Colorado NRCS Leadership Team Teleconference Minutes
September 19 - 21, 2007

Attendees: State office Principle Staff and Area Conservationists

Notetaker: Debbie Kanatzar

Facilitator: Doug Ramsey, RC&D Coordinator in the San Luis Valley

Area Reports:

• David D. – Area 1:
• A National salinity review is being conducted in Utah and Colorado.
• Participated in the Colorado State Conservation Board meeting hosted in the Grand Junction Area office.
• USGS gave an update on the Grand Junction Urban Water Study that assesses the impacts of urban irrigation practices on salinity loading to the Colorado River.
• Carl Zimmerman and GJFO staff conducted a tour of BOR irrigation system structures on Highline Canal Check Structures for managing water delivery to water users that allows less water to be diverted from the Colorado River.
• Jason Peel, IWM Specialist, and Delta, Shavano, and Mesa Conservation District IWM Specialist demonstrated how the technology equipment on the Mobile Irrigation Lab is used when working with irrigated farmers. The demonstration was conducted on the Mel Rettig farm.
• New Castle forest fire area was approved for an EWP.
• The EWP was to address flooding threat to residential areas in New Castle.
• Prior to EWP approval run off caused a mud flow moving debris and boulders that buried a track hoe, threatened residential property and closed Interstate 70.
• Ed Neilson and Frank Riggle met with USFWS and received initial approval for revising the Salinity Wildlife Monitoring and Evaluation procedures for the Lower Gunnison Salinity Project Area.
• Cathee W. – Area 4:
• Jeff Burwell presented the NRCS segment for the San Luis Valley Solar Pivot Project Dedication on August 14; the project was awarded a CIG grant for $75,000.
• Met late rate goal of 75% of contract on schedule
• FY 08 Lynne Price and Lynn Hahn will be in the area to conduct training on the performance elements.
• Colorado Civil Rights Committee update.
• Civil Rights elements discussed
• Civil Rights reviews discussed
Recruitment to improve workforce diversity discussed
• Training on recruitment discussed
• John K. – Area 3:
• EQIP sign-up discussed
• Fire EWP rehabs for two fire areas.
• Rapid Watershed Assessments- ongoing.
• Jeff Koster transferring to Rochester, Minnesota.
• Watershed coordination position(s).
• Assist Field offices.
• Multi-county responsibilities of data, especially in Pueblo.
• Roy H. – Area 2:
• Employee updates – 3 vacancies; 2 in Akron and an IWM Tech position
• Kindra Brandner was selected as a member to the National Strategic Planning and Accountability Deputy Area Advisory Board
• Several new energy initiatives are getting attention. In particular are the community scale bio-diesel production efforts that are occurring across the Area. Some of these involve test plots of Camolina to determine the feasibility of growing this crop for bio-diesel production
• Late Rate and back log items were discussed. Late rate looks good, but we may just be modifying practices to future years. This might result in our late rate taking a jump in the first quarter of the new fiscal year
• Even though some parts of the Area have received good moisture there are still areas that are very dry.
• Land resources of small land users that have been foreclosed on are showing the effects of abandonment. This problem will probably increase as time goes on and we will hear more complaints about weed problems.
• Proposal to develop a slash management practice.
• NRI’s are going well; however, and are a very time consuming task, we would like to see them contracted out in FY08
• Mobile office concept is being pursued by several offices in the Area

• CNMP
• Karma and Gene visited Field offices to determine the barriers and to come up with ideas about what we are going to do differently.
• Proposing a meeting with Allen, John A. and Jeff to review the findings and ideas from the evaluation to determine where to go next.
• ECS
• Colorado finalized an agreement with SHPO
• Allows us to train and certify our staff to complete most on-site evaluation.
• Without the agreement SHPO requires a DOI qualified certified archeologist for all evaluations.
• The agreement can be cancelled in 30-days if SHPO feels it is necessary.
• Environmental evaluations need to be taken seriously.

• Change in the Agency – we will no longer have an 'official' National Ethics staff; however, there will be some type of ethics contact at NHQ. The official ethics direction, guidance, and training will be handled at the Department level.
• Frank would like to address ethics concerns at all Area DC meetings.

• Rush Watershed Rapid Assessment document provided, and we're planning on publicizing the posting of the original six RWA's on the website.
• Watershed Awareness meetings are contracted through CACD.
• Request for Proposal was sent to the local Districts and they received three; Springfield, Trinidad, and San Luis Valley.
• The local group should notify the Water Resources staff on which 8-digit Hydrologic units are needed.
• District Hosted Watershed Awareness meetings
• NRCS may provide information, but we are not to lead the watershed meetings.
• This is an opportunity for the local groups to provide input into the process.
• Fort Morgan developed a summary packet that would be a good example or positive outcomes desired from a meeting since this was a highly successful meeting.
• Goal is to have all 8-digit watersheds completed by 2009-2010.
• Involvement from all offices will be needed to assist in accelerating the project.

• FY07
• WHIP
• Funded 14 agreements
• Returned about $40,000 to NHQ to help cover national project for in-stream flow fisheries habitat.
• GRP - completed 2 easements for over 5000 acres on ranches in the sagebrush ecosystem of Moffat County
• WRP
• 15 applications
• 5 rejected by landowners based lower than expected appraised value of easements
• Sent some WRP funds back
• Worked with Wyoming NRCS on the Little Snake project near Baggs, WY as a potential special project area.
• FRPP
• Supported a national NRCS easement training session last November in Denver.
• Working with OGC in general on language that would strengthen protection of the water rights where the water is critical to the easement.
• The landowner remains the holder of the water right, not NRCS
• Great Outdoors Colorado Board of Directors tour this week – Rich Rhoades and Greg Langer are representing NRCS.
• The pending Lowell Ranch FRPP easement will be the largest parcel in the FRPP nationally once executed.
• CSP
• No sign up in 2007.
• Three different payment sequences during FY 2007 based on allocations received from Congress
• CSP National training in Indianapolis this week.
• Anticipate CSP sign up in January or February 2008 in the Lower John Martin Watershed in Area 3. FY08
• FY08
• EQIP
• Implementation this fall
• New Farm Bill proposed changes may have significant impact on who is eligible.
• Try to proceed with EQIP program and fund by December 2007.
• Anticipate a new Farm Bill by the end of the calendar year.
• Pressure on the field is anticipated
• We do not want to change anything except the payment schedule.
• November 2nd is the cut off for applications.
• Ranking and screenings should be in the system by mid-October
• Mid-November we will look at funding available.
• New procedures will be out later in the spring.
• July 1, 2008 planned initial application cut off on FY2009 EQIP, WHIP and WRP programs
• Presentations to watersheds and the State Technical Committee will be made after the Farm Bill is out.
• Cancellations/Terminations/Waivers
• Draft policy is being developed – Tim reviewed.
• We are looking to delegate the functions of managing cancellations and terminations to the contracting officer - Area Conservationists
• A tracking and reporting method will need to be developed.
• Letter templates will be provided to the Area Conservationists.
• Appeals or mediation would be handled by the State office.

• PRS - September 14 report reviewed
• Negotiation process will begin for FY08 which includes goals.
• Assign goals at the Field office level may be preferable.
• Justification to NHQ according to past trends may be an issue for reporting the progress.
• Staffing
• Budget – no significant increase in staffing
• We need to look at opportunities to build flexibility back into the Staffing Plan, e.g. term and temporary positions.

• Survey Updates
• Steve reviewed and explained the Flow Chart of NCSS Data Delivery
• State Soil Measures FY-07
• Web soil survey manuscripts posted
• New (complete) digital datasets posted
• MLRA Restructuring
• 5 MLRA Soil Survey offices
  • Fort Morgan – Andy Steinert
  • Pueblo – Lee Neve
  • Alamosa – Alan Stuebe
  • Fort Collins – Vacant
  • Grand Junction - Vacant
• MLRA Restructuring Staffing plan
• Fort Morgan – 2 positions
• Pueblo – 3 positions
• Alamosa – 3 positions
• Grand Junction – 3 permanent soil positions
• Fort Collins – 3 positions

• Continuity of Operations Plan (COOP) reviewed and explained.
• HR Audit covered, Colorado performed well
• DC Training Sessions scheduled for – October 15 – 17 and November 26 – 28.
• FY08 Training
• Assessments received.
• NEDC is having Excellences in Management course in Colorado – May 13 – 15.
• IDPs
• It will be a requirement for all employees to have an IDP.
• FY08 Civil Rights
• State reviews are planned for Grand Junction and Steamboat between October – December.
• ADA Compliant for ALL Areas
• IT Updates
• 228 new computers – 138 laptops are being replaced.
• ARCs and Engineers will have only one computer
• Tablets available for mobile offices
• Vehicles
• Oldest vehicles planned to keep are the 2000 – 2001 we are getting 49 vehicles

< Back to Leadership Team