(Note:  Consensus and the Delphi Technique are employed constantly by this group.)

September 6, 2001

Melissa Tell and Steve Smith, Madison Press Staff Writers


London, Ohio - The Darby Creek Watershed Joint Board of Supervisors is inviting members of the community to join a new stakeholder task force that will help guide a seven-county Darby Creek Watershed Plan.

Darby Creek Watershed Coordinator Tam Kutzmark has been making the rounds of city and village councils in the vast watershed area providing information and seeking support for what she calls "community-based" watershed planning.

"It's really up to you to figure out what the future of the Darby Creek watershed will be," Kutzmark told West Jefferson Village Council at its meeting Tuesday night.

Kutzmark was hired in January by the Joint Board of Supervisors, which is made up of representatives of Soil and Water Conservation Districts in the seven county area that contains the Darby Creek watershed.

The organization wants to establish a task force of interested citizens throughout the watershed who will help guide this new conservation project.

Kutzmark said the watershed "harbors over 60,000 people" from the creek's headwaters in Logan County to its end at the Scioto River in Pickaway County. She told West Jefferson council members that a healthy Darby watershed provides a number of benefits for its residents.

"This is a place with vibrant people watching closely and not just letting things happen," Kutzmark said, adding that the community-based planning process will have "different leadership and different outcomes," compared to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's stalled proposal for a federally-managed Little Darby National Wildlife Refuge.

"I don't like the federal government coming in and basically making a swamp to protect mosquitoes," council Vice President Hank Teeters told Kutzmark, reflecting suspicions in the community that have resulted from Madison and Union counties' five-year battle over the refuge proposal.

"It all sounds fine," council President Robert Gose said, but he also expressed concerns about the process, who will be involved in it and what new requirements it may create -- without producing any money to meet them.

Kutzmark replied that although the Darby watershed group receives some money from the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency to do its work, it will remain  autonomous and be led by the citizens who live, work or pursue recreational activities in the Darby watershed -- and have an interest in its future.

She said anyone who fits that description is eligible to become a member of the stakeholder task force, one of several working groups that will put together the proposed watershed plan.

A two-part orientation workshop to learn about the new task force will be held on Sept. 13 from 6:30-9 p.m. at the Der Dutchman Restaurant in Plain City and on Sept. 22 from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. at West Jefferson High School. The workshop is open to the public and a $5 donation is requested to cover the costs of the workshop.

Those attending the two meetings will have an opportunity to choose an area of watershed planning that interests them and learn how to become involved in the watershed planning process.

"The purpose of a Darby Creek Watershed Plan is to protect water quality at the community level through local action," Kutzmark said. "This task force will help guide our watershed planning process. It will prepare the community for a series of public meetings about Darby watershed protection by working on issues like outreach, publicity, fund raising, government relations and technical issues.

"Right now we're asking people to come to the table with ideas," she said.

Those interested in joining the task force and attending the workshop should contact Kutzmark by Monday at 614-801-9450 Ext. 35, in London at 740-852-4004, or tam-kutzmark@oh.nacdnet.org

In addition to the proposed Darby Creek Watershed Plan, state, county and local officials are currently working with elected Ohio representatives and Ohio Gov. Bob Taft to try and bring a new U.S. Department of Agriculture Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program (CREP) to the Darby watershed.

Managed by state agencies, CREP is a national, voluntary conservation program currently operational in several areas across the United States.

Copyright 2001, The Madison Press. 

http://www.madison-press.com/NF/omf/madison/news_story.html?[rkey=0010695+[cr=gdn

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DeWine finally speaks about CREP, refuge

August 31, 2001

By Melissa Tell, Madison Press Staff Writer


London, Ohio - Breaking a months-long period of silence, U.S. Senator Mike DeWine spoke publicly this week about his recent endorsement of a new U.S. Department of Agriculture Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program (CREP) proposal for the seven-county Darby watershed.

In a telephone interview with The Madison Press Wednesday morning, DeWine described his backing of a new state-run, voluntary conservation program for the Darby watershed -- similar to one currently in operation up by Lake Erie -- as the result of a joint effort with U.S. Congresswoman Deborah Pryce to "do something that protects the Big Darby and Little Darby" creeks.

"Deborah Pryce and I have been working to -- with the objective of having a proposal that could preserve the Darby watershed -- to prevent pressure on it, to do it on a voluntary basis and also to do it so there would be local control that has been requested by the county," the senator said.

"CREP is a good program," DeWine added. "It has benefits for a temporary period of time, preserving land close to streams, close to the river."

DeWine's support for another Ohio CREP comes after a five-year battle with Madison and Union county farmers, landowners and officials over his partnership with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Ohio Chapter of The Nature Conservancy to establish a Little Darby National Wildlife Refuge in the two counties.

Although the senator pledged in an April 23, 1998, letter to then Ohio Sen. Merle Grace Kearns -- obtained recently by The Madison Press -- to "only support the creation of the refuge if it has local support," events unfolded quite differently.

At a meeting with representatives of the local group Citizens Against the Refuge Proposal and Union County Commissioner Jim Mitchell in early 1999 -- who all voiced their grave concerns to the senator about the refuge proposal and asked for it to be withdrawn -- DeWine initially denied writing the letter to Kearns.

When CARP provided a copy of the letter to the senator, he became angry, stating that the Darby refuge would become a reality and was best for the local community.

The meeting was concluded, discussions were broken off and CARP launched a lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Interior, demanding through a Freedom of Information Act request that the agency turn over all its Little Darby refuge planning documents.

One of these documents, a copy of a June 10, 1998, e-mail message sent from Columbus Fish and Wildlife Service program manager Bill Hegge to his boss Tom Larson and other service employees, claims that DeWine would no longer support the Interior Department if the refuge proposal was yanked.

"If we, FWS, suggest pulling the proposal, I have been informed that DeWine will not be very supportive of FWS in the future (to say the least)," Hegge wrote.

Last summer, DeWine would attempt to slip a $1 million appropriation for the Darby refuge to the Interior Department through its omnibus, annual budget bill. CARP responded by intensifying its lobbying effort of the Ohio delegation in the U.S. House and the congressmen agreed to strip DeWine's refuge appropriation last October.

CARP and another local, property rights group, Stewards of the Darby, also launched a massive "Vote DeWine Out" sign campaign throughout Madison and Union counties. True to their word, DeWine -- the heavily favored Republican candidate in the 2000 election -- won the rest of Ohio but lost Madison County in his re-election race last November.

"The great thing about this country is people have the right to express their opinion in many ways," DeWine told the Press, when asked how he felt about the results of his last race and the signs in Madison and Union counties. "That's what we treasure about this country. People certainly have their right to their opinions."

Perhaps the biggest question on many area people's minds is why would DeWine -- always a strong supporter of agricultural interests in Ohio -- decide to back a controversial refuge proposal that infuriated area farmers and former supporters, and led members of his own party to undercut his efforts.

"For the first time, in the history of this county, we would have used federal dollars to (preserve the environment)," the senator told the Press. "(A refuge) would have preserved 25,000 acres of land.

"One of the things I found very attractive was that ... we would have used federal dollars to preserve an area," DeWine added. "That actually is one of the things that had great appeal." Regarding the last statement, the senator may still be able to get his wish. Whereas a refuge proposal would be funded through the Interior Department, CREP programs are also funded federally, with U.S. Department of Agriculture funds and some state support. The amount of federal money is not small. The Lake Erie CREP is expected to cost $200 million over the next 15 years.

"I think the Farm Bill we are going to write this year is going to have a lot more conservation in the bill," DeWine said, perhaps giving a hint that funding for a new Darby CREP is a definite possibility. "I think that's going to be a significant change."

Copyright 2001, The Madison Press. 

http://www.madison-press.com/NF/omf/madison/news_story.html?[rkey=0010644+[cr=gdn