August 3, 2016 | Town Admin Sutton Conservation Commission (SCC) Meeting Minutes Wednesday, August 3, 2016 Present: Betsy Forsham, Chair, Don Davis, Henry Howell, Jane Williamson, and Bonnie Hill, secretary. Absent: Dan Sundquist, Jean LaChance, Chris Ashton, Ben Dobrowski and Wally Baker (Jane to sit in for Ben.) Call to order: Betsy Forsham called the meeting to order at 6:41 p.m. Previous Meeting’s Minutes: A motion was made by Don and seconded by Jane to approve the minutes of July 13, 2016. There being no discussion, the minutes were accepted as written. Financial Report: There is $2021.05 in the town account, which is 62.53% of the budget. $44 was expended on an ad for the brook trout presentation, $25 was spent for mowing in the Enroth Gift, and some additional money was spent for secretarial services. As of June 30, the Conservation Account contained $105,501.25 and the King Hill Reservation account contained $6576.74, for a total of $112,077.99 in the Conservation Fund. Correspondence: Emails from Dave Anderson re rescheduling PK Brown walk to October, partnering with the SCC, SRKG, Trout Unlimited, Betsy will remind people in September, and she will arrange to have this mentioned in Judy Lowe’s column and the calendar section of the InterTown Record, and TU will put it on their website. Email from Sundquist, for the SCC, dated 7/18/16, to Amy Smagula re her draft water celery management plan. Email from Steve Lord re meeting to discuss thinning trees along Wadleigh Hill Forest Notes, Summer 2016 issue of the SPNHF’s conservation Email from Cynthia Gray asking about placing a geo-caching object in Conservation News, Summer 2016 issue of the newsletter of the Merrimack County Conservation District, with order form for fall bulb sale, and info about the Pollinator Review of Wetland Applications and Issues: none. Review of Intents to Cut and Logging Issues & W. Vierzen, T/L #6-800,075, Nelson Hill Rd., 40 of 81 acres. Adam Mock, logger. Lorden, T/L # 6-798,228, Nelson Hill Rd., 16 of 18.9 acres. Edward White, logger. Old Business Update on possible invasive plant in Smiley Grove stream- No word has been received yet from Amy Smagula. Dan sent Amy an email on 7/18, which Betsy read to the commission. Dan’s concerns were first, that there was no mention in the management plan of the state providing either staff or money to address the problem, and second, that the plan did not specify who was responsible for fixing it. He went on to say that SCC would take no action until these questions have been answered. In the discussion that followed the reading of this email, it was pointed out that there is screening in the stream to prevent the plant from moving any farther. Don provided some historical information about the brook. SCC’s mowing machines update –Gerry took the weed-whacker to All & Awl, and Kirk said it was a good machine. It requires gas without ethanol, however. A problem with the machine is that only tall people can use it easily. Old Home Day Hike, 8/21 –Dave Anderson will be leading a hike to the old graphite mine at 12:45. No posters are necessary, since this hike is already mentioned in the general Old Home Day posters and ads. Whittemore bench at Russell Pond – Betsy, Jane and Don went to the pond and found a good site. However, Betty Whittemore has since decided that Muster Field Farm might be a better location, as it would be safer from vandalism. New Business Geo-caching in KHR- Cynthia Gray wants to place a geo-cache object in KHR as part of the New England Lost Ski Areas Project (NELSAP). Don made a motion to let her do this, with the caveats that she stays away from private property, is informed that the trails do get mowed, and lets Betsy know where she puts the cache. The motion passed. Don shared some information about KHR that he printed from the NELSAP website. Stevens Lot- Betsy has been mulling over some possible names and urged the other members to do so as well. When more members are present, a name can be chosen for the property. Thinning on former Town tree farm property on Wadleigh Hill Road- Betsy shared the email she received from Steve Lord regarding the thinning of the pine trees on the property. She will contact Tim Fleury and arrange a walk with him on a September weekday with as many members as can make it, to get his advice, working around his schedule. She will send out an email to the membership with a couple of possible dates. In addition to thinning, Steve suggested selectively cutting back towards Pressey Bridge. Betsy said Nick Rowe would be a possible candidate for doing the cutting, but Don said he doesn’t have a chipper. Ruth Keith donated this property to the town in 1978, and there was no conservation easement; only a set of restrictions stated in the deed. Betsy checked the deed to see whether logging would be allowed. There were 6 restrictions listed, which she read to the members. One restriction forbade the use of motor vehicles. The last restriction was that the land be used for conservation purposes only, in accordance with RSA 36-A:2. The last sentence allows “other conservation purposes” at the discretion of the SCC. Betsy thinks this will cover the tree thinning. SCC Properties Bean Quarry – Betsy will contact Brooks McCandlish about a post-cut walk sometime in August or Sept. Maple Leaf – Betsy will send out an email later with dates for continuing the trail flagging. King Hill Reservation- Henry will be putting up a mailbox on the kiosk to hold the maps that Betsy printed out. Betsy will get a second mailbox to be mounted at the Penacook Path entrance. She also brought some KHR maps to the Wadleigh State Park gatehouse, since they had no maps to hand out. Don is going to lead a walk on the Lyon Brook Trail at KHR on Friday, August 26th at 6:00 PM. This will be part of the Celebrate Sutton events. Don plans to talk about the new bridge, and about opportunities for trail adoption. He made a poster for the walk and passed it around for comments. Betsy brought in a copy of the nice article from the InterTown Record about Henry’s KHR bridge project with the kids from KRHS, and she added it to the KHR folder. Trail work dates – Once the bugs have become less numerous, we can carry on with this. September, October, and even November will be good times to do it. Miscellaneous – Elly gave Betsy a demo of some exciting new cartographical software that the town is acquiring. It will provide capabilities such as looking up maps by map number and automatically creating lists of abutters, and placing various overlays on maps such as wetlands overlays, FEMA flood overlays, and (in future) steep slope overlays. Town residents will be able to access the software from home, on the town’s website. Adjournment: There being no further business, a Motion was made by Don and seconded by Henry to adjourn the meeting at 8:25 p.m. The Motion was unanimously approved. Respectfully submitted, Bonnie Hill, Secretary The next meeting will be held on Wednesday, September 14th, 2016 @ 6:30 p.m.