La Plata Conservation District

MEETING MINUTES

BOARD OF SUPERVISORS OF THE LA PLATA CONSERVATION DISTRICT

Tuesday, June 11, 2024, at 2:00 PM

USDA Ag Service Center, 31 Suttle Street, Durango, CO 81303

List of Attendees

• Board Members:
  • Debbie Lee, President (2025) ☐*
  • Kent Grant, Secretary/Treasurer (2027) ☒
  • Elena Simmons (2027) ☐*
  • Ginny DeJong (2025) ☒
  • Morgan Wagoner (2027) ☒

*Board Member Excused Absence

Note: The year shown in parentheses is when board member’s term expires.

• USDA Agency Representatives:
  • NRCS: Ed McCaw ☒

Call to Order – 2:30 p.m. by Ginny DeJong

Welcome and Introductions - Ginny

Approval of Prior Meeting Minutes – 

Morgan moved that the minutes from the May 14th meeting be approved, Kent seconded, and the motion

passed.

Financial Report – Ginny

Kelly had provided financial documents for May to Board members. In Kelly’s absence, Ginny gave the

financial report from the documents Kelly had prepared. Kent motioned to approve, Morgan seconded, and

motion passed.

NRCS Update - Ed McCaw, NRCS District Conservationist and Team Seven Lead

1. Quality Assurance Review: Was completed last week. This is something that is commonly done when a new DC and/or Team Leader takes over. There were a lot of State and Area Office folks down here for it  Debbie was interviewed for LPCD, as were people with Pine River and San Juan CDs. It was a very positive experience and Ed said he didn’t doctor anything up to make it look good because he wanted an honest report and this was appreciated. He received a lot of good feedback. There were 12 hours of one-on-one interviews. He is happy to have gone through it and it was a good experience.
2. NRCS Programs:
   • EQIP - About to complete 18 pre-approvals and 6 contracts for $2.1 million (14 for 1.6 million is normal). 14 of the 18 are for forestry contracts. Others include 1 irrigation, 2 streambed, and 1 soil health.
   • CSP – 8 contracts and 6 have been pre-approved. SUIT CSP – Tribal AFA (Alternative Funding Agreement) to improve rangeland resiliency and health on Tribal lands was signed for $2.3 million, funded by the Inflation Reduction Act, and it was a big event. In all, $6 million was obligated for this office with a projected economic impact of $24 million.
   • NRCS Staffing: Interviewed for Program Support Specialist in progress. A woman from Fort Collins will be detailed to fill Tribal Liaison position starting on July 1st and going through September 1st. There were no applications for Lead Conservationist in Durango. Making traction with Engineering Tech position. The Quality Assurance Review saw a need to bump engineering staff. Staff is doing more field visits and Mike is busy with engineering and he supports getting an Engineer Tech position here 
3. National Range Inventory 6/26/24 – 6/27/24: Kyle and John are working on this.
4. Southern Ute Ag Days: NRCS is currently involved with Southern Ute Ag Days. Yesterday was Youth Day and NRCS was helping out – had 30 kids yesterday. Done in coordination with Intertribal AgCouncil – probably want to do independently in the future. Today was Adult Day and soil health and other topics were covered.
5.  Pagosa Springs 5th Grader Conservation Day: This was a big success and there was a good turnout of NRCS people for it.
6. Pathways Program for College Students: Intern with NRCS offices but rotate offices and when done get a NRCS job somewhere. May not get a local kid if get an intern here.
7. Other: NRCS cannot help with CD “for profit” activities due to a sticky situation involving northern Colorado CDs. Clarification on this will be coming soon. Ed said that NRCS should not be accepting money for CDs, but can otherwise still assist in CD activities depending upon the situation. Ed also stated that the Zircon container inside the Durango Ag Service Center’s fenced enclosure belongs to La Plata CD.

Seedlings – Ginny

CSFS Nursery Backordered Items: Shipping this afternoon from Fort Collins except for black-eyed susans.

Remaining Unsold Inventory: (Ginny will work up a report)

• 50 Austrian Pine
• 120 Rocky Mountain Juniper
• 30 Engelmann Spruce
• 30 Douglas-fir
• 18 SW White Pine
• 50 Golden Willow
• 25 Lombardi Poplar
• 2 Caragana
• 100 Scotch Pine

Recommendations: Should start program earlier next year and turn back what is not sold. Host a landowner seedling workshop next year? Should have an AAR (after action review) at our July meeting for this spring’s seedling/survival supplies sales program and invite Barb. Get shipping costs, etc. to Ginny to put in email with spreadsheet.

We should invite other agencies to a LPCD meeting to discuss what each agency does tha how we can (or used to) work together.

Other

Bylaw Petition: Need to put on agenda for July meeting.

LPCD Board Membership: Due to not having or cancelling a board member election last year, Kayla Hladky, District Operations Manager with CSCB, advised that LPCD’s Board should appoint Kent and Elena to the Board at this meeting since they were not elected. Kent called Elena, who was not present at the meeting, and informed her of the situation and asked if it was okay to appoint her to the Board and she affirmed it would be. Afterward, Morgan moved that Kent be appointed to La Plata CD’s Board of Supervisors, Ginny seconded, and the motion passed. Kent then moved that Elena be appointed to La Plata CD’s Board of Supervisors, Morgan seconded, and the motion passed. Both terms will expire in 2027 as would have been the case if they had been elected in 2023. It was also decided that Ginny will be our Vice President since the list of supervisors submitted through the DOLA portal asks for a VP and that position LPCD has been vacant. This list will be provided to DOLA and will also be supplied to Kayla CSCB. It was suggested that Board member termination dates be put by our names or elsewhere in the minutes.

Next Meeting – Tuesday, July 9, 2024, at 2:00 p.m. at the USDA Ag Service Center, 31 Suttle St, Durango.

Adjourned – 3:55 p.m.

Note: Meeting minutes taken by Kent Grant, LPCD Secretary/Treasure