Washington Conservation Commission

Minutes – November 28, 2018

 

Assembly time: 7:00 PM, Town Hall

 

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

Visitors: None

 

1.0    Approval of Minutes: October minutes – Jed made a motion to approve as written, Johanna seconded the motion and all voted in favor.

 

2.0   Permits Committee  - Nan had a copy of the updated plan from Meridian for the Ayers Pond Road bridge project. We were glad to see they included all our comments into the new plans. Nan mentioned the Wetlands PBN for beach sand replenishment for Shatney. Arin said the permit was issued but she couldn't look at a copy of it online. Nan will check it to see if it is online.

3.0   Committee and Board reports:

 

3.1   Land Protection Committee – Jed will contacted NEFF again.

3.2   Energy Committee – Johanna reported no meetings took place and she said she wasn't sure if Al attended to Local Energy Solutions Conference that he hoped to go to.

3.3   Planning Board – Nan reported that PB will have some LUO items on a ballot for Town Meeting concerning under 50sf construction, driveways and parking. The Town Center Vision subcommittee is working on suggestion boxes to get ideas prior to a community meeting early next summer.

3.4   Forestry Committee – No meetings held, Jed will speak with Steve Hanssen about FC.

3.5   Legislative update  - No news.

 

4.0   Public Presentations and workshops:       

4.1   Fall Hike – The hike up Lovewell Mountain happened in October and was a great time. Arin missed the turn on the way back and headed down Mountain Road for a way before she realized her mistake, but it turned out fine. She heard from some people that are interested in doing the art hike again next year. We will consider doing it again and are up for hiking up Oak Hill again. Arin said it has grown in quite a bit since we last hiked it.

4.2   NHACC Conference - Arin and Nan attended the conference. Arin spoke about the workshops she attended which included the Wetlands Rules Update. She is concerned because they are going with PBNs for most applications for 14 project types and only a 5 day review period. They are being pushed to move things along quickly. She will draft a letter to DES so we can put our two cents in. Arin would like to know what NHACC has commented on the issue. She also attended the ATV workshop where Will Abbott spoke mostly about the Wilds of NH up north. Jed said he spoke with Dick McNamara who went up north to see how all that is working and he felt it wasn't going well. Hillsboro and Bradford have both been approached by an ATV club about opening their class 5 and 6 roads to riding. Arin also said she went to a workshop on school partnerships where they spoke about having a contest in the school to have the kids create a scavenger hunt on town properties or a poster project to present to the town. Nan said she will bring her notes on the workshops she attended next month.

 

5.0   New Business:

5.1   NHACC dues for 2019 – Jed made a motion to pay our dues for 2019, Johanna seconded the motion and all voted in favor.

 

6.0   Other Business:

6.1   Composting Signs for Transfer Station - Nan said that they had checked into both places that Arin found and decided to go with the State Prison print shop. Arin will send Nan the information she got from them so they can get the signs done.

6.2   Deer Valley Road issue - Arin asked about whether this was resolved. Jed said that we had been contacted by Ann Eldridge (Bradford CC) about whether Deer Valley Road was maintained by the Town because it is a class 6 road. Jed found out that the Town maintains it as a fire lane and does very minimal maintenance on it and is plowed by the people that live out there. He let Ann know the status of the road.

6.3   Ashuelot Instream meeting - Arin reported she couldn't attend the scheduled meeting because of the weather but she is still interested in the issue. We will let Barbara Skuly know.

6.4   Letter from FEMA - We received a letter from Compass who is holding sessions for FEMA on the update of flood maps. We didn't feel we were the right point person for this issue.

6.5   Project for Washington Elementary School – Arin had thank you notes from the school kids for the workshop. Arin will speak with the teachers about a date for our second visit, maybe just before February vacation.

6.6   Facebook page – Arin has been posting interesting items on the Facebook page and reported we have 60 people who have joined the group. She is getting comments on things she posts and some interaction. Jed will post some pictures to the page. To check it out go here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/2173271309586226/               

6.7   Adopt-a-highway trash pickup – Nan picked up the new vests so we are ready for next year.

6.8       Natural Resource Inventory Map updates –Arin spoke with Chris who has found a place (his local RPC) to print them.

6.9   Trails and Recreation Guide Booklet – We will keep working on this through the winter. Arin said we may need to get some GIS software so she can continue making maps for the booklet. We will look into that.

6.10 Master Plan goals for 2018 – We are working on the NRI update and map update as our goal.

6.11     Barker easement – see 3.1

6.12 Tracking Invasive Plants project – The reporting sheets and guides are always available here: InvasiveProject.html

 

7.0   What’s Happening in Nature?

        We have had snow, lots of snow! 38” so far this year. It was an early start date for snow that has stuck around and we had really cool temperatures around Thanksgiving; -8º.

        Jed reports he had an ermine show up in his studio (they like to eat mice so hopefully he was just there doing his job and lowering the mouse population. He also spotted otters in Center Pond.

        Johanna has some otters in her pond too; now and then they fight with her beavers. She said the beavers are now staying in their den.

        Jed had some raccoons in the barn checking out the garbage can. He saw a pair of mergansers in the pond last week, there was open water and the water is still high.

        Arin said that Phil saw an owl on Faxon Hill and Shayne saw an owl sitting on the dumpster at school.

Everyone agreed there are so many mice around this fall. Nan said their cats are catching them nightly.

Arin heard a huge pack of coyotes howling up on Farnsworth Hill.

        To find out about some wonderful environmental podcasts you can listen to click here: NewinNature.html

 

We decided to skip the December meeting since it is scheduled so close to Christmas. Have a great holiday!

 

8.0   Correspondence:

            Letter from Compass, re. FEMA floodplain maps update, meetings

            NH DOT – copy of executed renewal forms for 2018-2020

            Letter from Meridian about recent acquisition of Todd Land Use Consultants

            Copy of updated application for Ayers Pond Bridge project from Meridian

            Copy of Wetlands PBN for beach sand replenishment for MacDougall, 283 Ashuelot Drive

 

9.0   Adjourned at 8:07PM, our next scheduled meeting will be November 21^st, at 7PM at TH.

 

Respectfully submitted,           

Nan Schwartz, Secretary