2. Introductions - Howard asked everyone to introduce themselves.

3. Minutes - The minutes of the September 21, 1998 meeting were approved as corrected.

4. Agenda - Howard Johnson reviewed the agenda.

5. Kerry Goodrich reported that the CRP Maintenance Practice Demonstrations in Box Elder, Juab and San Juan Counties have been established except for burning the plots. Burning will be completed as soon as possible. There will be a field day on July 14 at Nephi where the Juab site will be visited. He also explained the Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program (CREP). He discussed the fact that the continuous Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) for buffers and filter strips has only been entered by one producer in Utah and that it only includes 8 acres. The drawback appears to be that it was done at dryland rental rates of $30 /acre. The CREP is a joint Federal-State program targeting riparian areas for protection. If CREP is accepted in Utah, NRCS would like to establish a goal of 200 miles of riparian buffer for enhancement. The state share of the $2,000,000 annual cost is $400,000 with the remainder being the federal contribution. Practices are filter strips for cropland and riparian buffers for grazed lands. The irrigated land rental rate would be in effect. The program requires that grazed land riparian buffers be protected from grazing for the first ten years. After that period, grazing could occur under a grazing plan that would protect the area from use that would result in degradation. Kerry is requesting a letter of support from the Utah GLCI for the CREP in Utah. Jake indicated that Commissioner of Agriculture Cary Peterson is strongly supportive. Tim Munns moved to support CREP with the recommendation that grazing be included as a maintenance practice should maintenance be required. Lynn Adair seconded the motion and it passed. The Utah GLCI Steering Committee will send a supportive letter to Jim Humlichek (FSA). Jake Jacobsen will draft the letter.

6. Budget Report - Howard Johnson discussed the news release about Utah GLCI receiving funding. He asked for advice on establishing a budget. Establishment of a Finance and Budget Committee was suggested for working on our budget and for establishing procedures for making expenditures. Howard asked Roger Banner, Chuck Gay, Jake Jacobsen, Russ Hendricks, and Gordon Younkers to meet and to work out some details on the budget, to establish some procedures for making expenditures, and to make recommendations regarding the make-up of a committee. We have incurred a few expenses to date and have received several requests for financial assistance.

- $75 to UACD for display space at the UACD Convention held in November.

- Verbal request for support of the Arizona-Utah Range Workshop (April 14-16) from Rob Grumbles, Mojave County Agent. Rob was asked to send a letter request.

- Tim Munns said that there will be loss of NRCS range technical assistance personnel in Box Elder and Cache field offices and that Fred Selman had asked for our financial help in replacing these positions. We do not have funds for personnel support in our budget, either in amount or in purpose. It was suggested that Tim let the Box Elder-Cache people know that they should go directly to Skip Nelson and voice the concerns and priorities for NRCS technical assistance. The Utah GLCI would be supportive of there concerns and desire to retain and re-fill these range technical assistance positions.

- Jack Soper, Extension Agent from Garfield and Kane Counties reported that ranchers in the new Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument are under extreme pressure to improve their grazing practices in the Monument. He asked for financial assistance in helping these ranchers adjust management to allow them to continue grazing BLM allotments in the Monument. Roger responded that our funds were limited and directed at private grazing lands. However, since there are substantial amounts of private rangeland and pasture within the monument, we could consider supporting management demonstrations on private land that would be educational and complementary to BLM allotment management. Electric fencing for improved grazing management and solar water pumping for off-stream alternative livestock water were mentioned as examples. Jack had some ideas where this would be helpful and will come back with a specific proposal.

7. Home Page - Jerry Chatterton will take on the responsibility for developing our Utah GLCI web page. Dean Maxwell made a motion that we establish a task force to coordinate the web page and Jake Jacobsen seconded the motion which passed. I failed to record the members of the task force. I will try to resurrect those assignments prior to the next meeting.

8. Outreach - Jake Jacobsen wanted to know if the efforts of the Outreach Committee were to be continued. The Steering Committee agreed that this is a committee that should continue to function.

9. The Nature Conservancy has requested that we work together on ranch preservation. There will be a luncheon for discussion of ranch preservation on December 18, 1998 at Diamond Lil's from 11:00-2:00. UACD is a sponsor of this program and is doing the advertising for it. Larry Ellicott made a motion that we support and participate in this program. Tim Munns seconded the motion and it passed. We agreed as the steering committee to provide $200 of our funds in support of this educational activity. Roger will contact Gordon Younker on how to make our $200 contribution.

10. Dwight Bunnell discussed the issues surrounding open lands in Utah, including demographics. He is now working on habitat preservation on joint-funding and a MOU between the Utah DWR and the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation. Dwight is to provide information and education to private landowners on conservation easements. He will show a video on the program today at our luncheon meeting. He also has a brochure for distribution and will answer questions other members of the committee may have.

11. Local GLCI Issues - Howard Johnson reported that the UACD passed a resolution at their convention to support GLCI. The Zone Directors will be the contact and Zone Coordinators will be asked to help coordinate local GLCI groups and activities.

12. Larry Ellicott developed a GLCI display for use at meetings, field days and other educational opportunities. It is set up in the other room and we will be able to see it when we break for lunch.

13. Karl Kler discussed the Clean Water Act Draft National Strategy concerning confined animal feeding operations. Copies of the strategy were passed to all members of the committee. Of particular concern were some of the definitions in the document, particularly the definition of what constitutes a "confined animal feeding operation."

14. The Finance and Budget Committee will meet at 0900 on December 18^th prior to attending the Ranchland Preservation Program. The meeting will be held at the Utah Department of Agriculture and Food.

15. The next meeting will be on January 14, 1999 at 0900 at the Utah Farm Bureau Federation building. Val Samuelson and Brent Tanner agreed to UWGA-UCA sponsorship of the lunch.

16. Howard adjourned the meeting and we looked at the display, had lunch sponsored by US Extension, and watched the video on conservation easements.