Federal Agencies Work Group Meeting Minutes, October 15, 2001

LAKE CHAMPLAIN BASIN PROGRAM
FEDERAL AGENCIES WORK GROUP

OCTOBER 15, 2001, MEETING SUMMARY

LOCATION:
Lake Champlain Basin Program Office - Grand Isle, Vermont

ATTENDEES :

•  Erik Beck, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, New England Region, 617/918-1606, Beck.erik@epa.gov

•  Paul Brewster, U.S. Forest Service, Green Mountain National Forest, 802/747-6704, pbrewster@fs.fed.us

•  Clayton Grove, U.S. Forest Service, Green Mountain National Forest, 802/747-6740, dgrove@fs.fed.us

•  Jurij Homziak, Sea Grant, University of Vermont, 802/656-0682, jhomziak@nature.snr.uvm.edu

•  Bill Howland, Lake Champlain Basin Program, 802/372-3213, bill.howland@anrmail.anr.state.vt.us

•  Gina Johnson, National Park Service, Saratoga National Historic Park, 518/664-9821, gina_johnson@nps.gov

•  Fran Keeler, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Vermont, 802/951-6795. fkeeler@vt.nrcs.usda.gov

•  Brian Mrazik, U.S. Geological Survey, Water Resources Division, New Hampshire/Vermont, 603/226-7807, bmrazik@usgs.gov

•  Donna Parrish, U.S. Geological Survey, Biological Resources Division, University of Vermont, 802/656-2693, donna.parrish@nature.snr.uvm.edu

•  Michaela Stickney, Lake Champlain Basin Program, 802/241-3619, michaela.stickney@anrmail.anr.state.vt.us

•  Dave Tilton, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Lake Champlain Office, 802/951-6313, dave_tilton@fws.gov

•  Gail Woolley, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, New York District, 212/264-5537, gail.s.woolley@nan02.usace.army.mil

SUMMARY:

Introduction: Lake Champlain Basin Program and Opportunities for Action

This was the inaugural meeting of the Lake Champlain Basin Program Federal Agencies Work Group, established to facilitate implementation of priority actions identified in Opportunities for Action: An evolving plan for the future of the Lake Champlain Basin . The Work Group decided that Dave Tilton would serve as chairman during the first year of a rotating chairmanship, and the responsibility for preparing minutes of the Work Group meetings would rotate among members at each meeting.

Bill Howland provided an overview of the makeup of the Lake Champlain Steering Committee, which oversees the Lake Champlain Basin Program and has responsibility for coordinating among organizations to encourage implementation of Opportunities for Action . Bill also provided an overview of the Basin Program's budget process and the ongoing process of updating Opportunities for Action .

Work Group Membership

The Work Group reviewed an e-mail list of interested parties, and agreed to divide the names into two lists; as follows:

Members of the Lake Champlain Basin Program Federal Agencies Work Group : Erik Beck; Linda Cupter, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (linda.cupter@noaa.gov); Terry Faber, Environmental Protection Agency Region 2 (faber.theresa@epa.gov); Clay Grove; Gina Johnson; Grady Moore, U.S. Geological Survey, New York (lgmoore@usgs.gov); Brian Mrazik; Pauline Pare, Natural Resources Conservation Service, Vermont (pauline.pare@vt.nrcs.usda.gov); Donna Parrish; Dave Tilton; and Gail Woolley.

Interested parties to be included on the e-mail list for Work Group activities :

Mike Bartlett, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, New England Field Office (mike_bartlett@fws.gov); Paul Brewster; Eugene Brickman, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, New York District (eugene.brickman@nan02.usace.army.mil); Jim Connolly, Lake Champlain Basin Program (jcconnol@gw.dec.state.ny.us); Ward Freeman, U.S. Geological Survey, New York (wfreeman@usgs.gov); Bill Howland; Jurij Homziak; Cynthia Jester, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, New York District (cynthia.d.jester@nan02.usace.army.mil); Fran Keeler; Mark Malchoff, Sea Grant, Plattsburgh State University (mhm4@cornell.edu); Keith Robbins, U.S. Geological Survey, New Hampshire/Vermont (kwrobins@usgs.gov); Michaela Stickney; David Stilwell, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, New York Field Office (david_stilwell@fws.gov); Mark Sweeny, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Missisquoi National Wildlife Refuge (mark_sweeny@fws.gov); Jennifer Waite, National Park Service, Marsh Billings Rockefeller National Historical Park (jennifer_waite@nps.gov)

In addition to the agencies represented above, Dave agree to investigate whether representatives from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and the Federal Emergency Management Agency should get involved in the Work Group, and Fran agreed to investigate whether a representative from the Farm Services Agency should get involved.

Developing a Coordinated Approach to Reporting Funding

The Work Group discussed the need to develop a coordinated, “apples-to-apples” way each Federal agency can report its funding in support of the goals identified in Opportunities for Action , and reached the following agreements:

An accounting process would be developed so incoming agency funding could be entered onto a spread sheet maintained by Bill Howland and other staff at the Lake Champlain Basin Program office. A “skeleton” spread sheet will be developed by Bill, Jurij Homziak and Erik Beck, which will be forwarded to the other members of the Work Group.

The spread sheet will include reporting of: (1) incoming Federal agency dollars to be used in the Lake Champlain Basin and how they are to be spent, (2) non-Federal match requirements, and (3) which provisions of Opportunities for Action are furthered by the Federal funding. In addition to other purposes, as deemed appropriate by the Work Group, these data will be used to satisfy the Federal funding parts of the Lake Champlain Basin Program's Annual Report.

When grants from other agencies and organizations are received by agencies represented in the Work Group, they will be reported by the executing Federal agency. For example, a National Science Foundation grant secured by the Vermont Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit would be reported by the Unit, representing the U.S. Geological Survey.

When an agency represented in the Work Group allocates funding to a non-Federal partner, the Federal agency will report those funds in the spread sheet. For example, EPA will report the funding used to support staff operations at the Lake Champlain Basin Program.

Representatives of the Federal agencies will need to obtain any relevant funding information for the agency, sometimes including programs outside the representative's immediate program. For example, the U.S. Army Corps' Civil Engineering and regulatory programs should be reported. Similarly, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's Management Assistance, Ecological Services and wildlife refuge programs should be reported.

Funding data will include direct project costs, such as EPA's allocation to support the Basin Program staff, direct administrative costs, such as salary and equipment costs to support U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologists' stream restoration activities, and reasonable indirect administrative costs or “overhead,” which will be determined at the discretion of the Work Group member.

Work Group members should submit data summarizing their agencies' Lake Champlain-related funding in Federal fiscal year 2001 to Bill Howland by January 8, 2002. Thereafter, the Work Group agreed to submit data for the report on a quarterly basis, tabulating incoming funding for the preceding three months. These data would be reviewed during quarterly meetings, among other agenda items.

Next Meeting

The Work Group agreed to convene again at the Lake Champlain Basin Program Conference Room on January 15, 2002, from 10:00am to 1:00pm. In addition to continuing work, as needed, on the funding spread sheet, the agenda will provide an opportunity to discuss development of a report of opportunities for further accomplishments by Federal agencies under the Lake Champlain Basin Program umbrella.

Respectfully submitted,

__________________________________________

David A. Tilton, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
Chairman