Washington Conservation Commission

Minutes – January 15, 2014

Assembly time: 7:00 PM.

Members present: Jed Schwartz, Nan Schwartz, Arin Mills, Johanna Young and Tom Taylor.

Visitors: None

1.0 Approval of Minutes: Minutes from November 2013 meeting, Arin made a motion to approve, Nan seconded, all voted in favor.

2.0 Permits Committee - No permits.

3.0 Committee and Board reports:

3.1 Land Protection Committee - Hasn’t met. Jed reported that there are potential projects in Washington but he has no details.

3.2 Energy Committee – Johanna reported that they met in December and worked on their report for the town report. She said that the EC is planning to do a display about energy savings for Town meeting with a question sheet that people can fill out. She said there is new money available for “Button Up” workshops but they haven’t talked about scheduled one so far. She wanted everyone to know that a copy of “Green Energy Times” magazine is available at the Town Hall; it has stories about energy efficiency and energy projects you can do. She said they are trying to continue to be involved in any energy projects for the town buildings. The energy audits they had done a few years ago identified many projects that could be done to increase efficiency in the buildings; so far little has been done. Arin suggested a LEED building for the Safety Complex. Jed said that this was considered but the cost is high, the new building would be very efficient compared to what they have now. Johanna suggested solar panels at least for hot water, which can be financed and the payback is pretty quick. Johanna suggested talking to Al Krygeris about these energy efficiency issues. Arin said that the army is pushing “Net Zero” projects these days.

3.3 Planning Board – Nan reported that the Planning Board’s Master Plan Community survey is complete and available to read online here: http://www.washingtonnh.org/Pages/WashingtonNH_News/01C2E721-000F8513

The committee is working on setting up a community-visioning workshop for next summer. They are working with a man from the UNH Cooperative extension, who will help facilitate and do a report of the workshop when it is done.

3.4 Forestry Committee – Tom reported that the Forestry Committee spent the year to define what they are going to do with the Town Forest money they asked to appropriate at Town Meeting last year. They contracted with Forester Anita Blakman in December. They spent the year doing deed research and they got GPS points for all the corners of the Town Forest properties. She will look at the parcels with an eye to logging and harvesting what is ready now. They are hoping to look at recreational and other uses for the Town Forests. They have always focused on Farnsworth Hill, which is very steep, rocky and could be hard to log. Anita will do the fieldwork and they are using the document Lionel produced. They are working to update it with aerial maps and deeds and in a year to 18 months and come up with recommendations for forest management. Arin asked if they are looking at things like wildlife habitat improvement. Tom said the RSAs that set their charter is to look at forestry for recreation and habitat, not to look at it for money. It also speaks to a good relationship with the Conservation Commission and that the Forestry Committee can be a part of the CC. They have decided to stay separate at this point but wish to work cooperatively with the CC. One of their members doesn’t think that they should think out of the box of forestry but the rest of them do. They went in on the Meadow lot and closed off an open well on the property. It was a 16-foot deep concrete well that was only covered by a tarp. It is now safely covered. In looking at the lot they thought it might be a good place for an observation point for looking at birds out over the marsh. He said hey would like CC members help to assess whether this would be a good observation spot. He’d like us to go out in the spring and do a survey, then if it seems good work with them on a trail and an observation spot. Everyone thought this was a great idea and wants to be involved in this project. On Farnsworth Hill they are interested in creating a trail that will join up with the trail in Lempster’s town forest possibly going all the way to the Silver Mountain trail. Jed thinks that John Brighton would be very interested in helping with this and joining trails on the Farnsworth Hill Forest Reserve. Johanna thinks these would make good running trails. Tom feels we shouldn’t approach protecting the Town Forests until we do all the study and figure out what we have. He said the old thought is that Town Forests produce money for the town, which goes into the Forest Reserve Fund, the town can vote to use these funds. Arin asked if the forester is doing a cruise and asked what she is going to focus on? While she cut for regeneration and improve habitat? Jed said that she has a reputation for looking at things holistically. Tom mentioned future hunting possibilities and bushwhacking adventures, after a cut berries come in. They want to get the word out that they are doing things. Jed said he will reach out to John Brighton and they can get together with the Forestry Committee meeting soon.

3.5 Legislative update - the new session has started be we aren’t aware of any bills at the moment. Johanna said there are some pertaining to the Northern Pass issue and wind farm issues. We will keep an eye on any legislation that might be important to us.

4.0 Public Presentations and workshops:

4.1 Tracking Invasive Plants project – Nan gave Arin copies of the information Kathy West gave us about some invasive plant sightings she has done along Halfmoon Pond Road. Arin will add the information to our database and map. Arin said she goofed around a bit with the GIS map and is trying to get the photos to work with it, she hopes to have that working by next meeting. She also noticed they have added a map viewer that can be saved out as an app. She is going to look at it further and see what can be done with it. She thinks it would be helpful to have it on her iPhone.

The reporting sheets and guides are always available on our web site here: InvasiveProject.html

4.2 Possible Hikes – Arin asked if we want to try to do a hike. Jed said that he has cleared his trail from East Washington at the pond to the Eccardt Farm along the brook. There is great snowshoe hare habitat there. He wants to do a snowshoe hike out there sometime this winter. He suggested maybe sometime in February. Arin said school vacation is Feb 24 to the 28^th. She thinks Saturday, February 22^nd would be good from 10AM to noon. Nan will do a flyer and we will send a flyer home with the school kids. Jed said we could do hot chocolate and trail mix after the hike at the Bear Hill house. Arin will ask at school about borrowing extra snowshoes and everyone can see if they can borrow a few extra from friends.

5.0 New business - none

6.0 Other Business:

6.1 NRI update - We all read through page 1 through 12 and felt much of it is introductory and good to keep. Arin said that she thought that in the CC goals section we could add a tenth goal to promote education and outdoor recreational activities through hands on activities and hikes. Nan said we need to update the population data to use the 2010 census. Johanna asked what the population is now and Nan said 1123, Johanna said we could add a breakdown of ages for that data. Arin asked about the mention of Cherry Valley, she didn’t know anything about it. Tom said that Ron Jager wrote a small book about it and it is available at the library. The area was where Pillsbury Park is now and there was a school out there and a large logging business, it was a whole little town for a while. Jed brought up a map overlay that he thinks we should have done, a map that shows where development could or should go for new housing and possibly businesses. Nan said that the Planning Board is talking about creating such a map. She said we need to update the subdivision statement and number of available lots. She will speak with the Assessors to get new information. Nan pointed out that our population doubles in the summertime. Arin said on page 4 we are now using Arc GIS 10.X. She said that the Wildlife Action Plan maps have new data and have been updated so we need to use the newest; she thinks the flood maps have been updated too. Jed said that the aerial map should now be a satellite map. Arin said that on page 6 we should check the mission statement for NH Granit, she thinks it may have been revised. She thinks that the surface water National Hydrology Database has been revised and we should use the latest. Arin suggested that maybe we could include some historic map imagery (USGS, Hurd maps) and add them into the NRI. We will look for these online. Arin has a good website we can look at. She thinks it would be good to look at land cover changes over time. She has looked at impervious surface changes from 1994-2001. She thinks it is noteworthy that we haven’t had a lot of development as compared to Hillsboro. Tom asked if there was a map with conservation land noted on it. Nan suggested Granit viewer should have the latest, they have been updating it the last year or so. Arin said that on page 10 could we get the number of acres logged and the amount of timber tax. Tom said that Anita Blakman has been working for the town assessors and making sure the town gets the timber taxes it is owed. Nan said she could also get this information from the Assessors. Arin thinks we might want to discuss the impacts of forestry, both positive and negative in this section. She thought we could discuss state laws and how forestry is regulated. Tom asked if we have any local laws that regulate forestry. He said he went to the Selectmen and asked about seeding after logging if the loggers chip all the slash. He was concerned with erosion. Nan said we don’t, we rely on the state laws but she will look into whether we could enact ordinances pertaining to this. Arin said that on Table 1 we should add percentages of acres. She thought that on the “Soils & Biodiversity” map, we need to remove the wetlands, which is making it confusing. The wetlands should be on the “Water Resources” map. On page 12 Arin asked about the statement to protect important forest soils, maybe the word should be maintain, everyone agreed. On page 4 Arin asked about the 3 days of field work that was done, do we want to update and do some more field work? Jed said yes we could do that. She thought we could use the Wildlife Action Plan map to pinpoint some places to look at. Tom said we could look at the Q2C focus area as important to look at. Arin thought we could plan a hike after march and go look at 2 different parts of town. Johanna mentioned some old logging trails on her property that crisscross her land and go off into the woods. Jed found a typo o page 11 (oak). We decided to review through page 27 for next meeting.

7.0 What’s Happening in Nature?

Jed said we are having an early spring with the January thaw but we will be into the deep freeze again soon.

Johanna said she has lots of Blue Jays and everyone agreed that they have seen a lot of them lately, and they are big and fat.

Jed said he saw some Red Polls one day during December, and lately he has seen Goldfinches. Nan said they have a Cardinal hanging around, Tom has a Cardinal hanging around too and he calls him Cardinal Woolsey. Tom said the deer population is up.

Johanna said that a bull moose crossed her yard in November and he had a big rack.

Jed and Nan have seen lots of wild turkeys lately; Johanna had some running along in front of her car near Pillsbury. Johanna heard her beavers in their den. She mentioned she has seen lots of hawks hanging around in Concord.

Jed has seen lots of snowshoe hare activity on his trail; he had to do lots of clearing after the wet snow with branches and trees down on his trail.

Tom said the temperature inversion last weekend was very dramatic. It was 32 degrees in Henniker and 50 degrees on Faxon Hill. He said the fog was really dense on Faxon Hill.

Did you know what temperature inversions are? To learn more about them, click here: NewinNature.html

8.0 Correspondence:

DES - notice of acceptance of subsurface (septic) Application for TM 14-356, Coolidge Drive

DES - copy of Complete Forestry Notification, Sagalyn, TM 1-1, Rt. 31 North

Letter from Lempster Conservation Commission inviting us to their information meeting about permanently protecting Long Pond Town Forest, Jan. 14, 2014 at 6PM at the meetinghouse.

Newsletter from Fox State Forest, Cottrell-Baldwin Lecture Series will take place Tuesday evenings, 7 to 8:30 PM, March 4^th, 18^th, April 1^st and 8^th. Recovery, Re-emergence and Renewal of Spring is the focus of the lecture series.

9.0 Adjourned at 8:40 PM, our next scheduled meeting is February 19^th at 7PM at the Town Hall.

Respectfully submitted,

Nan Schwartz, Secretary