Washington Conservation Commission

Minutes – June 15, 2016

 

Assembly time: 7:00 PM

 

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

Visitors: Katy Wilkins and John Casey

 

1.0    Approval of Minutes: May minutes, Johanna motioned to approve as written, Jed seconded and all voted in favor.

 

2.0    Permits Committee  - Expedited Minimum Impact Permit for Eversource to replace an underwater cable in Island Pond. Katy Wilkens from Tighe & Bond, a consulting engineer firm and John Casey, from Eversource came to speak with us about a minimum impact permit for their Island Pond project. The power to the 3 inhabited island in Island Pond has become spotty so the company is replacing the cable starting at a pole near the dam and running on the lake bottom to each of the islands, running from OelschlagerŐs island to SpenserŐs island and lastly to PetersonŐs island.  They will be installing transformer boxes on each island to receive the power from the cable. They shared pictures and plans with us and discussed the logistics of the project. The application wasnŐt yet finished but they wanted to come answer any questions we might have about it. They are attending the lake association meeting next week. They will be using a barge, divers and an excavator to lay the 4Ó conduit. Jed and Nan will go out and take a look at the site, which is flagged, in the next couple of days so we are ready when we get the application. They gave us their contact information if we have any further questions once we take a look.

 

3.0   Committee and Board reports:

3.1   Land Protection Committee  - Nothing new but Jed said now is a good time to reach out to abutters of our Karen Bartlett property to see if any are interested in acquiring it. He is willing to go speak with neighbors of the property.

3.2   Energy Committee – Johanna said that the EC didnŐt meet this month but will be meeting in July. She said she is doing a similar solar project on her house; that Andrew did on his. The engineer is coming out on Friday.

3.3   Planning Board – Nan said the Planning Board has taken on the Town Buildings project for this year. They are meeting often to try to get a plan figured out.

3.4   Forestry Committee – No news from Tom, who was not in attendance.

3.5   Legislative update  - Not in session.

 

4.0   Public Presentations and workshops:

4.1   Hike – Reschedule the Bradford Bog hike. We missed the Rhodora bloom for this year because we were too busy with other things. We may still schedule a hike in the bog later this summer.

4.2   Presentation for the Camp Morgan kids – We discussed our presentation on pollinators. Arin spoke with Yvonne Bachand about scheduling a day and time to do the presentation with the camp kids. Yvonne is flexible and asked us to come up with a date. We will discuss when Arin gets back but we thought we would shoot for a time in the middle of the camp session Jed spoke with Ed Thayer about the cemetery mowing and they will hold off until late in the summer or early fall to protect the pollinators and ground nesting birds.

4.3   Meeting with Lempster CC and Swift Corwin about the trails and connections, Wednesday July 6th, 6PM, Lempster Town Hall, Jed invited all of us to attend this meeting to talk about new trails and connections to LempsterŐs trails. LempsterŐs forester, Swift Corwin, has some ideas to share with both conservation commissions. We talked about carpooling and we will meet at the Town Hall to ride together. Jed will send out an email with times, closer to the meeting date.

 

5.0   New Business:

5.1   Trash pickup – scheduled for June 25th at 9AM, meet at the Library parking lot. Nan will send a reminder by email.

5.2   Renewal of membership for Jed and Don Richard (alternate) – Nan will send a request to the Board of Selectmen to approve new three-year terms for Jed and Don at their meeting on Thursday.

 

6.0   Other Business:

6.1   Master Plan goals for 2016 – We will talk more about goals in July.

6.2   Corvus update – Jed reported that he heard that the property owner is working with a land conservation group to put an easement on the property. He heard that Corvus is looking elsewhere for property. He hasnŐt heard anything official but this is what has been reported.         

6.4   Natural Resource Inventory Map updates – Nan is in touch Chris about setting a meeting with him. He is busy with fieldwork right now but is interested in meeting in late June. Nan will get back to him for possible dates. We will probably meet at Town Hall so we can project on the wall.

6.5   Barker trail easement – No new news.

6.6   Tracking Invasive Plants project – Start to look for new sites of plants now. We received a copy of ŇPicking Our BattlesÓ, a guide to planning successful Invasive Plant management projects, send by NHACC and Fish and Game. It is a very informative booklet with many great ideas, plans of attack on invasive plants and restoration projects. Johanna said she has autumn olive on her property. Nan mentioned that Doug does too and he put the sheep to work eating them. Nan will share the booklet with Arin when she gets back from her trip. The reporting sheets and guides are always available here: InvasiveProject.html

 

7.0   WhatŐs Happening in Nature?

Jed said it is extremely dry and has been very windy lately. He canŐt remember so much drying wind.

Johanna said her garden is not doing that well. Jed said his lettuce is doing well but other things are struggling and has had some spotty germination on a few things. He has had to water a lot.

Johanna said she has lots of wild strawberries all over her lawn.

Jed has lots of bluebirds around, he has 2 houses with pairs (and babies) near the garden. He said they are acrobatic fliers that eat lots of bugs.

Johanna has lots of swallows around. She saw a moose footprint in her driveway. Her mergansers had duckings.

Jed said a friend saw otters with pups in the Center Pond and a neighbor saw a moose walk over the fence into his pasture.

Johanna has wood ducks and saw a painted turtle running around her yard looking for a nesting spot. She said there are lots of gypsy moth caterpillars around.

Nan has seen a Great Blue Heron and Jed saw his American Bittern again. He said Ed Thayer told him he saw a pair of bitterns near the red bridge on South Main Street.

Johanna has seen her sand pipers again, and Baltimore Orioles and Goldfinches.

To learn more about what a group of birds are called, click here: NewinNature.html

 

8.0   Correspondence:

DES – Complete Forestry notification, TM 18-9 & 12, Russell Pond Road, off Jefts Road

Copy of ŇPicking Our BattlesÓ, a guide to planning successful Invasive Plant Management Projects, send by NHACC and Fish and Game

 

           

9.0   Adjourned at 7:45 PM, our next scheduled meeting is July 20th, at 7PM at the Town Hall.

 

Respectfully submitted,                       

Nan Schwartz, Secretary