Washington Conservation Commission

Minutes – August 17, 2016

 

Assembly time: 7:00 PM

 

Members present: Jed Schwartz, Arin Mills, Doug Cook, Johanna Young, Tom Taylor and Nan Schwartz.

Visitors: None

 

1.0    Approval of Minutes: July minutes, Johanna mentioned a typo, Nan will correct, Doug motioned to approve, Johanna seconded and all voted in favor.

 

2.0    Permits Committee  - No new permits. Johanna asked about dredging her pond because it is filling in from sand from Rte. 31. Jed said he will talk with someone at DES about it. Johanna said it is a fire pond, Jed said she could speak with Brian Moser about it.

 

3.0   Committee and Board reports:

3.1   Land Protection Committee  - Jed said that he has spoken with NEFF about a possible CE for Phil Barker’s property. They are looking at it. Tom asked about the Town holding easements on land parcels. Jed spoke about the conflict of interest and the reasons to use a land trust. Nan has sent a letter to the abutters of our Karen Bartlett property to see if any are interested in acquiring it.

3.2   Energy Committee – Johanna said that the EC meet the week before last. She said all three members of the EC now have solar panels on their homes. They may talk to the local papers about doing a story about it. She said net metering may change in 2017 so now is a good time to get solar if you are considering it. Andrew met with Dunbarton about doing reports on audits for homeowners and making a checklist of possible energy projects and figuring out if they qualify for free help. She said the Town Garage solar array has generated 91,128 kilowatts since the installation.

3.3   Planning Board – Nan said the Planning Board is working on the Town Buildings project for this year. They are meeting often and working on getting a plan figured out. They are planning for the Town Hall, the Schoolhouse and the Public Safety building.

3.4   Forestry Committee –Tom said the road improvements have been done on Old Marlow Road ahead of the logging that will be done next winter on the Farnsworth Hill Town Forest. He said they need to find the boundary pin for one corner near the road. They are looking for a logger to do the cut.

3.5   Legislative update  - Not in session.

 

4.0   Public Presentations and workshops:

4.1   Meeting with Lempster CC and Swift Corwin about the trails and connections - a hike is planned for Friday August 26 at 9am with Lempster CC and Swift Corwin to explore possible trail locations and connections, meet at Brighton’s (brick house), bring a lunch.

4.2   Fall Hike – We discussed a hike for this fall. We decided to go up through Colby’s from Camp Morgan, up around Old Marlow Road, down Farnsworth Hill to Millen Pond Road. We picked October 8^th, Saturday at 9:30am. The hike should take around 2 hours and you can bring a lunch or snack to eat after the hike.

4.3   Johanna’s Swim – Johanna’s memorial swim on Millen Pond is planned for Saturday, August 27^th, at 10am. Johanna had some information she sent to us about the logistics of doing a mini triathlon for a fundraiser in 2017 or 2018. The upfront costs are around $5K to put one on and we would need a lot of volunteer help. We will keep it on the agenda but won’t plan anything for the near future. Doug said that adventure running is becoming popular. We will explore more ideas.

 

5.0   New Business:

5.1   Trash pickup – We scheduled a pickup for September 18^th, Sunday at 9AM, meet at the Library parking lot. Nan will send a reminder by email.

 

6.0   Other Business:

6.1   Natural Resource Inventory Map updates – Nan has been in touch Chris and he provided us with an example of a base map for the updates. She will send him Arin’s feedback and set a meeting with him soon either in Concord or in Washington.

6.4   Master Plan goals for 2016 – We will talk more about goals in September.

6.5   Barker trail easement – Jed is working on this.

6.6   Tracking Invasive Plants project – Arin found a patch of purple loosestrife near the wetlands at the bottom of Rte. 31. She will map it and pull it soon. Doug said he has had success with his Japanese Knotweed. It was in his compost heap so he planted squash and pumpkins and it seems to have overpowered the knotweed. We talked about weed wrenches and their use in pulling up invasive plants. We should talk to Ed and DPW about getting a few to have in town. Keep looking for new sites of plants and fill out a sheet when you find one. The reporting sheets and guides are always available here: InvasiveProject.html

 

7.0   What’s Happening in Nature?

Arin said that suddenly it feels like late summer, the air is cooler at night and it is moister in the mornings.

Jed said he is watching some big brown bats at his place, 2 or 3 of them.

Doug has bats living in the boathouse on Island Pond, he hasn’t seen them but has seen evidence of them.

Arin said the Killdeer are flocking up.

Jed has tons of blueberries and some of the birds that were bothering them have gone now. There are still Blue jays eating the berries.

Tom has lots of birds still around his place on Ashuelot. He has seen more than one bald eagle on the south side of Ashuelot, near Huntley Mountain. He said there is a large beaver dam back there.

Doug said the Bittern is still hanging around and he has seen it flying into Carr Brook wetland area. Now that he knows the name of Carr Brook he is calling his pond Carr Pond because it feeds into the brook.

Jed said a young beaver has been working on the edge of Mill Pond near the Scott’s. Arin commented on a story she hear on NPR about the low cost of Beaver pelts is keeping trappers from trapping them and the population is going up.

Jed commented on what a hot dry summer it has been. We have been lucky to get some rainstorms passing through when we were desperate for water in the garden.

Johanna told us her story of colliding with a hawk with her car on her way home one day. She stopped and it was still alive so she wrapped it up in a towel and brought it home. She wasn’t sure what to do so she called Arin who recommended she take it to “Wings of the Dawn” in Henniker. She called them, wrapped it up and put it in a cat carrier and took it to Henniker. When she got there they took it out and it was hopping around and seemed not too injured. They kept the Broad Winged Hawk at Wings for rehabilitation, care and eventual release.

To learn more about the Wings of the Dawn and the wonderful work they do, click here: NewinNature.html

 

8.0   Correspondence:

Letter from ARLAC, thanking us for our $125 donation for VRAP testing

Copy of letter from Tighe&Bond re:Minimum Impact Permit for Eversource underwater cable replacement, Island Pond to answer DES questions

            Copy of Forest Notes

Save the Date – NHSIC forestry and sawmill field day, Sept. 23 in New London, Tree Farm program, information at: www.nhsfi.org

            NHTOA, Timber Harvesting Law workshop, Tuesday, August 23^rd, Bristol

Brochure from LOG PRO, a timber management company in Vermont

           

9.0   Adjourned at 8:15 PM, our next scheduled meeting is September 21^st, at 7PM at the Town Hall.

Respectfully submitted,                       

Nan Schwartz, Secretary