Shiawassee River National Water Trail Coalition
Meeting Notes: January 19, 2017
Coalition Meeting #6
Phil and Sara met with other water trail efforts that lead to the Shiawassee National Wildlife Refuge, it is a hub for the Flint River, Cass River, and Shiawassee. All three groups have asked for support from the Refuge. Lionel Grant has been appointed as the single point of contact for all water trail efforts. Refuge will write a letter of support in regards to providing educational and conservation activities. They are not able to increase public access into the Refuge at this time. It was discussed that the actual water trail will end in Chesaning.
Support/Commitment Letters
We have about 1/3 done of 10 year agreements done
- All launches will need a 10 yr agreement/support letter, in addition we need as many support letters as possible for the application
- Suggestions of any additional organizations that should be added for letters of support? Outfitters or canoe rentals?
- Others have offered to get: FOSR (Sarah), Oakland County Parks/Planning (Sue), Outfitters or canoe rentals, BBR (Brian) Shiawassee Chamber of Commerce (Sarah), Argentine Twp. (Brian)
Inventory
Need to include a safety message regarding river flow and conditions
Keep Shiawassee River logo developed by Oakland County for use by the Coalition. Sara has digital files.
Best Management Practices
Phil reviewed status of Best Management Practices document and highlighted a few examples, full spreadsheet is on the coalition website
- Education: add activities from FOSR website, including Dam removals and Fish advisory information
- Conservation: add bank stabilization, management of woody debris for fish, dam removal, and brownfield remediation
Vision / Mission Update
MOU Agreement
- Needs to be a signed to form the Coalition and for application to be successful
- Draft MOU will be circulated for review
- Explicit language will be added stating the role of the Federal government, and it’s lack of authority in enforcement, etc
Action Items
- Comment on draft MOU
- Comment on draft of Shiawassee River Trail Vision
- Comment on Maps, Inventory and Assessment Report, BMP Checklist https://d3n8a8pro7vhmx.cloudfront.net/shiawasseeriver/pages/158/attachments/original/1469655437/BMP_Inventory_Factsheets.pdf?1469655437
- Sarah will redistribute templates for Letter of Support and Resolutions to Coalition
- Barbara will update MOU, Sarah will distribute to Coalition for review
- Sara will send Dave Richardson a template letter for Chesaning Chamber of Commerce to sign
- Sarah will send Brian Saad draft letter for Argentine to sign
- Sara will create postcard about coalition for Quiet Water Symposium in February
- Set up Google Alert for Shiawassee River – sends an email to you when an article is published about the river
Attendees
Tim Hill
Gary Burk
Dave Richardson
Brian Saad
Chris Rankin
Dianne King
Tom Cook
Deb McCarty
Phil Hathaway
Rex Mathewson
Sarah Baker
Sue Julian
Planning Meeting – Jan 19th 5:00pm
- Water trail being created to fulfill SBWIN grant and NWT application
- Phil will start a table of contents based on the Rock River plan
- Add section on conservation
- Add section on public information that includes signage and branding
- Estimates for improvements or could be included in local capital improvement plans, may not need to include them in plan like Arenac County plan
Coalition Priorities
- Public information / coordination
- Organization of partnership
- MOU being drafted now for Friends of the Shiawassee, Headwaters Trails, Keepers, Chesaning, Linden and Holly to sign on to
- Application is due in May, draft needed by mid-April
- Coalition building is needed to expand and strengthen application