In Attendance –
Linda Davis, IDWR
Sandra Thiel, IDWR
Leigh Bailey, Payette National Forest
Al Rea, USGS
Ervin Cowley, BLM
Roger Hirschman, NRCS
Christa Braun, BLM (Afternoon)

Via Phone Conference –
Gerald Green, Coeur d’Alene Tribe (morning)
Valdon Hancock, Sawtooth NF (afternoon)
Karen Hanson, Utah USGS (afternoon)
Angie Walker, Utah USGS (afternoon)

The meeting began at approximately 10:00 a.m., MST

NEWS TO REPORT

There was a Hydrography meeting at the Idaho Department of Water Resources in Boise on Monday, July 21^st. Contact Sandra Thiel  for more information.

Utah’s Watershed Boundary Dataset has received certification into the National Watershed Boundary Dataset. E-mail Karen Hanson at khanson@usgs.gov with your IP address to receive access to their ftp site for downloading.

There was a meeting held in Ft. Worth, TX to discuss updates to the Federal Standards for Delineation of Watershed Boundaries manual. There will be a new version of the guidelines coming out sometime this summer. Most of the enhancements to the guidelines were clarification of naming convention, coding scheme and attribute definition. No sizes, number per nested level, or general criteria for delineation has been changed.

Idaho has been chosen as a pilot for the national StreamStats application. StreamStats is a web-based interface to GIS data and an application that lets a user delineate a drainage basin from any point of interest, compute basin characteristics, and estimate stream flows (e.g. the 100-year flood, or mean annual flow) using regional regression equations developed and published recently by Charles Berenbrock and Jon Hortness, USGS. More information can be found at http://water.usgs.gov/osw/programs/streamstats.html. Al Rea from USGS demonstrated this application during the July 16^th Watershed Technical Working Group meeting.

E-mails received from Duane Anderson in Montana. They are progressing on 6^th field delineations and will be coordinating with Idaho on shared hucs. Montana has delineated concept lines and would like to take the lead on the Lower Clark Fork, Upper Kootenai, and Yaak hucs that border Idaho. They would like Idaho to take the lead on the Moyie and Lower Kootenai hucs. Rick Patten with the Idaho Panhandle NF is the Idaho data steward for the Moyie and Lower Kootenai hucs, and has been notified of this proposal. IPNF has interest in the Lower Clark Fork huc and will provide input to Duane Anderson.

HUC REVIEW

Huc 17010306 – Hangman – The 6^th fields within the Rock Creek 5^th were divided out to fit within the standards. Rock Creek and Rose Creek were split into 6^th’s, and Sheep Creek and Mission Creek were divided into 6^th’s. There was a suggestion that the Rock Creek on the Washington side could be broken out into it’s own 5^th field. Gerald Green will complete these delineations, and complete the attributing and 24k linework. This huc will be re-reviewed during the next TWG meeting, September 10^th.

Huc 17050124 Weiser – Leigh Bailey brought paper copies of the Weiser huc to get a group opinion regarding Crane Creek. Leigh will work on this huc and re-review during the September 10^th TWG Meeting.

StreamStats Demo – Al Rea demonstrated the StreamStats program. Idaho has been chosen as a pilot for the national StreamStats application. StreamStats is a web-based interface to GIS data and an application that lets a user delineate a drainage basin from any point of interest, compute basin characteristics, and estimate stream flows (e.g. the 100-year flood, or mean annual flow) using regional regression equations developed and published recently by Charles Berenbrock and Jon Hortness, USGS. This application won 2^nd place for Internet Applications at the ESRI conference in San Diego. An e-mail notification will be sent out when this application is available, probably the end of August or mid-September.

Huc 17040213 Salmon Falls - Karen Hanson, Angie Walker and Valdon Hancock joined the meeting via phone conference for this review.  Karen reviewed this huc in general with the group, explaining that lines were delineated to the upper banks for large rivers and reservoirs, and local information would need to be gathered for man-made features such as reservoirs, requiring additional data sources other than the DRG's.  Valdon questioned the delineations for the Deep Creek area.  Valdon stated that Deep Creek appeared to have originally connected to the downstream Deep Creek to the north, thence directly to the main Snake River upstream of Salmon Falls Creek and should probably be part of HUC 17040212, Upper Snake Rock sub basin.  Deep Creek now appears to be channeled to the west, into Salmon Falls Creek, crossing where the 4th field boundary would thus be.  Erv Cowley volunteered to talk to Karl Gebhardt to see if he has any additional information regarding the original channel, and will incorporate these changes if necessary.  Karen Hanson stated that Dave Pickel has contracted some of the Nevada hucs out, so Idaho would need to notify Nevada when these draft delineations are complete.  Erv Cowley and Valdon Hancock will work on this huc and re-review it in the future.  Genna Ashley will send Utah's certified dataset to Valdon Hancock for his review.

Huc 17040209 Lake Walcott - Karen Hanson, Angie Walker and Valdon Hancock joined the meeting via phone conference for this review. Karen reviewed this huc in general with the group, explaining that lines were delineated to the upper banks for large rivers and reservoirs, and local information would need to be gathered for man-made features such as reservoirs, requiring additional data sources other than the DRG’s. The group identified one 4^th field area northwest of Oakley that needs to be checked. Erv Cowley will work on these lines and re-review this huc with the group at a future meeting.

Huc 17040219 Big Wood – This huc was reviewed with the group. Karen Hanson, Angie Walker and Valdon Hancock joined the meeting via phone conference for this review. Karen reviewed this huc in general with the group, explaining that lines were delineated to the upper banks for large rivers and reservoirs, and local information would need to be gathered for man-made features such as reservoirs, requiring additional data sources other than the DRG’s. Valdon Hancock stated that the initial draft delineations looked good to him and he would coordinate with Erv Cowley to refine the 4^th, 5^th, and 6^th fields, and add attributes. After some additional work has been done on this huc, it will be re-reviewed in the future.

Huc 17040206 American Falls - Karen Hanson and Angie Walker reviewed this huc for the group, explaining that lines were delineated to the upper banks for large rivers and reservoirs, and local information would need to be gathered for man-made features such as reservoirs, requiring additional data sources other than the DRG’s. It was decided to send these lines to the Fort Hall Sho-Ban Tribe for input because they have local knowledge of the area and may want to be involved in the delineation process. Erv Cowley will get review comments from the Sho-Ban Tribe and re-review it in the future, incorporating any comments that may be received by Fort Hall.

Huc 17040216 Birch Creek - Karen Hanson and Angie Walker reviewed this huc for the group, explaining that lines were delineated to the upper banks for large rivers and reservoirs, and local information would need to be gathered for man-made features such as reservoirs, requiring additional data sources other than the DRG’s. There is a proposed 4^th field line change in the southern portion of the huc that would affect the Big Lost huc (Betsy Rieffenberger), and huc 17040215, Birch Creek. This huc will need to be sent to Betsy Rieffenberger for review of the change that would impact her area. It was also noted that there were three sub-sized 6^th’s and it would be up to Erv Cowley whether to keep these or group them with other 6^th’s. Erv will send this linework to Dan Kotansky (BLM- Idaho Falls Office), gather any additional comments, and bring this huc back for a continuing review.

Huc 17040214 Beaver-Camas - Karen Hanson and Angie Walker reviewed this huc for the group, explaining that lines were delineated to the upper banks for large rivers and reservoirs, and local information would need to be gathered for man-made features such as reservoirs, requiring additional data sources other than the DRG’s. There are numerous lava areas in this huc and it was determined to send this huc to Dan Kotansky (BLM, Idaho Falls) and Mike Philbin (Caribou-Targhee NF) for input. This huc will be reviewed again in the future.

Huc 17040215 Medicine Lodge - Karen Hanson and Angie Walker reviewed this huc for the group, explaining that lines were delineated to the upper banks for large rivers and reservoirs, and local information would need to be gathered for man-made features such as reservoirs, requiring additional data sources other than the DRG’s. There is a proposed 4^th field line change that would impact huc 17040216, and Erv will send this huc to Dan Kotansky (BLM-Idaho Falls) for input, and will return this huc for additional review.

Huc 17050108 Jordan – Erv Cowley reviewed this huc with the group. It was noted that there is one sub-sized 6^th field huc, Lower North Boulder Creek at 9733 acres that Erv will write a justification for. This huc will be sent to Roger Hirschman and Oregon REO, and then Erv will add Oregon’s names and attributes to this huc, and bring it back for a final review. This huc is draft-approved pending comments from NRCS and REO.

Huc 17050102 Bruneau – Erv Cowley reviewed this huc with the group. All hucs fit within the size criteria for 5^th and 6^th fields. The Nevada 5^th and 6^th fields have been attributed by BLM using the stream names and GNIS, where applicable. This huc will be sent to Dave Pickel for review and comments, with a cc to Dale Gunther. There was one small label change – ‘Upper Bruneau River Valley’ 6^th will be changed to ‘Upper Bruneau Valley’. Genna Ashley will make the change on the coverage sent by Erv so there is no need to send another coverage with this change. This huc will be returned for a final review in the future. This huc is draft-approved pending comments from Nevada.

Huc 17050103 Middle Snake – Succor – This huc was reviewed by the group. It was noted that Agricultural Research Service (ARS), a division of the Department of Agriculture may have interest in the Reynolds Creek 5^th field area of this huc, and may have done some extensive delineation work. Erv Cowley will send this huc to ARS and NRCS for comments and then this huc will be re-reviewed in the near future. This huc is draft-approved pending comments from ARS and NRCS, and REO.

Roger Hirschman reported that there was a LIDAR presentation scheduled for Friday, July 18 at the NRCS office, 9173 W. Barnes, Boise, ID.

Erv Cowley stated that he would take stewardship for hucs 17050104 (Upper Owyhee), 17050105 (South Fork Owyhee), 17050106 (East Little Owyhee), and 17050107 (Middle Owyhee) that are located in the southwest corner of the state and work on delineations for these hucs. Erv also stated that the Salmon Falls and Big Wood hucs would be the first priority for BLM to complete.

Al Rea reported that the StreamStats Application by USGS won 2^nd place in Internet Applications during the ESRI conference in San Diego.

Leigh Bailey asked what the status is on hucs 17050123 (North Fork Payette) and 17060206 (Upper Middle Fork Salmon). Genna Ashley will check the notes and provide this information to Leigh.

Genna Ashley will compare the 24k linework on huc 17050114 (Lower Boise) with the linework done on the Middle Snake-Succor huc, and adjust the Lower Boise linework accordingly.

Genna Ashley will call Steve Garcia and request another CD and maps of the Middle Bear and Bear Lake hucs that were sent but never arrived at IDWR.

Christa Braun will send Genna Ashley the metadata steps that BLM is using to delineate their watersheds to be incorporated into the Metadata for the master draft watershed coverage.

Gerald Green will complete the delineations on the Hangman (17010306) huc, working on the attributing and 24k linework. This huc will be re-reviewed during the next TWG meeting, September 10^th.

Leigh Bailey will work on the Weiser (17050124) huc and re-review during the September 10^th TWG Meeting.

Al Rea will send an e-mail notification when the StreamStats application is available, probably the end of August or mid-September.

Valdon Hancock will talk to Carl Gebhardt to see if he has any additional information regarding the original channel, on the Salmon Falls huc, and will incorporate these changes if necessary. Idaho will notify Nevada when these draft delineations are complete.

Genna Ashley will send Utah’s certified dataset to Valdon Hancock for his review.

Genna Ashley will put together a status report showing draft-approved, in-review, and not reviewed hucs. She will also take a look at the hucs with 4^th field boundary change proposals delineated by Karen Hanson, and compile a list of neighboring hucs that would be impacted.

Erv Cowley will send the American Falls lines to the Fort Hall Sho-Ban Tribe for input because they have local knowledge of the area and may want to be involved in the delineation process. Erv Cowley will get review comments from the Sho-Ban Tribe and re-review it in the future, incorporating any comments that may be received by Fort Hall.

Erv Cowley will send the Birch Creek proposed 4^th field line change in the southern portion of the huc that would affect the Big Lost huc to Betsy Rieffenberger, Salmon-Challis NF for review of the change that would impact her area. Erv will also send this linework to Dan Kotansky (BLM- Idaho Falls Office), to gather any additional comments, and bring this huc back for a continuing review.

Erv Cowley will send the Beaver-Camas huc to Dan Kotansky (BLM, Idaho Falls) and Mike Philbin (Caribou-Targhee NF) for input. This huc will be reviewed again in the future.

Erv Cowley will send the Medicine Lodge huc with the proposed 4^th field line change to Dan Kotansky for input and return this huc for additional review.

Erv Cowley will send the Jordan huc to Roger Hirschman and Oregon REO for review. Erv will write a justification for the Lower North Boulder Creek 6^th, and add Oregon’s names and attribute numbers to this huc, and bring it back for a final review

Erv Cowley will send the Bruneau huc to Dave Pickel in Nevada for review, with a cc to Dale Gunther, REO. Genna Ashley will change the "Upper Bruneau River Valley" to the "Upper Bruneau Valley" label in the 6^th field.

Erv Cowley will send the Middle Snake-Succor huc to Agricultural Research Service (ARS), a division of the Department of Agriculture, so they can take a look at the Reynolds Creek 5^th field area of this huc. Erv Cowley will also send this huc to NRCS for comments and then this huc will be re-reviewed in the near future.

Wednesday, September 10^th, 10:00 a.m., at IDWR, Upstairs Conference Room A/B. Contact Genna Ashley for directions and/or NetMeeting connection information

***Subject to change before meeting***

The meeting concluded at approximately 5:00 p.m., MST.