Washington Conservation Commission

Minutes – November 19, 2014

 

Assembly time: 7:00 PM.

 

Members present: Arin Mills, Jed Schwartz, Johanna Young and Nan Schwartz.

Visitors: Nik Coates, director of NHACC

 

1.0    Approval of Minutes: Approval of Minutes from October meeting and hearing, Arin motioned to approve both sets of minutes, Johanna seconded, all voted in favor.

 

Jed took a moment to introduce Nik Coates to the commission members.

 

2.0    Permits Committee  - No new permits

 

3.0   Committee and Board reports:

3.1   Land Protection Committee  - No recent meeting, Jed mentioned that after our hearing last month the Forest Society received our check and closed on the MacNeil property. Nan said there was recently a nice article in the Villager and Messenger papers about the project. Jed has spoken to several people about an interest in protecting their land and he will continue speaking with them. Arin asked whether the Eccardt Farm had any interest in protecting more of their land. Jed said that Hans had died recently and George and Ryan are now running the farm, it will be awhile for things to settle down.

3.2   Energy Committee – Johanna reported that the committee met last week and they had a visitor, Tara VanMeter, who is interested in local food and other issues and showed interest in helping with their weatherization projects. She reported they have done three houses so far, mostly doing window coverings, foam and other under floor insulation, one house had an improperly installed pellet stove, which they fixed. She said Andrew Hatch got some surplus materials and donated them to the effort. The committee is looking for a place to store materials for upcoming projects. They found the ReCover Store in Vermont, where they have bargain priced, used building materials and more for sale. They also provide funding for non-profit organizations addressing the urgent home repair needs of low-income, disabled and elderly residents of the Upper Valley. They are hoping to work more closely with them on these projects. She said the Selectmen approached Al and Andrew for advice about some town building energy projects.

3.3   Planning Board – Nan reported that the Master Plan Update Committee is working on the Natural Resource chapter. We will look over what she has for goals later in the meeting.

3.4   Forestry Committee – Tom was not in attendance, no news.

3.5    Legislative update  - Jed asked Nik to speak about legislative and other issues. He said that he took over as director of the NHACC from Carol Andrews on January 1st of this year. They have had many things to focus on this year. He told us about his background and schooling. He said there are 234 towns in NH and 216 of them have Conservation Commissions, he would like to get all towns on board. He said there are 200 towns with membership in the NHACC and they serve them all. NHACC is funded through dues which is a fairly steady stream of revenue but he would like to go for some grants so they can provide other diverse services; give townÕs access to lawyers, foresters and other professional services. He knows that towns arenÕt rich so they try to keep the dues at a steady level. They provide technical assistance to member towns to answer questions and provide resources and options. They have an education focus, their annual meeting has many workshops and was very well attended this year, He feels it is important to bring along the next generation and educate them in the conservation ethic. Jed mentioned our focus on getting in the schools to do outreach to the kids in town. Nik thinks that communication is important and we need to tell our story. He has a second person on staff to focus on education and communication, social media, they are always looking for pictures and content. He said that this year they held 6 educational workshops for field training, that were skills based, experiential and fun. They will do more next year working with the Co-operative Extension and Audubon to try to bring up the level of skills in CC members. In the legislative end they watched a couple of dozen bills last session and worked actively on 4 of them. Two were negative to CCs, one was positive and the other was neutral. The 2 negative bills went to study committees, 1 bill was to eliminate CCs and one was seeking to not allow CCs and land trusts to work together, both bills died in the end. The positive bill, HB388 was signed by the Governor, and it takes a critical look at how conservation is done in NH. There was a study committee established and after 30 to 40 hearings they completed a report, which is available on their website. They recommended that the state protect LCHIP and fund it at a proper level. The report said that for every $1 invested in conservation, $11 is returned to the state on that investment. They looked at the value of carbon sequestration, clean water and found that more conservation meant lower tax rates. He has a big job to educate the incoming new legislators and the report is a great tool to use for the upcoming session. There is a bill to establish a constitutional amendment to protect LCHIP they are hoping will be brought back this year. He said the LSRs are being posted now and there may be nearly 1400 bills this next session. Of the 180, so far one specifically calls out CCs to be required to get an assessment on any land project. They will try to defend as many as they can. Jed asked if Nik would send out notices about anything we should be concerned with. Nik said they would, they have board members as representatives on Ag and Energy committees that can do education, but he said the committees like to hear from the commission members. Jed asked about agriculture issues and Nik spoke about getting a grant from the BurnÕs foundation for a phase one of a project to identify communities that have land that they own in fee and that they would like to offer to young farmers who would want to work the land. He explained that land is expensive and they hope to get farmers started on leased land, to benefit the community by providing local food and keeping the land productive. He feels this will also attract young people to the community. Jed liked this idea and feels it would help revitalize communities. Nik said he is trying to create a track for young people in the state. Johanna said that her sister purchased land to grow local food. Nik said they are using maps to look for 10-acre parcels with prime soils, maybe conservation land. He feels the use will regenerate the soils, protect the land and enhance the land by making it more productive. Jed wants to be kept informed about this issue. Nik spoke about Intervale Farm in Vermont where they grow nursery plants for local use and shrubs for bank stabilization. Arin said that the NH state nursery grows a lot of plants and the Guard uses them on their sites.

Jed thanked Nik for coming to visit us.

 

4.0   Public Presentations and workshops:

4.1   Speaking for Wildlife – We decided to reschedule the Bat presentation into next year, probably summer to attract a larger crowd. Arin wants to do a winter hike so we will schedule one for February.

4.2   Tracking Invasive Plants project – Nan brought sheets she and Jed had filled and gave them to Arin. The reporting sheets and guides are always available here: InvasiveProject.html

 

5.0   New business –

 

6.0   Other Business:

6.1   Master Plan Update – Arin asked who is looking after the cultural resources that we identified in the NRI. She said there are lots of cellar holes and other cultural sites all over town. She feels we should focus on this more. Johanna said that in Connecticut they had a list and map for Old Home Day so people could visit historical sites. Arin said that when she looked at our maps she got more interested in what threats exist to our resources and what we want to protect, she said that maps tell a big story and how you weigh things can tell a different story.

        Nan told Arin that the Assessors keep the Intent-to-cut information in their files and she could transcribe it for Arin if she wants it. She said she will look online and see if the state has the info first. She would like to map the historical cuts in town and thinks you could see the forestry impacts over time. She is poking away at doing some maps.

6.2   Budget request to Planning Board for funds to update NRI maps - Nan sent our list to Chris Kane to get a price for the PB and he said he would get back to her with a price in early December.

6.3   Meeting with Selectmen, Assessors, DPW, CC, December 4 at 3PM with GIS mapper, CAI Technologies, Tim Fountain, to see what mapping services he can provide to the town. He is working with DRA and UNH – T2 to use their data as part of the Mosaic Parcel Map project. Jed said that the Selectmen have a meeting set with Tim Fountain from CAI Tech for December 4th at 3pm. His company is updating the tax maps for the town and he has offered, as a side project for the town, to create a web based map set and work on making the tax maps more accurate. Jed spoke with him this afternoon and he couldnÕt do the mapping we need for our NRI maps. Arin wants to know what the value would be to the town. She would like to have the cad file for the tax parcels. Jed and Nan will attend the meeting to hear more. Arin will also attend if she can.

6.4   NRI update  - We didnÕt discuss this month.

6.5   Arin brought up the fact that they found the Emerald Ash Borer (EAB) in the town of Weare (Hillsboro County). She said that no firewood can be moved across county lines but she said that tree length wood could be moved. You can also haul chips because chipping will probably kill the bugs. She asked about awareness and what the state is doing to educate the loggers. Jed will talk to George Eccard and make sure he is aware. We talked about doing a presentation on the EAB at Town Meeting possibly.

 

7.0   WhatÕs Happening in Nature?

Johanna said she saw a porcupine chewing on a tire and it was up in a tree the next day. She also saw a Bard Owl.

Jed also saw a porcupine bounding along the road, it surprised him to see it move so quickly.

Arin had lots of Blue Jays at her bird feeder and they are eating a lot of seed.

Nan said there has been lots of early cold recently. Jed said that it was a long growing season if you survived the frost in early September. His hardy plants keep growing until last week.

Nan talked about seeing slow and torpid bees on the late fall flowers. When it got cold they would sleep on the flowers until it warmed up the next day. You could pet them and they didnÕt move.

To learn about slow, sleepy bees, click here: NewinNature.html

 

8.0   Correspondence:

DES notice of acceptance of a Septic application, 32 Sweeney Rd., TM 20-11

DES notice of a wetlands permit for Town of Washington, Valley Road stream crossing (bridge)

DES notice of a shoreland permit, 795 Washington Dr, TM 12-68, for a garage.

Forest Notes

           

9.0   Adjourned at 8:20 PM, our next scheduled meeting is December 17th at 7PM at the Town Hall.

 

Respectfully submitted,

Nan Schwartz, Secretary