Brief Summary of Minutes of Annual Meeting

The 2008 meeting was held on the campus of the University of Nevada at Reno. The focus of the meeting was to finalize the proposal for submission to RCIC for consideration during the July 2008 meeting in Fairbanks, AK. Attendees at the meeting actually constituted a writing team. They were empowered by the full committee to complete the proposal. John Buckhouse called the meeting to order at 1:00 PM on April 21, 2008. Dr. Buckhouse charged the group. The group evaluated the previous proposal (submitted to RCIC in summer of 2007) and reviewed the comments made by reviewers. It was determined that a revised proposal would focus much more on watershed health issues and specifically on how change in watershed health could be documented. Expected outcomes were identified that included 1) documentation of impacts of watershed management programs across the west; 2) enhancing the understanding of the connection between management and measureable improvement in watershed health; and 3) improved management and health of western watersheds. Additionally, potential committee members were identified throughout the West. John Buckhouse will contact these individuals to ensure that they are aware of the committee and invite them to participate. Current membership listed in NIMSS (Appendix E for WERA_TEMP2241)includes 11 extension specialists and scientists at 8 different institutions. The draft proposal was completed and will be submitted to NIMSS before May 15.

Accomplishments to date focus on development of a viable committee and proposal. In 2007, the committee submitted a proposal to RCIC for review. The RCIC extended 'development committee' status for one year and recommended that the committee continue to work on the proposal with more focus on watershed issues. Therefore, the main products of the committee in 2008 were 1) development of a revised proposal and 2) recruitment of new committee members to focus more attention on watershed issues.