Washington Conservation Commission

Minutes – September 16, 2015

 

Assembly time: 7:00 PM.

 

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

Visitors: Doug Cook

 

1.0    Approval of Minutes: Approval of minutes from our August meeting, Johanna corrected the fact that the swimming lessons she is raising money for would be for adults. Arin added the name of the Òbat guyÓ, Scott Reynolds of NE Ecological Services. Nan will make those changes. Arin motioned to approve the minutes, Johanna seconded the motion and all voted in favor.

 

2.0    Permits Committee  - We received a copy of a notice from DES of a Shoreland Permit application for 68 Ashuelot Acres Road, TM 14-409 and 505. They are planning on building a garage and are near the pond. Nan said she looked the application up online and, at this point it is under DES technical review.

 

3.0   Committee and Board reports:

3.1   Land Protection Committee  - Jed reported that Karen Bartlett is working with the town attorney to transfer her property to the town in trust for the Conservation Commission. The Colby project, on Old Marlow Road, is being handled by the Forest Society and Brian Hotz told Jed they anticipate a closing in November. We discussed Lionel ChuteÕs property and he accepted our offer, Jed will contact the town attorney to see if he can work on it for us.

3.2   Energy Committee – Johanna reported that the committee didnÕt meet last month, Andrew sent a report to Johanna that she will send to Nan. They applied for the grant to buy an infrared camera and they are waiting to hear whether they will be awarded it.

3.3   Planning Board – Nan said that the Planning Board held the public hearing for the Master Plan Update and the process is finished, the PB will certify the document at their next meeting.

3.4   Forestry Committee – Tom was not in attendance and there was no news.

3.5    Legislative update  - No news.

 

4.0   Public Presentations and workshops:

4.1   Nan mentioned the NHACC Annual Meeting taking place November 7th at Pembroke Academy in Pembroke. She said you can get info at nhacc.org and also sign up for the meeting on the website.

4.2   Tracking Invasive Plants project - Everyone should keep documenting any plants they find. The reporting sheets and guides are always available here: InvasiveProject.html

4.3   We discussed our planned hike to go up Lovewell Mountain. We set the date for October 10th (Saturday) or alternate date of October 11th (Sunday). Jed suggested we go up the north side trail and come down on the south side trail (all accessed from Halfmoon Pond Road. He said we can leave some cars at Mountain Road and share rides out to the north trail, further out on Halfmoon Pond Road,we will meet at 9:30 am. Arin will make a ½ page flyer for school and poster and Nan will get them printed and put them up. She will speak with Deb about getting it in the ÒDid You Know?Ó section of the SelectmenÕs minutes. Jed and Arin spoke about the hike they did with Lionel to find the caves on Lovewell Mountain. They didnÕt find the caves but have an idea where they might be. Arin said she looked at the leaf-off data and couldnÕt find the rock piles they were climbing. She will send the data to Jed to see if he can identify some landmarks. After the hike she went to the farm and talked to George who thinks he knows where it is. Jed will speak to him and get what info he has.

 

5.0   New Business:

5.1   Trail map update – Nan delivered the map to the Town Clerk and it is now for sale at Town Hall.

5.2   NHACC bill for membership for 2016 – Nan said we received our bill for membership but it is not due until next year. We will pay it in March.

5.3   CIP request form – Nan said we received a CIP form from the Planning Board. We donÕt have any requests and will return it to them.

 

6.0   Other Business:

6.1   Adopt-a-Highway trash pick up – We are going on this Saturday, September 19th at 9AM, meet at the Library parking lot. Arin, Nan and Johanna attended the presentation concerning mobile meth labs, which taught about the dangers to those who pick up trash along roads or trails. It was quite informative and we now know what to look for out on the road.

6.2   Natural Resource Inventory Map updates – Arin and Nan will continue to work on the list and will get together soon to discuss.

6.3  Barker easement – No new news.

6.4   Johanna's Swim –Johanna did her swim at Pleasant Lake in New London, as a fundraiser for swimming lessons for adults.

6.5   Jed will speak with Ed Thayer about the mowing schedule in the cemetery.

6.6   Jed said that Doug Cook is attending tonight because he would like to become an alternate member of the WCC. Nan made a motion to accept Doug as an alternate member, Arin seconded the motion and all voted in favor. Nan will get the paperwork done with Sandy Poole.

 

7.0   WhatÕs Happening in Nature?

Doug said we finally got some rain last week, it had been extremely dry.

Johanna saw three turkeys behind the Town Hall out near the garden. She said she has a Hen of the Woods mushroom out in her woods, she offered to give it to one of us, Doug was interested.

Arin saw a hawk sitting on a wire just below the Transfer Station, two different times. She saw an Osprey at the headwaters of Ashuelot, when she was in a boat. She got a picture of it but it wasnÕt a good one. It was sitting on a dead snag.

Jed had 3 little garter snakes hanging out together in the pole beans. He got a good picture of them.

Johanna heard a Bard Owl recently.

Arin saw a large flock of 100 or more Night Hawks near Grimes Field in Hillsboro. Doug said he saw them over East Washington 2 weeks ago. They are migrating right now.

Jed has kept watching the bats in East Washington.

Bat Survey - Arin had results for the excursion out to Twin Bridge to hear and see bats. Her friend at Audubon read the chip and sent her a report of what kind of bats we recorded with the acoustic equipment. They said we recorded 3 to 4 species of bats; we had mostly Big Brown Bats, some Eastern Red Bats and some Hoary Bats. There was another hit that she couldnÕt identify. We were all excited by the findings and would like to do another acoustic survey next year.

Arin said that the Wildlife Action Plan is being finalized in 2 weeks and she attended a GIS meeting today. They told them that the data has changed, the Nature Conservancy did new data sets for the northeast and for New Hampshire. They are making new maps for the highest ranked habitat. There is information on the UMass website and the Nature Conservancy NH website. They are taking into consideration resiliency due to climate change on the new data sheets for species. They have upped the number of species of critical concern to 177 using this new data. We are glad we waited on updating our maps, Arin will make us a few new maps using the new data.

To learn about the Nighthawk, click here: NewinNature.html

 

8.0   Correspondence:

            Invoice and information from NHACC about 2016 membership fees

            Copy of Forest Notes

            DES notice of approval for construction, septic system, TM8-27, Martin Road

            DES notice of acceptance of Shoreland permit application for 68 Ashuelot Acres Road, TM 14-409, 505

           

9.0   Adjourned at 8:05 PM, our next scheduled meeting is October 21st , at 7PM at the Town Hall.

Respectfully submitted,

Nan Schwartz, Secretary