Washington Conservation Commission
Minutes
– March 20, 2013
Assembly time: 7:00 PM.
Members present: Sandy Robinson,
Ken Eastman, Johanna Young, Jed Schwartz, Nan Schwartz, Arin
Mills.
Visitors: Lionel Chute, Sullivan
County Conservation District manager
1.0 Approval of Minutes: Minutes from January and February
meetings, Sandy made a motion to approve, Arin
seconded, all voted in favor.
2.0 Election of Officers for
2013: Jed brought up the fact that it was time to elect officers for the year.
We hadnŐt put this on the agenda so Jed asked if everyone was comfortable going
ahead with electing officers this month or if they wanted to wait until next
month. Everyone agreed with voting on this issue now. We discussed whether
anyone wanted to take over for any of the three officer positions. The three
present officers were willing to keep doing their jobs for the commission for
another year. Ken made a motion to move the slate of officers with one vote, Arin seconded the motion,
all voted in favor. Jed will continue as Chair, Sandy as Vice Chair and Nan as
Secretary for 2013.
3.0 Lionel Chute, Sullivan
County Conservation District manager, came to talk to us about what the SCCD
does and what they can do to help us. Jed welcomed Lionel to our meeting.
Lionel told us that he became the manager 6 months ago, he explained what a
County Conservation District is. It was born out of the dustbowl era as a
federal initiative to help with soil conservation, eventually becoming the NRCS
(Natural Resources Conservation Service, a national entity and part of the
USDA). The County Conservation District is the local counterpart to the NRCS
and they work in partnership with them to work with landowners through
conservation planning and assistance designed to benefit the soil, water, air,
plants, and animals that result in productive lands and healthy ecosystems.
There is one conservation district office in each county in NH and Sullivan
CountyŐs is going strong. Originally they worked mostly with farmers on erosion
issues, cover crops, and contour plowing. He said the Eccardt
Farm had many benefits from the SCCD through the years with help in changing
how they farmed their land. SCCDŐs mission has changed over the years and is
now to protect water, soil, plants, and natural resources. They can help people
to achieve what they want to do with their land. They donŐt do easements but
are a valuable resource. He is working on web content to profile the county and
the towns in the county. He has looked at Washington in terms of impaired
waters and our involvement with VLAP and RLAP water testing.
He told us the SCCD is
holding their annual plant sale and handed out order forms. They have quite a
few shrubs, vegetables, fruit tree and plants available this year. There are a
few extra forms available at the Town Hall for anyone who wants one and the
forms are due on March 29th, with pick up on May 4th at
Log Cabin Nursery on Rt. 11/103 in West Claremont. More information and order
forms are available online here: http://www.sullivancountynh.gov/index.php?n=2013_plant_sale
Arin asked about plants and
how that fits into their mission. Lionel said they encourage native plants and
discourage invasives and promote agriculture.
Sandy asked about grants
and what federal money comes into the counties for, Lionel said they partner
with NRCS who run the federal programs and cost share programs. They can assist
in filling out forms and do support.
Jed asked about
rehabilitating agricultural land. Lionel said yes they help with this, a big
thing right now is high tunnel farming to extend the growing season and there
is cost sharing available for that. There is also cost sharing available for
other programs and Lionel will share more information about that with us in the
future. If you can identify a need he can help find funding for it. They can
help purchase equipment to make it available for farmers who might not be able
to buy the equipment on their own.
They are looking at soil
testing, Cornell has some new ideas about measuring
soil properties other than chemically. They are also considering a subsoil
tiller to improve soil compaction.
They are into doing
education and outreach on issues such as gravel pits, invasives,
forestry, water, bank erosion and wetlands.
Lionel wanted to know
what we see ourselves doing. Jed mentioned that we are proactive in community
outreach through hikes and educational programs. Sandy said we havenŐt been too
involved with traditional issues and it can be helpful to us to use SCCD to
understand what opportunities are out there so we can put ideas out into the
community. Jed mentioned trails and that the Forestry Committee was active in
maintaining and planning trails. Arin spoke about her
idea to do an Invasive Plant Mapping project. She asked if Lionel knew of
existing protocol for doing this at a community level. She had talked with
someone from F&G who told her to look at Eddmaps.org and IPane. Arin mentioned that we are
interested in getting feed back on invasive insects, the purple cones were hung
around town and we donŐt know what they found.
Nan mentioned that we
are always concerned with water issues. Some are involved with VLAP and we post
May Pond and Ashuelot Pond with posters about mercury
levels in fish. Ken has been key in doing the Lake Host program and he would
like to have a wash rack on Rt. 31 to facilitate cleaning boats of invasive
plant matter.
Sandy said that what is
important is the health of the lakes, we donŐt need
raw data we need context. Arin feels that outreach
and school programs are very important for helping to raise issues and make
people care about them. We have done quite a few programs to try and do this.
We thanked Lionel for
coming to talk to us and he promised to keep in touch.
4.0 Permits Committee
– No new permits received.
5.0 Committee
and Board reports:
5.1 Land
Protection Committee – no new business.
5.2 Energy Committee – Johanna
reported that they are planning an Energy Fair for late in the summer. Jed
suggested that they plan it for a weekend in August before Labor Day. She wants
to do it on a Saturday morning and maybe they could coordinate with the
FarmerŐs Market so there was food and other things for sale. They are meeting
on March 22nd. There is a local Energy Conference in April that some
members would like to attend.
5.3 Planning Board – No new news.
5.4 Forestry Committee
–The warrant article for cruising the town forests passed at Town
Meeting. Steve Hanssen told Jed that they have two
new members.
5.5 Legislative update –
1. House Bill 513 - Shoreland
Protection Act –
amended http://www.gencourt.state.nh.us/legislation/amendments/2013-0590H.html
2. SB 124-FN Integrated Land Development Permit
3. SB 102 - Election of CC members, passed, moving to House
4. LCHIP
(Land and Community Heritage Investment Program) Needs Your Voice
Governor
Hassan has included the restoration of LCHIP funds in her budget for FY
2014-2015.To date, more than $10 million of the ŇdedicatedÓ LCHIP
fee ($25 collected as a surcharge for recording documents at the county
registry) has been diverted to the general fund, or almost two thirds of all
the funds collected from the fee since its inception.
The House
Finance Committee will hold hearings on the budget in the next few weeks. This
is a great opportunity for you to talk about great projects that have been
funded through the LCHIP program, and those great projects that could be
funded if the program returns to full funding. You can submit written testimony
to the committee, and/or contact your representative. More information is available
at the Forest Society's website:http://www.forestsociety.org/news/press-release.asp?id=665
6.0 Public Presentations and workshops:
6.1 We discussed doing the Vernal Pool
Workshop again this year. Arin will speak to Mrs.
Lull to see if they will have time to have us visit the school. We looked at
possible dates May 3rd or May 10th for the school part
and May 4th or May 11th for the Vernal Pool visit. We
should freshen up the power point for the presentation,
Nan will help Arin with pictures. Sandy said she saw
a great video that could be good to show, she will try
to find it for Arin and send a link.
6.2 Saving Special Places Conference,
Saturday, April 6th, John Stark Regional High School in Weare, NH, Register
by March 29th to get the lower $60 fee. Conference website is: http://savingspecialplaces.org
6.3 DES – Drinking Water Source
Protection Conference – Wednesday, May 1st, Concord, more
info: http://www.agwt.org/civicrm/event/info?reset=1&id=131
6.4 Watershed Ecology Workshop at
Hubbard Brook, Wednesday, May 8th, West Thornton, NH, $50.
6.5 Tracking Invasive Plants project – We spoke further about this project, Arin contacted Doug Cyan from Department of Agriculture looking for a good procedure or protocol for community level mapping of invasive plants. He pointed her to http://www.eddmaps.org, which we will look at further. She said that NH DOT has protocols for dealing with invasives along their roads but it is not helpful for what we want to do. Sandy said she will make some phone calls. Arin said that Katie Callahan from F&G is working on a predictive model and Arin will contact her. Sandy thought if we could get lots of people in town to let us know what they are seeing it could be very helpful, we need a way to get reports and (hopefully) to automatically input the data. We will continue talking about this project in the coming months.
7.0 New business: None
8.0 Other Business: None
9.0 WhatŐs Happening in Nature?
Nan
said it is cold and snowy. It has been a very snowy March after a warm spell.
The sugaring has stopped after a really good first run. Sandy said the first
run was extremely fancy (light) syrup. There should be another run once it
warms up again.
Carol
sent word she saw a Barred Owl on Mountain Road sitting on a telephone wire.
Ken
mentioned that Charlie saw a Puma/Mountain Lion near Millen Pond, Phil Barker
went out to look for tracks and didnŐt find them but filled out the paper work
and reported the sighting. Nan mentioned a program at Fox State Forest on April
2nd about Mountain Lions in NH.
Johanna
saw a mink cross her driveway and dive into her wetlands,
she also saw slides from the mink. Jed mentioned the Otters in Mill Pond, he saw many tracks and slides in the snow below the
dam.
Arin still has large flocks of Redpolls at her bird
feeder, wiping out her seed supply quickly.
Nan
and Jed finally saw a couple of Blue Jays at their feeder, after not seeing any
all winter.
Sandy
saw some Blue Birds in February.
Sandy
sent a link to a disturbing article about the decline of Monarch Butterflies.
Click here to read about what is happening to these beautiful insects: NewinNature.html
10.0 Correspondence:
Email from Larry Barker re: Barry Conservation 4-H
camp
ŇSaving
Special PlacesÓ brochure
Watershed
Ecology Workshop flyer
Taking
Action for Wildlife newsletter
Cottrell-Baldwin Environmental
Lecture Series, Fox State Forest, coming up March 26th Climate
Change, April 2nd Mountain Lions in NH
Fish & Game Outdoor Adventure Talks, Wednesday evenings in Concord
11.0 Adjourned
at 8:40 PM, our next scheduled meeting is April 17th at 7 PM in the Town Hall.
Respectfully submitted,
Nan
Schwartz, Secretary