Submitted by E. Van Volkenburgh
Attending: Lizbeth Coller, Paul Talbert, Al Smith, Ted Weinberg, Chris Hollinger, Paul Shannon, Nate Butcher, Liz Van Volkenburgh.
Paul Talbert called the meeting to order at 9:35 am.
Announcements. Paul Talbert moved that renew our business license. Moved, Voted, Passed (MVP) Paul also announced that FoSP must file a Beneficial Ownership form, related to its 501c3 status. This will be taken care of by Paul or Lizbeth.
Audubon Update. There was no Audubon Update as Joey was not present.
Monthly Reports. Lizbeth gave the Treasurer’s report: FoSP has $62,974 in its budget. A check for $960 has been written for Dylan Mendenhall for his contracted work on the sword fern sequencing project. Two donations have been received with no restrictions ($250, $5000). The Secretary’s report written by Patty Borman was emailed to the Board members on November 18. With no objection, those minutes stand approved.
Luminaria. The Luminaria organized for November 30 by a neighbor, Meghan Austin, and supported by several volunteers from the Board was a success. People coming to see the Christmas Ships were pleased and offered many thanks. Paul Talbert will send a thank you note to Meghan.
Sequencing update. Paul Talbert had sent out an update prior to this meeting and reviewed that for the Board. Paul Shannon objected to approving Dylan Mendenhall’s progress as “OK” stating that Dylan is 4 months behind schedule. After considerable discussion it was agreed that Paul Talbert would reach out to Dylan by phone to let him know there is a check in the mail for him ($960) and to share the Board’s frustration with Dylan’s slow progress. It was further agreed that by January 15 Dylan must show evidence (e.g. a photograph of bands on a gel) of successful bacterial, fungal and/or oomycetes amplification from his samples of fern fronds. In the event that no microbial DNA is amplified, the question of whether to proceed will come to the Board for a decision. The issue is whether the Board will want to risk funding DNA sequencing on samples that Dylan was unable to amplify microbial sequences from. In conversation with Dylan, Paul Talbert would also offer him an off-ramp to exit the project. Paul Shannon discussed options for pursuing the project with other labs and was encouraged to seek a bid from Dr. Marianne Elliot at WSU. Another option would be to approach Dr. Ryan Kelly at the UW eDNA Collaborative via Tim Billo.
Richard reported the discussion about speed bumps from the WDOT meeting with Seattle Parks. The meeting was organized with group work and reporting out but was quite contentious.
Forest Report. Paul Shannon reported that work parties have been happening every month following a gardeners’ strategy to mulch one foot deep, wait a year, then plant. So far, this strategy has been successful for revegetating parts of the park. Nate Butcher provided a brief update on his research project supervised by Tim Billo making a baseline vegetation survey utilizing 18 randomly positioned plots. Nate will provide a formal report in January. He is also seeking assistance with analyzing the data with appropriate statistics.
Other business. Paul Shannon asked for time to brainstorm creation of a 500 year plan as an update to the Vegetation Management Plan made in 2006 by FoSP with support of Seattle Parks. This idea was discussed and clarified – the intent is not to specify what will be planted when or what the park will look like in 500 years, but rather is to specify how to figure out what steps to take to keep the vegetation healthy. These ongoing management processes could include surveys, research studies, implementation of plans known to be successful in similar situations, etc.