Washington Conservation Commission

Minutes – November 19, 2008

 

Assembly time: 7:00 PM.

 

Present: Carol Andrews, Nan Schwartz, Jed Schwartz, Tom Taylor, Sandy Robinson.

Guests: None

 

1.0    Approval of Minutes: Minutes from October 15th, Jed made a motion to approve, Sandy seconded, all voted in favor.

 

2.0   Old Business:

2.1   Dredge and Fill Committee – We sent a comment letter to DES about the Washington Lake Association mooring project along with a few other individuals. DES has sent a letter asking the WLA committee for more detailed, specific information and they have to respond by March 3rd. DES also stated that they won't allow them to expand the boat ramp because it is a private ramp. Sandy wanted to know if we want to comment again before the March 3rd deadline. She wondered if we should do some research now in anticipation of DES's concerns. Carol received a copy of the Forest Society's comment letter and will share it with those who are interested.

        We received a copy of a letter sent to DES from Meridian concerning the Sandy Cove Road property (Ursini) stating why the replanting they requested hadn't taken place yet.                      

        DES sent a notice that they had approved the Kluk garage application.

DES sent notice that on the Bibbo property on Ayers Pond Road, loggers(?) allegedly installed two temporary wetland crossings with no permit and there were other concerns as well.

Meridian sent a letter responding to a request from DES concerning the Ruggerio property. Tom wanted to comment on the wetland issue for this property.

 

3.0   Old Home Day –

Don wants to get the Chestnut Foundation to do a display, he will contact them about doing something or providing him with materials. Maybe he could do some tours of his tree and get people to look for trees on their property. The Energy Committee is working on their portion of the display, we need to figure out what we want to do besides displaying the Conservation plan and maps. We will put it on the agenda for December.

 

4.0   Energy Committee – Johanna was not able to attend so we didn't get a report on their meeting for this month.

 

5.0   New Business – Tom reported that the Forestry Committee has met twice. They have some new members and they are talking about the future of the committee. He mentioned there are a few town owned parcels in need of designation as town forests or conservation land. There members are Tom Taylor – chair, Al Krygeris, Larry Gaskell, Steve Hanssen, Tom Burt, alternates – Joyce and Dave Dailey. They meet at 4PM on the 3rd Thursday each month. A group went over to check out the town forest land on the other side of Ashuelot. Tim Lange had his adjacent property surveyed and that gave the town a surveyed line on part of the forest. Tom reported that the Farnsworth Hill lot was surveyed and it abuts the Lempster Town Forest. It is important to link forested blocks together to create corridors. Tom has a thought to build a tower for bird watching out there.

        Carol said the Friends of Pillsbury Park had talked to her and they want to turn the group into more of a conservation group. They are looking for us to work with them and they would like someone to join their group. They do park clean up, picnic tables, and other projects.

 

4.0   What's Happening in Nature?

Jed said, "It's really cold!!". It was warm for an extended period this fall but now the weather has definitely turned toward winter. Sandy thought she spotted a new beaver house on Carol's property in Bradford. Carol spoke about how they installed a "beaver pipe" this fall to control the depth of the water but the beavers started to build in the pipe to stop it up, they obviously had different ideas about controlling the water depth. The man who put in the pipe had to make a return trip to clean out the pipe and build a cage around it to keep the beavers away. Carol's consultant is from Massachusetts and is extremely knowledgeable about beaver behavior. For more information about beavers, Beaver Pipes and coping with industrious beavers click here: http://www.washingtonnh.org/WCC_Html/NewinNature.html

       

5.0   Other Business –

5.1   Sandy mentioned that she heard a story on NPR about making Christmas more charitable. She wanted to suggest that people make donations to the Conservation Commission as a gift. We will put something on our website and make a gift certificate that people could use. Another charity mentioned was "Pure Water for the World".

 

6.0   Correspondence:

         Meridian Land Services, Inc.  CC of letter to DES (Ursini property File #2008-00226 & 2008-00227) explaining why replanting had not taken place.

              Shoreland Impact Permit approval #2008-02087 (Purling Beck Road project)

              NH Lakes Association Lake Host program- no exotic species found

              Sullivan County Cooperative Extension GIS workshops- free workshop on GRANIT data mapper on December 8th 6 - 8 p.m. at Keene State College

              DES letter acknowledging receipt of Kluk shoreland application

              DES Shoreland Impact Permit Approval Kluk #2008-02253

              DES Best Management Practices to Control Nonpoint Source Pollution

              DES Request for more information Washington Lake Association Dredge and Fill Permit # 2008-01753

              DES Shoreland Impact Permit Approval Gullage #2008-01835

              Meridian Land Services cc of letter to DES requesting 30 day extension #2008-00690

              Bruce Cayer re: file #2008-02179 Bibbo property on Ayers Pond Road allegedly installed two temporary wetland crossings with no permit

 

 

7.0   Adjourned at 7:55 PM, our next scheduled meeting is December 17th at 7 PM at the Town Hall.

 

Respectfully submitted,

 

Nan Schwartz

Secretary