Washington Conservation Commission

Minutes – September 21, 2021

 

Assembly time: 7:00 PM, Meeting at Town Hall.

 

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

Visitors: Jim Crandall and Allan Krygeris

 

1.0    Approval of Minutes: the August minutes were approved as written.

 

2.0   Permits Committee  -

New: Gingras, Sandy Cove Road, TM 24-108, DES notice of reported violations; installed deck, shed and increased impermeable surface, DES received a seasonal dock notification and resolved the dock complaint.

Previous:

Johnson/Kimball – Notice of complaint, dredging in Highland Lake, TM 25-93, letter of deficiency and steps to mitigate, dredging will be addressed separately by DES.

Bologna – Notice of complaint, dredging in Highland Lake, TM 24-91, letter of deficiency sent July 8th with mitigation requests.

* Colette - Complaint of violations, TM 12-69, over clearing of waterfront zone, no follow up yet

*Cordeiro – Notice of complaint from DES concerning excavation violations (no permit or erosion control), no follow up notice.

Mill Pond dredging – no new news.

Longval – no news.

 

Arin has contacted Jeff B at DES to ask him the status of the above * complaints. She hasnÕt heard back from him yet.

           

3.0   Committee and Board reports:

3.1   Land Protection Committee – Nothing new.

3.2   Energy Committee – No news.

3.3   Planning Board – No big news, they are looking at several LUO updates and are holding a working session in October.

3.4   Forestry Committee – We invited members to meet with us this month but they were unable to attend. We will invite them again for next monthÕs meeting.

3.5   Legislative update  - No news.

 

4.0   Public Presentations and workshops:

4.1   Nan mentioned the NHACC Annual Meeting on November 6th is a virtual event. You can sign up online for it, info here: http://www.nhacc.org/annualmeeting50/workshops/

 

5.0   New Business:

5.1   Protection of Camp Morgan property. Jim Crandall came to speak with us about putting a conservation easement on the Camp Morgan town forest property. Jim would like us to begin working on getting an easement for this property and perhaps some other Town Forests. Jed said that at this point the Forestry Committee oversees the Town Forests and we need to work with them on this issue. Jed agrees with Jim that an easement will protect the property better. Jed said he will talk to the Forest Society and will find out about the cost (stewardship fees, closing costs, etc.). Arin wants to find out what the boundaries of the school property are as we looked into this on another issue and never were able to find out. The beach, lodge, school and parking lots would be held out of the easement. We will put this at the top of our to do list.

5.2   UNH/DOT Milkweed project – Nan brought up that UNH is looking for dried Milkweed pods to collect and acquire the seeds, so DOT can plant them in areas near highways and other natural areas to support Monarchs. Arin said she has been working on this project for several years and it is now being promoted to the public. The project involves a candidate conservation agreement and the monarch is now a candidate under the Endangered Species Act; being reviewed for its status annually until a listing decision is made. The agreement addresses concerns by landowners that have at risk candidates on their property, it makes a voluntary agreement with them to use specific land management actions to benefit the species. We will promote the project to collect seeds in anticipation of the start of the planting project.

5.3   JohannaÕs service – Jed sent JohannaÕs obit that Lindley shared with him and her service is Thursday, October 7th at Saint PaulÕs Church in Concord. We will all try to attend.

54    Trash Pickup – We will schedule our next Adopt-a-highway trash pickup for October 25th and will meet at 3:15 at the Library parking lot.

 

6.0   Other Business:

6.1   Trails and Recreation Guide Booklet – Arin has done some more work on maps. Nan will check out what she has done. Arin wants us to check some of the descriptions for Farnsworth Hill and Jackson Hill. We will continue working on it with a goal to publish the booklet this fall/winter.

6.2   Facebook Page – Arin said she is continuing to post items when she can. To check out the CCÕs Facebook page go here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/2173271309586226/  

6.3   Master Plan goals for 2021 – This is a placeholder.

6.4   Tracking Invasive Plants project – The reporting sheets and guides are always available here: InvasiveProject.html

6.5   The ATV/UTV road usage map is done and Jed will talk to printers this week. Arin suggested a couple of printers she has used for state projects. Jed will get one printed to bring to the BoS before we print the whole batch. He will ask the BoS if they want us to put it up on the Town Website or Facebook page.

 

7.0   WhatÕs Happening in Nature?

Nan said there hasnÕt been a frost yet this fall. Jed said it has been a challenge for hay making because of so many days of rain but we were lucky last week and the farm brought us our hay.

Arin said she got some corn from the plants Jed gave her for the garden. She will make some chowder.

Jed brought Nan a flower he found that they had never seen before. She asked an expert who told her it is a Closed Bottle Genetian. It was purple with tightly closed flower clusters that never opened. Only really strong bees can muscle their way into the flower and come out again with the pollen.

Arin shared a hilarious story with us about visiting Eccardt Farm and one of their goats was loose and followed them all over the place determined to stay with them.

Arin said she took a walk up Farnsworth Hill and the BrightonÕs have a lot of Milkweed growing in their hay field and there are lots of caterpillars still eating it and getting ready to pupate. It is getting late for them but hopefully we wonÕt have a sudden frost. Jed said his Monarch hatched and he has seen a lot of butterflies around. To learn more about helping the Monarchs and participating in the Milkweed pod/seed harvesting for UNH and DOT, click here: NewinNature.html

 

8.0   Correspondence:  

 

9.0   Adjourned at 8:25PM, the next meeting is Wednesday, October 20th at 7PM, at Town Hall.

 

Respectfully submitted,            Nan Schwartz, Secretary