Washington Conservation Commission

Minutes – August 14, 2018

 

Assembly time: 7:00 PM, Town Hall

 

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

Visitors: None

 

1.0    Approval of Minutes: July minutes – Arin made a motion to approve as written, Jed seconded the motion and all voted in favor.

 

2.0    Permits Committee  - We discussed the Ayer’s Pond Road Bridge replacement application and Jed reported he spoke with Ed. He decided to send it in without our signature since Arin was away. We edited our comment letter and sent it to DES.

 

3.0   Committee and Board reports:

3.1   Land Protection Committee – We decided that the Miller property doesn’t have a clear deed so we will pass on it for now. Jed contacted Whit again by text but didn’t hear back on the land assessment for Barker’s property. If he doesn’t hear from him he will contact NEFF.

3.2   Energy Committee – Johanna was not in attendance but reported she was attending a 350.org event tonight with other members.

3.3   Planning Board – Nan said the PB is working on the Town Center Visioning project.

3.4   Forestry Committee –Tom was not here to report and they haven’t been meeting. Jed called Tom but wasn’t able to speak with him.

3.5   Legislative update  - No news.

 

4.0   Public Presentations and workshops:       

4.1   Water project for Elementary School - Arin said the brook she was hoping to use for the project has dried up so we can’t do the project we were hoping to do. Jed had a thought to do a hike on the Camp Morgan trail and maybe do it 3 times during the year to make observations and do a nature journal. We would find for stops to do observations and look for signs of the seasons and habitats. We would tailor the walk to the ages of the kids. Arin will pose the idea to the teachers and let us know if they are interested in the idea. We will meet to do a pre-hike if they like the idea. We are scheduled for August 29^th with the teachers.

4.2   Backyard Composting workshop - We are a go for Tuesday, August 21^st with Ron Trexler who is a Master Gardener. We are meeting with Ed Thayer tomorrow about the transfer station’s composting program so we can help promote it to the town. We will try to get Ed to come to the presentation to talk about it. Jed made a motion to send a $50 donation to the UNH Cooperative Extension for the speaker’s program, Arin seconded the motion and all voted in favor. Nan will take care of this with Lynda and have the check sent.

 

5.0   New Business:

5.1   Facebook page – Arin said contacted June Manning but she was not able to help link to the town Facebook page so June suggested she contact Monica Scanlon. She is going to contact her by email and see if we can become a subgroup of the town page. If not she may start again in a different way.

 

6.0   Other Business:

6.1   Hike – We are planning a hike to the Burns’ property but moved the date to September 22^nd. Jed will contact the Burns’ and ask Tom Marshall if we could park at their property and hike from there. Jed and Arin will do a scouting hike on Tuesday the 11^th after work (3:30pm) and meet at Jed’s house.

        We will decide about our Lovewell Mountain hike on Columbus Day weekend in October and will pick the route next month.

6.2   Adopt-a-highway trash pickup – The next pickup is scheduled for this Saturday, October 6^th at 9AM, meet at the Library parking lot. The rain date will be Sunday.

6.3   Johanna’s annual swim is scheduled for August 25^th, Saturday, at 10AM, meet at the beach. Nan will put up some posters.   

6.4       Natural Resource Inventory Map updates –Arin hasn’t heard from Chris but she will contact him with comments about the Co-occurrence map.

6.4   Trails and Recreation Guide Booklet – Arin has been working on some maps and Nan is working on putting what we have in booklet form.

6.5   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.

6.6   Barker easement – see 3.1

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

 

7.0   What’s Happening in Nature?

        Arin said it has been very wet lately. Jed said we have had about 12” of rain in August so far. We had a thunderstorm with hail 2 weeks ago.

        Arin said a Bald Eagle was spotted near Ashuelot Pond.

        Jed said he has red tomatoes very early this year.

        Arin said it is already getting dark earlier.

        There have been a lot of bears spotted around town. Jed said there was a moose in East Washington and Fish and Game was called because it didn’t look healthy.

Jed saw a bat last night. Arin has bats around her house.

        Arin said she went to a reptile and amphibian conference and they talked about shutting roads for salamander crossing and talked about crossings being put in when roads are worked on for turtles and salamanders. She talked about the crossing on Faxon Hill Road. She suggested we look at the PARC website for more information.

We are hoping that lots of people turn out for our presentation on composting and to learn about what’s available at the transfer station for composting, here is a little more information: NewinNature.html

 

8.0   Correspondence:

            DES notice of Shoreland Impact Project, TM12-38, Halfmoon Pond Road

 

9.0   Adjourned at 8:57PM, our next scheduled meeting will be September 19^th, at 7PM at TH.

 

Respectfully submitted,           

Nan Schwartz, Secretary