Washington Conservation Commission

Minutes – September 18, 2013

Assembly time: 7:00 PM.

 

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

 

Visitors: None

 

1.0    Approval of Minutes: Minutes from July 2013 meeting Johanna made a motion to approve, Arin seconded, all voted in favor.

 

2.0    Permits Committee  - Wetland Routine Roadway Maintenance Activities Notification, culvert     replacement, Rte. 31 North, no action needed.

           

3.0   Committee and Board reports:

3.1   Land Protection Committee  - Met on July 22^nd and decided they didn’t have any projects far enough along to put a grant application in for LCHIP.

3.2    Energy Committee – Johanna reported that they met recently and Al is working on inputting all the energy data for the town into a Portfolio Manager. He is going to teach all their members to do it also. Al had a couple of questions for the Master Plan Community survey but Nan said it was just finished. Nan asked Johanna to send the questions to her because they could work them into the workshops that will be held next year. They are going to work on an Energy Chapter for the Master Plan update. She said the Energuy Committee is going to go and talk to the Selectmen about changing electricity providers like a lot of people are doing. Ken said that Michelle has already switched one account and is working on the rest of them. Johanna said she will send the EC minutes to Nan for posting. She also mentioned wanting to talk to Ed Thayer about updating the sign at the transfer station.

3.3   Planning Board – Nan reported that the Planning Board has finished crafting the community survey and will be sending it out at the end of the week.  We received a thank you for our suggestions for questions on the survey and a copy of the survey this week.

3.4   Forestry Committee – Jed asked Ken if he knew if the cruise of the town forest had been done. Ken said the money is there to do it but doesn’t know if it has been done. Jed mentioned that he thinks the Farnsworth Hill Town Forest might be ready for a cut.

3.5    Legislative update – Not in session.

 

4.0   Public Presentations and workshops:

4.1   Tracking Invasive Plants project – Arin hasn’t had time to do much on this project. She wants to do an interactive map so people can pinpoint a plant sighting, themselves. She is looking into how this can be done. People at NH Fish and Game suggested using EDD maps so she will look at this closer. She wants to hit a few more spots and hopes that everyone will look for invasive plants when they are out hiking. Most of our sightings have been roadside. Nan made both the reporting sheets and guides available on our web site here: InvasiveProject.html She is working on a PDF form that you can fill out online and email back to us. We will work on the project more during the winter and launch it more fully next spring.

4.2   Johanna did her third annual Rich Cook memorial swim across Millen Pond in late August and it was very successful. Lynn Cook, her son Doug, his girlfriend Sara and their dog Roulo all joined Johanna in kayaks during the swim. Nan and Jed followed along in their canoe. It was a beautiful morning on the water and Johanna did her swim in record time. We received several donations in honor of her swim. Nan will send thank yous for the donations. Nan mentioned they saw an adult loon on the pond during the swim. Ken said that there was one egg that successfully hatched this year and the youngster is now indistinguishable from the adults. Thanks to the Brighton family for allowing us to land on their beach at the far end of the pond!

4.3   We planned a hike up Lovewell Mountain for October 12^th, Saturday, at 10AM. We will meet at Mountain Road on Halfmoon Pond Road. We figure it will take about 3 hours and will tell people to bring a lunch. Arin will do some posters and make a flyer to send home with the school kids closer to the date. Jed will talk to Lynn about making it a memorial hike as we have done in the past.

 

5.0   New business – Arin said she might like to do an orienteering workshop with the kids this coming year, maybe at the Camp Morgan summer program. She doesn’t want to try and do the tracking workshop again this year because it is too hard to plan depending on the weather cooperating. Nan and Jed agreed. She thinks she knows where we could borrow a lot of compasses. Nan said maybe we could make it some kind of a treasure hunt.

 

6.0   Other Business:

6.1   We decided to schedule our next Adopt-a-Highway pick up date for this Saturday, September 21^st at 9AM.We will meet at the Library parking lot.

6.2   NRI update – We are putting this discussion off until Sandy can attend a meeting.

6.4   East Washington Rd. stabilization plan for Mill Pond bank – Nan said that she spoke with Ed and he said they haven’t heard anything on their application. If the permits come through they could still do the work this fall. The drawdown for the pond is scheduled for October 14^th.

 

7.0   What’s Happening in Nature?

Jed said that he had a close call with a deer driving up to the meeting tonight. Luckily the doe zigged when he zagged!

Ken mentioned that Fish and Game put out a fishing report recently, that mentioned nice large rainbow trout are being found in Millen Pond. They thought this might cause a bump in the numbers of boats at the boat launch but it didn’t materialize. The Lake Hosts did about 500 inspections this summer, which is their average number. He said the snapping turtle population will probably benefit form the large trout.

Johanna has 3 baby beavers in her upper pond. They come out with the adults every evening and she hears them squeaking at each other. She also has 6 Wood Ducks on her pond.

Johanna mentioned seeing lots of dead porcupines along the road recently, Arin and Nan agreed. They must be on the move right now.

Nan reported that they got some frost in the garden earlier in the week. Arin didn’t think the frost had hit the community garden yet. Luckily the weather has warmed up again and no more frost is expected for a while.

Johanna thinks she saw a Worm Snake in her woodpile. She said it was orange on the belly and rust colored on top. She saw another similar looking snake on the lawn. Jed said he has never seen a worm snake in New Hampshire, but he used to see them in Connecticut.

To learn more about the snakes we might see in New Hampshire, click here: NewinNature.html

 

8.0   Correspondence:

August:   Copy of The Source, NHDES Drinking Water Source Protection Program newsletter

            DES notice of accepted Permit Application, Septic system repair, 576 North Main St., TM 7-52

            DES notice of accepted Shoreland Program Permit Application, Porter, King Street, TM 14-485

            DES notice of accepted Complete Forestry Notification, VanPraagh, TM 11-32

            DES notice of complaint for unpermitted seasonal dock, TM 24-91 Birch Point Way, Highland Lake

            DES notice of accepted Wetlands Permit, NH Electric Coop, TM 14-417, 418, 508, 165, 167 & 168

              Copy of above Wetlands Permit, NH Electric Coop.

September: Copy of Wetland Routine Roadway Maintenance Activities Notification, culvert replacement, Rte. 31 North

DES notice of Complete Forestry Notification, TM 06-4, 06-8

            DES Shoreland Permit, Porter, TM 14-485, for septic system

            DES notice of permit Application for septic, TM 07-6, Lempster Mt Road

            DES notice of accepted permit for septic system, TM 12-40, 696 Halfmoon Pond Road

            DES notice of Complete Forestry Notification, Mata, TM 02-2

            Copy of plan page from Dolan Assoc. for Wetland permit, NH Electric Coop.

            Letter from Master Plan Update Committee thanking us for our input for the community survey

 

       

9.0   Adjourned at 7:50 PM, our next scheduled meeting is October 16^th at 7PM at the Town Hall.

 

Respectfully submitted,

Nan Schwartz, Secretary