Washington Conservation Commission

Minutes – October 21, 2009

 

Assembly time: 7:00 PM.

 

Present: Carol Andrews, Nan Schwartz, Jed Schwartz, Arin Mills, Dorothy Thompson, Johanna Young, Rich Cook and Sandy Robinson

 

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

 

2.0        Old Business:

2.1   Permits Committee -

        There were no new permits to review. DES sent copies of approvals, see correspondence. Carol reported that Ruggiero has agreed to pay $30,000 into the Aquatic Resource Mitigation (ARM) fund to mitigate a wetlands violation. Carol suggested that the Permit Committee members should also check the mailbox throughout the month in case any new permits come in that need immediate attention.

2.2   Town Forest Protection – We reviewed a letter to the Selectmen stating our support for their idea to permanently protect the Town Forests by placing conservation easements on them. The letter also supports them putting a warrant article forward at Town Meeting to get the town's support. Carol had talked to Tom Taylor about the Forestry Committee taking the lead on this. Rich mentioned the Meadow piece and the Nuthatch Way piece, which are not considered Town Forests. They are considered conservation land and would be a separate issue but should also have easements on them. Sandy thinks a vote at Town Meeting will help with getting grants to cover associated costs. Carol thinks they need to write the article to include the ability to spend money to do the easements if it should become available as grants or gifts. Carol read the letter to the group. Jed made a motion to approve sending it, Johanna seconded the motion and all voted in favor.

        Carol also wanted to discuss a warrant article to designate our recently purchased 10-acre piece as Town Forest. Carol would want to talk about this piece first before the protection article. Nan commented that the land has better protection now because it was bought with conservation fund dollars, it might be a mistake to merge it with the town forest adjacent to it if the town then votes not to protect the forests. Sandy thinks we should just deal with the Town Forests this year. Rich commented that there was only one comment against our buying the property and everyone else was in support. Sandy said we should wait on bringing up the issue and just be available to answer questions about it if the arise. Dorothy agreed.

2.3 Land Conservation – Carol spoke about how we formed the Land Conservation Committee last month  to work on land conservation projects with willing landowners. These landowners aren't always ready to go public with their plans and need people to work with them in confidence. The committee has met a few times and is actively talking to several people. The Eccardt Farm is thinking of protecting their forestland and are considering a larger project, too. Carol, Jed and Brian Hotz from the Forest Society have met with the family for discussions. Money will need to be raised for this project. Their forest piece is about 135 acres and is active agricultural land (sugar, lumber and cordwood) and it abuts the Journey's End conservation land on Island Pond. Carol remarked how dairy farms are in trouble and they are doing everything they can to survive. There is money available through the federal Farm and Ranchland grant program. She feels they need some support shown from the town to help them feel like it can happen. Dorothy expressed her excitement and is willing to help. The committee is also talking to several other landowners about the process.              

2.3   Energy Committee – Johanna spoke about how the town was chosen for an energy inventory grant through

the NH Municipal Energy Assistance Program. More information here: http://www.nhenergy.org/index.php?title=New_Hampshire_Municipal_Energy_Assistance_Program

She reported that there is stimulus money available to do retrofitting. We have to be in the process of doing and audit to get this money. The Energy Committee and the Selectmen have spoken to Bruss Construction about doing an energy audit on all the town buildings. They got an estimate for doing the audit, which was around $2500 per building. Arin suggested GDS as another company that does audits. Carol said we are lucky to have an Energy Committee that is so active and has moved things along so quickly. Dorothy asked if the EC movie night they were trying schedule at the church was for the public or not. Johanna said yes of course and they are trying to schedule it for November 16th, at 7PM at the Congregational Church. Dorothy said they had been approved, the other evening, by the church. Johanna said are going to show a movie about solar energy. Arin asked if it was for kids or suggested maybe they could do one in the future for kids. Johanna said kids are always welcome but that they would try to do the next one especially for kids. Johanna said that the UNH Cooperative Extension has expanded their phone lines to help people with their energy questions. She will send Nan a link to put on the website.

 

3.0   What's Happening in Nature?

Carol had a picture of a huge "Hen of the Woods" mushroom that she had found. She was going to bring the actual mushroom to show but had forgotten to bring it. It is also known as a maitake or sheepshead mushroom and it was a big double one that weighed in at 13 1/2 pounds. She said they grow at the base of large, old Oak trees and are edible. For more information about these awesome mushrooms go here: http://www.washingtonnh.org/WCC_Html/NewinNature.html

        Johanna said that a writer from "The Compass", a Claremont area newspaper, is looking for wildlife stories if anyone has one to share.

        Dorothy talked about the big garden she put in this summer, it was coming along well but then wild animals got into it. She sat out one night to scare them away but they went right on eating. Luckily she had fun planting the garden and didnŐt mind sharing with the animals since they were hungry.

        Jed has seen lots of baby snakes lately, some garters and brown snakes, crossing the road near his house. They seem to be moving to a wintering-over place. Johanna has also seen some snakes. Carol has seen green snakes in Bradford but said they are not plentiful in NH.

        Johanna had a bull moose walk across the back of her lot and spotted otters in her pond and a fox all on the same day.

 

4.0   New Business:

4.1   Thanks went out to Jed and Rich for doing the trash pick up on our Adopt-a-Highway route this month.

4.2   Carol mentioned the "All Boards" meeting the Selectmen have scheduled for next Tuesday evening at 6:30PM at the Town Hall. It is for airing concerns and for Board-to-Board interaction. Carol didn't think we needed to bring up any issues but that we should be there to answer questions and join the discussion.

4.3   Carol mentioned the up-coming NHACC annual meeting on November 7th. It will be held in Concord at the Rundlett Middle School and she hope that everyone would be able to attend. There are lots of interesting speakers, field trips and workshops available.

 

5.0   Correspondence:

              UNH Cooperative Extension notice for Sullivan County Conservation District Agricultural Plastics Survey

              Supply Lines with the Source Newsletter from DES

              DES Decision on Ruggiero permit #2008-690

              DES Shoreland permit #2009-01986 for Town of Washington work on Island Pond culvert

              DES Wetlands and non-site specific permit #2009-00818 Town of Washington work on Island Pond culvert

              DES Shoreland permit #2009-01966 Rigby permit decision

              DES Shoreland permit #2009-01967 Langtry permit decision

              DES acknowledgement of Shoreland application #2009-02230 Lavallee

              DES Shoreland permit #2009-02038 Schwartz permit decision

   DES Wetlands complaint file #2009-01876 Svitok possible dredging and diversion of water flow in a wetland without a permit

              DES Shoreland permit #2009-02108 Joyce permit decision

              DES Shoreland permit #2009-01927 Snyder permit decision

              NH Association of Conservation Commissions Nov. 7th Annual Meeting & conference flyer

Upton & Hatfield, cc to Conservation Commission on original deed for the Langevin property on Twin Bridge Road

 

 

6.0   Adjourned at 8:20 PM, our next scheduled meeting is November 18th at 7 PM in the Town Hall.

 

Respectfully submitted,

 

Nan Schwartz

Secretary