I. Approve membership and general statement of purpose.
II. Brief overview of 2006 Gaston research efforts.
III. Improving information dissemination.
IV. Review and comment on LGSB Long Range Plan Draft C.
V. 2007 Gaston Funding.
VI. Next meeting.
VII. Anything else and adjourn.

Attending (members): Christian Waters, Brian McRae, Mike Grodowitz, Kirk Rundle, Mike Smart, Rob Emens, Vic Dicenzo, Rob Richardson, Greg Cope, Lloyd Hipkins, Chris Cheek, Shaun Hyde
Calling: John Madsen, Chris Horton, Kelly Wills, Glen Bishop
Attending (non-members): Bob Lohr, Bruce Johnson, Pete Deschenes, Chuck (PLM)

I. The need for an official membership list for TAG was brought up with no objection. The proposed TAG membership was approved without dissent.

The need for a basic membership statement was brought up with no objection. Glen Bishop mentioned the need to include re-vegetation and Rob Richardson pointed out that integrated management would use all appropriate management techniques including re-vegetation. Two other suggestions for revising the statement were presented and accepted by the group.
A revised membership statement was approved:
>Provide science-based recommendations supporting integrated invasive aquatic plant management on Lake Gaston.

II. Vic Dicenzo presented a summary of the grass carp ageing study. Fish lengths seemed to separate into clear age classes, although this needs to be confirmed by processing of otoliths. Madsen questioned otolith accuracy for age identification of grass carp. Group believes to be accurate enough. It is more challenging for carp, but Vic Dicenzo was not aware of a fish species where otoliths could not be used. As otoliths can be aged by non-destructive techniques, it was agreed that sending pictures or otoliths to others for a second opinion would be useful and would increase accuracy. Locations of carp collection recorded are recorded. In general, the sampling seemed to go very well in 2006, but Vic would like to have more bowfishermen participate in 2007.

Chris Cheek presented summary of public herbicide applications. He felt the applications went well during 2006. He would like to start earlier (late April to early May) and felt the late start created some added difficulty. He also thought that most treated sites were very clean, although areas of high water flow did have limited remaining hydrilla. Discussion ensued about private applications. Private applicators are mainly using the contact products Komeen or Komeen plus Reward rather than Sonar, which is systemic. The need to encourage use of more systemic herbicides rather than contact products was discussed and met no opposition from the group. Cost of contact compared to systemic is very similar on a per acre basis, however, contacts are only used about 100 feet out from the shore while Sonar would be used as a whole cove treatment creating more expense. It was mentioned that the long-term control provided by systemic herbicides would justify that expense whereas contacts may have to be applied multiple times in a single year for adequate control. Chris treated 985 acres for the public treatments and estimates that a total of 4-500 acres were treated privately. It was also brought up that the Weed Council was carrying over some funds to allow an earlier start in 2007.

Rob Richardson presented summary of 2006 herbicide research. Results are being analyzed. Research included two herbicides in development for use on aquatic sites, imazamox and penoxsulam. Imazamox is a BASF product, while penoxsulam is a SePRO product. Both products are systemic herbicides and could be registered for use in North Carolina as early as 2007. Complete results should be available by spring 2007.

John Madsen presented summary of treatment assessments. Working on report now and it will be ready by January. In general, he thought the treated sites looked very good. Grodowitz questioned about native vegetation and Madsen replied that very few natives were found during the assessment, but that is typical of areas that have had severe hydrilla infestations.

Mike Smart presented summary of several Gaston-related research efforts. Summary included grass carp exclosures, native vegetation establishment, and monoecious hydrilla ecology. An increase in the amount of lyngbya was noted and the group decided to discuss lyngbya specifically at the January TAG meeting and decide then if this growing problem needs further attention.

Grodowitz presented summary of biological control efforts. Additional releases were made on Gaston in 2006 and Caledonia prison is producing leaf-mining flies. These leaf-mining flies reduce the growth and vigor of hydrilla and complement other management efforts.

III. Simple website needed to improve dissemination. List-serve for TAG members needed. Group agreed to ask Weed Council to pay Steve Hoyle $500 to develop the web site and create the list serve. TAG feels like this will be one component to help with lake-wide communication and this will require some time from researchers. Also, the Weed Council and the Stakeholder's Board need to provide some avenues of information dissemination to Lake Property owners.

V. Funding up in the air for 2007 line-item Lake Gaston USACE work. Could be March before anything is known. There should be other USACE money for aquatic plant research that is non-specific to Gaston, but will provide benefits to Gaston.
Weed Council submitted a pre-proposal to the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation Pulling Together Initiative that Rob Richardson helped with. Full proposal due in December. Bruce Johnson is interested in developing a proposal to fund native plant establishment, but will likely need help. Rob Richardson mentioned that there are stakeholders interested in seeking funding for Gaston, but these individuals have no grant-writing experience.
Funding through Rob Emens is stable and other NC funding is also. VA funding up in air due to political turnover, except VA Beach funding should be stable.

VI. Next meeting week of Jan. 8. Will be determined by email.

IV.

Long range plan.
Treat every 3 years to maintain status quo or treat selected sites consecutive years to reduce hydrilla biomass and tuber population, working toward goal stated in draft LGSB( question by Hyde)
Need to revegetate after chemical treatment. (Grodowitz)
Need multiple treatments for control then revegetate (Smart)
Identify these areas for targeting (Hipkins)
Multi-year management instead of annual management (Grodowitz)
Target sources of infestation - much discussion.
Group will discuss specific long-range recommendations at January meeting.

Volunteers for revegetation or use commercial sources (discussion)
Considerable discussion on revegetation
Send email requesting specific comments on long range plan.
Was flow study done in 2003? Evidently not, but part of current USACOE plan.

Adjourn until January.