Washington Conservation Commission

Minutes – November 16, 2016

Assembly time: 7:00 PM

Members present: Jed Schwartz, Arin Mills, Doug Cook, Johanna Young, Dennis Kelly and Nan Schwartz.

Visitors: None

1.0 Approval of Minutes: October minutes, no changes requested Arin motioned to approve the minutes as written, Johanna seconded and all voted in favor.

2.0 Permits Committee - Beach Sand Replenishment Wetlands application – Jed explained the project that LAE is proposing for their beach. They want to add 89 cubic yards of sand. Arin feels we should comment on the application. She said we could suggest they do a perched beach, which is what DES is suggesting for a better design for beaches. Nan said they did a permit in 2011, when they installed a swale to catch storm water runoff and they put 56 cubic yards of sand on the beach at that time. They are proposing to almost double that now. Jed asked Arin if it seems like a lot of sand is ending up in the pond. Arin said it isn’t apparent where the sand is going. He said we could recommend less sand right now and they could consider a perched beach in the future. Dennis said they have the same problem with Island Pond. We decided we won’t sign the application tonight and Arin will call Dave Dickman and speak with him about it.

On another note Dennis said he saw the state testing at the location in Windsor just over the Washington town line. He noted that through the years they have been testing just on one side of the road but he noticed that they were now testing on the other side of the road (closer to the wetland complex).

3.0 Committee and Board reports:

3.1 Land Protection Committee - Jed said our offer to split the closing costs on the Bartlett land sale was accepted and he is working with the attorney to get the closing done before the end of the year. Jed reached out to Whit Beals at NEFF about the Barker easement and is awaiting his reply. Nan had a bill from Drummond/Woodsum for $78 for work done on the property sale; we agreed to have Nan give it to Lynda for payment.

3.2 Energy Committee – Johanna said that the EC did not meet this month. She and Al are attending the Energy Conference this Saturday. Johanna said that if anyone on CC wants to borrow the infrared camera to try it out they can. She had her Sun Run get together on the 8^th and Arin found out that they don’t have an agreement with the NH Electric Coop, who most of LAE gets their power from, so she is not eligible to work with Sun Run to install a solar power array on her house.

3.3 Planning Board – Nan said the Planning Board is still working on the Town Buildings project, they are working with the F/R Departments to look at an alternate plan that uses the existing station. They are planning a community get together in December to discuss the revised plans for the Town Hall and the F/R Safety Building.

3.4 Forestry Committee –Tom was not here to report. Jed said the road has been upgraded. He thinks we should reach out to Swift Corwin and Lempster CC about the trail plan. He will reach out to them. Arin asked about trail grants and what would be needed. Jed thinks that Swift has done a grant application before and we should get together with them to discuss, maybe in February.

3.5 Legislative update - Not in session.

4.0 Public Presentations and workshops:

4.1 NHACC Annual meeting and Conference – Arin attended the conference on Saturday and reported on the workshops she attended. She went to one about CC and School partnerships, which was presented by Sarah Sallade of the Hollis Montessori School (environmental Science teacher). She spoke about engaging schools with CC activities. She said you should give teachers options and try to tie to the curriculum by looking at the “next generation” science standards; these are set for each grade level and sets out the subject matter they are working on. She mentioned the NH environmental educators group. Jed mentioned the rain garden project we did at Camp Morgan and the involvement of the Camp Morgan kids. Arin said it is good to come up with projects that benefit the town and you can have the kids report on it to the public.

Her second workshop was Land Conservation and Management for Rare Wildlife, presented by Emily Preston of NH F&G. She said that Emily pointed out new information on the Wildlife Action Plan website, http://www.wildlife.state.nh.us/wildlife/wap.html. They have new information on rare species and habitats. Arin said she asked Emily to come up with more fact sheets to help with best management practices. She said there is a new interactive viewer for habitats.

Her third workshop was the Nuts and Bolts of Easement Stewardship presented by Chris Kane and he talked about monitoring an easement and tips for doing it. She wants us to visit a couple of our town forests each year. Dennis talked about marking the boundaries of the town forests including the corners and putting up a small sign to mark the forest, he said today with GPS coordinates it is easier to do. Nan said that Allan Krygeris is the one to talk to about this he has done this on most of the town forests.

Arin said the Keynote speaker was great; it was Tom Wessels from Antioch University New England. He said we should protect rare things but climate change is happening and things will change. He said nature is resilient and will survive over time. We discussed climate change and how devastation can be short term and nature can heal itself the long term.

Arin had a questionnaire from the conference that we filled out concerning buffers to wetlands. Nan will send back to NHACC. Johanna mentioned that her church is doing a trip down the Connecticut River next summer that anyone can participate on any of the weekend legs of the journey.

5.0 New Business: None

6.0 Other Business:

5.1 FedCo tree/plant order - Doug is pulling together an order from Fedco Seeds for plants and bushes/trees to take advantage of their volume discount program. He wants everyone’s orders as soon as possible. The order will be placed before our next meeting so send Doug your order, you can give him a check at the December meeting. If you would like to see what they carry you can go online to their catalog here: http://www.fedcoseeds.com/trees/

Please spread the word about this to anyone who might be interested in being part of the order, the larger the order the bigger the discount. The delivery will be in the spring, in time for planting.

6.1 Natural Resource Inventory Map updates – Nan got in touch with Chris and he has had a lot of fieldwork to finish up before getting our project finished. He thinks he will be able to finish it up before the end of the year. We will stay in touch to review what he is doing for us.

6.4 Master Plan goals for 2016 – We will discuss our goals in December.

6.5 Barker trail easement – see 3.1

6.6 Tracking Invasive Plants project – Keep looking for new sites of plants and fill out a sheet when you find one. The reporting sheets and guides are always available here: InvasiveProject.html

7.0 What’s Happening in Nature?

Jed had a bear story from a neighbor; Mark saw a bear caught in a coyote trap in the farm’s hay field. The trapper came along and found a way to let the bear out of the trap and he ran away unhurt into the woods. Later Mark saw a mother bear and cub come check out the trap. He was afraid they would get caught in the trap but the mother sniffed around and found the trail of the earlier bear and followed it off into the woods. He thought the first bear was the yearling of the mother bear who now has a new cub. Dennis said he has had a very large bear visit his yard and he yelled at it and it left.

Jed said the past month has been very warm, as has most of the year; it is still very dry out. Johanna said her family lives near the forest fire near the White Mountains.

Dennis reports that there is now a La Nina, which means it will be wetter this winter (snowy). The El Nino ended in July. The La Nina is weak right now but could strengthen.

Arin said she had 2 deer cross the road in front of her at the top of the hill on Faxon Hill Road.

Johanna saw turkeys crossing the road on Rt. 202 and found deer tracks on her yard.

Nan saw a group of 3 raccoons crossing the road below Arline’s house several nights last week.

Arin said that NH F&G is revising the endangered species list; the Bald Eagle is coming off and several bats species are going on the list. She also said that F&G is tracking wildlife sitings and they have an updated website for reporting: http://www.wildlife.state.nh.us/surveys/index.html

Jed said there was a super moon on Saturday and Sunday last week, Saturday was clear but Sunday was cloudy during the moonrise.

Jed said that Arline told him that Dave shot 13 porcupines over the summer.

Dennis reported that bobcat numbers have increased and are having the effect of dropping fisher cat numbers (because they eat them). Fishers feed on porcupines, so porcupine numbers are up. Other factors that effect wildlife populations are the availability of food for wildlife. Despite the dry year this turned out to be a big “mast” year (acorns and other tree fruit), providing lots of food for wildlife. To learn more about this, click here: NewinNature.html

8.0 Correspondence:

Copy of Forest Notes

Copy of Connecticut River Watershed Council, Annual report 2016

Request from Connecticut River Watershed Council for a contribution

9.0 Adjourned at 8:30 PM, our next scheduled meeting is December 21^st, at 7PM at the Town Hall.

Respectfully submitted,

Nan Schwartz, Secretary