Board Meeting Minutes June 13, 2003

In Attendance: Members: Pat Parr (proxy for Nancy Fraley), Susan Finger (visitor), Ella Guinn (visitor), Kristine Johnson (proxy for Richard Clements), Anni Self, Dan Brown, Bob Parrish, Jack Ranney, David Lincicome, Regan Ritchie, Guests: Brian Bowen (SEPPC), Bob English (LEAPS), Staci Wessels (SAMAB), Patty Day (SAMAB), P.J. Nabors (NBII), Jill Smith, Roger Spivey (TNLA), David Bates (TNLA), Steve Bennett (TNLA)

Pat Parr welcomed everyone, especially the guests from Tennessee Nursery and Landscape Association.

Bob Parrish welcomed everyone to Warner Parks and introduced the guest speaker.

Guest Speaker: Robert English, co-owner of LEAPS Environmental Consulting. Bob gave a talk entitled, "Education Outreach: a success story," detailing the Beaman Park Exotic Invasive Plant Survey and highlighting the use of GIS to document occurrence of and qualifying scope of exotics in the 1500 acre park. Phase One was completed in March 2003. Partners include Friends of Beaman Park, Metro Parks Department and grants have been provided by USFS and TNDA-Forestry Division. Rare species are recorded as they come across them, but most T/E information is from TN-DNH surveys. It was stressed that this type of information not be made public.

Minutes: A motion was made, seconded and carried to approve the minutes. Minutes will be forwarded to SE-EPPC for posting on that website.

General Operating Account: $2,981.50

Money Market: $7,086.47

Total Assets: $10,067.97

A motion was made, seconded and carried to approve the treasurer’s report. Most of the income from memberships was renewals. Carrie Miller has this information if anyone is interested. Bob Parrish reported on a glitch resulting from TN-EPPC hosting the SE-EPPC meeting and setting up an account enabling credit card acceptance. TN-EPPC is being charged $20/mos for this inactive account and it will cost $195 to close it. Brian Bowen would like to retain this ability and will ask SE-EPPC to take over the account. Bob will check with AmSouth to see if a transfer is feasible. TN-EPPC will still be able to use the account in the future.

Reprint copies of middle and west Tennessee brochures Pat Parr handed out a list of who has how many of what brochure. Since the brochures are available on the website, it was decided to revisit this item later and just trade to meet needs at present.

Cost to reprint invasive list – Brian Bowen and David Lincicome stated that none were left. It was suggested that copies be run-off to meet current needs. Brian commented that corrections stemming from the last review were needed prior to any reprint. Mary Priestly has these corrections. Pat will talk to Nancy Fraley and ask her to communicate with Brian about the updates.

TN Invasive Plant Manual status – Kris Johnson reported that ten new species text are finished. These will be online on the SE-EPPC website, and will include a link to the TN-EPPC website. Line drawings for six of the species, under contract with Thomas Brown, are due July 1, 2003. The other four should be available via links online. The money for this project is provided by SAMAB to USFWS. Brian Bowen acknowledged the online information is still under construction.

Canned Presentation on Invasives – Jack Ranney sent the talk to Carrie Miller, who has already used it for a presentation. Jack is concerned over the ecological effects slides and asked the group to think about how much detail should be presented. Jack will send the presentation to the board members.

Flash Card status – TVA printed the cards. TVA will provide $300, SAMAB $300 and ORNL has contributed, meaning TN-EPPC needs to cover about $1000 of the $2000 cost. TVA has been paid the remaining balance for printing. There are 400 sets of laminated cards, 250 non-laminated sets, all of which need to collated. Members should request cards from Jack and he will mail out. The cards were used in TN-EPPC’s booth at the Terrestrial Plant Invasives conference. The cards are on the SAMAB website and TN-EPPC’s website provides a link so people can print them.

Logo – The board voted to make option #1 (TN-EPPC name with leaf) the official logo. A thank-you for hard work was formally expressed by the board to Thomas Brown for his designs.

TN-EPPC sponsored workshop status – Terry Hogan participated in a chemicals and chainsaw workshop at Stone River, which Brian Bowen also attended and reported on. Brian and Terry are doing an article on the workshop for the fall issue of Wildland Weeds. Dan Brown, Anni Self, David Lincicome, Terry Hogan and Bob Parrish reported on ideas for a Middle TN workshop. These include reaching out to farmers in Dickson County focusing on fencerows, woodlots, etc. Dan will check into speakers, location, and call the subgroup together. The idea of joining with NRCS in a project was nixed because it could dilute the TN-EPPC message.

Member mailing of brochures – A sample of the newsletter was handed out. Carrie Miller needs more brochures and reprints. Susan Finger will take these to her.

Status of material on web – Web materials have been discussed throughout the meeting, but specifically, Pat Parr reported for Richard Clement that the board meeting minutes and the TN-EPPC Management manual are available. Also, ten new species and a link to SE-EPPC are now on the website.

TN-EPPC position bullets for website – The Board concurred with the proposal to include position bullets on the TN EPPC website.  Two approved by the Board were: 

1. Endorse the idea of a state invasive species management plan

2. Endorse the St. Louis declaration

A third "encourage the large plant retailers in the state to find alternatives to plant species identified as posing severe invasive threats to natural areas" was moved to new business, but never fully addressed. 

Also discussed were endorsements of state and national agendas.  One question centered on "Who speaks for TN-EPPC and SE-EPPC?"

SE-EPPC Board discussion – Jack Ranney reported on the meeting, with additions from Brian Bowen. SE-EPPC would like to take a regional focus with their retail nursery industry initiative, lobbying large stakeholders such as Wal-Mart, Lowes and Home Depot. There should be very serious discussion of which plants to reject and some should be endorsed. Florida or a combination of AL/MS is strongly being considered as the site for the next SE-EPPC conference. The national meeting, in September, will be in Madison, WI. A TN-EPPC fact sheet was prepared by Jack and sent to NEEPC, which has sheets for all state EPPCs. Jack will ask Richard to put this on the TN-EPPC website. The SE-EPPC listserver has started and Jack will send out this information again. Other topics at the meeting included a good budget, cost sharing, articles for Wildland Weeds, sponsors for Wildland Weeds circulation, and providing a standard operating procedure for the states. Also, AL-EPPC is in SE-EPPC for one "provisional" year.

Clemson Invasives Meeting, June 4-6 (Invasive Terrestrial Plants Workshop) – Jack and Nancy attended this event sponsored by the USFS and University of Clemson, with about 200 participants. USFWS is considering state chapters of FICMNEW. Patty Day will compile a "what’s needed for a state invasive species plan," list.

TN Conservation Voters – Discussion was held about joining group, which hires lobbyists and could be a conflict with members from government agencies. Decided to put item on back burner.

Getting the word out – Regan Ritchie presented at the Lookout Mountain Garden Club. Carrie Miller did a presentation at the TN State Nursery Crop Research Station, where she met Roger Spivey (guest). Alison Miller, a reporter for the Tennessean, did an article on invasives and has expressed a willingness to do more if members contact her (amiller1@nashvill.gannett.com). A TN-EPPC mention occurred in the latest issue of Wildland Weeds.

TN-EPPC letter of support to Dr. Cheng (sterile nursery invasives) – Copies of the letter were handed out. TNLA and TN Crop Research withheld support from the project primarily because of funding issues.

New Business:

Report/items from Brian Bowen – AL-EPPC got a $20,000 grant from their State Forestry Division that apparently came from a Farm Bill initiative to combat invasives. Brian will talk to Keith about procuring funds. Anni Self will also check into this.

TN-EPPC 10^th anniversary - Brian Bowen suggested a day at Cheekwood (birthplace) for TN-EPPC’s 10^th anniversary, perhaps with a symposium and membership drive. Ideas were discussed, including a statewide history, ten removal projects. TNLA offered a booth at McMinnville, 4^th annual Green Earth Industry Field Day (August 12) to promote. Anni Self will be at event and will start as contact. Pat Parr suggested an event in each section of TN – Association of SE Biologist will be meeting in Memphis. Brian mentioned a possible tie-in to a grant TDEC received for a Natural Area at Falling Water.

Election for Secretary and Vice President – A motion was made, seconded and passed to elect Jack Ranney as Vice President and Terri Hogan as Secretary.

TN Noxious Weed List – A list was created which included everything on the TN-EPPC list, including Watch list A, with the exception of Microstegium. Pat Parr is going to write another draft letter to the state in support of a state list and enclose the TN-EPPC suggestions. The list is long, but the state can cull species from it. TNLA will respond to the state, rather than directly to TN-EPPC.

City Ordinances – Kris Johnson reported that Clarksville is using the TN-EPPC list as a guideline for ordinances. Examples of positive ordinances in Farragut and Pittman Center were brought up. Kris will do ordinance research to use as examples, which can be put on the website. Jack Ranney will call the TN Urban Forestry League and ask for their planting plan.

TN-EPPC sponsored events guidelines – Pat Parr led discussion in making sure the target audience of sponsored events is the public. Issues included: How is the event advertised? Request herbicides be donated for events, not purchased by TN-EPPC. Does TN-EPPC need a property rider for that day’s event?

Inserts for Conferences – Pat Parr explained opportunity to put 1000 brochures in carryall bags at the International Conference on the Ecology and Management of Alien Plant Invasions, in Ft. Lauderdale, FL, November 3-7, 2003, at a cost of $150. The BOD decided to do this action. Pat will call Brian Bowen about the same opportunity for SE-EPPC.

Posters – Jack Ranney reported that USFWS, Asheville, will have $3000 to do posters on invasives in the next twelve months. TN-EPPC could tie this into their 10^th anniversary. Members were asked to bring examples of well-done posters to next meeting.

Summer Meeting Date – Meeting will be held at a TVA site. Pat Parr will call Nancy Fraley about August 13 or August 28 date. Suggestions for fall meeting location were Pot House and Reflection Riding in Chattanooga.

NBII project – PJ Nabors (guest) explained the NBII project "Appalachian Inventory and Monitoring Information Synthesis," which she is involved with. She requested information on invasive locations, management plans, and need assessments. PJ is going to put a TN-EPPC link on the NBII website.

TN-EPPC and TNLA – Roundtable discussion was held with guests from TNLA on opening a dialog between the two groups. There is a national discussion on invasives in the nursery industry. Both groups will add links to websites on their own sites. Articles for TNLA magazine was encouraged, if the writing is "educational and objective." This magazine reaches legislators and the industry. Ideas for working together were explored. One main question is "What is an invasive and where is it considered an invasive?" Jack Ranney will send TNLA information on national invasive initiatives and state manuals and other relevant materials. Both groups invited a board liaison to attend meetings.

A motion was made, seconded, and carried to adjourn.

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