BOD MEETING: The Money for Okanogan Deer

[sakoshooter]

A bitterbrush planting sounds like a great idea but my opinion would be for it to be on public land. Coordination with the WDFW might be in the works to do this.

[sakoshooter]

And you could count me in on helping plant.

[EmeraldBullet]

I am relatively new to the forum so I did not donate, but I am familiar with what happened and I know it will be a long time before the area recovers. I am in the agriculture/botany industry and I would like to help in any way I can. I don't live close to the area, but I definitely would be down to schedule a few days this fall/winter to help plant things. I also will try to acquire some things to plant for the cause. Other than that, I am willing to give any advice or answer any questions that might help restore the area (I know a lot about plants, how to plant them, and what they need to survive.)

[MtnMuley]

Been anxiously awaiting this post. Always wondered where this money we donated went. I'm sure Dan has it all figured out.

It's all still in the WFW Bank Account and Paypal account. 

Wasn't worried about the money being missing, but was concerned how 2 years have passed since the initial Carlton Complex Fire took place and this idea of helping the local herd fundraiser is still in neutral. Anyhow, glad it's back up and running.

You must have missed it, I explained in the first post that the bitter brush plants we intended to plant were lost. Please feel free to offer another good plan or volunteer to help get this done sooner.

I didn't miss anything. Seems to me the bitter brush plants were all ready to go and we were waiting on wdfw to "assess" the situation. A year went by and nothing seemed to have happened. Now we hear the plants were "lost". Gotta do better than that for me to buy in.

Also, I've contributed $800 worth "help" to this cause shortly after the fire. I'd say that's volunteering proceeds plenty soon enough. 

[DaveMonti]

Rainier10, thanks for looping me in. 

I've heard a little about the project and it seems like with at least 3 parties, it's been tough to coordinate.  I did mention it to Dan in one of our MDF meetings several months ago. 

I don't know what the answer is to see this money go to good use, but I suspect the quickest way to make something happen is to either do something with it yourselves, or just flat out donate it to an organization that can put it to good use relatively quickly.  Two years is a long time for free money to be sitting around, and it's 2 years that plants haven't had time to get established and start providing food and cover for the herd.  It's a shame to have the good work of so many get lost in the bureaucratic shuffle. 

Try to reconnect with Dan, but I really wouldn't expect a response if Dan has to coordinate with WDFW.  I'd start thinking of other ways your organization can make something happen with the money you raised in case you find yourself holding the cash in a few months with no progress having been made. 

Sorry to have little faith in the multi party approach!



 

[MtnMuley]

  to guys like you DaveMonti and Rainier10

[Shannon]

I wasn't on this thread looking for help. There are plenty of people that need help planting that can't do it themselves physically or monetarily. I have an 8 and 12 year old that will learn how to plant like a champ by the time I'm done with them.
I was just saying there is a company in Spokane that still had plants available in large quantity as of a couple of weeks ago.
It will be kind of fun monitoring how the land repairs itself. Unfortunately it will take a lot of time to get back to where it was. We had a lot of deer wintering on the lower parts of our property before the fire. We had sage and bitter brush that was over your head. I have been told plants that are that big are 40+ years old. I won't be moving around very quickly 40 years from now if at all:)

[huntnphool]

Why can't we just purchase the seedlings and go plant them with the money?

[bearpaw]

Been anxiously awaiting this post. Always wondered where this money we donated went. I'm sure Dan has it all figured out.

It's all still in the WFW Bank Account and Paypal account. 

Wasn't worried about the money being missing, but was concerned how 2 years have passed since the initial Carlton Complex Fire took place and this idea of helping the local herd fundraiser is still in neutral. Anyhow, glad it's back up and running.

You must have missed it, I explained in the first post that the bitter brush plants we intended to plant were lost. Please feel free to offer another good plan or volunteer to help get this done sooner.

I didn't miss anything. Seems to me the bitter brush plants were all ready to go and we were waiting on wdfw to "assess" the situation. A year went by and nothing seemed to have happened. Now we hear the plants were "lost". Gotta do better than that for me to buy in.

Also, I've contributed $800 worth "help" to this cause shortly after the fire. I'd say that's volunteering proceeds plenty soon enough. 

Perhaps jackelope or Todd_Id can explain what happened if they choose, I can't remember what I was told happened to the plants. I certainly didn't give anyone a hard time about it, I simply accepted that the plants were unavailable, sometimes things happen. Maybe I'm misunderstanding your tone, but any constructive input you can manage would be greatly appreciated and helpful! 

[bearpaw]

Why can't we just purchase the seedlings and go plant them with the money?

We can't plant on public land without coordination with WDFW and USFS or whatever land agency manages the land. As someone said, coordination might already be underway, I'm presuming by the MDF, but I don't know, just thinking out loud. I was pointing out earlier that replanting could take place on private land very easily. I'm in favor of whatever helps the most and can get done. I'm a firm believer that winter range is just as important on private land as on public land.

I had some correspondence from Dan (MDF) a few times, they have done some work but I don't think it was all in the Methow where we had designated this money for. I'm hoping Dan will be willing to offer some input.

[Rainier10]

I am sure there are a ton of hoops to jump through to plant on FS land.  Private land would be an easier option.

I know that after the Snag Canyon fire outside of Ellensburg I planted 3,000 10" tall pine seedlings and 500 20" tall two year old seedlings.  I also got some bitterbrush seeds from Todd_ID.  The bitterbrush didn't do so well but the pines have done great so far.  I immediately planted a blend of native grass seed and some winter wheat just to have something hold the dirt in place the first year.  Pines went in this spring.

I think  the pines cost .25 each for the 10" and $4 for the 20" ones.  I spent about $500 on grass and wheat. So $3,250 so far. All of that is spread out over 50 acres.

I have another 2,000 10" seedlings on order for this coming spring.  That should get me another 20 acres planted.

This is just material only all labor to plant was volunteer from my friends and family just to give you an idea of what it costs and covers.  For time it took 5 days to plant all of those trees and 5-6 people.  Grass and wheat was just a day.

[jackelope]

Been anxiously awaiting this post. Always wondered where this money we donated went. I'm sure Dan has it all figured out.

It's all still in the WFW Bank Account and Paypal account. 

Wasn't worried about the money being missing, but was concerned how 2 years have passed since the initial Carlton Complex Fire took place and this idea of helping the local herd fundraiser is still in neutral. Anyhow, glad it's back up and running.

You must have missed it, I explained in the first post that the bitter brush plants we intended to plant were lost. Please feel free to offer another good plan or volunteer to help get this done sooner.

I didn't miss anything. Seems to me the bitter brush plants were all ready to go and we were waiting on wdfw to "assess" the situation. A year went by and nothing seemed to have happened. Now we hear the plants were "lost". Gotta do better than that for me to buy in.

Also, I've contributed $800 worth "help" to this cause shortly after the fire. I'd say that's volunteering proceeds plenty soon enough. 

Perhaps jackelope or Todd_Id can explain what happened if they choose, I can't remember what I was told happened to the plants. I certainly didn't give anyone a hard time about it, I simply accepted that the plants were unavailable, sometimes things happen. Maybe I'm misunderstanding your tone, but any constructive input you can manage would be greatly appreciated and helpful! 

I don't know what happened to the plants other than I heard some or all died. They're not easy to re-plant or keep alive is the way I understood it.

[Rainier10]

When I told people that I had bitterbrush seeds and would be planting them I was told "good luck" as they are tough to get to grow.  I would assume the same applies to transplants.

I think the most important thing to do is find a project that we can use this money on to help improve the habitat.  I think Dan from the MDF is going to be one of the best avenues to find a project to use this money towards.

[DaveMonti]

From what I recall in my conversations with Dan about doing projects on public land, he indicated that the WDFW planning process isn't that far reaching into the future, mainly due to weather.  He said he often gets notice that the WFDF is doing something the week before it happens and due to the short notice, it's often hard to get volunteers to show up on the day the projects are being executed by WDFW (or whatever state agency it is, it may be the forest service for all I know). 
For something like planting, some planning is required as far as ordering the plants, trying to coordinate with the State through Dan, and mobilizing the volunteers.  To me, this seems like a cluster, mostly due to the state agencies, budgets, planning process, etc.  I honestly suspect that if you want to do some planing on public land, the money will sit until at least spring, if not later. 

Dan may know of other avenues for habitat improvement, including private landowners that may have wintering grounds or non-habitat type things, like donating the money, purchasing something that will be of use to other parties, etc.  However, I do not think that Dan can call someone in a state agency and say "Hey, we want to do some planting in the Methow Valley on State Land" and get the go ahead. 

Bearpaw, you are right in that there may be some coordination going on right now, but from my experience in following up on this (Jackalope informed me of this several months ago when he knew we were having MDF meetings), I really think that the driver of utilizing this money will have to be the folks that are trying to make good use of it.  I'm not saying that this is not an avenue to utilize this money.  I just think that if you have the money and want it to go to good use, the drive will have to come from within. 

[syoungs]

I am relatively new to the forum so I did not donate, but I am familiar with what happened and I know it will be a long time before the area recovers. I am in the agriculture/botany industry and I would like to help in any way I can. I don't live close to the area, but I definitely would be down to schedule a few days this fall/winter to help plant things. I also will try to acquire some things to plant for the cause. Other than that, I am willing to give any advice or answer any questions that might help restore the area (I know a lot about plants, how to plant them, and what they need to survive.)

Great offer!

When it gets figured out when and where, I can help with transportation of equipment or product, up to 10k# ish. And if needed can possibly supply some heavy equipment/tractors.