Washington Conservation Commission

Minutes – May 21, 2014

Assembly time: 7:00 PM.

Members present: Jed Schwartz, Nan Schwartz, Arin Mills, Ken Eastman and Tom Taylor.

Visitors: None

1.0 Approval of Minutes: Minutes from April 2014 meeting, Arin made a motion to approve, Ken seconded, all voted in favor.

2.0 Permits Committee - We received a Wetlands permit application for a seasonal dock and beach sand replenishment for Antonio and Patricia Jorge, 101 Point Road, TM 16-38. We looked at the application and map and Arin said she would go out and take a look and see if we need to comment.

3.0 Committee and Board reports:

3.1 Land Protection Committee - Jed reported that there is a land protection project up on the MacNeil property on Old Marlow Road. We will discuss it later in the meeting under new business.

3.2 Energy Committee – Johanna reported an update for the Energy Committee by email. They are going to try and apply for a small grassroots grant to do one Button-Up for a needy resident. The grant would pay for materials and an audit. Volunteers and their committee would do the labor. Both Al and Andrew attended a conference for local energy committees and found it informative. 70 people attended the Upper Valley Regional Energy planning meeting in White River Junction in early May.

The EC is still actively looking for new members to join them. If you are interested please call Johanna at 495-1218 or come to their next meeting June 10 at 7 p.m. at the Town Hall.

3.3 Planning Board – Nan reported that the Planning Board’s Master Plan Subcommittee is working on the Community Workshop taking place on Saturday, June 21^st, from 8:30AM to 2:30PM at the Elementary School. Arin asked what we can do about the NRI for the workshop and Nan said the facilitator, Dan Reidy, doesn’t want anyone to do presentations but we are free to put up the NRI maps and other information. Arin wants to also have a few copies of the NRI available for people to look at and Arin can be available to answer questions.

3.4 Forestry Committee – Tom reported that the FC hasn’t met, but he gave us an update on what they are working on. Their first goal is to update the Forestry Plan by doing an addendum to each chapter bringing the information up to date. The objective is to tie everything back to the original document and the recommendations in it. There were recommendations for harvesting but they could also focus on thinning for wildlife habitat or forestry or recreation. He said that Camp Morgan is the best example of this. The way the property is laid out, they have 40 acres set aside for staying wild and natural but they also have trails running through there. Part of the property is the home of the town’s summer camp under an agreement with Parks and Recreation. It is also a great example of hunting grounds and wildlife observation spots. He anticipates they will find a Town Forest property they will plan to log in the fall. Arin asked if their surveys are done and Tom said no, their forester is cruising the properties and he is waiting to hear from her. She didn’t have a chance to get out much over the snowy winter.

Their next goal is to work on the planning for a wildlife/birding observation spot on the town forest lot on the marsh on South Main Street (next to Carroll Cilley’s). There was an open well on the lot that the covered for safety and they want to talk to someone who knows about birds to see if it would make a good observation spot. They would put a bench and a parking spot on the lot and maybe a platform if needed. He wanted to know if he should talk to someone at Audubon or if there was someone in town who was knowledgeable. Arin suggested maybe talking to Pam Hunt from Audubon, she has been out to Washington on a dragonfly survey and might be willing to come out and take a look.

Their third goal is to work on a trail on the Farnsworth Hill Town Forest. He said the piece is marshy but maybe they could go across the new SPNHF conservation land. Jed asked Tom to let him know when they are going to meet so he can be in on the discussion. Tom has talked to Sue Lichty from the Lempster CC and they are interested in hooking up the trails to their trails.

Tom said that the Forestry Committee has some good people on it now and he thinks they will be able to get things done.

Tom asked about the mention of the trails on Phil Barker’s property. Jed explained the situation and said we would like to help him protect the trails.

Tom mentioned that Pete Martin is a new member of the Forestry Committee and might be interested in joining the CC. He has a home on Washington Dr. but still lives in Rhode Island. He is a trail steward on the Monadnock Sunapee Greenway on the side of Lovewell Mountain. Jed said that by RSA, to be a member you have to be a resident but he could certainly join us in an auxiliary role if he wants to for now.

3.5 Legislative update -

There are three bills moving through the legislature:

SB388 - establishing a committee to study the current status of land conservation in New Hampshire and the state's role in encouraging the voluntary protection of land in the future, passed the Senate and House and should be signed soon.

HB1271 - establishing a committee to study the powers and duties of conservation commissions, has been sent for interim study.

4.0 Public Presentations and workshops:

4.1 Vernal Pool Workshop and Pool Visit– Arin said Vernal Pool workshop at the school was a success and the kids sent us thank you notes. We brought in frog eggs, bugs, fairy shrimp and some red spotted salamanders for the kids to touch and observe. The pool visit was on Saturday and we visited a couple of new pools on Lovewell Mountain Road. Three families joined us and we had a great time. The new pool had lots of eggs but not as many bugs as our previous pool. There were no pollywogs hatched yet, but we did find one frog.

4.2 Jed contacted Eric Williams at DES about trying to do a presentation on water issues this year. They have a program called “Soak Up the Rain” that concerns stormwater runoff at homes. They are looking for self-directed community groups to run the program but they will also come out and do a presentation and project to get it going. We could host a session and try to involve the lake associations. Ken said he went to a similar presentation last year up at Eastman, in Grantham, where they did this. Arin suggested a possible project at Camp Morgan where there is erosion on the bank behind the lodge. Everyone thought this was a good suggestion. Nan will go take pictures of the site and Jed will contact Eric again to try and schedule something.

4.3 Tracking Invasive Plants project – Arin said she has seen some Knotweed plants popping up that we didn’t identify before. We will all go out and do some more spotting and fill out sheets so Arin can input them. Nan will send Arin Kathy West’s observations so she can input them into the database. Anyone who wants to help on this ongoing project should go to our website. The reporting sheets and guides are always available here: InvasiveProject.html

5.0 New business –

5.1 Election of Officers – We discussed Sandy’s resignation from the commission. Jed said we are very sorry to lose her and we hope that she will be able to rejoin us sometime in the near future. She has been a valued member since the commission began and was a very important part of our group.

Nan made a motion to elevate Tom Taylor to a regular member from alternate, Ken seconded, all voted in favor. For Chair, Nan motioned Jed to stay on as chair, Arin seconded the motion and all voted in favor. Jed motioned Arin as Vice Chair, Ken seconded and all voted in favor. Ken motioned Nan as secretary, Tom seconded and all voted in favor.

Jed asked Arin to join the Land Protection Committee to take Sandy’s place. Arin agreed to.

Arin asked about the Kimball’s permit from several years ago, we commented on it and they ended up adding rain gardens that she noticed have not been installed. She asked about who polices the permits and makes sure what is on the plan is done. Nan will take a look at their property file to see if the plans are in there.

We are still looking for new members to join us!

5.2 New Land Protection Project – Jed spoke about the land protection project up on Farnsworth Hill, the MacNeil Family Forest. He passed out information sheets to everyone describing the project. It is a SPNHF (Forest Society) project and their plan is to purchase the property in a bargain sale from the MacNeil family. The Penneman School house is on a corner of the property and it will be taken down to around three feet and stabilized. John Brighton thinks the school site is a good trailhead spot and would put up a plaque on that spot. We have been asked to support the project with a donation and the Land Protection Committee has decided on $20K.

Jed made a motion to donated $20K of our Conservation Fund dollars to help pay stewardship and other costs for the MacNeil Family Forest project.

Tom asked if the Forest Society still pay taxes on the land they acquire. Nan said yes. Tom said that there are caves on that property and we would like to take a look for them. Tom seconded the motion and all voted in favor. Jed will let Brian Hotz know of our decision.

Nan said that SPNHF will be fundraising for the balance of the money they need for the project.

Tom said that the walk along the river in the Farnsworth Hill Town Forest is a most beautiful hike. Arin said that her husband Phil and son Shane did a canoe portage trip down the upper Ashuelot River from Lempster Mountain Road bridge to the Ashuelot Pond boat ramp and had a great time. We will try to plan a hike in this area for sometime this summer.

Arin thinks we should host a hike on a different Town Forest property each year. Jed, Arin and Nan are planning a walk to check out Twin Bridge to see where the bat survey was done.

5.3 Adopt a Highway trash pickup - We did our first pickup on May 17^th and got 9 bags of trash, 4 of them recyclables. We will schedule our next pick up date for early July at our June meeting.

5.4 Ken wanted to discuss conservation easements for the Town Forests (TF). He said it has come up before in conversations that there is limited protection for the town forests now and we might want to work on putting conservation easements on them. He thinks that the Camp Morgan property should be done first. Jed commented that it would be tragic if something happened to it, the property is well used by the town. He explained that using our protection criteria you look first for what is most at risk. Nan commented that the Town Forests are the Forest Committee’s responsibility, we would need to work with them. Tom said they are doing surveys of the TF first; they have done GPS points of all the markers and are looking at the deeds of the properties. When they are through there may be TF land that they decide not to keep or may change to recreational use. Nan said that there is an existing survey of the Camp Morgan property but the lodge and school would have to be taken out of a conservation easement. Tom said that the only body that can sell town property would be Town Meeting vote, he feels this gives the properties some protection. Arin asked if the properties could be developed and it was felt they could, but it would take a Town Meeting vote. Tom felt it might be bad to take away the possibility of future use. Ken said when the economy goes bad people think about using town property to offset taxes. Jed spoke about a man who called recently wanting to put an easement on his property to protect himself from himself in case someone made him a big offer to develop his land. Tom feels it is a year premature to do this anyway, they are assessing the TF properties right now. Nan said that we could speak to Brian Hotz at the Forest Society and see if they would be willing to hold easements on TFs. Tom feels that we would get pushback about having someone outside town holding the easement. Nan said we can’t hold our own easements.

6.0 Other Business:

6.1 NRI update - We looked at the goals in the Conservation Plan and we need to develop some objectives. Arin feels we should come up with some better goals and have a 10 year plan and maybe set goals for each year. Arin was confused about the Conservation Plan and how it related to the NRI. Nan explained how it works together with the NRI and that it lays out the Conservation Priority Areas and explains how they were formulated. We decided to work on this after we finish going over the NRI. We will tackle the next chapters, pages 49 – 62.

Tom asked if we have a map with all the conservation lands on it. Nan will send him one. She said that Granit maps has the conservation land on a separate layer. Arin commented that Granit uses a 1 to 24,000 scale and the town boundaries are a little off. She said that by law the boundaries are supposed to be perambulated every 5 years. She asked Ken about what Washington does about perambulation. He said that John Hyland was elected Perambulator and given a budget of $100. He replaced Lionel Chute who was the previous perambulator. The Perambulator is supposed to reach out to the surrounding towns and walk the boundary with a representative of the abutting town but there has been no interest from them. Hyland came to the Selectmen and they called NHMA who said to cut his budget to $1 and forget about it. Tom said the job was last accomplished by Lionel Chute, in 2006, when he walked the town boundaries and made a report to the Selectmen.

6.2 Barker – We discussed the situation on Barker’s property and the trails crossing it. We need to contact Monadnock/Sunapee Greenway trail group and also speak with the Snow riders club about trail protection. Tom has a friend who is a trail steward with Monadnock/ Sunapee greenway. He will ask him about who to contact.

6.3 Ken reported that the Lake Host group for Millen Pond received a $1500. grant from NH Lakes Association for 2014. He said that NH Lakes are willing to administer funds for private boat launches (like the one in LAE) if they want to start a Lake Host program at their launch. They won’t give them grant money but will make it easier for them to run a program by doing all the administrative work to pay their hosts and withhold and pay the taxes. LAE would have to reach out to NH Lakes to find out all the details.

6.4 Bat Survey – Nan will send a copy of the Bat Survey that was done in 2002 to Ken and also the recent article from the Concord Monitor about a bat survey that was done this winter by Fish and Game.

6.5 Jed said that Lempster CC is hosting a Bird Walk on June 7^th, at 8AM, meeting at Earl’s Lane (on Lempster Mountain Road). He will email everyone details when he gets them from Carol Andrews.

7.0 What’s Happening in Nature?

Tom said this has been the best season ever for wildlife viewing, in his memory. He has recently seen a lot of turkeys and deer, raccoons have been climbing his downspout and he has seen birds with unbelievable colors. Some are birds from the Southwest that have never been seen here before. He has seen loons, bald eagles and hawks near Ashuelot Pond. He said that most interestingly the grey squirrels that had all but disappeared from his neighborhood are now back. He said the red squirrels had chased them all away and he hadn’t seen them for 20 years. Jed said the red squirrels are more aggressive, he saw them going after the bigger grey squirrels at his bird feeder.

Nan said it is very buggy right now and the black flies are swarming. She said it has greened up very quickly since the weather warmed up and we got some rain.

Ken said the Loon pair is back on Millen Pond.

Arin heard a woodcock in the field below the elementary school, he was making his distinctive “peent” sound. To learn more about Woodcocks, click here: NewinNature.html

She said her husband Phil moved a painted turtle out of the road recently. It is always a good idea to move turtles across the road in the direction they are trying to move. They are no match for the next car that comes along.

8.0 Correspondence:

NHANRS – Photointerpretation for Wetlands Identification and Classification workshop, Friday, May 30^th, 8am - 4pm at Plymouth State

Wetlands application for seasonal dock and beach sand replenishment for Antonio and Patricia Jorge, 101 Point Road, TM 16-38

Copy of DES “Supply Lines with The Source”

DES copy of Shoreland Impact Permit, David Barkie, 1681 Valley Road, TM 25-116

DES copy of Shoreland Impact Permit, Jeffery Johnson, 685 Washington Drive, TM12-81

DES copy of Wetlands Permit, NH DOT, East Washington Pond, TM ROW, stabilizing bank of road

DES copy of Septic application returned, Laura Rizzi, missing fee and information

Copy of “Forest Notes”

Copy of “The History and Economics of the New Hampshire Dairy Industry” from Granite State Dairy Promotion

9.0 Action Items –

Jed -

Speak to Steve Hanssen about an Oak Hill trailhead sign.

Speak with Monadnock/Sunapee Trail and Snowriders about possible trail easements for Barker.

Continue talking to Eric Williams about a “Soak up the Rain” presentation.

Nan –

Look up Kimballs permit plan, TM 15-93

Send Ken a copy of the bat survey

Arin –

Look at wetlands permit site, Jorge, 101 Point Road, TM 16-38.

Check Natural Heritage Bureau for a better rare and uncommon species list for NRI, page 30.

Send list of rare and uncommon species found in Washington to Nan

10.0 Adjourned at 9:25 PM, our next scheduled meeting is June 18^th at 7PM at the Town Hall.

Respectfully submitted,

Nan Schwartz, Secretary