Washington Conservation Commission
Minutes
- November 16, 2011
Assembly time: 7:00 PM.
Present: Jed Schwartz, Carol Andrews, Arin Mills, Nan Schwartz, Johanna Young, Sandy Robinson, Ken Eastman
1.0 Approval of Minutes: Minutes from October meeting, Sandy made a motion to approve, Carol seconded, all voted in favor.
2.0 Old Business:
2.1 Permits Committee – There were no new permits to look at. Nan said that she went to the Shoreland permit workshop at the NHACC Annual Meeting and it was very informative about the changes to the law. Jay Aube was the presenter and said that it would be a good idea for commissions to ask their town clerk to let them know when a permit comes in. DES is always happy to get our comments on these. Carol asked about the legality of needing permission to go on the applicant's property. She thinks it is a good idea to be aware of the applications as they come in but not just go out to look. All agreed. Arin asked whether permit holders have to notify DES when the work is done. They are supposed to, but we are not sure whether they do. Carol said we need to educate people about removing silt fence after construction is done, she has seen may instances where it is not removed and it can cause problems when left up indefinitely.
2.2 Land
Protection Committee – It was reported that they are working on a small
project to add to a conservation easement property.
2.3 Energy Committee – Johanna
reports that the audit was done on the Elementary School on October 27th and they may return to do an infrared test to look for heat loss locations. They did find an unbalanced heating system and lots of leakage, their report with recommendations will be coming soon. It is up to the school board to decide what they will do. EC has reviewed the audit reports that were done on several town buildings by the ETAP (Energy Technical Assistance Planning) group and gave them feedback. The final reports will be coming soon. All thought that maybe we should change Camp Morgan Lodge to a more efficient gas system instead of oil. She said they are hoping to get the Planning Board to speak with the Select Board and try to get some of the recommendations into the CIP. Nan will speak with the PB about it. It was felt that the town could do a few of the projects to help save the money by saving energy. They thought that an insulation project could be done at Camp Morgan using local people and it could be used as an educational tool. Al is talking to Mike McCrory about who we could get to demonstrate and lead a workday. They are speaking to the "Button-Up" group about doing another presentation in Washington next year. Johanna said that she is contributing items to the statewide Energy Committee Newsletter.
2.4 Planning Board – Nan reported that the PB is still working on the Capital Improvement Program (CIP). She said that the joint PB
and CC committee working on the Town Owned lot evaluation was finally wrapped
up in the last week. She feels the process was lengthy but went smoothly and
everyone was pleased with the results. The two boards worked well together and
agreed on all the recommendations. The Selectmen are moving forward on the
recommendations of the group and are putting together bid packages. We all
agreed that as the town acquires new lots in the future, we would use the same
process and advise them again if they request our services.
3.0 NHACC Annual Meeting and Conference
– Carol said that the change to the bylaws passed with 24 towns voting.
She said the Stormwater and Shoreland workshops were popular and many of the
presentations from the conference are available on her website at http://www.NHACC.org if you weren't able to attend. She has recently upgraded her website, so everyone should visit it.
4.0 10th Anniversary – Nan
reported that 2011 is the tenth anniversary of the founding of the Conservation
Commission. We need to figure out what we want to do to celebrate, maybe cake
at town meeting. Carol said that the commission started as an off shoot of the
Forestry Committee and became the Conservation Committee for 3 years before the
commission was finally voted in at town meeting 2001.
5.0 Other/New Business: Arin said she
thinks we should do more educational presentations this coming year, maybe
stormwater, wetlands, water quality issues, land protection would all be good
subjects to present. Carol thinks the town has been open to learning and
hearing about issues and it is a good idea. She said the Hazard Mitigation Plan
has a few items in it that are our responsibility and we should act on them, we
will take a look at it again. Maybe the Library would host a few programs about
wetlands and other issues if we spoke with them. We could target some
presentations for different town boards or committees. Arin suggested we could
do more demonstrations at the school. It would be good to have a goal of doing
a few presentations each year. All agreed. Carol mentioned the WOW (Watershed
on Wheels) Express and maybe they would consider a stop in Washington. They are
always at the big Fish and Game discovery day and are available for student
groups. More information about WOW here:
We should certainly
approach the teachers at WES about applying to have them come visit.
Jed suggested a winter
hike. Arin said that the school has snowshoes for the kids and the trails are
available to use at Camp Morgan. Nan thought maybe Tom Taylor would be
interested in leading one. Carol thinks that we could cut a nature trail from
right behind the school, we will talk to Forestry and Parks and Rec about it.
Ken said that the Selectmen are working on making the slope from the lodge to
the beach a bit more safe for travel. Arin said that she made a land navigation
map for the guard with information on the back, she thought an interpretive map
could be good for a nature trail. Johanna mentioned books she got on the earth
from the NH Humanities Council Connections program, Carol said you can get
speakers through the NHHC. We will continue the discussion next meeting.
6.0 What's Happening in Nature?
Jed said this was the shortest winter on record seeing as we already had deep snow, then had mud season and now we are having spring like weather. Carol put on her snow tires on and is ready for winter number 2.
Several of us have planted our garlic.
Johanna
has been seeing moths recently and Jed commented that there are a lot of ticks
around.
Carol
saw a frog crossing the road and Johanna saw a mouse crossing the road.
Johanna
said her beavers are still active. She saw a big buck with antlers, nearby in
Windsor.
Nan
saw 2 moose together on Coolidge Road.
Arin saw an Osprey and Ken said that the loons are still on Millen Pond. Carol said they won't leave until the lake starts to freeze.
Ken
said he had a tarp folded over in his yard and when he went to move it he found
a dozen or so newts living under it, he left the tarp and after some weather he
checked again and they were gone. Nan had an email from a man who lives on
Valley Road who said that the other day he was moving a large piece of pond liner
material that he had on the ground (to kill weeds) and under it were many P.
cinerus (red-backed salamanders) and 1 large adult rare, erythristic morph
and one juvenile of the same type. She told him to report what he found to the NH
Fish and Game has a Reptile and Amphibian Reporting Program and he did.
Nan
reported that she found a snake (sadly squished) in the road after the recent
snowstorm. Reptiles still seem to be on the move.
We had a discussion about wild hogs because Arin had recently found and article about them. She didn't know they existed in NH. Carol said she though a lot of them were escapees from Corbin Park in Croydon, Sullivan County. Carol is right, the state considers them escaped private property. To learn more about feral pigs in NH click here: http://www.washingtonnh.org/WCC_Html/NewinNature.html
7.0 Correspondence:
Invoice from Forest Society for stewardship fees
for Eccardt Farm easement property
Invoice from NHACC for membership dues
DES, copy of shoreland permit for
Robey/McLaughlin, TM 12-49 & 52, McLaughlin Road, Island Pond.
Letter from New Hampshire Association of Natural
Resource Scientists inviting us to become members, $20 per year, allowing
members to attend workshops at a discounted rate.
6.0 Adjourned at 8:15 PM, our next
scheduled meeting is December 21st at 7 PM in the Town Hall. We have decided to
not meet in December because the meeting is so close to Christmas. We will hold
our next meeting on January 18, 2012. Have a good holiday season and watch for
wildlife!
Respectfully submitted,
Nan Schwartz
Secretary