Washington Conservation Commission
Minutes
– October 15, 2014
Assembly time: Arin opened the meeting at 6:53 PM,
after the public hearing closed.
Members present: Arin Mills, Tom
Taylor, Ken Eastman and Nan Schwartz.
Visitors: Terry Yeaton
1.0 Approval of Minutes: Minutes from September 2014, there were no comments or changes suggested,
Ken motioned to approve the minutes, Tom seconded the motion and all voted in
favor.
2.0 Permits Committee - No new permits
3.0 Committee
and Board reports:
3.1 Land
Protection Committee - no recent meeting,
Jed has spoken to several people about an interest in protecting their land. The
Forest Society closed on the McNeil Family Forest project and we just held our
hearing on our donation to the project.
3.2 Energy Committee – Johanna
was not in attendance. Arin said she has some pipe insulation to donate to
their weatherization project.
3.3 Planning
Board – Nan reported that the Master Plan Update Committee is looking for
input on the Natural Resources chapter. We will work on updating our goals for
this.
3.4 Forestry Committee
– Tom has been traveling, the committee hasnÕt met recently but they have
a meeting coming up at the end of this month. They last met with their forester
Anita Blakman and she is working away. They are zeroing in on a possible cut on
one of the Town Forests, but they need surveys for doing a cut. Allan Krygeris
plotted GPS points on all the Town Forest corners but real surveys need to be
done. Anita will be coming back with recommendations soon. Tom has a theory
that they can increase the protection on the Town Forests if they require a
higher percent for any votes to do something on a Town Forest lot. Tom thinks
that towns that went out and put conservation easements on their forests have
weak Conservation Commissions or none. The towns with strong CCs protect their
forests on their own. They are gathering information about this and will make a
report. He said that Back Mountain Town Forest is inaccessible, they are
zeroing in on what the Town Forests should be best used for, some are not
amenable to logging, some are good for recreation, some should be left open for
wildlife.
3.5 Legislative update - not in session.
4.0 Public Presentations and workshops:
4.1 Speaking for Wildlife – Arin spoke with JoEllen and she was open to having the presentation at the Library. Arin looked at the PowerPoint online and she thought it was good, she said there are information sheets available at the Co-op office in Newport. She said it is about 45 minutes long with 15 minutes for question, she felt it was more geared to adults but some kids would enjoy it too. She said we will need a projector and Nan said we could borrow the townÕs. We decided to pick another date in November and settled on Wednesday the 12th. We decided we would hold it at the Town Hall because it has a better set up for projecting and seating. We might put it out to Hillsboro and Lempster CCs to get a bigger crowd.
4.2 Tracking Invasive Plants project
– Members should bring any sheets they have filled out to the November
meeting so Arin can input them. The reporting sheets and guides are always
available here: InvasiveProject.html
4.3 NHACC Annual Meeting –
Nan asked that we sign up before October 22nd for best rate. It
takes place on November 1st, Saturday at Laconia Middle School, and
the theme is getting young people involved. You can register for the conference
here: http://www.nhacc.org/annualmeeting44/registration/
5.0 New business –
5.1 Nik Coates from NHACC will be
visiting us at our November meeting. He is the new director of NHACC and is
trying to visit all of the Conservation Commissions in the state.
6.0 Other Business:
6.1 McNeil Family Forest land
protection project on Farnsworth Hill – Arin said we need to have a vote
to expend $20,000 from our
conservation fund to the Forest Society following our public hearing. (see minutes from hearing for details) Tom asked about our
finances and how the commission is funded. Nan reported that we have $57,019 in
our account, which will leave us with $37,019 after our donation. Nan explained
that we get 100% of the land use change tax (LUCT) and that is our only source
of funding. She wasnÕt sure whether we are owed any money for this year but
will check with the Assessors. Terry Yeaton said that Hillsboro gets 50% of the
LUCT but they also have a yearly budget of $15,000 from the town.
6.2 Master Plan Update Committee
request for input – we discussed this earlier (see 3.3) Nan may ask for
more time to give our input.
6.3 NRI update - Nan reported that Jed attended the
Planning Board meeting earlier this month to make a budget request for funds to
update NRI maps, Jed spoke with Chris Kane about updating the maps. Nan made a
list to send to Chris Kane to get a price for PB. Arin will review the list;
she would like to come up with a new template for the maps in two sizes; an
11x17 and the larger size. She thinks we need to specify that he uses at least
9.X ArcGIS and gives us all the metadata. Nan said she would ask the Assessors
about getting an updated tax layer.
Arin
said the last chapter was discussing process for the most part and there is
less to comment on She said we need to redo the Co-occurrence map and look at
how we weighted it. Arin said she is willing to help with the chapter updating.
Nan will take a first stab and see how it goes. We agreed to work on our goals,
as stated on page 4 in the Conservation Plan. Nan will send Ken the page by
email.
6.4 Barker - Conservation easement possibility, Jed
spoke with Pete Martin of Monadnock/Sunapee Greenway trail group and will also
speak with the Snowriders Club about trail protection.
6.5 Adopt a Highway trash pickup - We picked up trash on Saturday,
September 27th, for our last pick up of 2014.
6.6 Tom spoke about Jefts
Road and the bad erosion on the road. There is a bridge that is out and hikers
canÕt get through. The road is used as a snowmobile trail in the winter and
some how they make it passable. He said it is a Class 6 road but fire equipment
would not be able to get through. He feels the town needs to upgrade some of
these roads for fire lanes, he said the road below
Farnsworth Hill (Old Marlow Road) is bad also.
7.0 WhatÕs Happening in Nature?
Nan
said there are lots of turkeys around.
Tom
has deer in Ashuelot, with a pack of 7 of them near
his house, they have about destroyed his garden, he said they seem pretty tame
and come in the early evening. Ken said he hasnÕt had a problem with deer in
his garden, he has a solar globe light that changes
colors and thinks that might scare them away.
Nan
said it has been a beautiful fall with great colors,
there is strange tropical, moist air around today. Ken said there is heavy rain
tomorrow predicted for tomorrow. That might take the rest of the leaves down.
Ken
said they dropped Millen Pond 2 feet and next year is their every 5-year - deep
drawdown. He said a 3 inch drop in Millen causes a 1
inch swell in Ashuelot.
Arin
said Ashuelot has been taken down extra low this year
and they are hoping it will kill off some of the weeds. The lake is so low it
is down almost to the original riverbed, she was
surprised not to see a lot of trash in the lake. She said that some fish got
trapped when the water went down, but it was too mucky to get out there and
save them. Ken thinks that the Lake Hosts make people think more about throwing
trash in the lakes.
Ken
said that Dan from the General Store shot a big black bear and it dressed out
at 550 lbs. It is close to a record, Terry said the state
record is 683 Lbs. Tom said between the campground on Valley Road and Montford Retreat someone shot another very large bear.
To
learn about lake drawdowns and the effect on our lakes, click here: NewinNature.html
8.0 Correspondence:
Copy of anonymous complaint made to DES on an
Island Pond property owner, moving rocks in the water and adding sand without a
permit.
9.0 Adjourned
at 8:00 PM, our next scheduled
meeting is November 19th at 7PM at the Town Hall.
Respectfully submitted,
Nan
Schwartz, Secretary