Washington Conservation Commission

Minutes – April 17, 2019

 

Assembly time: 7:00 PM, Town Hall

 

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

Visitors: John Butcher and Anne McBride

 

1.0    Approval of Minutes: March minutes – Arin asked Nan to clarify that under 3.1 – “we will pay half of the appraisal fee”. Jed made a motion to approve, Johanna seconded the motion and all voted in favor.

 

2.0   Permits Committee  - New: None

Previous: Highland Lake dredging – Arin checked with DES for information and received the field report from their December 27, 2018 site visit. They determined it was a 75X36’ area that was dredged without a permit and they filled a 14X6’ access path area to get into the lake. They asked for erosion controls to be put in place, which were done after the fact. She said it was a 21-page report with pictures that she didn’t print entirely. Jed said she could ask Deb to print the document so we can keep it in our files. They haven’t decided on fines or penalties yet.

        Center Pond dredging – Jed said that Anthony Costello and his wetland scientist Aaron Weschler      will be starting soon on the planning and survey.

Jed said he stopped and spoke with the owner of TM 12-181-4 about what he was doing on the lot. His intention is to move the trailer from TM 12-179a to the lot. He already has an approved septic design but no building permit yet. We are concerned about the setbacks on the lot because there is not a lot of upland and a large amount of wetland. Jed said he will have to take the land of several lots he owns out of current use when he gets the building permit.

Ayers Pond Bridge – Jed said that the bridge has been built off-site and the project will happen this summer. Arin explained to John that we comment on wetland permits and continue to monitor projects after they get their permitting done.

       

3.0   Committee and Board reports:

3.1   Land Protection Committee – Jed said Whit last said his appraiser has agreed to do the appraisal on Barker’s property at the price he gave him last year. He will schedule a time for him to come out. Jed will let Whit know that the snow is gone.

3.2   Energy Committee – Johanna said they are having their first meeting in a year next Tuesday night. She said that Andrew and Al attended the March School Board meeting to talk about the energy audit. She said that Henry Herndon is coming to their meeting to talk about how Clean Energy NH can help the town. Andrew is attending the Upper Valley Energy Committee meeting roundtable on May 7^th. Andrew is continuing to research options for the replacement of fluorescent lighting in Camp Morgan Lodge.

3.3   Planning Board – Nan said that there is no big news, the TCV committee met with a large group to talk about Rte. 31 road issues.

3.4   Forestry Committee – Jed said that Al Krygeris pulled together a meeting last week and Larry Gaskell has become the new Chair. He said it is their intention to go ahead and log the Farnsworth Hill lot because chip prices have gone up again (probably do the logging next winter).

3.5   Legislative update  - Arin mentioned that DES has adjusted their rules to keep the Conservation Commission as commenters on wetland and other permits and lengthened the comment periods.

        Jed and Arin both mentioned that NHACC has scheduled training workshops for those interested in going. We have some money to pay for training and education is important.

 

4.0   Public Presentations and workshops:       

4.1   Washington Elementary School nature journaling project – Arin said she has arranged with Lionel and SCCC to let us borrow equipment to do some kick sampling for water quality when we go to the school on June 7th. They will also send someone out to work with us. She spoke with the teachers and they figured out we will work with the K-1 on senses, grade 2-3 we can do hands on and have the 4-5 grades get into the stream. She is considering buddying up a 4-5 grader and a younger student. She wants to do stream sampling, PH, temperature and gather data for the town. She has 3 streams in mind on the CM property. Nan asked if we will cover the nature journaling also. Arin said we will need to figure it out and we will talk about it again next month.

4.2   Trail Day – John Butcher spoke with us about National Trail Day (June 1^st). He said it is a national event to help trail clubs encourage people to get out and enjoy the trails. He is a trail steward for section 10 of the Monadnock/Sunapee Greenway. His trail club is going to have a presentation at CML and they would be open to CC selling their trail maps and passing out information about other trails in town. They will do presentations in the morning and go out on guided trail hikes in the afternoon. Everyone will gather again in the afternoon for refreshments at CML. He said they have six trail club members in town, who will be guides. John said it is a rain or shine event. We can put information about the event on the town website and our Facebook page to help get the word out.

 

5.0   New Business:

5.1   Anne McBride from Monadnock Conservancy visited us to talk about how they could work with us on land conservation projects. She explained that the Monadnock Conservancy is part of the statewide NH Land Trust Coalition and the group noticed that there were 4 towns in our region that don’t have a relationship with a local land trust. We only have statewide land trusts (such as SPNHF) to work with. They are looking to expand and their board decided to have her meet with these towns to see how we felt. Jed said we are receptive to their help. Arin asked about their focus. Anne said they are generalists and they allow forestry and farming on their easements. They hold 210 – 215 easements at this point and own 1200 acres of land. She said their headquarters is in Keene. Arin asked about the types of projects they do. She said they first started with donated easements but now they have some purchased land. Last year they purchased their first parcel. They have a stewardship manager and an assistant on staff. They use volunteer monitors but find they need to keep an eye on properties using staff. They have a total staff of 9 and she is their outreach person. She said purchased projects take the longest to close. Jed spoke about some of the projects we have done with the Forest Society and a project with NEFF. Anne asked if we have a Conservation Plan and Arin showed it to her (it is available on our website). Jed asked if they have a fundraising arm and Anne said they have a development person on staff. Anne said she writes grants also. She said they just did a $1.2 million project and are working on a $1.5 million project in Peterborough. Arin said recreation is important and we try to encourage it on conservation land. Nan said that none of the Town Forests are under easements. Jed said that cost is an impediment to getting them protected. Jed said we are interested in working with them. Anne said she will speak with her board and will be in touch with us. We thanked Anne for coming out to visit us.

5.2   Compost Pail promotion and sale – Arin and Nan were contacted by Ed Thayer who shared a promotion program from NRRA. They were selling Compost bins, compost pails, rain barrels and compost turners at cost to towns to promote composting. We thought we could afford to buy a pallet of compost pails to sell at the Transfer Station. The pails are $150 for the pallet. Jed made a motion to pay for the pails, Nan seconded the motion and all voted in favor. Arin said she is willing to go hang out at the Transfer Station to help sell them and promote composting. John suggested selling them at the Flea Market, Johanna suggested selling tem at the Farmers Market. Nan will fix up the poster and put Arin on as a contact, as well as Ed.

5.3   ARLAC sent a request for $125 to help pay for water testing for this summer. Johanna made a motion to send them $125 for water testing, Jed seconded the motion and all voted in favor.

 

6.0   Other Business:

6.1   Natural Resource Inventory Map updates Nan said that she checked and they are the same as the printed maps. Chris used a finer hatching on the conservation land on the final version, which made it look darker at smaller sizes. Nan is finishing up the NRI update. She asked Arin if she should leave the section on the weighting that was used for the 2008 Co-occurence map (and a copy of that map) or just delete that section. Arin said that we have the original version so we can delete it for the update. Nan will finish it up. She said we won’t update the Conservation Plan at this point as nothing has changed.

6.2   Facebook Page – Arin said she is continuing to post things when she can. We now have 63 members. To check out the CC’s Facebook page go here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/2173271309586226/  

6.3   Trails and Recreation Guide Booklet – We will keep working on this through the spring/summer. Arin said she has GIS software at work and can possibly keep making our maps.

6.5   Master Plan goals for 2019 – This is a placeholder.

6.6   Barker easement – see 3.1

6.7       Tracking Invasive Plants project – The reporting sheets and guides are always available here: InvasiveProject.html

6.8   SCRAP program – Arin mentioned the Division of Historic Resources is doing an archeological dig this summer at Pillsbury State Park taking place from July 8^th to August 2^nd. She is going to contact them to see if we can come out once they are digging their pits and see the site and maybe receive a copy of the report when it is done. She said we should let the Historical Society know about it.

6.9   SCCD – Arin mentioned that the Sullivan County Conservation District is having some interesting educational programs this spring, information can be found here: https://www.sccdnh.org/programs

6.10  Johanna mentioned her swim of Millen Lake in August; she thinks it will take place on the last Saturday and she may have a buddy from work to swim with her. We will put it on our calendars.

 

We asked John if he would like to join us as a member. He is interested and will attend some meetings and then decide.

 

7.0   What’s Happening in Nature?

        Arin said she heard peepers today in the wetland at the bottom of the hill on Rte. 31.

Johanna heard wood frogs in her wetland; she has mergansers, wood ducks and mallards in her pond. She said her beaver is active and a kingfisher is active at her pond.

Arin saw the bittern fly into the wetland on 31 on April 14^th.

Jed said that Ed saw a snapping turtle out and about.

John said that his Island Pond neighbors have had a big black bear making the rounds to all the properties up and down the lake.

Jed saw an otter in the Mill Pond and mergansers and mallards.

Nan said that someone reported 2 loons on Ashuelot on the Facebook page and another person reported loons on Smith Pond. John said 1 loon showed up on Island Pond. He said the ice is out about 60%.

Johanna said her ice is out and it was about 2 weeks earlier than last year.

Arin said a neighbor of hers heard the pretty song of a hermit thrush. To find out more about the Hermit Thrush click here: NewinNature.html

 

8.0   Correspondence:

            ARLAC letter requesting water testing funds           

 

9.0   Adjourned at 9:00PM, our next meeting will be rescheduled for Tuesday, May 21^st, due to conflicts with our regular date, at 7PM at TH.

 

Respectfully submitted,           

Nan Schwartz, Secretary