WDAFS Archives, Reports and Minutes

Western Division of the American Fisheries Society
EXCOM Business Luncheon
at the Annual Meeting in San Diego
Date: April 14, 2003

Participants: Don MacDonald, Lynn Starnes, Mary Buckman, Eric Wagner, Eric Knudsen, Dave Zafft, Tom McMahon, Chuck Knutson, Kristen Cieciel (Carol Kerkvliet's proxy), Bill Bradshaw, Monica Hiner, George Guillen, Dave Manning, Bob Greswell, Dave Lentz, Steve Elle, Pat Byorth, Fred Harris, Gus Rassam, John Monahan, Mike Belchik, Vaughn Paragamian, Casey Harthorn, Joe Margraf, Mary Whalen, Jim Tilmant, and Yvonne Muirhead

Welcome and Introductions

Quorum Established

Adoption of Meeting Minutes

Chapter Reports

2003 Annual Meeting
- The 2003 meeting has shaped up nicely and thus far, 75% of the target goal (500 conference delegates) for registration has been met.
Chapter Membership and Outreach
- The Chapter has focussed on public outreach this year and has created a brochure to advertise their Chapter. The Chapter currently has ~500 members.
General Information
- The Chapter is getting more involved with the Klamath River issue and is working on upgrading its web site. The Chapter is hoping to have 3 to 4 continuing education classes for its members per year.

The focus of Montana's Annual Chapter Meeting was the issue of pallid sturgeon. The pallid sturgeon is functionally extinct and is having difficultly propagating in its recovery program. The recovery program creating the brood stock is having difficultly with survival due to viruses and is in desperate need of help. The Chapter would like to draft a letter to the Federal government (Pat, is this correct?) since the issue is beyond the inter-agency level.
Coal Bed Methane
- The letter from the Montana Chapter and the Division helped to promote this issue in the state of Montana. The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has reviewed our comments and will be incorporating them into the standards on aquatic issues, which says a lot of our members. The comments from the Division were not part of a formal protest so BLM does not have to accept them.
General Information
- The Chapter is currently commenting on bull trout legislation and its critical habitat. The Chapter is feeling positive that the members of the legislature will make the right decision due to its recent history on these types of rulings. There has been 16 pieces of legislation that has been brought forward this year and 14 have ended up dead. The other two pieces have been modified to be palatable to fisheries scientists.

The Chapter's Annual Meeting focused on technology this year. There were a couple of continuing education classes that were offered at the meeting including a radiotelemetry class that were well attended.
Vaughn Paragamian, Dave Bennett, and Sharon Kieffer put together a technical writing class that was designed to help people wanting to publish a document. This class was very well received and the Chapter is considering offering this course at the 2004 meeting. It was suggested that Vaughn should get in contact with Jack Ganzhorn to discuss the possibility of offering credits for this course.
Fishes of Idaho Book
- The book received $2,000 from the Division and is a work in progress. Steve anticipates that the book should be completed by late 2004 or in 2005.
General Information
- The Chapter has put $1,000 towards the cutthroat trout documentary and has created a $500 undergraduate scholarship;
- Chapter membership is free to students who are members of the Parent Society;
- The Chapter is trying to recruit fish culture and disease scientists back into the Division; and,
- Dave Bennett and Richard Wallace received lifetime achievement awards from the Chapter.

Annual General Meeting
- This year the Chapter gave away student scholarships at the undergraduate, master's and doctorate levels;
- The Chapter is currently working on a position statement concerning marine reserves; and,
- Photography workshop by Rich Grost
Outreach
- The Chapter is creating a travelling poster and a brochure to attract new members. The Chapter is working on updating their web site on a consistent basis;
- Just finished writing a paper regarding marine reserves; and,
- Remaining active in the Oregon state legislature. Natural Resources is low on their priority list, so this is important. Two current issues are: 1. Hatchery vs. Wild—are they equal? 2. A two-sentence definition of “science” that would restrict what is considered the “Best Available Science.”

This year the Chapter had a special symposium on the Klamath River Fish Kill and it was intended to present all points of view on this issue. The Bureau of Reclamation declined the invitation to come and offer their opinion on the matter;
The Chapter would like to develop a scientific research center to focus on the issues concerning the Klamath River issues; and,
The Chapter will be having a workshop on invertebrate and fish surveys in July.

The Chapter really focussed the coal bed methane issue this year which was well-received at BLM;
The Chapter held a joint meeting with the Bonneville Chapter and had over 200 participants attending;
There were 3 continuing education classes that members could participate in;
The Chapter will hold another joint meeting with the Bonneville and the Division in 2004;
- The Colorado/Wyoming Chapter will look after the program and the Bonneville Chapter will look after the local arrangements for the meeting in Salt Lake City;
Membership
- The Chapter is trying to recruit members from non-traditional sectors
Endowment
- The Chapter has created an endowment at the University of Wyoming and Colorado State University that are worth $16,000 to $18,000 each;
- The endowment at the University of Wyoming will be named after Ron Remmick while the name of the endowment at Colorado State University will remain unchanged; and,
- The Chapter is working hard on getting more money for these endowments.

The book, Fishes of Alaska has been published this year and is selling well on AFS web site;
Students at this year's annual meeting were reimbursed for their expenses;
The Chapter wrote a letter to the Governor of Alaska regarding the Executive Order that was filed transferring fish habitat protection and permitting authority from the Alaska Department of Fish and Game to the Alaska Department of Natural Resources;
The Division supported the letter and sent its own letter to the legislature and the senate.
2005 AGM
- Eric Knudsen is the program chair for the 2005 meeting with the Division in Anchorage, Alaska;
- Bill Wilson will look after the local arrangements;
- The committee will work very closely with Barb Knuth who will be the President of AFS in 2005;
- The goal of the meeting is to create a great program and have lots of activities for the conference participants; and,
- Motto for meeting “2005 in 2005”—trying to break attendance record set in Monterey.

NPIC's Annual General Meeting
- The meeting was poorly attended this year, which may have been due to the fact that members did not receive enough notice. It was suggested that information for the annual general meeting should be going out to the newsletter, The Tributary and updated on the Chapter and Division's web sites.
Committees
- The Chapter will work with the Division of getting some of their committees active. More specifically, the Chapter will work with the Division on the Bull Trout Committee, Western Native Fishes Committee and on Ecosystem-Based Management issues.
Member Services
- The Chapter is working on its training operations, newsletter, expanding its awards program and updating its web site to serve its members better.
Information Transfer
- The Chapter is currently working on an issue of the newsletter, an ecosystem-based management initiative and on Western Native Fishes within its region.

The committee was able to meet its first goal by investing $50,000 into the market;
The Grants Funding Committee is now a standing committee;
The bylaws on the web site need to be updated;
The committee is working on raising funds for the endowment fund and the goal of the committee initially was to raise $100,000, but they may have set goal too low and may want to increase the goal to a quarter of a million dollars;
The retreat with the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation was very good for developing strategies for raising money. This retreat may become an annual event; and,
The committee needs to work with Friends of Fish and the Parent Society to help raise funds.

Results from the Division's election
- Joe Maragraf will be the new vice-president of the Division. It was a close race between Joe and Bob Hughes. Joe will now become the program co-chair for the 2005 meeting in Alaska; and,
- Kathryn Staley is still the nominating representative and Monica Hiner will be the secretary/treasurer for another term.
Because of another very low voter response, information on nominations should be moved to beginning of the newsletter;
The Division list server needs to be updated;
Mary Whalen needs to work with Allen Bingham regarding electronic voting;
Charging the electronic communications committee to have electronic and paper voting for the next election. The votes will somehow need to be tracked by the membership number so members are not voting more than once; and,
A ballot in the newsletter costs around five to six hundred dollars so electronic voting would save the Division this money. It was suggested that the ballot could be put in the newsletter and it could look like a registration form. This issue on voting has now been referred to the Electronic Communications Committee.

Members of the EXCOM suggested that we should have the 2006 meeting in Oregon, Montana or in Canada and have the 2007 meeting in Hawaii or Mexico. A meeting that is relatively close by in 2006 will help members travel to Mexico or Hawaii in 2007 by putting less strain on their employer's budget;
It was suggested that the Division should organize a special meeting in the next couple years in Hawaii or Mexico to see how much support it gets.
Next Steps
- The Division needs to send an email to Montana, Oregon and NPIC Chapters to solicit support for co-hosting the 2006 meeting in their location. If they are not interested then an email should be sent out soliciting support from any of the Chapters. It would be advantageous for the NPIC Chapter to co-host in 2006 because it may help generate membership involvement in their chapter. Members of the EXCOM also suggested that the 2006 meeting could be held in Reno or Las Vegas to entice Division members to make a holiday around the meeting;
- Chuck Knutson will contact the Hawaii Chapter to see if they are willing to co-host a Division meeting in 2007; and,
- It was suggested that the Division should seek advice from Phil Pister to arrange a meeting in Mexico.

The Committee is working on a position paper on the NRC review of science that went into the biological opinion. The Committee has been formed and will meet later today to discuss the next steps. The NRC has indicated that there is only 2 weeks to accept comments and they are willing to hear our comments. The Fish and Game are now finalizing their report and the Division should be encouraged to review the final products.

The issue of coal bed methane extraction is beginning to happen in various states and provinces and the issues (i.e., water quality) surrounding it remain the same. The comments that the Division put out were well received and the Committee is wondering how they should proceed from here. It was suggested that the Committee's comments should be published in an issue of Fisheries and they should start working on a position statement for the Division;
Members of the EXCOM suggested that the Division should be more involved in the environmental impact statements (EIS) that are related to coal bed methane extraction. The issue of coal bed methane extraction will be a major issue in the near future that will affect a number of states and province within the USA and Canada. The EXCOM was wondering if this issue should be brought to the Parent Society since it will affect a large geographic area. It was suggested that the Coal Bed Methane committee should create a generic document that will list the major concerns and issues that will go out to other organizations that are involved with land management, wildlife, and land rights issues. This document would be one to two pages in length and should be used as a news release as well as published in other magazines. The EXCOM would like this document to be released to the public so they can begin to make informed decisions regarding coal bed methane extraction within their community. The EXCOM and the Policy Review Committee will review this document before it is released. Bill Bradshaw and Pat Byorth have agreed to start writing the first draft of this generic document.

Both the Alaska Chapter and the WDAFS sent a letter to the Governor of Alaska indicating their concern with the Executive Order (E.O.) that was filed transferring fish habitat protection and permitting authority from the Alaska Department of Fish and Game (ADF&G) Habitat Division to the Alaska Department of Natural Resources (ADNR);
In addition, the WDAFS forwarded their letter to all members of the legislature and senate for review;
Several members of AFS testified at the public hearings on their own behalf and did not represent the WDAFS' position;
One committee in the legislature did move this issue to the floor but it was voted down;
The Division did receive a letter of support from one of the Senators regarding our position on the issue; and,
This E.O. will become law on April 18, 2003.

The Bonneville Chapter has developed a position statement regarding this issue;
The work that has been done by this committee has got the attention of the US Forest Service and there is increasing the pressure on Jim Whelan from it. The US Forest Service is getting involved in this issue by developing a contingency plan and identifying pristine waters. The identification of pristine waters will aid US Forest Service employees on where not to drop fire suppression material to help avoid the introduction of pathogens and exotic species in these areas;
Some members of the EXCOM suggested that members should become a designated agency person so that US Forest Service employees have to listen to their recommendations twice a day when they are fighting fires within their area;
Eric Wagner agreed to meet with the fire management symposia chairs in San Diego to discuss fire suppression and come up with a course of action; and,
It was suggested that we discuss the course of action with the Boise Fire Center.

The 2003 AGM has taken up a lot of Mary's time and she will start working on the rest of the web site when she returns home. The main page of the web site will feature a “current issues” section that members can access to learn what is going on in the Division. This section will be updated on a consistent basis to help attract more people to the site; and,
It was suggested that Mary should contact Allen Bingham to find out how electronic voting can be set up for the Division. Various members of the EXCOM would like to provide this service to our members, now that electronic voting was approved by the membership in 2003.

The Award of Excellence will be presented at the plenary session and there will be two recipients (Dr. Gary Sakagawa and Dr. Oscar Sosca-Nishizaki);
The Robert Borovicha Conservation Achievement Award will be presented to Prime Minister Jean Chretien at the plenary session;
The Conservation Achievement Award will be presented to Ted Turner and the Turner Foundation as well as Chelan County PUD;
Eric announced that the Cal/Neva Chapter won the 2003 Chapter of the Year Award for the Western Division. Their name will be forwarded to the Parent Society for inclusion into the Outstanding Chapter of the Year Award competition; and,
At the WDAFS Business Meeting, the awards of merit, past president award and awards of special recognition will be presented.

The committee has been asked to support and assist with gathering information for a radio telemetry synthesis project. This project will use data from telemetry projects to investigate some of the larger questions about bull trout movement. The committee is planning to meet in San Diego to discuss this project;
Four reviewers from the WDAFS Bull Trout Committee provided three reviews on the critical habitat rule to John Young at the US Fish and Wildlife Service. These reviews did not go through the WDAFS EXCOM or the Policy Review Committee since they were a request from the US Fish and Wildlife Service for three independent reviews on the critical habitat rule. In addition, the WDAFS was not asked to write a policy position statement on this rule.

The student subunit involved with the planning of the 2004 meeting is willing to help organize the continuing education classes to receive some funding from them. The members of the EXCOM agreed that it would be okay to do this, but it should be included as a line item in the 2004's memorandum of understanding. In addition, the student subunit should be in contact with the Division's continuing education committee for guidance.

This year there were 20 applicants for the Eugene Maughan and the William Trachtenberg scholarships. The scholarships are presented to a Master student and PhD candidate and are worth $1500 US each. Recipients were Benjamen Kennedy and Andrew Whitely. The William Trachtenberg scholarship is presented to a master or doctoral student in the general area of fisheries science and is worth $600 US. The recipient was Julian Olden;
Bob mentioned that the committee will need to recruit a committee member for next year and would like to have more contacts in Canada. Don MacDonald agreed to help Bob with the task of finding Canadian contacts.

The progress of the Cutthroat Trout Documentary has slowed down. The committee is negotiating with Montana State University and members of the committee will be following up with them. The committee is hoping to have the final product completed by Fall 2003. Thus far, the committee has raised $44,700 and has only dispersed ~$16,000 of it. The committee is hoping that all the Chapters will have a copy of it so it can be viewed at all the annual Chapter meetings.

There are 7 award nominations this year and the awards will be given out on Wednesday April 16, 2003;
REAP (Range Environmental Assessment Program) – This program is a voluntary assessment of ranch lands to ward off future environmental regulations. There will be 1-day symposia on livestock range management (chair Don Wiley) at the 2004 meeting in Salt Lake City.

The committee has recently revised the prospectus and refined the final products of the project. The chairs of the committee will be sending out a draft list of fishes that will be studied to all the Chapters for their review;
The committee is still short representatives from the Montana, Hawaii and the NPIC Chapter (particularly from the Canadian side) to participate on this committee. Although Gordon Haas currently resides in Alaska, he has extensive experience in B.C.;
The committee will look at the status of species in the drainages that occur in the Western Division and will highlight the data gaps and status of these species at the 2004 meeting;
Jim Tilmant is starting to the write the RFP for the project;
The committee's meeting yesterday was very successful and they accomplished a lot. The committee now has 12 work assignments that will be presented to its members and hopefully, members will volunteer for them.
Funding
- This project has 3 phases (survey, symposium, and data gaps) to it and will require substantial funding to achieve the project's goals. The committee has estimated that the project will require twice as much funding than was originally estimated.
Final Products
- A peer review publication of the symposia proceedings;
- A database (either paper or web based) on the status of species within the Western Division; and,
- The project will become a baseline study so it can be replicated every five years.

Casey Harthorn and Cindy Williams are trying to attend every Chapter meeting to discuss the Hutton Program. In addition, the Hutton Power Point presentation will be sent to the Division's officers so they can give the presentation to the Chapter meetings if Cindy or Casey is unable to attend. They are hoping to have a representative from every Chapter to help with mentor/student issues; and,
This year a number of students from the Western Division have been selected to participate in this program. Members of the EXCOM asked Casey how the students are matched with mentors. Casey indicated that it is easier to find the students and then match them to a mentor in their area. It was suggested that the student subunits become involved with this program to help recruit high school students in their area.

The best student paper will be given $200 at the conference. There was some discussion of whether it is better to give more money or more awards out when we have a surplus of money;
It was mentioned that we have still have not received a nomination for a gift membership from a number of the Chapters. Yvonne Muirhead will send out an email to follow up with the Chapters regarding their nomination; and,
The Division should be in the black once we receive our rebate cheque from the Parent Society regarding membership dues.

The EXCOM suggested that the grants should be increased from $5000 to $7500;
In addition, the EXCOM wanted to increase the membership promotion to $500;
The budget listed the 2003 AGM as only raising $5000 for the meeting but we are hoping to make $15,000. This will depend on the number of walk ins that come in for the conference; and,
The budget for 2004 was unanimously approved with the above changes.

1). Reauthorization of Federal Aid in Sport Fish Restoration Account – Chuck Knutson

In the last six years, 48 – 61% of the monies generated goes to boating organizations;
The sport fish restoration account normally receives 50 – 51.5% of these monies;
Currently with the new reauthorization, the sport fishing account will only receive 47.5% of these monies which is a lost of $800 000;
Next Steps
- Chuck will send a letter to Gus on this issue that will be reviewed by the EXCOM beforehand;
- The EXCOM agreed that we need to be more proactive on this issue and be prepared for the next reauthorization;
- Try to encourage support from other sport fishing organizations on this issue and to form a coalition; and,
- Look at getting additional revenue from other sources.

Membership
- Success in membership is a key at the Chapter level. The Parent Society would like to recruit more students at the undergraduate level as well as “fish culturists” into its membership; The Oregon Chapter of AFS is meeting with the Society of Range Management (Bob Bud is President) in the near future, which will provide a good opportunity to network with other societies. The Parent Society of AFS would like to arrange a symposia or workshop at the Annual General Meeting that will address buffer strips and riparian issues as well as convene a symposia or workshop at the Range Management Society's Annual Meeting.
Outstanding Chapter of the Year Award
- The Parent Society has decided to have two Outstanding Chapter awards instead of the one award. There will be a small Chapter (100 members and less) and large Chapter award and Fred is currently putting together a committee to work on the criteria for these awards and solicited EXCOM for representatives from the Western Division. Don MacDonald volunteered to be a member of this committee.
General Information
- Fred made a request for digital photos from the Division. He would like photos from all the Chapters so he can compile them and display them at the Annual General Meeting in Quebec. Mary Whalen needs to send Fred all the photos that she has taken from the past year.

Mid Year Meeting
- The officers and members attending the mid year meeting went to the “Hill” this year and were able to meet with senators and staffers. Gus was able to give a brief address on the issues of concern for the American Fisheries Society. The meeting on the “Hill” is now an annual event.
Publications
- The Parent Society has created a web-based manuscript tracking system, which will save time and will provide better access to the archives for members. This system will be implemented for Fisheries and adapted for books shortly. Gus was pleased to announce that the Society has books coming out in droves and the books, Fishes in Alaska and the Hatcheries book are doing well.
General Information
- Gus announced that the Parent Society is solidly in the black;
- Fred has formed a committee on the use of sound science and will be discussing the Klamath River issue soon.

Members of the EXCOM suggested that the Klamath River Committee should contact the Parent Society's Best Science Committee. In addition, Mike will contact Gretchen Oosterhout regarding the committee and he will ask Fred Harris to appoint him to the committee;
NRC and NRS are both involved in this issue; and,
Mike will draft a letter with George and the Klamath River Committee, which will be reviewed by the EXCOM later this week.

Ken McDonald has contacted the WDAFS looking for support to do a peer review of the whole upper basin sturgeon recovery program especially on the propagation program. The hatchery propagation program has not been very effective over the last few years due to a variety of reasons and the situation is dire for pallid sturgeon populations in the Missouri River and the lower Yellowstone Rivers;
Harold Tyus will take the lead on this project and is currently looking for 3 to 4 independent reviewers. A subcommittee of the Environmental Concerns Committee will be formed;
The review of the pallid sturgeon recovery program will be similar in nature to the Bull Trout review that has been recently completed;
The Pallid Sturgeon Workgroup would like to the Division to back the reviews and help develop a position statement. The reviews and the position statement will first go through Policy Review Committee and the EXCOM before they are made public;
Montana already has funding ($10,000) in place to support this project and the reviewers; and,
The project will encompass Montana and North and South Dakota. The Western Division has agreed to take the lead on the project and Eric Knudsen has already contacted members of the North Central Division for support. The position statement that comes out of this project will be from both the Western and North Central Divisions.

There was some discussion on possible venues (i.e., Jackson, WY or salmon fishing in Canada) for the retreat. It was suggested that the retreat could be held in early August or September due to the timing of the AGM (late Feb.). The EXCOM agreed that the 2004 annual retreat would be held in early October in Phoenix. The deadline for grant proposals will need to be moved to Sept. 30/03 if the retreat is scheduled earlier than usual. The EXCOM agreed that the retreat should be scheduled on a Thursday, Friday and Saturday in October;

It was mentioned that members of the Parent Society should have not have to pay for access to the archives past 1998 since members believe that the AFS membership is quite expensive for what you are getting for it. Gus Rassam mentioned in his presentation that the Parent Society was making a profit and members of the EXCOM believe that some of the monies should be used toward this end. Members of the EXCOM need to investigate the details of the archives before this issue is brought forward to the Parent Society in Quebec. The EXCOM unanimously agreed that Bob Greswell should spearhead this resolution with the support from Eric Knudsen and Pat Byorth.

Next Teleconference: May 20, 2003