Meeting with Tom Morgan, Bonneville Power

On Tuesday July 6, a group of us met with Tom to discuss what Bonneville needs done on the areas under the power lines, Present were: Jude Toenyon, Jim lawson, Bruce Merighi, Bobbie Lambert, Sharyl Nelson, Pam Nicklas, George Sperlin, Terry Drexler. Terry owns property with an easement for the power line, and he and other owners with similar easements will need to discuss their situations separately with Tom.  Tom explained that any tree which could fall and hit the powerline needs to be removed or topped.  Any tree within 62 feet of the center of the power poloes needs to be less than 10 feet tall.

If Bonneville manages this clearing, they come in and cut everything down and leave the slash unless it is more than knee deep.  We all felt that we would not want that done, and an alternative is to sign a "tree agreement" with Bonneville, which states that we will keep trees within the 62 foot easements at a height of less than 10 feet, and will control noxious weeds. Tom agreed to have bonneville come in and cut any large trees currently in the 62 foot areas which are too high or a danger of falling on the lines.  After that is done, the group felt we should sign the tree agreement and maintain the areas as agreed. This will be discussed at the board meeting this coming Saturday at 10:30 AM.  If any of the greenbelt members have concerns, please let me or a board member know.

Safety Zone for firefighters  Bruce took us down to an area just to the left of the powerline, above the sledding hill and described the area he feels could be cleared to be a safe zone for firefighters.  There is already a large clearing but guite a few small pines and some large trees will need to be cut to make a large enough area.  WE all felt this should be done.  Bruce is going to flag the area so anyone can go see what trees will be cut. The firemen will be willing to help with the work.  I urge members of the committee to go look at the area and let Bruce or me know if you have any concerns.

Arne Arneson communication Arne says the logger who did the work near the water tank on Primitive park Rd.  would be willing to continue to cut trees in that area aat no cost to us, if he can have the trees to sell himself.  My thought is that we should have Arne mark the trees that will NOT be cut, give us an estimate of the value of the other trees,  then we can look and see if we agree with the marked trees, and if we feel the work is worth the vaqlue of the trees. Please let me know what you all think, so we can recommend the next steps to the board.

2006 forest stewardship grant. We have not heard whether we have been successful in getting funding, but rumors are that we probably will not. I'll let everyone know definitely when we hear officially.

July work party- July 23 The regular 4th  Saturday is the 23rd.  I will be out of town from now until August 11, so would like someone else to arrange the work.  The benches we ordered should be here by then and we will need to dig holes , pour concrete, and set the benches in the concrete. If someone is willing to organize this, please let me know. Thanks.

Ongoing projects There are several ongoing projects Greenbelt members could do whenever you have time: Pulling knapweed, weeding the slope outside the pool, putting bark on trails using the piles at the ends of the trails. clipping brush on any of the trails, clearing out dead wood anywhere on greenbelts.  Other ideas???