BLM OR/WA Cooperating Agencies Advisory Group (CAAG) Meeting

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BLM OR/WA Cooperating Agencies Advisory Group (CAAG) Meeting August 23, 2012 BLM Eugene District Office 3106 Pierce Parkway Suite E Springfield, OR 97477 ACTION WHO BY WHEN Meeting materials Chris

1 BLM OR/WA Cooperating Agencies Advisory Group (CAAG) Meeting August 23, 2012 BLM Eugene District Office 3106 Pierce Parkway Suite E Springfield, OR ACTION WHO BY WHEN Meeting materials Chris Strebig 8/30 posted to the BLM website including NEPA PPT Draft meeting summary sent to CAAG DS Consulting 8/30 (one week after meeting) Revised Operating DS Consulting 9/14 Principles sent to CAAG Doodle poll re: CAAG DS Consulting 9/14 meeting schedule post- October Subcommittee*: Outreach/messaging subcommittee convened for initial meeting/plan* Amy Amoroso, E. Lynn Burkett, Chris Strebig, Annabelle Jaramillo (?) 9/14 Subcommittee*: Agenda planning will develop Sept agenda Subcommittee*: Data/Information Development convened for initial meeting/plan Lessons Learned Content Analysis and Scoping Report Draft Lessons Learned Action Plan Legal Support Team (to be formed) Standing updates at CAAG meetings Mark Brown, Mark Johnson, Theresa Kubo, Van Manning, Tim Vredenburg, State rep (TBD) Chad Davis, Don Hofheins, Theresa Kubo, Van Manning, Tim Vredenburg Chris Strebig Chris Strebig & others CAAG members will consider needs and timing for forming this team WSC and CAAG members re: discussions related to this 9/14 9/14 End of September Before next CAAG meeting, for review Discuss at September CAAG meeting All upcoming meetings

2 effort Sign MOUs CAAG members Next meeting * Subcommittee work and process is discussed in the Next Steps section of this summary, and will be noted in the Operating Principles as an important component of the process. In Attendance for All or Part of the Meeting: Cooperating Agencies (CAAG) Amy Amoroso (Cow Creek Tribes), Howard Crombie (Confederated Tribes of the Coos, Lower Umpqua and Siuslaw Indians), Chad Davis (Oregon Dept of Forestry), Annabelle Jaramillo (Benton County), Mike Kennedy (Confederated Tribe of Siletz Indians), Rod Kraemer (Oregon Dept of Fish and Wildlife), Kim Kratz (NOAA Fisheries), Teresa Kubo (EPA), Van Manning (Association of O&C Counties), Rocky McVay (Director, Association of O&C Counties), Ben Meyer (NOAA Fisheries), Ric Rine (US Forest Service), Dave Powers (EPA), Jim Thrailkill (US Forest Service) BLM Staff Dayne Barron (Medford District Manager, BLM), E. Lynn Burkett (Lakeview District Manager, BLM), Chris Cadwell (Forester, BLM), Ginnie Grilley (Eugene District Manager, BLM), Jerry Hubbard (WSC Facilitator, BLM), Mark Johnson (Coos Bay District Manager, BLM), Mike Mottice (Acting State Director, BLM), Cheyne Rossbach (Public Affairs Officer, BLM), Polly Shannon (Eugene Deputy District Manager, BLM), Chris Strebig (Public Affairs Officer, BLM), Katrina Symons (Roseburg District Manager, BLM), Shelli Timmons (Management and Program Analyst, BLM), Kim Titus (Salem District Manager, BLM) Facilitation Team Robin Gumpert and Donna Silverberg, DS Consulting Welcome/Introductions After a round of introductions, Donna Silverberg and Robin Gumpert, DS Consulting, were introduced as the facilitation team who will assist BLM and the Cooperating Agencies as they work together toward a revised Western Oregon Resource Management Plan. They introduced the Five Finger Consensus Tool that could be used to help the group gauge their level of agreement on a given issue. A specific question is asked and individual participants respond by showing a number of fingers to indicate their level of agreement to move forward: o 1- I Enthusiastically support o 2- I m fine with it o 3- I have questions/am on the fence o 4- I have serious concerns and more discussion is needed o 5 I do not agree and will actively block After some discussion, the group agreed to use this scale so that 1s and 2s indicate strong agreement, and 3s, 4s or 5s indicate there is NOT a strong consensus and therefore the group needs to continue to discuss the issue. Operating Principles to Guide the Cooperating Agency Advisory Group A draft set of Operating Principles were developed per the CAAG discussion on 7/24; a refined draft was presented today that had been developed and refined by BLM staff, the agenda planning

3 team, and the facilitation team. Suggested edits were made and the revised version is attached to this summary. The group was polled and reached consensus (showing all 1s and 2s) on the revised draft. BLM Perspective Lessons learned from past planning effort Chris Strebig, BLM Public Affairs Officer, presented an overview of lessons learned from the Western Oregon Plan Revision effort and initial review of scoping comments for the current RMP for Western Oregon process. He synthesized information from 6 different documents, including action after reports, BLM employee interviews and WOPR team interviews. He also shared an initial analysis of common issues from nearly 500 comments received during the current scoping process. Chris identified the following overarching themes he read from the documented comments/reports: Use best practices for public involvement Enhance communication and relationship with CAAG and regulatory agencies Last effort had a very narrow decision space and affected the outcome Geographic scale adds complexity to collaborative efforts and can affect how people engage in the process Lack of decisive clarification of O&C Act will continue to lead to conflict and litigation Integrity of the EIS planning process is essential to arrive at an implementable outcome Need to identify science (peer reviewed) Chris discussed comments from the initial scoping process held March-July 2012 and said other sources for guidance include a 2006 scoping report, public comments, plan evaluations and annual program summaries. Next Steps on Lessons Learned The Lessons Learned and Scoping Comment Summaries will be posted on BLM s website. BLM will work on a content analysis and scoping report and hopes to complete this report by the end of September. A Lessons Learned Action Plan will be developed that describes how BLM will approach this process differently based on the lessons learned from the past. CAAG will have an opportunity to review and refine this report before it is shared more broadly with the public. Roles in this Process State Director Mike Mottice offered that the State Director s role will be to help get the process firmly established, and to support the BLM Westside Steering Committee (WSC ) and CAAG by providing resources from BLM and helping with political cover. He also said he will get out of the way in order to allow the group to discuss and seek consensus on recommendations to BLM for their Western Resource Management Plan. He said he is optimistic that the decision space will be broader this time, and that the process and report will include a spectrum of interests and alternatives that BLM will develop and analyze together with its Cooperating Agency partners. BLM District Managers Mike said that the Plan will actually be a plan for each District based on an EIS. Six Records of Decision (RODs) will be recommended by the District Managers and approved by the State Director. The WSC is comprised of all BLM District Managers, State office representatives including Deputy Director Mike Haske, and Coquille Tribe representative Tim Vredenburg. The WSC is chaired by Mark Johnson, Coos Bay District Manager. Logistical decisions will be deferred to the BLM Project Manager, Mark Brown. The WSC Chair will have authority to make a decision on behalf of the WSC when needed, and can also elevate issues for resolution by

4 the State Director if deemed necessary. CAAG It will be the CAAG role to advise and make recommendations to the BLM about engaging the public, developing and refining options, informing which data will be used, and refining the final recommended plan. The CAAG will inform and be informed by the WSC s work; District Managers will be present and actively engaged in CAAG meeting discussions. Mike and others at the table said they preferred that recommendations include agreements reached by the CAAG and BLM District Managers, together, and that if a consensus is reached by the CAAG, it should be supported by the District Managers. Mike said he wants BLM to make decisions based on a broader spectrum of perspectives, not just the BLM perspective. Action: Future meetings will include a standing update from the WSC updating CAAG on any topics from their weekly discussions that are relevant to this process. Re: Elected Officials The group discussed and agreed that it will be helpful for this group to stay apprised of discussions individuals are engaged in with elected officials about issues related to this process. To that end, the agendas will reserve time for these updates. It was acknowledged that many individuals engage in discussions with elected officials in confidence so it is up to the individuals to have a clear understanding with their elected officials about what will be shared with this group. BLM s Regulatory Responsibilities Mike Mottice shared that the Notice of Intent provided a draft purpose statement for this process, which is to make revisions to guide the management of lands based on BLM s regulatory requirements. BLM must comply with all of these responsibilities: ESA O&C Act CWA FLPMA National Historic and Cultural Preservation Act Others Mike said this process will offer all of us the opportunity to expand our thinking around how to comply with each of these responsibilities, explore where they overlap and come up with a range of alternatives and shared solutions that meet multiple benefits. He suggested a triple bottom line approach be taken to manage a system s function and response in the areas of ecosystem, social/community and economic health. Views from the Cooperators Cooperating Agency participants reflected and responded to BLM s comments. They supported Mike s vision of finding integrated solutions and noted there are additional important laws and requirements not specifically mentioned in the presentation. One member said BLM must comply with all its responsibilities in FLPMA including Sec. 701(b) that makes an exception for uses that are in conflict with the timber resource management provisions of the O&C Act. CAAG members recognized the important role they will play in helping BLM find integrated solutions and saw the value this would have on getting public buy in. BLM was reminded of the important place consultation has in the process, and one tribal member suggested that the CAAG

5 step could make for a smooth and more expedited consultation process. One member suggested looking at the past planning process as a place to start, and another suggestion was to develop options based on different ideas that could become components of an alternative solution. NEPA Planning Process Overview Richard Hardt, BLM Eugene District Planner, presented an overview of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) Planning Process as it relates to BLM s requirement through the FLPMA to write Resource Management Plans (RMPs). His PPT presentation will be shared with the Cooperating Agency advisory group and posted to the BLM web page designated to this process. The following is a brief summary of his presentation NEPA o Helps public officials make decisions that have environmental consequences. o Does not mandate particular substantive results. BLM s Planning Process o Procedural mandate, identify purpose and need, scoping, identify issues for analysis, refine proposed action, develop alternatives, gather data and analyze alt., identify mitigation measures o Develops RMPs to ensure public lands are managed in accordance with the intent of Congress as stated in the FLPMA o Designed to guide and control future management actions NEPA and BLM Planning Process o Conduct scoping to determine significant impact o Prepare AMS to determine the ability to respond to the identified issues and opportunities o Planning criteria guides development of the RMP o Purpose & Need dictates the range of alternatives o Form alternatives that rigorously explore and objectively evaluate; no action, all reasonable alternatives o Affected environment to describe the effects of alternatives o Environmental consequences: direct effects, indirect effects, cumulative effects Reasonably foreseeable: highly probable based on known opportunities or trends An EIS must identify potential mitigation measures o Issue draft RMP/EIS Public review 90 day comment period Open house, public meetings Proposed RMP/Final EIS o Public Notice of Availability o 60 day Governors review o 30 protest period ROD/Approved RMP o Resolve recommendations o Describe decisions o Provide manage goals to guide future decision Moving Forward: Integrating Our Work Mark Johnson presented a Planning Road Map depicting the BLM Planning, Cooperating Agency and Public Engagement Processes. The visual showed that we are in the very early stages of the process. A BLM Interdisciplinary Team (IDT), soon to be convened, will serve as an important

6 technical resource to this Cooperating Agency advisory group and the overall planning process. BLM will work with staff and the WSC to frame up conceptual options that will be presented to the Cooperating Agencies at their next meeting. He said in all steps, the Cooperating Agencies will need to decide whether they will engage up front or provide feedback BLM prefers a shoulder to shoulder approach through all steps, to the extent possible. The Cooperating Agencies discussed how they will contribute to the process: o Inform and refine options o Assist with modeling o Share tools o Engage in data analysis o Develop assumptions o Review and refine management alternatives o Engage in subcommittees to address specific steps/ideas o Engage in pilot projects using existing management plans Re: Scope There was some discussion about how broad or narrow the scope of options should be. Some District Managers suggested that the scope not be narrowed too quickly, rather the group should look at a variety of options and clarify those areas where everyone can agree and determine which areas of divergence should also be captured and analyzed. Public Engagement Process The group discussed the value of engaging in a public process to: Inform the public about natural resource issues Allow opportunities to review draft documents Provide transparency about the Cooperating Agency process and progress toward a management plan Next Steps and Wrap Up Action items and assignments to subcommittees were identified and are captured in the table at the beginning of this document. Subcommittees will be formed throughout the process and should be comprised of a balance of representation across federal, state, local and tribal entities. Preferably, individuals will sign up based on interest, expertise and availability, and, each CAAG member will participate on at least one committee. The subcommittees identified today were the agenda planning (ongoing), data/information development (will meet at least once before the September meeting), outreach and messaging (will meet at least once before the September meeting), and legal support team engagement (will be convened later as appropriate). Meeting evaluation: The group evaluated today s meeting, requesting that coffee be available for future meetings, action items and decisions get clearly captured, and to the extent possible, everyone sits at the table. As appropriate, a legal support team may be invited to future meetings to support the process. They agreed to meet on the third Thursday for the next two meetings, and to revisit (via a Doodle poll sent out by DS Consulting) the option of changing these to the fourth Thursday so as not to conflict with holidays. The group agreed to meet next on September 27 from 8:30am -2:30 pm in the same location, the BLM Eugene District office.

7 This summary respectfully submitted by DS Consulting. Comments or questions on the notes can be sent to Thank you!

BLM S RESOURCE MANAGEMENT PLAN FOR WESTERN OREGON Cooperating Agencies Advisory Group Meeting. February 19, 2015 Eugene, Oregon

BLM S RESOURCE MANAGEMENT PLAN FOR WESTERN OREGON Cooperating Agencies Advisory Group Meeting February 19, 2015 Eugene, Oregon ACTION WHO BY WHEN Provide AOCC statement and graphics to CAAG DSC With Session