Minutes of the January 15, 2009 Southern Division Reservoir Committee Meeting

SDAFS Reservoir Committee

Meeting Minutes

Meeting Recorders

Minutes of the Southern Division Reservoir Committee meeting
held on January 15, 2009 (New Orleans, Louisiana)

Reservoir Committee (RC) summer meeting minutes from Cedar Key, FL, are available online and were emailed to committee members. Motion to accept minutes: Dorsey; 2nd: Janssen
Financial Report: checkbook/account statements are still a problem. All future account information will be forwarded to Abney. Overall, the finances were unknown, but OK. There is roughly $14,000 in the Merrill Lynch account.
Scholarship Committee Report: all four applicants had impressive credentials; two were selected for Jenkins Memorial Scholarship: Melissa Fries (LSU) and Marybeth Brae (NC State). Checks will be written and sent to the winners when the checkbook is located.
- Mike Wood asked for details on the recipients…Fries is studying Florida bass incorporation into various lakes and Brae is studying food web dynamics in Lake Norman. Both recipients will receive the award next year as well if they reapply.

Old business:

Reservoir Symposium-all papers are at the printer, books should be available in February and can be pre-ordered on the AFS web site. There is a snag with distribution…all paid participants are to receive a copy as part of their registration. The cost for AFS members will be $48 per book, but AFS will allow the RC to get them at $24/each. RC needs to buy approximately 150 copies to cover registered attendees (total of ~$3600). Dorsey suggested distribution to RC members for their redistribution to attendees. Sammons and Allen will disseminate those books once received, perhaps through state resource offices. Sammons will contact Abney and Vic DiCenzo for a list of paid attendees from Abney for distribution.
1995 Reservoir Symposium book is now out of print; therefore RC will receive no additional revenue from that book once it is sold out. AFS reports there are less than 200 copies left of the 1983 Reservoir Symposium, and once that is gone, they will not reorder.

New business:

Secretary/Auditor position- The position exists in the bylaws, but we may need to make a slight adjustment to Secretary-Treasurer and add an option to renew after the 2-year term. Sammons and Boxrucker looked into changing the bylaws during the break. Abney is still the appointee and is willing to remain in the position. After discussion, the conclusion was to use existing SDAFS committee bylaws as a guide and rewrite RC bylaws to include three officer positions: chair, chair-elect, and Secretary/Treasurer. Sammons will appoint someone familiar with bylaws and EXCOM to rewrite. Summers noted that the best format to use is strikeout/underline when sending to EXCOM for approval.
SARP- The reservoir portion of the Habitat Plan is still to be edited, but close to completion. RC submitted two habitat projects for consideration 1) Pugh’s MS Tenn-Tom waterway enhancement project, and 2) Allen’s whole reservoir manipulation project. Both will serve as demonstration type projects to give the SARP committee an idea of the types of projects under consideration. Reservoir habitat classification is still under development (see discussion below). Committee members noted that they had not seen Allen’s proposal and would like a copy e-mailed to them for further distribution. The RC would be interested in administering this project if suitable sites could be found. It was hoped that after disseminating the proposal throughout the SDAFS fish and game agencies, willing partners and suitable sites might be found.
Reservoir Partnership- The Reservoir Habitat Partnership would like to have a plan in place by August. Boxrucker presented a list of potential habitat assessment metrics for RC consideration and possible incorporation into the Plan. Much discussion ensued. RC supports a portion of the Reservoir Habitat Partnership’s definition of a “reservoir” that includes public use. There was less understanding and/or agreement on the reservoir habitat assessment methodologies, but after much discussion, the RC was able to help Boxrucker refine the list of metrics. It was suggested that the list be used to identify common problems or attributes in poor reservoirs, and then applied to all reservoirs regionally once a refined list of metrics is achieved.
In a nutshell, SARP wants the RC to work out habitat assessment methodologies. The Reservoir Habitat Partnership is looking at multiple additional methodologies to assess habitat. It is unknown how SARP and the Reservoir Habitat Partnership will coexist and address potential future funding concerns. It would be helpful if the RC could make recommendations about how the two fit together and how the habitat assessment methodologies might intertwine.
More reservoir habitat discussion- Janssen and Dennis discussed ongoing habitat classification systems in TX and AR. Both seem promising and have diverse utilities based on assessment needs. After even more discussion, the issue was tabled until the summer meeting. This is expected to be the main topic during the 2009 summer meeting. The goal is to develop a substrate classification system that could be used to classify habitat in all reservoirs, similar to the Wentworth system used in streams. Once completed, this could be a valuable tool for both SARP and the Reservoir Habitat Partnership to use to develop priorities for funding.
RC would like to modify the existing priority list of reservoirs in SARP habitat plan. The original list from States was developed in many different ways, but generally includes the most high-profile or best fisheries in each state. This was identified as a problem during the 2008 summer meeting. RC would like to target bad reservoirs for habitat work, and will redevelop the list using 2-3 reservoirs from each state with poor fisheries or numerous habitat issues. The RC debated whether or not we could do this “in house” or if we needed to host a workshop by bringing in reservoir experts from across the SDAFS. It was decided that the RC constituted enough expertise to be able to produce such a list without dealing with a workshop format. We decided that each state representative should attempt to produce such a list for their state, and e-mail their new list to Sammons, in time to discuss at the 2009 summer meeting, with a goal of presenting a comprehensive list at the SARP Steering Committee meeting in fall 2009.
Summer meeting 2009 - either Georgia (south of Atlanta) or Texas (Texoma Biological Station). Kuklinski will check on availability of the Texoma Station and report back to Sammons. Otherwise, he will organize the meeting in Georgia. We can utilize web conferencing to increase involvement during extreme travel restrictions.
Round-table discussion was eliminated due to time constraints. Members were asked to send updates to Janssen for inclusion on the web site.
Motion to adjourn at approximately 4:15pm: Wood; 2nd: Dorsey

Attendees:

Steve Sammons Auburn University	Joey Slaughter Southern Company	Dan Shoup OK State University
Lawrence Dorsey NC Wildlife Commission	Jeff Boxrucker OK Department of Wildlife	Kurt Kuklinski OK Department of Wildlife
Gene Gilliland OK Department of Wildlife	Greg Summers OK Department of Wildlife	Larry Pugh MS DWFP
Jim Hendrick WV Division of Wildlife	Fred Janssen Office of the Attorney General of Texas	Dan Daugherty Texas Parks and Wildlife
Michael Armstrong AR Game and Fish	D. Colton Dennis AR Game and Fish	Craig Bonds Texas Parks and Wildlife
Stan Todd AR Game and Fish	Kevin Hopkins AR Game and Fish	John Taylor Texas Parks and Wildlife
Brandon Thompson FL Fish & Wildlife	Jason Dotson FL Fish & Wildlife	Mike Wood LA Department of Wildlife and Fisheries
Nathan Evans OK State University	Drew Lane OK State University	Gary Saul Texas Parks and Wildlife
Scott Robinson SARP