59,080
having additional resources to pursue all of the other significant species resources, habitats,

590
01:00:59,080 --> 01:01:05,840
et cetera, or even an additional chunk of them would be fantastic. I think just thinking

591
01:01:05,840 --> 01:01:12,640
process-wise, I would like to see kind of how our process ends up going in terms of

592
01:01:12,640 --> 01:01:21,040
these three. What's the reaction from the public? It's a big lift to once we, if

593
01:01:21,040 --> 01:01:25,840
we decide to pursue updating these inventories, and I'll explain this a little bit later, but

594
01:01:25,840 --> 01:01:31,080
it is a lengthy process that's prescribed in large part by the state in terms of how

595
01:01:31,080 --> 01:01:36,720
you determine significance of an inventory and that sort of thing. So in that sense,

596
01:01:36,720 --> 01:01:40,120
I'd want to come see this through to the end, see how it works, see how our process

597
01:01:40,120 --> 01:01:45,560
works with the public, the planning commission, the board, et cetera. And then once we've

598
01:01:45,560 --> 01:01:48,840
kind of honed in on that and kind of, I don't want to say perfected it because

599
01:01:48,880 --> 01:01:53,360
nothing's ever perfect, but what we learned from that and then perhaps pursue

600
01:01:53,360 --> 01:02:00,160
additional resources to tackle more stuff. And this might be a part of the

601
01:02:00,160 --> 01:02:04,400
comprehensive plan. We might be able to kind of start shipping away at that more

602
01:02:04,400 --> 01:02:09,360
beyond these three in the comprehensive plan and might be at a later date. So

603
01:02:09,360 --> 01:02:14,120
that's a long-winded answer to saying yes, but so we want to make sure we're

604
01:02:14,120 --> 01:02:16,560
doing it right before we kind of take on more, I think.

605
01:02:17,640 --> 01:02:24,040
Great, thank you. A question that we just received, I think, is asking for

606
01:02:24,040 --> 01:02:29,360
clarity and maybe even to the extent that there's, I'm sure it's anthropogenic,

607
01:02:29,360 --> 01:02:34,600
but just an understanding of the precipitous declines in mule deer

608
01:02:34,600 --> 01:02:43,200
population. But this is a question that's acknowledging that mule deer

609
01:02:43,200 --> 01:02:50,080
populations in the Metolius unit have been on the decline since 2016. In 2015,

610
01:02:50,720 --> 01:02:56,720
the populations were 129% of the management objective. In 2016, it was

611
01:02:56,720 --> 01:03:01,560
dropped to 93%. And I guess the question is, is it true that the

612
01:03:01,560 --> 01:03:11,760
mule deer populations are now at 55%? And as that decline is clarified, I

613
01:03:11,760 --> 01:03:17,840
think it'd be also to be helpful just generally summarizing kind of what's

614
01:03:17,840 --> 01:03:24,000
the basis for that decline in a county, especially in a rural county that has

615
01:03:24,400 --> 01:03:28,960
statewide planning and prescriptive rules that pertain to farm and forest

616
01:03:28,960 --> 01:03:37,240
lands and whatnot. So I add that as an opportunity to kind of share what

617
01:03:37,240 --> 01:03:46,880
those stressors are for mule deer. So Sarah or Andrew, I would ask one of

618
01:03:46,880 --> 01:03:51,280
you to hear your thoughts on this question here.

619
01:03:52,120 --> 01:03:58,960
Sure, yeah. Yeah. Thanks, Peter. Ted's right in this question. The

620
01:03:58,960 --> 01:04:05,280
Tolius unit right now is estimated to be about 55% of that management

621
01:04:05,320 --> 01:04:14,360
objective. And like I said earlier, just about every other area in Central

622
01:04:14,360 --> 01:04:22,360
Oregon declining rapidly. And he's right that there's still a lot of rural area

623
01:04:22,360 --> 01:04:29,480
there and irrigated landscape. It's not just land use that drives down a

624
01:04:29,480 --> 01:04:33,520
mule deer population. It's the saying death by a thousand cuts is kind

625
01:04:33,720 --> 01:04:38,480
of applicable to what happens to mule deer in a place like Central

626
01:04:38,480 --> 01:04:43,480
Oregon. Certainly development has an impact development on winter range

627
01:04:43,480 --> 01:04:49,880
dividing up habitats with fences and roads and more traffic and road

628
01:04:49,880 --> 01:04:59,400
strikes, dogs, the just constant use of habitat both summer range and winter

629
01:04:59,440 --> 01:05:04,520
range by all of us who like to go recreate outside. It's no secret that

630
01:05:04,520 --> 01:05:07,960
Sheets County is increasing rapidly in that sense and that that's a

631
01:05:07,960 --> 01:05:13,000
stressor on wildlife. There's certainly our disease outbreaks in

632
01:05:13,000 --> 01:05:16,240
mule deer populations and we've had some in that lower bridge area,

633
01:05:16,840 --> 01:05:21,640
Cricket River Ranch that area, historically that kind of flare up

634
01:05:21,720 --> 01:05:27,200
now and then. And that certainly puts a hole in the population as

635
01:05:27,240 --> 01:05:31,240
well as the couple of bad winters we had. You know, those those don't

636
01:05:31,240 --> 01:05:35,040
help either. A couple of years ago and we had that late snow at the end

637
01:05:35,040 --> 01:05:38,160
of February. That's really hard on mule deer right at the end of

638
01:05:38,160 --> 01:05:42,160
winter. So yeah, you know, it's that's exactly what we were talking

639
01:05:42,160 --> 01:05:46,160
about. There's only so many things you can do as a wildlife

640
01:05:46,160 --> 01:05:50,680
manager. You can fight for habitat, you can try to do habitat

641
01:05:50,680 --> 01:05:55,600
improvement and you can cut hunting tags. Otherwise, you know, you

642
01:05:55,840 --> 01:05:58,480
just try to do the best you can and work with your partners, both

643
01:05:58,480 --> 01:06:01,560
federal, local and and private landowners.

644
01:06:03,440 --> 01:06:08,080
Great. Thanks, Andrew. The questions are are now coming in. So

645
01:06:08,680 --> 01:06:11,720
appreciate everybody's participation.

646
01:06:13,240 --> 01:06:17,080
Tony, I know you were you were planning on talking about this

647
01:06:17,680 --> 01:06:21,360
towards the tail end of tonight's presentation, but it's a

648
01:06:21,360 --> 01:06:24,400
question in the queue and I want to honor it. If you

649
01:06:24,400 --> 01:06:29,680
would just discuss the projects that this project's timeline,

650
01:06:29,960 --> 01:06:34,120
obviously, we're we're this is funded by in part by Department

651
01:06:34,120 --> 01:06:37,200
of Land Conservation and Development grant. And the

652
01:06:37,200 --> 01:06:41,720
grant expires in May. And so what are what's the project

653
01:06:41,720 --> 01:06:46,480
timeline or goals after May 2021? What what happens next?

654
01:06:48,400 --> 01:06:52,280
Thanks, Peter. Yeah, that's a perfect segue. I'm not going

655
01:06:52,280 --> 01:06:55,320
to bother to share in my screen, but you can the rest of the

656
01:06:55,320 --> 01:07:01,720
story map just kind of explains this in some text. So yes, the

657
01:07:01,720 --> 01:07:05,400
grant ends at the end of May. So as part of this, this is our

658
01:07:05,400 --> 01:07:09,360
second of two open houses. We encourage everyone to go take the

659
01:07:09,360 --> 01:07:12,880
survey that is part of the story map. It's a it's I

660
01:07:12,880 --> 01:07:16,240
think it's three questions, including an open ended question.

661
01:07:16,240 --> 01:07:18,880
If you want to just generally submit comments, you can do it

662
01:07:18,920 --> 01:07:22,400
that way. You can also email me. But it's just trying to gauge

663
01:07:22,920 --> 01:07:26,760
in a very general level, the public support for kind of

664
01:07:26,760 --> 01:07:31,400
pursuing a potential inventory update. We're going to collect

665
01:07:31,400 --> 01:07:34,480
that information and provide that to the Planning Commission

666
01:07:34,480 --> 01:07:37,840
and to the board in a, you know, again, it's fairly broad

667
01:07:37,840 --> 01:07:40,520
brush, but we'll provide all of the comments that we receive

668
01:07:40,520 --> 01:07:47,440
to those those bodies. And then automatic lights. And then

669
01:07:47,480 --> 01:07:50,440
we'll have discussions with with both the Planning Commission

670
01:07:50,440 --> 01:07:55,840
and the board of the best way to proceed this. Ultimately, an

671
01:07:55,840 --> 01:07:59,640
inventory update would be a it's noted in the comprehensive

672
01:07:59,640 --> 01:08:03,680
plan. So there are options to kind of just attack that little

673
01:08:03,680 --> 01:08:06,440
bit of the comprehensive plan by providing these updated

674
01:08:06,440 --> 01:08:10,520
inventories, essentially patching an existing plan, or

675
01:08:10,520 --> 01:08:13,360
incorporating it into a larger comprehensive plan update where

676
01:08:13,360 --> 01:08:17,040
we'll look at things more holistically. And that depends

677
01:08:17,080 --> 01:08:21,760
on a combination of factors, just resources, momentum, you

678
01:08:21,760 --> 01:08:24,960
know, there's there's pros and cons to each of those things. And

679
01:08:24,960 --> 01:08:29,440
I'll say that the actual inventory update process is an

680
01:08:29,440 --> 01:08:32,720
extensive public process. So that's when we're looking at the

681
01:08:32,720 --> 01:08:35,720
maps. And then we're also deciding, you know, what, what

682
01:08:35,720 --> 01:08:38,240
are we, what are we doing with this information? Does that

683
01:08:38,240 --> 01:08:42,360
mean we are talking about what what uses there are in

684
01:08:42,360 --> 01:08:45,520
these areas, or what, you know, other other types of

685
01:08:45,520 --> 01:08:49,640
kind of regulatory frameworks? And that is all to be

686
01:08:49,640 --> 01:08:52,880
determined. And that's going to depend on public input, board

687
01:08:52,880 --> 01:08:55,440
input, Planning Commission input, kind of, everybody's

688
01:08:55,440 --> 01:09:00,880
input, the experts input, what, how we could incorporate

689
01:09:00,880 --> 01:09:04,560
these inventories into our existing plan, while achieving

690
01:09:04,560 --> 01:09:07,840
that balance. So that's a long way of saying it's a

691
01:09:08,400 --> 01:09:11,440
the public interaction of just this data, data

692
01:09:11,440 --> 01:09:13,760
presentation ends in May, and then there's going to be

693
01:09:13,800 --> 01:09:17,360
further conversations with primarily the board to

694
01:09:17,360 --> 01:09:18,640
determine the best way forward.

695
01:09:19,720 --> 01:09:23,240
And Tonya, for for those that want to monitor, I'll just

696
01:09:23,680 --> 01:09:27,320
follow up just for those that want to monitor the

697
01:09:27,320 --> 01:09:32,360
progression of this process is there's the website, right?

698
01:09:32,360 --> 01:09:37,120
There that's that will that I presume will be updated.

699
01:09:37,680 --> 01:09:40,560
They can also reach out to you as a project

700
01:09:40,560 --> 01:09:45,720
coordinator. Any other are those the two kind of best

701
01:09:45,720 --> 01:09:50,760
options to track that is contacting you and tracking

702
01:09:50,760 --> 01:09:54,640
the monitoring the website and absolutely. Okay, and I

703
01:09:54,640 --> 01:09:58,480
would great. And I would suspect we would as as

704
01:09:58,480 --> 01:10:02,720
county staff will certainly engage our communications

705
01:10:02,720 --> 01:10:09,360
director as this process matures so that of course

706
01:10:09,640 --> 01:10:14,720
everybody and anybody who is interested in this topic and

707
01:10:14,720 --> 01:10:18,800
has an opinion and wants to make sure they're involved has

708
01:10:18,800 --> 01:10:23,360
those ample opportunities. So it's not as if one person

709
01:10:23,360 --> 01:10:26,240
will just wake up one day and find it. Oh, the

710
01:10:26,240 --> 01:10:29,360
amendments were done. This this will be a robust public

711
01:10:29,360 --> 01:10:35,640
process. I will ask this question to you, Tonya,

712
01:10:35,640 --> 01:10:39,000
you're welcome to relay it back to me. It's dealing

713
01:10:39,040 --> 01:10:42,040
more with development standards and siding standards. So

714
01:10:42,200 --> 01:10:47,640
please feel free to kick it back to me. So the the

715
01:10:47,680 --> 01:10:51,560
setting it up. In Tamalo and throughout the less dense

716
01:10:51,560 --> 01:10:54,840
areas of the county, I see problematic fencing, non

717
01:10:54,840 --> 01:10:57,640
porous to wildlife being installed through large

718
01:10:57,640 --> 01:11:00,600
property areas, confining wildlife, especially young

719
01:11:00,600 --> 01:11:03,840
deer and elk, often into roadways along long

720
01:11:03,840 --> 01:11:05,680
stretches of the county roads. So here's the

721
01:11:05,680 --> 01:11:09,440
question. Are county planners able to address and

722
01:11:09,440 --> 01:11:13,080
perhaps impose limitations on the types of fencing

723
01:11:13,080 --> 01:11:18,240
homeowners can utilize? I'm going to kick that one

724
01:11:18,240 --> 01:11:19,880
back to you because you have a very intimate

725
01:11:19,880 --> 01:11:22,400
knowledge of the specific development rights.

726
01:11:22,840 --> 01:11:27,800
Great. Yeah, I'm certainly welcome or willing to

727
01:11:27,800 --> 01:11:31,920
respond. So it's a great question. We are we

728
01:11:31,920 --> 01:11:34,800
have numerous inventories that are identified in our

729
01:11:34,800 --> 01:11:38,840
wildlife area combining some pertaining to elk and

730
01:11:38,840 --> 01:11:44,040
mule deer and sage grouse and antelope, just to name a

731
01:11:44,040 --> 01:11:49,800
few and any development that is proposed in these

732
01:11:49,800 --> 01:11:52,120
areas specifically relating to dwellings, but

733
01:11:53,840 --> 01:11:57,200
there are siding standards that that come into play

734
01:11:57,200 --> 01:12:01,280
for fencing and so to the extent that if one is

735
01:12:01,280 --> 01:12:08,360
building a dwelling or an accessory structure and

736
01:12:08,360 --> 01:12:11,760
they they want fencing, fencing is required to

737
01:12:11,760 --> 01:12:16,400
accommodate wildlife passage. And so obviously these

738
01:12:16,400 --> 01:12:20,400
new inventories extend into the tummolo region in

739
01:12:20,400 --> 01:12:23,120
ways that the exist excuse me the existing

740
01:12:23,120 --> 01:12:27,960
inventories do not. And so you know I think as

741
01:12:27,960 --> 01:12:30,600
we as this process matures and we engage with the

742
01:12:30,600 --> 01:12:33,800
Planning Commission and the board these types of

743
01:12:33,800 --> 01:12:38,600
siding standards will will be you know recommended to

744
01:12:38,600 --> 01:12:42,840
continue in addition to you know proximity to

745
01:12:42,840 --> 01:12:48,360
roads. So dwellings can be you know sided closer

746
01:12:48,360 --> 01:12:51,800
to the road as opposed into the the heart of a

747
01:12:51,800 --> 01:12:57,120
large parcel or track. So those are just an

748
01:12:57,120 --> 01:13:00,000
example of a couple of provisions that are in

749
01:13:00,040 --> 01:13:04,600
place today that I think if we if we get the

750
01:13:04,600 --> 01:13:07,760
community support Planning Commission input and

751
01:13:07,760 --> 01:13:12,560
board direction would I presume likely continue

752
01:13:13,200 --> 01:13:17,120
for the reasons that were expressed by the the

753
01:13:17,120 --> 01:13:20,040
person that offered that introductory statement and

754
01:13:20,040 --> 01:13:24,920
questions. So thank you for for for providing

755
01:13:24,920 --> 01:13:30,600
that. I guess Mr. Chairman this isn't really a

756
01:13:30,600 --> 01:13:32,160
question but it's a statement and it's an

757
01:13:32,160 --> 01:13:35,040
opportunity for me to use it to check in back with

758
01:13:35,040 --> 01:13:38,760
you and other commissioners. This forum is is

759
01:13:38,760 --> 01:13:41,160
important in initiating conversations between the

760
01:13:41,160 --> 01:13:44,120
public and the public agencies. It would be

761
01:13:44,120 --> 01:13:47,240
valuable to continue this as an ongoing

762
01:13:47,240 --> 01:13:50,080
conversation drawing on the resources of the

763
01:13:50,080 --> 01:13:52,960
community. These conversations could become a

764
01:13:52,960 --> 01:13:55,640
more holistic view of the state of the county.

765
01:13:56,600 --> 01:13:59,320
Mr. Chairman and the commissioners you are our

766
01:13:59,320 --> 01:14:03,520
citizen involvement advisory committee under

767
01:14:03,520 --> 01:14:06,840
goal one. And so want to hear your thoughts

768
01:14:06,840 --> 01:14:11,160
about the importance of maintaining continuing

769
01:14:11,160 --> 01:14:13,720
dialogue with our resource agencies with our

770
01:14:13,720 --> 01:14:20,920
residents and businesses to ensure that we are

771
01:14:20,960 --> 01:14:24,280
all familiar with with the latest circumstances

772
01:14:24,280 --> 01:14:29,040
that are influencing our region. So Peter as

773
01:14:29,040 --> 01:14:34,600
you know the whole issue of wildlife their

774
01:14:34,600 --> 01:14:39,160
habitat the interaction with our planning rules

775
01:14:39,160 --> 01:14:41,040
and as well as our zoning and so on and so

776
01:14:41,040 --> 01:14:44,000
forth very very often comes up at the Planning

777
01:14:44,000 --> 01:14:47,040
Commission and the Planning Commission is always

778
01:14:47,080 --> 01:14:50,160
open to those discussions but I think we're

779
01:14:50,160 --> 01:14:53,920
moving to a phase where we might see some more

780
01:14:53,920 --> 01:14:58,480
formal recognition that in fit this is this is in

781
01:14:58,480 --> 01:14:59,640
fact an ongoing.

782
01:15:00,000 --> 01:15:17,000
Um, conversation. What I'd like to do, first of all, is to give the other members of the planning commission a chance to, uh, add their comments to that, that specific question, and then I'll come back and, and give some general comments myself.

783
01:15:17,000 --> 01:15:24,000
So Susan Altman, is your mic working again? Would you like to kick off, please?

784
01:15:24,000 --> 01:15:31,000
How do we get a conversation going as a, an ongoing open house, if you like?

785
01:15:33,000 --> 01:15:49,000
Um, I hope you can hear me. Uh, I'm always interested in having conversations about this topic. Um, I would, you know, welcome it being an agenda item at any time.

786
01:15:49,000 --> 01:15:58,000
So I, I think that that, uh, as, as time permits, I know we have a busy calendar coming up, but I do think that it's important going forward.

787
01:15:58,000 --> 01:16:10,000
And as I'm not sure if it was Peter or Tonya who mentioned it about the comprehensive plan coming up, I think that natural resources definitely falls into, um, that umbrella under that umbrella.

788
01:16:10,000 --> 01:16:25,000
And I think that what a lot of people move here for is for the natural resources, the natural beauty, the outdoor experience, whether they, um, enjoy wildlife or hiking or fishing or hunting or it all goes together.

789
01:16:25,000 --> 01:16:31,000
You know, it's a, a holistic view of the county and the county's growth that we need to be looking at.

790
01:16:31,000 --> 01:16:34,000
So I think this is definitely important conversation that should be continued.

791
01:16:35,000 --> 01:16:42,000
Commissioners, any other commissioners have any ideally different comments? Commissioner Swisher, please.

792
01:16:43,000 --> 01:16:49,000
I would just like to say that in a greater sister's country, we've lived here 25 years now.

793
01:16:49,000 --> 01:16:59,000
Uh, this has been an ongoing topic for 25 years in terms of the wildlife, the migration patterns, uh, building, fencing, those kinds of things.

794
01:16:59,000 --> 01:17:07,000
And it constantly, um, is brought up in different forums regarding, you know, what's really happening to our wildlife.

795
01:17:07,000 --> 01:17:22,000
And again, I'm speaking as just one member of the commission, but I'm a native Oregonian, uh, fifth generation, grew up farming and ranching and part of that operation in Northern Klamath County that touched to the Sheeps County.

796
01:17:22,000 --> 01:17:35,000
And basically through all of that entire frame of reference I've had is the interaction with wildlife and those types of things with the farming and ranching interface.

797
01:17:35,000 --> 01:17:43,000
And so with that, I think it's just extraordinarily, and again, grew up hunting and fishing and those types of things.

798
01:17:43,000 --> 01:18:01,000
So it's an extraordinarily important topic. And I think that, uh, providing some type of a Canadian viewing interface, I like the, uh, recommendation earlier if all of this works through this process.

799
01:18:01,000 --> 01:18:10,000
There are many more species in the three we're talking about that's really important, but I think also needs to be inventoried and reviewed and looked at.

800
01:18:10,000 --> 01:18:28,000
So basically, I'm not saying anything different other than the fact that providing this ongoing conversation, leading towards comprehensive plan update and whatever extensive inventories we can do, I would certainly favor that.

801
01:18:29,000 --> 01:18:34,000
Vice Jack Harris, please.

802
01:18:34,000 --> 01:18:53,000
Um, yeah, we read the question since it's kind of handy you can reread it on zoom. Um, and so just to make sure I think I understood correctly by this forum, I think the question asker may mean this forum meaning this zoom meeting open house format.

803
01:18:53,000 --> 01:19:08,000
It's on Facebook live. Um, I'm, I'm glad to hear that it's an accessible format. In terms of the planning commission, we meet every second and fourth Thursday or Thursday at 530.

804
01:19:08,000 --> 01:19:22,000
Um, and currently we're on zoom, but eventually we'll be on zoom or in person. And there's a time during the beginning of the meeting where you can come to the meeting and raise any topics that's not on the agenda.

805
01:19:22,000 --> 01:19:34,000
Or you can, you know, your topic that you want to talk about is on the agenda. You can stay and then talk about that at that point. But if there's something that that's important to you that you want to talk about, you can do that then.

806
01:19:34,000 --> 01:19:44,000
Um, and the person also asked if, you know, kind of this could be sort of a forum for more holistic conversations. I think not just about wildlife, but about maybe other county planning things.

807
01:19:44,000 --> 01:19:56,000
And I just think that is a really good idea. And when we do have people come out, we get a really good sense of what's important to people about the county and how they'd like to see things develop into the future.

808
01:19:56,000 --> 01:20:13,000
And those things are definitely very much in our minds and our conversations. And we're very influenced by that. So, um, maybe this format could be used more often or on a number of different topics. So I thought it was a really great comment.

809
01:20:13,000 --> 01:20:29,000
Thank you. Uh, Maggie, Maggie Kirby, I know you're in a foreign place, but do you, um, are you still there? Can you hear us? Have you any comments?

810
01:20:29,000 --> 01:20:40,000
Okay, Maggie's out of town. Um, maybe she'll come back on again. Peter, I see you have one more question. Um, is that a, a one that has not been answered yet?

811
01:20:40,000 --> 01:20:58,000
It is a new question. And it's one that I think our is for our state biologists. Um, and it's relating to wolves, uh, acknowledging that they are dispersing through central Oregon from the blue mountains to the OChicos to the Cascades.

812
01:20:58,000 --> 01:21:18,000
Uh, in addition to direct population management asserted by federal and state wildlife management agencies, uh, this question asks, does the county have any plans? But I, I would first like to hear from the state. Does the state have any plans for protective designations or overlays for broader

813
01:21:18,000 --> 01:21:36,000
corridors accommodating large, large scale, excuse me, accommodating landscape scale, wildlife dispersal of this type. Um, so, uh, from a state standpoint, uh, it'd be interesting to hear Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife's

814
01:21:36,000 --> 01:21:54,000
perspectives. I can say to shoots County, this issue has not elevated in the way that the, the three species that we're discussing as part of the three inventories have been elevated. So, uh, Sarah Andrew, we would be interested in your thoughts.

815
01:21:55,000 --> 01:22:16,000
Sure. Thanks, Peter. Yeah. Um, they, there certainly is, you know, an increasing number of wolves. We were in Wolf report, you know, we had to do an annual report and it just came out. Um, you know, I think we really recently, um, you know, it's a statewide report of the known, you know, bare minimum population of wolves in the state.

816
01:22:16,000 --> 01:22:42,000
There certainly is an increasing number of wolves that do disperse through central Oregon as, as the question, um, hinted at, uh, primarily, you know, wolves, the high densities in northeastern Oregon and their, their, their migrating, um, down through central Oregon, including to shoots County. Currently, there's no, um, resident pack wolf activity that we that we've identified into shoots County that it's stuck around.

817
01:22:42,000 --> 01:23:06,000
So far, they've, they've continued migrating usually to the south, um, those dispersing wolves. But, you know, we do have the Oregon wolf plan is in place. It was updated a year or so ago, you know, unratified by the, uh, ODFW commission. Um, they are managed at the state level now currently since being delisted federally. Um, and yeah, you know, they're, they are protected by the wolf plan.

818
01:23:06,000 --> 01:23:26,000
There's, there's, you know, it's a, it's a big public document plan that folks can check out. Um, as far as habitat protections, you know, there's, that's kind of a different question. But, you know, I will say updating protections and corridors for one species often impacts other species as well.

819
01:23:26,000 --> 01:23:36,000
Um, you know, this work we're trying to do with Mule Deer and elk habitat protection certainly isn't limited to benefiting Mule Deer and elk. It, it goes well beyond that.

820
01:23:38,000 --> 01:23:53,000
Thanks. Thanks, Andrew. Um, Mr. Chairman, we're, we're almost 90 minutes into the meeting. I was going to, I think we've, we've, uh, responded to over a half a dozen questions so far. I would turn it over to you.

821
01:23:53,000 --> 01:24:14,000
And if you think the timing is right, we can transition to Tanya for closing remarks or maybe I have this order, uh, reversed. But, uh, I, I turn it over to the chair and possibly to Tanya Saltzman, our project manager for, for these, this wildlife inventory pro inventory project for, for next steps this evening.

822
01:24:15,000 --> 01:24:34,000
So one of the very usual things that happens when you run these sort of meetings and people, uh, see you visually without a mask or with a mask is you get stopped in the street and it's amazing how many people have done that.

823
01:24:35,000 --> 01:24:52,000
And I know my colleagues on the planning commission have had the same experience. Um, one of the things that we're trying because usually the question starts, well, why haven't you, and it's X, Y or Z, depending whether it's transport or water or wildlife comes up very regularly.

824
01:24:52,000 --> 01:25:05,000
One of the things that the planning commission has been very, very interested in and discussed often with county staff is whether there is a need for a, uh, natural resources manager.

825
01:25:05,000 --> 01:25:17,000
And there was a time when there wasn't actually a county forester. And I think nowadays with the wildfire risk mitigation and all that good stuff, we've seen the value of that.

826
01:25:17,000 --> 01:25:31,000
I think, uh, we should continue that discussion because at some point, uh, has more and more developments bring forward their own plans on how to try and make an eco friendly environment.

827
01:25:31,000 --> 01:25:50,000
We're seeing quite a variety of efforts, but really we have no mechanism, if you like, for a wildlife advocate or a wildlife expert who is expert by virtue of understanding what's being done in other places in the county.

828
01:25:50,000 --> 01:26:06,000
So, you know, one of the things is, which is important is that if this is an important topic, then the public can take up what, uh, vice chair Keras was alluding to, which was come and tell the planning commission at the beginning of every meeting.

829
01:26:06,000 --> 01:26:12,000
There is actually an open frame where you can talk about anything. That's the first thing.

830
01:26:12,000 --> 01:26:23,000
The second most popular question recently, which I, Nick, if you're with us, uh, I'd like to translate to you.

831
01:26:23,000 --> 01:26:32,000
Ah, excellent. Thank you. Just so I don't make the same mistake twice of talking to somebody who isn't there. Um, and I'm going to come back to Maggie in a second.

832
01:26:33,000 --> 01:26:42,000
Um, so Nick, um, Tanya's been asked, what are you going to do with this data? And indeed she's going to tell us again that effectively it's not her decision.

833
01:26:42,000 --> 01:26:48,000
It's going to go to the board of county commissioners ultimately, but we're going to act as an advocate.

834
01:26:48,000 --> 01:26:57,000
So 25 years ago or 30 years ago, somebody did an enormous amount of work to compile the first wildlife inventory.

835
01:26:57,000 --> 01:27:04,000
And I think the question would be, why did that happen then that it couldn't happen now?

836
01:27:04,000 --> 01:27:24,000
And also in the intervening period of 25 or 30 years, do you actually have sufficient experience of that data and its use to tell us what good things have been done with it?

837
01:27:24,000 --> 01:27:36,000
Well, in that case, that's a really big question. And I would defer to our experts here. I'm not a wildlife biologist or a wildlife expert.

838
01:27:36,000 --> 01:27:52,000
Have there been benefits? Again, I would have to defer to our experts because in theory, yes, there's been extraordinary benefits, but by the same token, we've also seen the decline in the population over the last few years that was discussed earlier,

839
01:27:52,000 --> 01:28:02,000
beginning with Mr. I think it was Nedder's question, which was excellent. And Andrew's response to that.

840
01:28:02,000 --> 01:28:12,000
I think getting back to the natural resource stewardship question and this ongoing conversation where I thought you might go with this question was,

841
01:28:12,000 --> 01:28:26,000
our county has recognized the value and the importance of having a county forester to address this wildfire and forest management issue in our county that is so, so important.

842
01:28:26,000 --> 01:28:37,000
Are we at the point now where we need to look at allocating resources to a different natural resource and that being wildlife, habitat, species?

843
01:28:37,000 --> 01:28:48,000
And so we are studying that. Kyle's online right now. He's studying that for us and we'll be bringing some examples back to the Planning Commission or the Board of County Commissioners this summer.

844
01:28:48,000 --> 01:28:58,000
I can share with you what we're already hearing is that position should be a wildlife manager, a biologist, a planner, a hydrologist, a geologist.

845
01:28:58,000 --> 01:29:03,000
I mean, we're getting all kinds of really, really great examples of what that position could be.

846
01:29:03,000 --> 01:29:14,000
But one of the things that that position could be, going back to the ongoing conversation, is if we had somebody that was designated in that role, that person could make sure that that conversation continues.

847
01:29:14,000 --> 01:29:23,000
In some forum, we have Project Wildfire that deals with wildfire. We don't have a similar entity with the county that tackles this issue.

848
01:29:23,000 --> 01:29:31,000
We have a wetland and a floodplain manager. We don't have a natural resources stewardship position.

849
01:29:31,000 --> 01:29:41,000
So this position could be really, really valuable to continue this conversation and then serve as that expert, that in-house expert that coordinates with the agencies, coordinates with planning, coordinates with the road department,

850
01:29:41,000 --> 01:29:49,000
coordinates with the Planning Commission, provides that expertise to the board and provides so many valuable services to our county.

851
01:29:49,000 --> 01:29:56,000
So I'm sorry I didn't answer your initial question. Perhaps our resource agency experts would like to answer that question.

852
01:29:56,000 --> 01:30:00,000
I think it wasn't quite so...

853
01:30:00,000 --> 01:30:18,000
Holistic, as it sounded. Really what I was asking was, was the original inventory part, for example, of a comprehensive plan process? Is that what drove it at that stage? And is that where the inventory exists in the comprehensive plan?

854
01:30:18,000 --> 01:30:33,000
Yes, and yes, and Peter will be probably the better one to answer as he's certainly has more expertise and experience with this than I do. But yes, it is the inventory is adopted as part of the comprehensive plan.

855
01:30:33,000 --> 01:30:44,000
And whether it was initially created because of goal five, the goal five inventory that we have, which is part of this process, and we were compelled to do that as part of our initial comprehensive plan.

856
01:30:44,000 --> 01:30:50,000
And then we focused on other things over the years, but not allocating resources to this.

857
01:30:50,000 --> 01:31:04,000
This is so timely. And I think we're one of the only counties in the state to consider an inventory update because it is a significant undertaking. But yes, it is a part of the comprehensive plan and the comprehensive plan update process.

858
01:31:04,000 --> 01:31:20,000
So in fact, it may be if the Board of County Commissioners decided appropriate and the there is an update to the cap to the comprehensive plan to the county, then to actually have it occur as part of that wouldn't be a bad fit.

859
01:31:20,000 --> 01:31:32,000
Yeah, that's right. It could be a standalone amendment, which I think is a valuable conversation for us to have this summer, or is it is it rolled into and included as part of the comprehensive plan update process.

860
01:31:32,000 --> 01:31:34,000
They could be other one.

861
01:31:34,000 --> 01:31:35,000
Very good.

862
01:31:35,000 --> 01:31:41,000
I noticed that actually Maggie Kirby looks as though she's dropped off the one of the other planning commissioners.

863
01:31:41,000 --> 01:31:50,000
Maggie is in an unfavorable time zone, which is probably why she's had to go and attend to other things.

864
01:31:50,000 --> 01:32:00,000
Tanya, where were you hoping to go from here in terms of this meeting? I'm not talking about your plan for the world.

865
01:32:00,000 --> 01:32:13,000
Well, in 10 years, yes, thanks for that question. I actually covered most of the next steps in the answer to the question previously asked about potential next steps.

866
01:32:13,000 --> 01:32:26,000
I would probably just end by plugging the survey. Once again, I will just very briefly share my screen one last time if you don't mind.

867
01:32:26,000 --> 01:32:35,000
So this is at the end of the story map where it says, what do you think this button here takes you to the survey, which is very quick.

868
01:32:35,000 --> 01:32:42,000
Just it gauges general support and as I said before offers a big blank box for you to type in your thoughts if you'd like.

869
01:32:42,000 --> 01:32:49,000
This is open until May 6. So about another week. It's been out open. It'll be about a month total.

870
01:32:49,000 --> 01:32:58,000
So we would really love to have those responses. I thought I would have, I don't have a number of how many people have responded to the survey thus far.

871
01:32:58,000 --> 01:33:07,000
I will say now that I remembered that a few days were about this just general forum format.

872
01:33:08,000 --> 01:33:21,000
We're also interested in hearing what you think of this process, the zoom, the Facebook live in general, because, you know, even if COVID, you know, goes away and our procedures become much more in person.

873
01:33:21,000 --> 01:33:30,000
There is some value, I think, in this virtual medium as well. So if you have comments just about that, we'd love to hear it.

874
01:33:31,000 --> 01:33:42,000
And, oh yes, sorry. A few days after the first open house we had a count of approximately, I believe it was over 2000 people who had viewed this on Facebook live.

875
01:33:42,000 --> 01:33:48,000
So that's extremely encouraging and hopefully we'll have similar numbers for this open house as well.

876
01:33:48,000 --> 01:33:58,000
So I will just end with that and thanks for everything, for everybody's great questions and for coming out and please take our survey and you can also email me comments as well.

877
01:33:58,000 --> 01:34:07,000
And we'll be, as Peter said, posting updates to the project in terms of meetings or forums or anything like that on the project website.

878
01:34:07,000 --> 01:34:23,000
So Tanya, in terms of anybody who wants to respond via the website with sufficient time that they might get really important comments into your report for the Board of County Commissioners,

879
01:34:23,000 --> 01:34:31,000
how long will that time period be for additional testimony to be given?

880
01:34:31,000 --> 01:34:35,000
I'm not sure I understand the question we have.

881
01:34:35,000 --> 01:34:43,000
The response website could stay open forever, but you're going to prepare a report for the County Commissioners and they're going to look at it sometime,

882
01:34:43,000 --> 01:34:46,000
presumably in the next two or three months.

883
01:34:46,000 --> 01:35:00,000
Anybody who wants to get their comments in and have them recognized maybe by being elevated through a comment which is actually repeated by your report to the County Commissioners

884
01:35:00,000 --> 01:35:06,000
will be well advised to actually put their question comment in fairly soon.

885
01:35:06,000 --> 01:35:07,000
Yes.

886
01:35:07,000 --> 01:35:09,000
How long is fairly soon?

887
01:35:09,000 --> 01:35:17,000
I would say that the same May 6 deadline for the survey itself, if you have larger comments to email me, let's go by that.

888
01:35:17,000 --> 01:35:19,000
It's not super hard and fast.

889
01:35:19,000 --> 01:35:24,000
Obviously, this is a continuing conversation, but the sooner you get that in, the better.

890
01:35:24,000 --> 01:35:29,000
And that's not to say that if you email me in June, we're going to ignore your comments.

891
01:35:29,000 --> 01:35:31,000
It just might not make it into that report.

892
01:35:31,000 --> 01:35:37,000
So I would encourage May 6, just whether it's survey or email or handwritten letter, let's go with that.

893
01:35:37,000 --> 01:35:38,000
Thank you.

894
01:35:38,000 --> 01:35:39,000
Very good.

895
01:35:39,000 --> 01:35:40,000
Thank you.

896
01:35:40,000 --> 01:35:50,000
So I checked at one point and it looked as though our rebroadcast through the encoder site was not happening at least at the beginning of the meeting.

897
01:35:50,000 --> 01:36:02,000
So let me just say again, the intention is to re-record this Zoom and Facebook live meeting and we will broadcast it via,

898
01:36:02,000 --> 01:36:09,000
and it will be available via the County Meeting Portal at some time in the next few days.

899
01:36:09,000 --> 01:36:16,000
So that will become our record of this community meeting.

900
01:36:17,000 --> 01:36:31,000
I think if I may, I'd like now formally just to start the wrap up of the meeting, but let me just pause in case any one of the people who are still with us,

901
01:36:31,000 --> 01:36:35,000
and we've actually only lost three people since we started.

902
01:36:35,000 --> 01:36:45,000
Have any last questions, comments, or indeed any of the experts or planning commissioners or Wendy yourself or Tanya,

903
01:36:45,000 --> 01:36:51,000
you really should pay your electricity bill and it wouldn't keep going out on you.

904
01:36:51,000 --> 01:36:52,000
Okay.

905
01:36:52,000 --> 01:37:01,000
So one of the things which it's important to remember, and I think it's largely true from the county's point of view at least,

906
01:37:01,000 --> 01:37:09,000
we may actually have a lot of public recognition, moral authority, how we want to call it.

907
01:37:09,000 --> 01:37:18,000
A bit like ODF and W, we don't actually own any of the land on which the wildlife lives,

908
01:37:18,000 --> 01:37:26,000
except through regulation, through statute, through encouragement.

909
01:37:26,000 --> 01:37:33,000
But at the end of the day, compliance and enforcement really is in the hands of the landowners.

910
01:37:33,000 --> 01:37:39,000
And in Dishoops County, 80% of the land is actually held publicly.

911
01:37:39,000 --> 01:37:47,000
And the two major owners, leaving aside the state because it's a relatively small holding in Dishoops County,

912
01:37:47,000 --> 01:37:55,000
but the US Forest Service I think is fairly wildlife resource management orientated.

913
01:37:56,000 --> 01:38:00,000
Looking at the area, for example, that is the Dishoops Wildlife Corridor,

914
01:38:00,000 --> 01:38:06,000
which is actually about 27 square miles owned by the BLM,

915
01:38:06,000 --> 01:38:13,000
there the deer population now is down to 28% of its carrying capacity.

916
01:38:13,000 --> 01:38:17,000
Andrew, I think that's about the right number.

917
01:38:17,000 --> 01:38:22,000
And the reason for that is the closer you get to bend,

918
01:38:22,000 --> 01:38:29,000
the more incursion you get from motorized vehicles, drones,

919
01:38:29,000 --> 01:38:36,000
people using ultralights and all sorts of things that effectively are having an impact on the environment,

920
01:38:36,000 --> 01:38:45,000
which at least in the short term is probably much greater than the impact that year on year occurs because of development.

921
01:38:45,000 --> 01:38:51,000
So I think it would be very good in terms of the public discussion if it was going to continue

922
01:38:51,000 --> 01:39:01,000
to really try and encompass also public education to encourage not enforcement but compliance.

923
01:39:01,000 --> 01:39:11,000
I think that way our admiration and our reason for living in Dishoops County can be so much more meaningful

924
01:39:11,000 --> 01:39:17,000
that we actually not just enjoy living here and we're not loving it to death,

925
01:39:17,000 --> 01:39:26,000
but rather we're taking responsibility, public responsibility for this beautiful place that we live.

926
01:39:26,000 --> 01:39:33,000
Unless that's really caused somebody to want to make any comments at 7.41,

927
01:39:33,000 --> 01:39:37,000
I would like to draw the meeting to a close,

928
01:39:37,000 --> 01:39:45,000
noting we still have lost only three people from our starting participant number, which is excellent,

929
01:39:45,000 --> 01:39:50,000
and I adjourn this virtual community meeting.

930
01:39:50,000 --> 01:39:54,000
Thank you very much indeed for your participation, one and all.

931
01:40:07,000 --> 01:40:09,000
Thank you.