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JULY 2022 

In this issue:

• Supplemental Budget Webinar Available 
• Save the date: Quarterly Reports are due July 10
• Save the date: Next Joint TP & SAC meeting is July 14.
• New! Alpowa Story Maps
• Funding opportunity available!
• Submit a proposal for for the Tilth Conference
• Monitoring guide available for use
• Still seeking an environmental representative for SAC
• Communications survey still open - don't delay
• The adaptive management policy is available for use

Upcoming Events

Joint TP & SAC Meeting

July 14, 2022 @ 9 a.m.

Meeting ID: 859 7490 0192

Passcode: 434300

Quarterly Reports Due!

Quarterly reports are due July 10, 2022.

Supplemental Budget Webinar Available

Commission decision on the guidelines expected on July 21

The webinar on the VSP FY 21-23 supplemental budget was held on May 25, and is now available here.

The webinar reviewed the supplemental VSP funding the Commission received from the legislature, examined the timeline for spending the funds, and discussed the guidelines for receiving funds for VSP projects, including project cost limits, vouchering, deliverables, responsible parties, and other items.

A comment period on the guidelines expired on July 1.  Comments will be incorporated into the guidelines, and the Commission is expected to adopt the guidelines at its July 21 meeting.  

Click here to watch the recording of the webinar.

Alpowa Story Map

Working with Audrey Martinez, an AmeriCorps Education/Outreach Restoration Technician with the Palouse CD, we created the Alpowa Creek Story Map.

This was completed to showcase the instream habitat and riparian streambank protection projects that were completed with Salmon Recovery Funding Board, Ecology and NRCS funding. This took many local partnerships to complete both instream Post Assisted Log Structures and the Soft Streambank Bio-Engineering Projects using donated wood from the  USFS Pomeroy Ranger District.

Because of your questions I decided that putting a story map together would get information out to others who were interested in these smaller stream projects.

While putting the Alpowa Story Map together we were also working on the Garfield VSP 5-Year Status Review. A portion of the Ecology – Flow and Implementation Grant was to increase summer base flows and it was something we were also monitoring for VSP.  Included are both adult steelhead numbers from WDFW weir on Alpowa Creek and also the summer base flows from the Alpowa Creek Realtime Flow Gauge. 

This information pulls together both pre and post-implementation and we used the VSP timeframe of prior to 2011. 

The story map shows the instream (PALS and a partial barrier removal) and the streambank protection projects. We will keep updating the story map with both future implementation and flow and temperature monitoring from the Ecology gauge.

- Brad Johnson from Garfield and Whitman County VSP

Funding Opportunity

Salmon Science Investigations

Submit a Session Proposal for This Year's Tilth Conference

Farmers, researchers, educators, advocates, and all members of Washington's agricultural community are invited to submit session proposals for this year's Tilth Conference!

Presentations should provide useful, relevant, applicable information that supports the success of organic, regenerative, and sustainable producers, at all levels. Learn more about what we're looking for and submit your proposal.

Deadline: Friday, July 15; 11:59 p.m. PDT

Development Guide Available

The VSP Watershed Monitoring Project Development Guide was adopted on May 12, 2022. The guide is meant to assist county work groups and VSP technical service providers with VSP monitoring.

Primary goals of the guide include:

• Identifying a “shared language/approach” for monitoring within VSP – recognizing that monitoring details differ depending on county and context 
• Reducing “mismatches” when  groups attempt to use data from various sources (e.g., data from other state agencies)
• Highlighting the unique attributes of VSP (watershed scale, work groups, privacy, 5-yr reporting, etc.) and their implications for monitoring
• Outlining the foundational aspects of monitoring  – this can be technical, but we have tried to develop the material so as to limit jargon 
• Linking readers to additional resources (data, methods, tools, perspectives etc) that may be helpful 

Comments have been integrated into the Guide and it is “living” document and subject to revision. 

Enviro Rep Still Needed

Commission seeks environmental representative for SAC.

An important part of the VSP is the Statewide Advisory Committee (SAC) appointed by the director of the Commission.

The SAC is comprised of environmental, agricultural, and county members, and tribal representation is also sought.  The SAC serves to advise the director of the Commission on a variety of policy and programmatic aspects of VSP. 

The Commission is currently seeking an environmental representative to serve on the SAC.

The term is for two years. 

Meetings are generally held every month or every other month.  Members serve as volunteers to help the Commission achieve the goals of VSP, which include protecting critical areas while maintaining agricultural viability. 

More information on the SAC can be found at the Commission’s VSP web page. 

If interested in serving contact Ron Shultz, Director of Policy and Inter-governmental Relations, rshultz@scc.wa.gov or by phone at  360-407-7507.

Communications Survey still open!

The VSP communications survey is now open and we need your feedback!

Letting us know your thoughts on VSP communications will help us keep you informed of the latest VSP news and trainings.

Take the survey today so we can work to serve all VSP administrators better in the future. 

Quarterly Reports Due July 10

Reminder – Quarterly Report due July 10.

The next VSP quarterly report is due July 10 (there was a typo in last month’s VSP newsletter - sorry about the confusion!)

July 10 is the correct due date. 

When in doubt, the dates listed in the contract between each VSP county and the Commission control. 

Those are listed in each contract, and are also listed on the VSP implementation web page, under the “Reporting” tab. 

Policy Advisory is Available 

After the close of the comment period on May 2, 2022, the Commission, in conjunction with the VSP Statewide Advisory Committee, adopted Policy Advisory #07-22 Adaptive Management in VSP. 

The purpose of the policy advisory is to assist county workgroups and VSP technical service providers with VSP adaptive management. 

The policy advisory was prompted by the Commission's feedback last fall during the five-year reporting process that more structure was needed around the adaptive management process in statute.

The policy advisory is available for download on the SCC's VSP policy advisory page. 

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Sign up here and choose the subscription for the “Voluntary Stewardship Program (VSP)” under the Programs and Policy tab.

If you have any questions please contact Bill Eller or Paige DeChambeau.

Copyright 2022 - Washington State Conservation Commission