Washington Conservation Commission

Minutes – December 17, 2014

 

Assembly time: 7:00 PM.

 

Members present: Arin Mills, Jed Schwartz, Ken Eastman and Nan Schwartz.

Visitors:

 

1.0    Approval of Minutes: Approval of Minutes from November meeting and hearing, Arin motioned to approve the minutes, Nan seconded the motion and all voted in favor.

 

2.0    Permits Committee  - No new permits

 

3.0   Committee and Board reports:

3.1   Land Protection Committee  - No recent meeting, but Jed reported we received an offer of a small piece of land from a landowner. Jed had a conversation with Carol Andrews about it and she made a few suggestions. Jed will call the owner and see what she hopes to accomplish by donating the land. He will also speak with the Selectmen about it.

3.2   Energy Committee – Johanna reported by email that the committee met last week. They are setting a meeting with Will Schultz from ReCover in Vermont to see if they can work more closely with them on their weatherization projects. Al and Andrew are working with the Selectmen on to give advice about some town building energy projects. Al looked at the lighting and energy problems at CML and also the acoustics of the building. He is working on some solutions and will speak to PSNH before getting back to the Selectmen. They are also looking at the solar array at the Transfer Station and the possibility of using excess energy generation in the office and weigh station. They are always looking for new members to join the EC.

3.3   Planning Board – Nan reported that the Master Plan Update Committee is has a draft of the Natural Resource chapter. She handed out a copy of it and asked everyone to read it through and send her suggestions and comments.

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

3.5    Legislative update  - The legislature is not yet in session.

 

4.0   Public Presentations and workshops:

4.1   Arin wants to do a winter snowshoe hike so we will schedule one for February and set the date next month. We discussed where we might want to do it. Arin wasn’t sure, she has been out to Pillsbury but you are either on a snowmobile trail or blazing a trail through deep snow. Arin suggested possibly out in LAE to Sand Pond. Jed suggested maybe doing a hike on the conservation piece at Eccardt Farm. He will scout the trail and see how difficult it is.

4.2   Speaking for Wildlife – We decided to reschedule the Bat presentation into next year, probably summer to attract a larger crowd. Nan mentioned the “Gardening for Wildlife” program and thought we might present that one next summer. Arin mentioned the Invasive Bugs program. Arin will take a look at both of them.

4.3   Tracking Invasive Plants project – Arin is working on input for the sheets we have. The reporting sheets and guides are always available here: InvasiveProject.html

 

5.0   New business –

 

6.0   Other Business:

6.1   Master Plan Update – Natural Resources chapter – We reviewed the document under 3.3

6.2   Budget request to Planning Board for funds to update NRI maps – We received an estimate from Chris Kane and it was high. We will have a hard look at our list and see what we might take off of it. The Selectmen contacted Jed and they want the CC to pay for half of the cost of updating the maps. Jed asked Carol for some suggestions of other mappers and she gave us a few to speak to. We will ask the Planning Board to put $2500 in their budget for the map update.

6.3   Meeting with Selectmen, Assessors, DPW, CC – We met with GIS mapper, CAI Technologies, Tim Fountain, to see what mapping services he can provide to the town. It was Ken’s hope that our mapping needs would work out with the Assessor’s needs but it won’t. Jed explained to Ken all the levels of mapping CAI could do for the town. We are concerned how the town will use the maps they can generate. Arin asked if they CAI could accept ArcGIS data provided to them by someone else. She wants to play with the existing data a bit and see what can be done with it and how hard it would be to convert it. We all thought what they were talking about was cool but how would the town use it?

6.4   NRI update  - We didn’t discuss this month.

6.5   Trail Map issue – Jed wrote Don Damm another letter to answer his most recent letter. Ken said that the Snowriders check with Forestry Committee, Parks and Rec and DPW when they make their map. Their map was updated in 2013. We discussed what Don was demanding that we do and how we would answer him. Arin suggested we ask Don to attend our next meeting to discuss the matter with us. Ken said that the Selectmen would write a cover letter to attach to Jed’s letter to send it off to Don Damm. We have taken back the unsold maps from the Town Clerk.

 

7.0   What’s Happening in Nature?

Johanna said Lindley saw a bobcat in their yard in broad daylight.

Jed showed his moose picture taken across the road from his barn one day last week, he has also seen lots of moose footprints in the woods.

Ken has seen lots of tunnels through the snow made by small creatures traveling under the top crust of snow.

Arin had large flock of gold finches at her birdfeeder.

Je had several pairs of cardinals at his feeder around Thanksgiving, Arin saw a female cardinal at her’s.

Nan mentioned the crazy weather we have been having; on Thanksgiving we had a foot of snow, now we have had lots of rain, sleet and ice. She said that Mill Pond in East Washington has open water. Ken said that Millen is frozen over but now it has a layer of water over the ice.

Arin mentioned, last month, that the Emerald Ash Borer has been found nearby in Weare. Nan found more information about it and you can read abut it here: NewinNature.html

 

8.0   Correspondence:

DES notice Forestry notification, TM 17-8, Smith Pond Road

Fox State Forest Newsletter

           

9.0   Adjourned at 8:15 PM, our next scheduled meeting is January 21^st  at 7PM at the Town Hall.

 

Respectfully submitted,

Nan Schwartz, Secretary