Washington Conservation Commission

Minutes – May 15, 2013

Assembly time: 7:00 PM.

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

Visitors: Russ Roetman

1.0 Approval of Minutes: Minutes from April 17, 2013, Sandy made a motion to approve, Ken seconded, all voted in favor.

2.0 Permits Committee – No new permits.

3.0 Committee and Board reports:

3.1 Land Protection Committee - No news.

3.2 Energy Committee – Johanna reported that Andrew Hatch and Al Krygeris attended the UVLSRPC Regional Energy Committees Round Table last week. There was a lot of sharing of information and networking. The committee is still planning their Energy Expo for this summer, they will contact the Farmer’s Market people to coordinate as soon as they start up for the season.

3.3 Planning Board – Nan reported that the Planning Board met with Christine Walker from UVLSRPC to hear about the ways that the RPC can help with updating the Master Plan this year.

3.4 Forestry Committee – Tom was not in attendance but Jed said that he spoke with Steve Hanssen and Nan sent materials about the recently announced Q2C grant round for trails. Jed also recently did the Land Steward training with John Brighton and he is interested in fixing the trails on Farnsworth Hill. Maybe they can all team up to get a grant for trail work on Farnsworth Hill and into the FH Town Forest (and maybe on into Lempster and the Ashuelot Headwaters Reservation). Jed mentioned the hike sponsored by SPNHF on the Farnsworth Hill Reservation property scheduled for July 13^th. It is the same day as the “Thank You” cookout for everyone who donated to the FH land protection project. Dave Anderson from SPNHF is going to lead the hike.

Sandy will contact Chris Wells at SPNHF to see if there will be a Land Protection grant round this year.

3.5 Legislative update – Jed spoke briefly about pending legislation. Nan asked Ken if the Selectmen intend to write to our representatives to oppose SB 102. He said they felt that because the election portion is not mandatory they wouldn’t oppose the bill. Jed said that it could become very political in towns that would choose to elect their members and the best-qualified or most interested people might not be willing to run and become a member in that way. All other members were urged to write their representative Jim Grenier, and the House Municipal and County Government Committee to oppose the bill (more information on the bills pending below).

1. SB 102 - (local option to elect conservation commissioners) is in committee, the Committee voted to recommend the bill as “Inexpedient to Legislate” and to have it included on the consent calendar. Our representatives need to know that we do not think this bill is a good idea, no matter what form the election of CC members takes. Members need to communicate with the House Municipal and County Government Committee with regard to this bill and let them know you oppose it. http://www.gencourt.state.nh.us/house/committees/committeedetails.aspx?code=H18

NHACC is opposed to this bill.

2. House Bill 513 - Shoreland Protection Act – has passed the House with amendment. It now moves to the Energy & Natural Resources Committee in the Senate. http://www.gencourt.state.nh.us/senate/committees/committee_details.aspx?cc=S38

3. SB 124-FN Integrated Land Development Permit has passed the Senate with amendment. It now moves to the Resources, Recreation & Development Committee in the House. http://www.gencourt.state.nh.us/house/committees/committeedetails.aspx?code=H22

4.0 Public Presentations and workshops:

4.1 The Vernal Pool Workshop took place on May 10^th at the Elementary School. Jed, Nan and Arin attended and presented to two groups. The 4 & 5 graders went first and the K- 3^rd graders went second. Arin did her powerpoint presentation and we played a Vernal Pool Jeopardy game with the older group. The younger kids saw the powerpoint and then we did a Frog call game with them and played sound recordings of peepers, wood frogs, etc. We went out the morning before the presentation and collected a bunch of frogs, egg masses, red efts, bugs and other VP critters and both groups got to look at and handle the creatures we brought in. It was a big success.

We didn’t hold the vernal pool visit the next day, as we had planned to, because of a lack of rain. We all felt that two years in a row the pool has been stressed for lack of rain and it wouldn’t be good for the amphibians and other creatures, in what is left of the pool. We will try again next year.

4.2 Tracking Invasive Plants project – Arin will type up a form and save as a PDF, that people can fill out to report an invasive plant. We will post it on the website and people can drop them at the Town Hall, mail or email back to us. They form will have location, species, habitat description, density, area, photo (yes or no), ownership of location and size of patch. We will map the responses we get and maybe plan for future eradication efforts. We need a simple guide or packet to give people interested in the project. Nan will look for a simple sheet with invasive plants to include. Jed spoke briefly about Japanese Knotweed. Arin thought if we each found 5 sites this summer that would be a great start. We could have a booth with information at an event this summer, if possible.

5.0 New business – Ken spoke about the lake host program, NH LAKES has a new handout and they added some aquatic animals to the watch list (clams, snails, mussels). Their emphasis is now having boat owners wash, drain and dry their boats for 7 days after leaving a water body. Nan commented that this might be difficult to get fishermen to do, they would probably want to go fishing again before 7 days. They have new stickers to give out and Ken has only talked with one boater about the new system. He is still looking for a paid host for Friday evenings (3 hours) and Sunday morning.

5.2 Arin said that someone from school approached her about doing another hike. She thought that a hike to the wind towers in Lempster might be good. It is an easy hike that she has done with her family before. She said a Sunday would be good and we picked June 23^rd as a tentative date, 10AM - noon. We will ask whether we need permission to hike up there. Jed will ask Carol if Lempster’s CC would like to go with us and make it a co-hike. We also talked about a Lovewell Mountain hike in the fall (maybe Columbus Day weekend).

6.0 Other Business:

6.1 Our first Adopt-a-Highway pick up date is this Saturday, May 18^th at 9AM, meeting at the Library parking lot. We will schedule our other 3 pickup dates as we go along in June, August and October.

6.2 Nan had Jed and Sandy sign paperwork for continuing their membership for a new 3-year term. She will send the paperwork to Don to have him sign and return it. Nan will send a request to the Selectmen to approve new terms for members. Lindley has declined to renew his membership. We thank Lindley for his time with the commission.

6.3 ARLAC donation request – Barbara Skuly sent a request to us for a $100 donation for water testing on the Ashuelot River. Sandy made a motion to make the donation, Arin seconded the motion, all voted in favor.

6.4 NRI update – Sandy said that it has been 5 years since the Natural Resource Inventory was done and it had some issue when it was done. She thinks we should go through it ourselves and see what we might want to change. She said the maps need updating. Nan said there are new data layers available that we could use for this. She thought that the text could be improved by adding specificity to the descriptions and maybe add something on invasives. She thinks it looks dated and would like to move it forward by adding to it and editing it. She said at some point for the CPAs we might want to get a biologist or professional to help look at specific areas with us and help do some field work. We should come up with a priority list of places we think need a second look. We should go over the document and talk again next month or at a special meeting. We will look at the maps and read the documents. Sandy said that if the Master Plan gets stronger the NRI and Conservation Plan should stay strong too. Arin asked for a hard copy, Nan will look at making a few copies.

7.0 What’s Happening in Nature?

Jed said it is freezing cold, there was a frost a few nights ago. The temperatures are all over the place.

Arin has seen lots of turkeys around and the Toms are showing off for the hens. Sandy saw a flock of turkeys on Rt. 31 north.

Johanna said she has a Wood duck couple in her pond and also a Merganser couple. She is hoping they are nesting there.

Jed said he also has Hooded Mergansers on his pond and hopes they are nesting.

It has been a very droughty spring and there is a big fire danger, we finally had a little rain but not enough.

Ken said the loons are on Millen Pond but are having trouble getting on their nests because the water is low and they should be nesting soon. Sandy said the loons are back on Island Pond, too.

Sandy is worried about deer eating her garden this year because she no longer has a dog to scare them off. She saw a group of 4 cross the road near to her house. Ken has deer eating their crocuses. Russ said that blood meal scattered/sprinkled on the ground can be a good repellant. Sandy said she heard that if you put hardware cloth around the garden they won’t walk on it. Russ added that a fence with streamers will scare them also.

Johanna said her beavers are eating some large trees at her house, she has seen the baby beaver recently.

Arin thinks she saw a Red Poll today near her bird feeder along with 2 juncos. She thought that all the Red Polls would be gone by now.

Johanna said she did some bird watching with her students and they did a book about it for the Humanities Council.

Ken said it is a good year for dandelions and Nan agreed.

Jed caught a snake recently and it was a garter snake.

Johanna has seen dragonflies already.

Jed said the peepers were late coming to East Washington, he just started hearing them a few nights ago. We heard them up in town a month ago.

To learn more about Spring Peepers, click here: NewinNature.html

8.0 Correspondence:

Letter from Barbara Skuly, re: ARLAC donation for water testing on Ashuelot River

9.0 Adjourned at 8:00 PM, our next scheduled meeting is June 19^th at 7PM at the Town Hall.

Respectfully submitted,

Nan Schwartz, Secretary