Washington Conservation Commission

Minutes – September 21, 2022

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

Members present: Arin Mills, Jed Schwartz, Nan Schwartz

Visitors: Tim Ferwerda

1.0 Approval of Minutes: August minutes approved as written.

2.0 Permits Committee –

New: Horton, TM 11-42, Standard Dredge and Fill, minor impact, under review.

Black, TM 15-89, 1021 Millen Pond Rd., Shoreland Permit for razing existing structure and replacing,

new septic, under review

Previous: Max, TM 12-91, Shoreland PBN, accepted.

Lundquist, TM 11-43, Shoreland permit, Foundation for barn, driveway,slab and septic, approved.

Calabro, TM 14-184, Wetland/Dredge and Fill,12x20 deck along frontage of Ashuelot Pond, approved

Habashian, TM 24-64, 18 Lookout Point, Expedited wetlands permit, accepted and approved.

Stubbs, TM 20-182, Beaver Brook Road, Expedited Wetlands Permit application, approved

Voisine, TM 24-108-1, 126 Cove Rd, PBN for dock anchoring pad, restoration amended plan approved.

Barkie, TM 25-116, 1681 Valley Road, reported violation, construction of 2 garages and altered an

existing structure in protected shoreline. Letter of Deficiency received.

*Cote, TM 24-58, 46 Lookout Point Road, installation of dock without a permit.

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

Longval – no news

* these are complaints with no follow up by DES, we are waiting for more information.

3.0 Committee and Board reports -

3.1 Land Protection Committee – We discussed where we are on the Camp Morgan conservation easement planning. Jed spoke with Brian Hotz who is speaking with his board about moving forward. Arin will set up another meeting with the BoS to discuss.

3.2 Energy Committee –Andrew Hatch is working with the School Board and is looking for some potential grants and budgeting to get the projects done. Andrew is helping them to look at replacing lighting with energy efficient fixtures or bulbs, also and what grants or rebates are available.

3.3 Planning Board – Nan presented the CIP request form from the Planning Board. We decided that we don’t have any requests meeting the guidelines. Nan will return it to the PB. She will bring up the driveway issue concerning driveways permitted on state roads by DOT to the board at their next meeting.

3.4 Forestry Committee –We received Anita’s comments on a potential cut on CMTF. She is supposed to write a report but the BoS hasn’t received it yet. Arin urged the BoS to ask Anita about the report and share it with us as soon as it comes in. We will also share the report with the Forestry Committee members when it is available so that any decisions that need to be made are made with them.

3.5 Legislative update – No news.

4.0 Public Presentations and workshops –

4.1 We will do a hike on October 9^th, Sunday, at 1PM, on the Camp Morgan property for the public. We will meet at the beach and walk the waterfront trail out to chapel cove and back which is about 1 mile. Arin made a flyer, which we will put up around town and send out through the town website.

4.2 Arin talked with Kelli at the elementary school and the October 24^th date will work for the school. Kelli is letting Dawn (SCCD) know and will make the arrangements. Dawn wants to do Nature Journaling with the kids and we will help.

5.0 New Business:

5.1 Tim Ferwerda came to meet with us and presented a plan for driveway requiring a Wetland permit, for Cordeiro, TM 12-201, on South Main Street. Tim shared his application and plan with us for 2 wetland crossings for a driveway on the property. The driveway is to access for a single family home site at the top of the lot. The driveway will be 7-800 feet long with a 13% grade up the hill to the site. Arin asked about the riverine area that he is crossing. He said that he put the crossing where there was an old crossing and it is at the narrowest section of the wetland. He had a 2-foot culvert on the plan. Arin stated that this is an important wetland for the town and the property is adjacent to conservation land and a very large wetland complex. This crossing is also important for wildlife moving through the wetland. She asked if the culvert could be open on the bottom. Tim suggested up-sizing the culvert to 3 feet and burying a foot of it. He will speak with his client about doing this. There is a total of about 1600 sf of wetland impact with both crossings. We felt that the upper crossing was sized properly as it is an equalizer and not a stream crossing. Nan told Tim that there is an issue with the grade of the driveway and the Town requires a maximum grade of 12%, she also let him know that a driveway over 500 feet in length needs a turnout for emergency vehicles. Tim will contact Arin when he has a revised plan.

6.0 Other Business:

6.1 Adopt-a-Highway Trash Pickup –We had to reschedule our trash pick up so Arin will pick a day and let us know when it is. She has two High School students needing community service hours that will help with the pickup.

6.2 Jeft’s Road issue –Gwyndaf Jones and a colleague met with the Select Board on Thursday morning and unfortunately none of us could attend the meeting. Arin went to the evening BoS meeting for a report on what happened at the meeting. The BoS said that the concern is that the culvert under Jeft’s Road is draining the Andorra Forest land too quickly and that the culvert is too low. The town says that there was a wooden span (snowmobile bridge) originally and the culvert was put in for a logger. The town decided to keep the culvert and has added rip-rap across the culvert and is maintaining this section of the Class VI road.

6.3 Trails and Recreation Guide Booklet – Nan and Arin will continue working on this.

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

6.4 Master Plan goals for 2022 – This is a placeholder.

6.5 East Washington Town Forest – Jed spoke with Ed who said that they didn’t find the gravel that they were looking for but there is sand. They are exploring how much sand is there and what it would take to excavate it. Meridian will produce another report on this for them.

7.0 What’s Happening in Nature?

Nan said they have a pair of Flickers hanging around. Arin wondered why we only see them this time of year.

Jed had a Red Tailed Hawk hanging around the farm. He saw it catch a large mouse and fly off with it.

Nan said they had a good crop of Hazelnuts coming along and suddenly they were gone; a squirrel took them all. Jed said all of his flint corn was eaten on the stalk (except 4 ears) by squirrels. They are plentiful and voracious this year!

Arin said the summer weather has continued and Jed said we have not had a frost yet so the growing season continues. Nan said today was the last day of summer and the autumnal equinox is tomorrow.

Arin said the bears are out and around again.

Arin said that the Northern Long-eared Bat is being upgraded to endangered soon.

Jed has a lone Canada Goose swimming around in the Mill Pond. He thinks its wing might be hurt so it didn’t fly away with the others. He is hanging with a pair of ducks.

There have been lots of deer spotted with young ones.

Arin said the Monarch caterpillars have completely stripped her milkweed plants down to the stalk.

Arin has Staghorn Sumac growing in her yard and she just noticed they are covered with galls. She saw a red squirrel eating the galls. To learn more about what a gall is, click here: NewinNature.html

8.0 Correspondence:

8.1 Copy of Wetlands permit for Horton, TM 11-42, Standard Dredge and Fill, minor impact

9.0 Adjourned at 9:15 PM, the next meeting is Wednesday, October19^th at 7PM, at Town Hall.

Respectfully submitted,

Nan Schwartz, Secretary