Washington Conservation Commission

Minutes – November 17, 2022

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

Members present: Arin Mills, Jed Schwartz, Nan Schwartz

Visitors: None

1.0 Approval of Minutes: September minutes approved as written, no October meeting held.

2.0 Permits Committee –

New: Jeffery McLaughlin Trust, TM 16-82, Shoreland Standard, Island Pond, raze house and replace in same footprint, under technical review.

Audrey Kern, TM 17-50, Millen Pond Road, Shoreland PBN, adding catch basin for stormwater, accepted.

Ed Thayer (DPW,) Millen Pond Road, Routine road maintenance., culvert replacement, rejected.

NEFF, TM 15-42, Forestry PBN, accepted

Goshen Hill Farm, LLC, TM 1-1, Forestry SBN, accepted

Previous: Cordeiro, TM 12-201, Expedited Minimum Wetlands Permit, for driveway, more information requested

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

Horton, TM 11-42, Standard Dredge and Fill, minor impact, more info requested.

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

* 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. Arin and Jed met with BoS to discuss the next steps. BoS are coming up with their alternate idea for further protection of the property. They will be sending out a document to town committees, commissions and MLA soon and will hold a meeting with all of them to discuss in December. They will be working toward a warrant article for Town Meeting.

3.2 Energy Committee – Not meeting. The new flooring is in Camp Morgan Lodge and Nan expressed hope that the BoS acted on the suggestions made by Andrew Hatch for improvements along with the flooring upgrade.

3.3 Planning Board – Nan said she brought up the driveway issue concerning driveways permitted on state roads by DOT to the PB and they are working on an LUO update to address this. It is being vetted by the town attorney right now.

3.4 Forestry Committee –We still haven’t received Anita’s comments on a potential cut on CMTF. 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 did a hike on October 9^th, on the Camp Morgan property for the public. We had a few people show up to participate in the hike.

4.2 Jed and Nan helped with the School nature journaling program with Dawn. It was a lot of fun and Dawn will be continuing her program with the school. She is also going to do a workshop with the teachers to train them in using nature in their teaching programs. Arin suggested that we might want to buy waterproof notebooks for the WES students to use on nature journaling outings.

5.0 New Business:

5.1 NHACC dues – we received an invoice for our NHACC dues for 2023 for $250.00. Jed made a motion to pay the invoice, Arin seconded the motion and all voted in favor. Arin will give the invoice to Cindy to pay.

6.0 Other Business:

6.1 Adopt-a-Highway Trash Pickup – We are done for the season and will continue trash pickups next spring.

6.2 East Washington Town Forest – Arin attended the Gravel Committee’s meeting on Wednesday night. Meridian has submitted a proposal for design and permitting for opening up a 2.3-acre section of the property to mine the sand in that area. There are 2 more additional phases proposed and the 2^nd phase covers documenting the existing conditions, wetland permitting and design of the driveway from the road to the excavation site. The 3^rd phase covers the excavation permitting which includes a reclamation plan. There are two sites on the property containing sand, but they are only looking at one site now. They think the site has 54K cubic yards of sand and the town uses 4K cubic yards in a winter, so it would last 15 years or so. There will be a warrant article at Town Meeting concerning moving forward with this. They are also talking about doubling the size of the proposed sand shed to accommodate the sand.

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 Land Use Change tax – We received $2430. Nan will give the check back to Cindy to deposit into the Conservation Fund.

7.0 What’s Happening in Nature?

Arin said that it was summer last Saturday and by Sunday winter had arrived. We had a little snow (2 inches) and had snow squalls today.

Jed said the ground is not frozen yet and he got his garlic planted and mulched for next year.

Arin and Jed both commented that there are tons of turkeys around this fall.

Nan said they saw an ermine run from the stone wall to over near the house. Its coat was starting to turn to its winter white.

Jed had a video from Cody showing squirrels eating a hole in a pumpkin to get to the seeds inside. Nan said they have done that to all the pumpkins they had sitting outside, including the jack-o-lanterns. They would find a pile of pumpkin flesh and a hole in the pumpkin with a trail of guts and seeds dragged out through the hole. It is behavior they haven’t seen before with squirrels.

To see more about the seed stealing pumpkin chewers, click here: NewinNature.html

8.0 Correspondence:

8.1 Invoice from NHACC for 2023 dues.

8.2 Check for LUCT for Chidester

9.0 Adjourned at 8:45 PM, the next meeting is Wednesday, October19^th at 7PM, at Town Hall.

Respectfully submitted,

Nan Schwartz, Secretary