Washington Conservation Commission
Minutes – April 18, 2018
Assembly time: 7:00 PM, Camp Morgan Lodge
Members present: Arin Mills, Jed Schwartz, Doug Cook, Johanna Young and Nan Schwartz.
Visitors: Pete Martin
1.0 Approval of Minutes: March minutes - There were no comments, Arin made a motion to approve as written, Jed seconded the motion and all voted in favor.
2.0 Permits Committee - Ayers Pond Road Bridge project, Arin drafted a letter with our comments and dropped it at the Town Hall for Ed. No other permits at this time.
3.0 Committee and Board reports:
3.1 Land Protection Committee – Jed spoke with Mark Miller about his land donation and we will go out to look at the property when the snow is gone. Jed sent email to Randy Porter asking for help in paying the lawyerÕs bills (in the form of a donation), we havenÕt heard from him so far. The land assessment for BarkerÕs property should happen in the spring.
3.2 Energy Committee – Johanna said she got a report from Andrew, he was approached by Upper Valley LSRPC to talk about Warm Neighbors at an event they are holding. He didnÕt have time to participate right now so he declined. She mentioned following up on weatherization on the Fire station and the Town Hall building projects. Jed reported that the FD is forming a small group committee to oversee the renovation and come up with ideas for it. They are concerned with insulation and the quality/quantity of insulation and wants to bring the EC into discussions. Arin said she has the same issues with the School building and wants them involved in looking for solutions. Arin asked about the energy audits and whether they are available on the town website. Nan will check and if they are not she will post them. Arin wants to get other committees involved in the building. Johanna mentioned the Science Cafˇ talks in Concord.
3.3 Planning Board – Nan said the PB will be starting the Town Center Visioning project next month. They hope for involvement by interested citizens. They are working on figuring out the structure of the subcommittee and the area they are considering. Doug asked if it was going to be a historic district. Nan said the PB spoke with the Selectmen and they were negative on that. Arin said there is federal or local distinction that you could go with.
3.4 Forestry Committee –Tom was not here to report and they havenÕt been meeting. Arin would like to hold a joint meeting with FC when Tom gets back. She wants to plan a walk out Old Marlow Road to the Town Forest. Nan will look for the latest Forestry Plan report done by Anita and post or send it to Arin. Arin will reach out to Tom to see if he will be back for the June meeting.
3.5 Legislative update - Johanna mentioned a bill, HB114, relative to minimum electric renewable portfolio standards, which is now in the legislature.
4.0 Public Presentations and workshops:
4.1 Hike – We discussed a hike to the BurnÕs property in the spring or summer to look at the environmental sculptures.
4.2 Vernal Pool workshop at WES - we discussed the upcoming workshop with the kids at the elementary school. Nan has the PowerPoint on the computer, along with the frog sounds. Arin said the projector would be ready to set up. Nan made a matching game and has the frog sounds game all set. Arin has a frog craft to do. We are all going to go out to see if we can find critters to bring on Friday. There may not be any frogs but hopefully we can get some bugs and water samples. Arin got some fairy shrimp from work. We decided we have to cancel the vernal pool visit for Saturday because the pool is still very frozen. We will meet at the school at 8:30am to set up.
4.3 Arin said she spoke with the teachers at WES set a meeting with the teachers for May 8th to talk about the Water project for the fall. She needs to reschedule this date because of a conflict so she will let us know the new date and time. She said she went on the Sullivan County Conservation District website https://sullivancountynh.wixsite.com/educationandoutreach and thought that there is a lot of good educational program information, projects and kits to borrow on the site. She tried the kick sampling with Shayne in a forest stream by Camp Morgan and got some good samples. She thought doing this in that stream and the stream by the beach could be good contrast in stream quality and finding differences. We could do temperature sampling and a few other things. We will bring ideas to the teachers and see what they like. Doug said he looked into watershed model kit that you can buy and they are expensive. He thought maybe we could build one. Arin thought that the CCD had one that you can borrow. We will look at other websites for more ideas and plan something for the fall.
5.0 New Business:
5.1 Nan said she sent a letter to the Selectmen about the money we raised at Town Meeting 2015 for the map updates. Chris KaneÕs first invoice was paid out of our CC account and should have been paid from the TownÕs general fund. They are working on figuring out what happened and will reimburse us. Arin said we need a standard cover sheet for authorizing payments and leaving a paper trail. Nan said she writes Lynda a letter to authorize payment but will work on a cover sheet/payment authorization form we can attach to invoices.. We will ask Lynda for quarterly reports from now on so we can see any activity in our account. Jed will keep us updated on this issue
5.2 Pete Martin wanted to talk about trails and what was going on with the Lempster CC and their trail plans. Jed said that the Farnsworth Hill trail we were exploring with Lempster (almost 2 years ago) was put on hold because Lempster CC was having some issues with membership. They had paid Swift Corwin to map out some possible trail sites but are unable to do anything right now. Pete said that Tom and the Forestry Committee were pushing him to take the lead on the trail issue. Pete mentioned Q2C trail grants and felt they are onerous in what you have to do to get one. He said he talked to the Nature Conservancy people and they said we are underrepresented in land trusts in this area. They said trail building is secondary in their interests and their primary goal is land conservation. Pete mentioned that a few pieces of land we walked on were privately owned and there was an existing trail on one piece. Jed thought that Pete should contact Swift Corwin and also talk to Sue Lichty and Jim Beard. Pete mentioned that you need matching money for grants. Jed said fundraising could be done. Pete said he is a trail keeper on the Monadnock –Sunapee greenway trail. He thinks the state is interested in multiuse trails. Arin thought that too much use can conflict and destroy trails. Pete said he will reach out to Swift and others. Arin will look at maps and help figure out the private land. Arin told Pete he can go on the Granitview mapping tool http://granitview.unh.edu to find parcel overlays and other overlays for that area.
5.3 Adopt-a-highway trash pickup – we tentatively scheduled May 22nd at 4:15PM for our first pickup. Nan said we need new backs, she will order some and Arin said she can pick them up.
5.4 Renew terms for members – Nan said that Arin, Doug and Tom need to be reappointed for 3-year terms. We talked about needing new members and Johanna may know someone. Arin suggested social media as away to reach people, if we wanted to start a page. She suggested we could tie into the Washington FB page. We could post events and pictures there. Jed will look into the possibility of tying into the town page. Jed made a motion to renew Arin, Doug and Tom as members for another term, Johanna seconded and all voted in favor.
5.5 Vote in officers for 2018 – Johanna made a motion to keep Arin as Chair, Doug seconded the motion and all voted in favor, with Arin abstaining. Arin made a motion to keep Jed as Vice Chair, Doug seconded the motion and all voted in favor, with Jed abstaining. Arin made a motion to keep Nan as Secretary, Johanna seconded the motion and all voted in favor, with Nan abstaining.
6.0 Other Business:
6.1 Natural Resource Inventory Map updates –Arin, Nan and Jed will meet in the coming week to review ChrisÕ updates. Nan said we still need the co-occurence map. We will look at the list of things Chris proposes to use for layers to make sure it captures everything that is important in the NRI. We would like the cultural sites included. Jed will share the maps with Doug.
6.2 Trails and Recreation Guide Booklet – Nan fixed the permissions on the snowmobile chapter, Arin will check it. Nan asked Arin if she spoke to Bob Williams about whether the snowmobile landowner agreements include other uses. Arin she will speak with him soon.
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.
6.4 Barker easement – see 3.1
6.5 Tracking Invasive Plants project – The reporting sheets and guides are always available here: InvasiveProject.html
7.0 WhatÕs Happening in Nature?
Johanna had bear footprints in her yard, near the house/garage, two days ago. There were cat footprints right next to the bear and she wondered if the bear was stalking the cat.
Jed had a flock of 60 or more Robins in the yard one day. He hadnÕt seen such a big flock before.
Nan said she took her birdfeeder down and then we got more snow, making the birds unhappy.
Jed said there are wild turkeys around and some males are displaying. He saw a Bobcat in East Washington.
Arin saw a Bobcat in LAE. Phil saw a wood duck on Ashuelot Pond. Johanna said that Lindley heard a loon and they have a wood duck pair on their pond.
Jed saw a wood duck in Mill Pond and some diving ducks.
Doug has Raven hatchlings, 2 or maybe more in the nest. Nan thinks she has seen his Ravens fly over their house. He said that Ed Thayer has heard woodcocks.
Arin said we should listen for peepers and jot down the date that we hear them.
We had several inches of snow/sleet/slush on Monday, April 16th.
If you are wondering, as we are, if it is finally spring or not, click here: NewinNature.html
8.0 Correspondence:
9.0 Adjourned at 9:05PM, our next scheduled meeting will be May 16th, at 7PM at TH or CML (TBD).
Respectfully submitted,
Nan Schwartz, Secretary