Attendance

Dragon Run Steering Committee - Frank Herrin, Russell Williams (King and Queen); Jack Miller, Robert Major (Middlesex); Rick Allen, Jerry Horner (Gloucester); Prue Davis, Dorothy Miller (Essex)

Davis Wilson (Middlesex); Rachel Williams (King and Queen); Karen Reay (VA Dept. of Game and Inland Fisheries); Davis Rhodes (Friends of Dragon Run); Anne Ducey-Ortiz (Gloucester County); Beth Locklear, Rebecca Wilson (VA Natural Heritage Division); Julie Bixby (VA Coastal Program – DEQ); David Birdsall (Resource Management Service, Inc.); David Milby (VA Dept. of Forestry); Kay Bradley (NN-MP Public Education Consortium); Andy Lacatell (The Nature Conservancy); Pat Tyrrell (Tidewater Resource Conservation and Development); David Fuss (Middle Peninsula Planning District Commission)

Welcome

David Fuss of the Middle Peninsula Planning District Commission staff welcomed everyone and noted that refreshments were available. He began introductions.

Work Group Goals

David passed out a list of the goals that each work group had developed. Discussion about these goals followed. Items discussed include:

How to formally recognize distinctive treatment of Dragon?
How to manage access?
What are “community values?”
Concern about the extent of educational partnerships

Need a balance between resource protection and education causing damage/problems
Support for education
Each level of education has its own appropriate activity level
Ultimately, educational partnerships seen as important

Concern about identifying funding sources for conservation land acquisition – is this really an action step?
The goal “Encourage supervised, experience-based education” is so general, it is implied in other goals
Who’s Dragon is it? It’s everyone’s (not just an individual landowner), but don’t want to see it mutilated
Are we talking about the watershed or the stream? Need to define the scope of the goals

After much discussion, the group became anxious to move on to combining common goals and boiling down the ideas into several key goals and list remaining ideas as specific objectives. The group came up with the following goals and objectives:

Vision

Express the common vision shared by the SAMP Advisory Group, the Dragon Run Steering Committee and the wider community for the future of the Dragon Run Watershed as a pristine area where property rights are protected and respected, traditional uses are sustained and a rich heritage of natural, cultural, and historical values is nurtured

Goals

· Promote the concept that landowner stewardship and difficult access have served to preserve the Dragon Run Watershed as a regional treasure that deserves distinctive treatment and that provides community and economic benefits through its natural characteristics and traditional uses such as farming and forestry

· Plan for inevitable future development pressure by establishing a high level of cooperation and communication between the four counties to achieve consistency across county boundaries among land use plans and regulations in order to maintain farming and forestry and to preserve natural heritage areas

· Foster educational partnerships and opportunities to establish the community’s connection to and respect for the land and water of the Dragon Run, while managing access to limit ecological and private property damage

Objectives

· Preserve the integrity of the Dragon Run’s unique natural and ecological value by protecting plants, animals, natural communities, and aquatic systems

· Preserve the watershed’s sense of peace and serenity by discouraging fragmentation of farms, forests, and wildlife habitat

· Assess traditional land uses and watershed health and take action to preserve their integrity based on thorough and periodic evaluation of existing plans and planning tools

· Comprehensively implement Best Management Practices (BMP’s) for water quality, wildlife habitat, and soil conservation

Rank Goals

The group decided not to rank the goals for fear that lower-ranked goals would never be pursued.

What’s Next?

The group agreed to have David rework the goal statements based on the discussions and have the Steering Committee consider them and the draft MOA at their meeting on May 15. David passed out a copy of the draft MOA that he developed based on the goals that the work groups had developed. The Steering Committee will amend the goals and objectives and the MOA, as needed, and approve the MOA to recommend for signing by the Planning District Commission (PDC) and the Essex, Gloucester, King and Queen, and Middlesex County governments. The work groups will work on action plans for the goals while the PDC and county governments are considering the MOA.

Adjourn

The meeting was adjourned.