Washington Conservation Commission

Minutes – January 24, 2018

 

Assembly time: 7:00 PM

 

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

Visitors: None

 

1.0    Approval of Minutes: November minutes - There were no comments, Jed made a motion to approve as written, Arin seconded the motion and all voted in favor.

 

2.0    Permits Committee  - No new permits. Arin signed a Wetlands Permit application received in December for a new dock at 959 Ashuelot Drive. She went out to the ownersÕ house but there was too much snow to get down to the waterfront. We looked at satellite images of the site and decided to have her sign the application. It is still under review at DES.

 

3.0   Committee and Board reports:

3.1   Land Protection Committee – No news, Jed emailed Whit about BarkerÕs assessment but received an auto-reply that he is out of town. Jed spoke about problems with the PorterÕs deed as they are selling their property. He is negotiating with the attorney about fees.

3.2   Energy Committee – Johanna said that EC members have not met recently.

3.3   Planning Board – Nan said the PB is putting three updates for the Land Use Ordinance on a special ballot for Town Meeting. One is on RVs, one on a parking setback and one on the building permit section. The Town Center Visioning project will be started in the spring after Town Meeting.

3.4   Forestry Committee –Tom was not here to report. Nan spoke with Steve Hanssen and he said there is no logging being done this winter due to the low prices on chips. They havenÕt met recently and donÕt have Anita working on looking at any other Town Forests right now.

3.5   Legislative update  - Nan mentioned SB451 concerning wildlife trafficking (anti), hearing held 1/16, HB1343 – concerns protection of beavers and dams, hearing on 1/30 and HB486 – bill to introduce wetland application for buffer impacts. She received some information on a few other bills from NHACC that she will forward to other members.

 

4.0   Public Presentations and workshops:       

4.1   Winter Hike - Arin wants to hold the snowshoe hike at the Camp Morgan loop for sometime in February. We will have to wait for new snow, the conditions are icy and most of the snow has melted off. We decided to schedule the hike for February 25th, Sunday, at 10am, depending on the weather. We will begin the hike at the Faxon Hill entry point and Nan will make hot cocoa and Arin will make some chai tea. Arin will make a poster for the hike.

Jed mentioned looking at what the Forest Society is doing for the Cottrell-Baldwin Lecture Series at Fox State Forest and sending out information on the lectures. Nan will look it up.

 

5.0   New Business:

5.1   Arin arranged a meeting with Elementary School teachers for February 13 at 3:30pm about ideas for workshops with the kids. We would like to plan an activity with the kids for the spring.

 

6.0   Other Business:

6.1   Natural Resource Inventory Map updates – Arin and Nan met with Chris to go over the map updates and talk about the co-occurrence map. Arin spoke with Chris recently and he told her he had a computer crash that prevented him from finishing up. He is promising new PDFs for us by our February meeting and finished maps for March. We still hope to have the new maps for display at Town Meeting.

6.2   Trails and Recreation Guide Booklet – Arin said she couldnÕt look at the latest version that Nan posted. She suggested breaking the booklet into sections and reposting it. Nan said it is up to 20 pages now and she will break it into several parts and repost. Arin said she talked to Bob Williams about the snowmobile trails and he said he would be happy to work with us on that part. He said we might be able to use some sections of the snowmobile trail map. Nan said that she was looking at the state trail website and a couple of major state trails pass through Washington. We will get more information on that. Arin asked if snowmobile trails can be used off-season for hiking. We can ask the snowmobile club about their agreements with landowners.

        Jed said that NH Magazine had a really nice article about Washington in their latest issue (February) he will send the link to the article online.

6.3   Master Plan goals for 2018 – We are working on the NRI update and map update as our goal. We will look at it again when we are done with this project. Nan has been working on the report and has most of the edits done.

6.4   Barker easement – see 3.1

6.5       Tracking Invasive Plants project – Arin is drafting a letter to Patrice Roulx with suggestions for dealing with her invasive plants. The reporting sheets and guides are always available here: InvasiveProject.html

6.6   Arin said she sent in the CC report to Deb but didnÕt hear back that she received it. Nan will check with Deb and let Arin know.

 

7.0   WhatÕs Happening in Nature?

        Je said the birds have finally shown up at his bird feeder. He has chickadees, goldfinches, lots of juncos, tit-mouses and blue jays. Nan said there were only juncos for the longest time and they wondered what had happened to all the birds. Arin said that there was a good article by Audubon about that issue.

Johanna said they have a bird feeder at work in Concord and they have lots of birds feeding; cardinals, tit-mouse and cedar waxwings on the nearby fruit trees.

Jed said that the grey squirrels finally found the sunflowers he left in the garden and they went crazy eating the seeds. Arin said she has only red squirrels at her house and they are very aggressive. Johanna said she has a black squirrel and he other squirrels are afraid of it.

Jed said he has been out on his trail and Mr. Porcupine is still living in the same tree opening.

Johanna said see has had flocks of turkeys near her house. Arin said she reported a flock near he house to Fish and Game, they are taking an inventory of them.

Johanna said she saw a bobcat on Rt. 12 going to Walpole. She saw fox tracks near her house and they were hunting mice.

Arin saw a snowshoe hare crossing the road on Faxon Hill and Shayne and Abby saw a moose on Faxon Hill. She saw an owl swoop down near her car on Faxon Hill near Mulliners.

Jed said he saw snowshoe hare tracks on his property.

Arin said we had a recent ice storm with lots of wind afterward that brought down lots of branches. Jed said we had a cold snap and snow before Christmas, then a warm up and then bitter cold for an extended time. Then we had more snow, then rain and fog a week ago. The weather has been unusual this winter so far.

Nan found the interesting Audubon article about the lack of birds at our feeders that Arin mentioned, to read about it and find out how you can help with the yearly bird count click here: NewinNature.html

 

8.0   Correspondence:

            Copy of wetlands permit application for Anderson

            DES - Notice of Aquatic Resource Mitigation workshops, Concord January 18th at 4pm

            DES notice of complaint, Barkie TM 25-117

            DES letter of compliance, Anderson 959 Ashuelot Drive.

            Connecticut River Conservancy, invitation to join/contribute

            DES – copy of Supply Lines with the Source

 

9.0   Adjourned at 8:45PM, our next scheduled meeting will be February 21st, at 7PM at 54 Bear Hill Road.

 

Respectfully submitted,                       

Nan Schwartz, Secretary