Meeting Minutes – TWG Meeting April 6, 2005

IDWR Office – Boise, ID

In Attendance –

Al Rea, USGS
Erv Cowley, BLM – Idaho State Office, Boise
Gene Dana, USGS
Linda Davis, IDWR
Sandra Thiel, IDWR
Genna Ashley, IDWR

Via Phone Conference –

No attendees

The meeting began at approximately 10:15 a.m.

HUC Review

Lower Boise 17050114 – The group reviewed this huc.  One of the main issues with the Lower Boise unit is that it has two separate pour points for the 4^th field boundary; where the Boise River meets the Snake River, AND where Sand Hollow Creek meets the Snake River.  The group delineated the Sand Hollow Creek and Snake River-Lower Boise 5^th field confluences to the Snake River.  There was much discussion regarding whether Sand Hollow Creek should actually be in the Middle Snake-Payette unit, but it was determined that Sand Hollow Creek was closely associated with the Boise River, and part of the Boise front, so it should stay within this unit.  Genna Ashley will delineate these boundaries, and present the linework to others such as Dave Blew and/or Mary McGowan with IDWR to help reach a final decision regarding which unit Sand Hollow Creek should fall within.

The 5^th fields were reviewed and the following changes were recommended:

5^th Field 01:    Unit 01 – 1705011401 Lower Boise River – Indian Creek will be taken out of this unit and put with 5^th field unit 02, to avoid splitting up Indian Creek between two 5^th fields.  The South Slough 6^th field unit will be included with this 5^th field unit, as a separate 6^th.

                        6^th field changes for this unit:

                                    Unit 01 – Lower Boise River-Warm Springs Creek – OK

Unit 02 – Freestone Creek-Cottonwood Creek – this will be renamed to just “Cottonwood Creek) 

Unit 03 – Crane Creek – this will be renamed “Lower Boise River-Crane Creek”, and the northern boundary was redrawn to bring the 6^th field huc boundary to the Crane Creek/Lower Boise River confluence.

Unit 04 – Lower Boise River-North Slough – additional areas will be added from the previous Crane Creek delineations (03), and the northern boundary of this unit will be changed to reflect the changes identified for Big Gulch Creek and Little Gulch Creek.  See the shapefile “TWG040605” for specific linework.

Old Unit 05 (new unit 06) – Woods Gulch – this area was drawn to include the Little Gulch Creek legacy channel to the Boise River.  This 6^th field unit will be renumbered, and will change from 05 to 06.

New Unit 05 – Lower Boise River-Sough Slough – this area will be included in the Lower Boise River 5^th field huc as a separate 6th.  The confluence of this 6^th field was refined to come down to the Boise River.  This unit was previously delineated within the Tenmile Creek 5^th field unit.

Old unit 06 (new unit 07) – Big Gulch Creek – the legacy channel of this creek was refined to come down to the Boise River.  A remnant area on the south side of the Boise River will also be included in this 6^th.

Old unit 07 (new unit 08) – Mill Slough – this will be delineated out as a pure 6^th, IF there is enough acreage to fit the standards.

Old unit 08 (new unit 10) – West Hartley Gulch – the western boundary of this huc was re-drawn to bring the 6^th field boundary to the confluence.  The leftover area will be lumped in with the next 6^th field unit, Lower Boise River-Mason Slough.

Unit 09 – Mason Creek – OK.

Old Unit 10 – This 6^th field was taken out of the Lower Boise 5^th field and grouped in with the Indian Creek 5^th field unit, as a separate 6^th field.

Unit 11 – Lower Boise River-Mason Slough – There is a remnant area leftover from the West Hartley Gulch unit that will be lumped into this unit.   

5^th Field 02:    Unit 02 – 1705011402 Indian Creek – This unit will be renumbered, and become 5^th field unit 05, not 02.  Lower Indian Creek will be put into this unit to keep Indian Creek together within one 5^th field unit.  The southern portion of this boundary will be replaced by the USGS boundary line, which will cut off most of the 6^th field unit 170501140205 – Snake River Birds of Prey area.  The residual area of this huc will be lumped in with the Indian Creek 6^th field unit.

6^th field changes for this unit:

Units 01 and 02 – Indian Creek Headwaters - These 6^th field units will be combined because the Slater Creek 6^th field unit is too small at 8282 acres.  This unit will become 01, and be named Indian Creek Headwaters.

Old Unit 03 (new unit 02) – This will be Upper Indian Creek.  The northern portion of this unit will be split and become a new 6^th field unit, name to be determined.

Old Unit 04 (new unit 03) – Name to be determined - This will be a new 6^th field unit, split by Indian Creek to the north.  IDWR will contact the National Biological Service, Snake River Birds of Prey area, and determine if there is a suitable name for this unit.  If not, it can become either “North Fork Sand Creek” or “Orchard”.

Old Unit 05 – This unit will cut off by the new USGS line that has been proposed.  Any remnant area will be put into the new unit 03 described above.

Old Unit 06 (new unit 04) – Sand Creek Headwaters - The confluence will be cleaned up for this 6^th field.

Old Unit 07 (new unit 05) – Sand Creek – The western boundary line will be dissolved and moved further north (downstream) to avoid the large slivered area created by the previous delineations.

Old Unit 08 (new unit 06) – North Indian Creek – Linework is OK; numbering attributes will change. 

5^th Field 03:    Unit 03 – 1705011403 Dry Creek – This unit will be renumbered, and become 5^th field unit 02, not 03.  The linework and attributes are OK.

**NO 6^th field changes for this unit, except numbering**

5^th Field 04:    Unit 04 – 1705011404 Tenmile Creek – This unit will be renumbered, and become 5^th field unit 03, not 04.  The 6^th field unit South Slough will be put into the Lower Boise River 5^th field unit, as it’s own 6^th field.

6^th field changes for this unit:

Note:  All 6^th field numbers will change because of 5^th field number change.

Unit 01 – Tenmile Creek – OK.

Unit 02 – Blacks Creek – OK

Unit 03 – Eightmile Creek – this unit was brought down to the legacy confluence with Eightmile Creek.

Unit 04 – Fivemile Creek – OK

Unit 05 – This unit was put with the 5^th field unit (Lower Boise River), as a separate 6^th field unit, and renumbered.

Old Unit 06 (new unit 05) – Fifteen Mile Creek – OK.

5^th Field 05:    Unit 05 – 1705011405 Willow Creek – This unit will be renumbered, and become 5^th field unit 04, not 05.  The linework and attributes are OK.

**NO 6^th field changes for this unit, except numbering**

5^th Field 06:    Unit 06 – 1705011406 Lake Lowell – The southern portion of this boundary will be replaced by the USGS boundary line, which more accurately reflects the topographical features of the terrain.

** NO 6^th field changes for this unit**

5^th Field 07:    Unit 07 – 1705011407 Snake River-Lower Boise River – This is the main pour point to the Snake River for this unit.  The linework and attributes are OK.  The 4^th field boundary line will change slightly with the addition of the USGS 4^th field lines. 

**NO 6^th field changes for this unit**

5^th Field 08:    Unit 08 – 1705011408 Sand Hollow Creek – This is the second pour point to the Snake River with in this 4^th field unit.  There was much discussion regarding whether Sand Hollow Creek should actually be in the Middle Snake-Payette unit, but it was determined that Sand Hollow Creek was closely associated with the Boise River, and part of the Boise front, so it should stay within the Lower Boise 4^th field unit.  This issue will be brought up to others such as Dave Blew and/or Mary McGowan (IDWR) to help reach a final decision regarding which unit Sand Hollow Creek should fall within.

6^th field changes for this unit:

Unit 01 – Sand Hollow Creek Headwaters – The southwestern portion of this boundary line was adjusted to follow the predominant ridgelines. 

Unit 02 – Upper Sand Hollow Creek – The southwestern portion of this boundary line was adjusted to follow the predominant ridgelines.

Unit 03 – Middle Sand Hollow Creek – The southwestern portion of this boundary line was adjusted to follow the predominant ridgelines.

Unit 04 – Lower Sand Hollow Creek – The confluence point of Sand Hollow Creek and the Snake River was cleaned up.

**NOTE**  For the above changes, please see the shapefile “TWG040605.shp”.

4^th FIELD HUC REVIEW

The goal of the USGS 4^th field boundary project is to discriminate between the perennial and intermittent streams for the entire state.  This process will involve taking all the 1:24k streams from the NHD layer, and “burning them in” the DEM’s, based on 8-digit huc boundaries.  For this reason, USGS needs a very accurate 4^th field boundary, and the TWG is currently reviewing the 4^th field boundaries for the state.

The southeast portion of the Big Lost hydrologic unit (the area around the buttes) was discussed.  The group agreed that the newly delineated USGS linework is preferable to the old huc boundary; and this linework more closely represents the actual drainage patterns of the topography.  It was determined that the area northwest of the Twin Buttes would drain to the north IF a lake feature was there, full, and spilled over.  Genna Ashley will incorporate the new USGS linework and renumber the 5^th and 6^th field units, and then send the data to Betsy Rieffenberger to concur and incorporate into her dataset.

The group looked at the 4^th field boundary line south of Spirit Lake.  The Spirit Lake area appears to be a closed basin that would drain to the south, if filled, but it was determined to leave this boundary line as-is, because most of the hydrography in that area is groundwater, not surface water.   

There was some confusion in the “version 1” release of the USGS 4^th field data regarding where the western portion of the Pend Oreille Lake 4^th field boundary should go, and after a closer review, it was determined that it should follow the original 4^th field boundary line, at a 24k-scale.  See the shapefile “TWG040605” for the exact linework.

Al Rea stated that all changes are close to being incorporated, and they would like someone to take a close look at the new “Version 2” linework and make sure that all changes were made.  Gene Dana volunteered to work with Steve Garcia and help accomplish this task.

After this check has been completed, this linework will be considered completed and ready to begin the second stage processing for the USGS 4^th field boundary project.  This data will be made available for a final review, and comments if necessary.

MISCELLANEOUS DISCUSSION

Sandra Thiel stated that the NHD was almost completed for the state, and talked about the need to have an NHD meeting, possibly in cooperation with the next watershed meeting, as the two datasets are closely interrelated.  Sandra stated that there are data stewards within the state with local knowledge of each area, and an NHD/Watershed meeting could provide a forum for sharing what each agency is doing with hydrography and identify their present and future needs.  The group agreed that the next TWG meeting would be focused towards both NHD and watershed issues and a message would be sent out to the Geotech list-server, all the NHD contacts, as well as the Watershed contacts.

Erv Cowley stated that he plans to retire in approximately nine months and his position will not be filled.  He is uncertain if there will be another representative from BLM available to attend the watershed meetings on a regular basis, but he is trying to complete as many of his units as possible before then.  They are currently focusing on the clean up of Birch, Medicine Lodge, and Beaver-Camas units that were contracted to Karen Hanson in Utah.  Erv stated that he could try to take a look at some of the Bear hucs also before retiring.  Linda Davis stated that she has some preliminary linework for some of this area, and she will send that to Erv so he could continue to review it.

ACTION ITEMS:

Genna Ashley will make the changes on the Lower Boise unit and bring it back to the TWG for a continuing review.

Genna Ashley will ask Dave Blew and/or Mary McGowan about the Sand Hollow stream, and bring that information back to the TWG.

Genna Ashley will incorporate the new USGS linework into the Big Lost unit and renumber the 5^th and 6^th fields, and then send the data to Betsy Rieffenberger to concur and incorporate into her dataset.

Genna Ashley will get the most-recent Bear linework from Linda Davis and forward it to Erv Cowley so that he can continue a review on it.

Gene Dana will work with Steve Garcia to check all the submitted linework for the USGS 4^th field boundary project, and make sure everything has been incorporated.

Al Rea will send the “Version 2” USGS 4^th field data to Genna Ashley so that she can make it available for download.

NEXT SCHEDULED TWG MEETING (S):

Date to be determined soon – IDWR Offices, 322 W. Front Street, Boise, ID

For directions and/or NetMeeting connections, please contact Genna Ashley at (208) 287-4880 genna.ashley@idwr.idaho.gov

***Subject to change before meeting***

The meeting concluded at approximately 3:30 p.m.