Meeting Minutes – TWG Meeting March 9, 2005
IDWR Office – Boise, ID

In Attendance –

 Al Rea, USGS
Leigh Bailey, Payette National Forest
Christa Braun, BLM – Idaho State Office, Boise
Erv Cowley, BLM – Idaho State Office, Boise
Gene Dana, USGS
Linda Davis, IDWR
Sandra Thiel, IDWR
Genna Ashley, IDWR

Via Phone Conference –

Rick Patten, Idaho Panhandle National Forest

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

Idaho Panhandle NF Final Review:  Rick Patten with the Idaho Panhandle NF called in via telephone to do this portion of the review.  The following items were discussed:

It was decided not to add a connecting arc between the 5^th field frontal divisions for the Pend Oreille Lake Basin North unit.  Adding this line would break up Pack River, flowing into Lake Pend Oreille.  A justification statement will be written to explain why this unit is broken up into 2 non-connecting units, and that statement will be sent to NRCS when the certification process is initiated. 

The term “frontal” will be added to all 5^th and 6^th field units that have been delineated as frontal units around Pend Oreille, Coeur d’Alene, and Priest Lakes.

An additional line was drawn to make Fernan Creek a pure 6^th.  The residual area created by this line will be grouped with the Wolf Lodge Bay 6^th field and treated as a frontal unit.

The 5^th field number 1701030204 should be 1701030203. 

Genna Ashley will go through all the IPNF hucs and double-check the numbers.

The Pend Oreille Lake 17010214 numbers were reviewed.  This huc will be broken up as follows:

             5^th field 01 – Pend Oreille Lake – this will be treated as a separate 5^th field.
                        6^th field – none – coded as ‘00’.

             5^th field 02 – Pend Oreille Lake – South Frontal
                        6^th fields:
                                    01 Pend Oreille Lake East Frontal
                                    02 Pend Oreille Lake Southwest Face
                                    03 Gold Creek
                                    04 North Gold Creek
                                    05 Granite Creek
                                    06 Pend Oreille Lake West Frontal

             5^th field 03 – Pend Oreille Lake – North Frontal
                        6^th fields:
                                    01 Strong Creek Frontal
                                    02 Trestle Creek
                                    03 Boyer Slough Frontal
                                    04 Sand Creek

             5^th field 04 – Pack Creek
                        6^th fields – no changes.

             5^th field 05 – Upper Pend Oreille River
                        6^th fields:
                                    01 Pend Oreille River – Carr Creek
                                    02 Fry Creek
                                    03 Pend Oreille River-Johnson Creek
                                    04 Upper Cocolalla Creek
                                    05 Lower Cocolalla Creek

             5^th field 06 – Pend Oreille River-Hoodoo Creek
                        6^th fields:
                                    01 Pend Oreille River-Riley Creek
                                    02 Upper Hoodoo Creek
                                    03 Lower Hoodoo Creek
                                    04 Pend Oreille River above Albeni Falls Dam

             5^th field 07 – Spirit Lake Basin
                        6^th fields – no changes.

 There was a question regarding the 4^th field boundary line around Spirit Lake.  Rick Patten stated that this area is a closed basin and would probably drain to the south if filled.  The group made a notation of this area, and Al Rea will take this back to USGS and research it on paper.  This may be another 4^th field boundary change, to be determined.

Genna Ashley will fix the linework noted above and numbers.  She will then send the shapefile (or coverage) to Rick Patten.

Rick Patten will take the shapefile (or coverage) sent by Genna Ashley and review the 5^th and 6^th field names.  He will then send a copy of this back to Genna Ashley for incorporation into the draft master watershed coverage.

After all these changes have been completed, the Idaho Panhandle NF hucs will be considered draft approved.

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.

Rick Patten identified a few additional major differences in 4^th field boundary work that needed to be corrected:

The southern portion of the Priest huc at Alder Creek will be put into the Pend Oreille hydrologic unit, per the linework previously delineated by Rick Patten.  See the shapefile “TWG030905.shp” for a reference.

A portion of the 4^th field boundary line between the Pend Oreille and Lower Clark Fork hydrologic units at Lake Pend Oreille will be moved back to the original linework delineated by Rick Patten at IPNF.  See the shapefile “TWG030905.shp” for a reference guide.

The area around Spirit Lake was identified, and Al Rea is researching this possible alternative.  See notes above, and shapefile “TWG030905.shp” for reference.

The Salmon Falls 4^th field boundary line was reviewed with Erv Cowley.  USGS had received comments, and the TWG group had reviewed with Gary Young (BOR-Burley) some of this area previously.  Erv agreed with Gary Young and Valdon Hancock’s previous linework that this portion of the huc drains into the Salmon Falls unit, and agreed with those prior delineations.  See the shapefile “TWG030905.shp” for a reference.

The northern portion of Raft River was reviewed by the TWG Group.  Erv Cowley agreed that this 4^th field boundary should be brought up to the legacy channel of the Raft River/Snake River confluence.  See the shapefile “TWG030905.shp” for reference.

The Dry Creek and Cove Creek streams that had been previously left out of the Bigwood 4^th field hydrologic unit should be included, per Erv Cowley.  USGS has correctly delineated this area, and that linework will be used for the 4^th field boundary.  See the shapefile “TWG030905.shp” for reference.

The TWG group spent some time reviewing the northeastern “foot” area of the Big Lost hydrologic unit, where the Big Lost shares a boundary with the Little Lost, Medicine Lodge, and Birch Creek hydrologic units.  It was determined that the western area in question (see shapefile “TWG030905.shp” for reference) belonged in the Big Lost unit.  The eastern area in question was flagged, and Linda Davis will research this further.  Update:  Genna Ashley spoke with Betsy Rieffenberger on the phone and this area has already been reviewed.  See notes dated 1/10/03 in the Little Lost (17040217) huc notes.  Genna Ashley will forward this information on to Linda Davis and Al Rea so that the TWG group can make a determination as to where this boundary line should go.

MISCELLANEOUS DISCUSSION

Leigh Bailey asked how many forests have submitted comments for the USGS 4^th field boundary project.  Genna Ashley will provide a list to Leigh so that she can possibly contact those data stewards who may not have reviewed 4^th field boundaries yet, and may want to provide input.

Al Rea asked if Genna Ashley could send all the linework she has compiled from various contributors to the USGS 4^th field boundary project.  Genna will send all the linework in the directory, and also any linework/shapefiles that were created during the TWG meetings since this project began.

ACTION ITEMS:

Genna Ashley will write a justification statement explaining why the Lake Pend Oreille 5^th field unit named Pend Oreille Lake Basin North (name may change) unit is broken up into 2 non-connecting 5^th field frontal units.  This statement will be put in the Huc Notes file, and also sent to NRCS when the certification process is initiated. 

Genna Ashley will go through all the IPNF hucs and double-check the 5^th and 6^th field numbers.

Al Rea will research the 4^th field boundary around Spirit Lake and bring his findings back to the TWG group for review. 

Genna Ashley will fix the above-mentioned Idaho Panhandle NF linework and numbering.  She will then send the shapefile (or coverage) to Rick Patten.

Rick Patten will take the shapefile (or coverage) sent by Genna Ashley and review and change some of the longer 5^th and 6^th field names.  He will then send a copy of this data back to Genna Ashley for incorporation into the draft master watershed coverage.

Genna Ashley will forward the correspondence between Betsy Rieffenberger (Salmon-Challis NF) regarding the Big Lost River Sinks area east of Howe to Linda Davis and Al Rea.  After Linda and Al have had a chance to review this information, the TWG group will make a determination as to where the boundary line should go, and whether a major boundary change is warranted.

Genna Ashley will send all the linework she has compiled from various contributors to the USGS 4^th field boundary project to Al Rea.  Genna will also send the shapefiles that were created during the TWG meetings since this project began.

NEXT SCHEDULED TWG MEETING (S):

Wednesday, April 6^th – 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 4:30 p.m.