Sutton Conservation Commission (SCC)

DRAFT Meeting Minutes

Wednesday, January 10, 2024

Present: Henry Howell, Chair; Chuck Bolduc; Don Davis; Debbie Lang; Lynn Wittman; Yvonne Howard; Joanna Murphy and Bonnie Hill.

Absent: Wally Baker and Jim Morris.

Members of the public present: Patricia and Evan Janovitz.

Call to order: Henry Howell called the meeting to order at 6:34 pm.

Previous Meeting’s Minutes:  The minutes from the last meeting on December 13^th were unanimously approved.

Financial Report:

Debbie sent out a financial report before the meeting. The payment of Neil Butcher’s invoice for the brontosaurus mowing wiped out the remaining money in the 2023 admin account, and the remaining money in the KHR Fund, which is now emptied out as we had planned. In addition, some money had to be expended from the Conservation Fund. This does not show in the bank statement, as Neil Butcher’s check was not cashed before the year’s end. It will be shown in the SCC’s Annual Report for 2023, however. The Conservation Fund shows a balance of $208,686.74 at the end of December. The TD Bank Donation Fund has $102.21. The Capital Reserve is at $69,088.00.

Henry and Bonnie met with the BOS on 12/18 to discuss the SCC’s 2024 operating budget, which the BOS approved at the same level as 2023, $7,842. Bob DeFelice attended the meeting and described the non-capital Capital Reserve Fund which he supports establishing for SCC’s large maintenance projects.

Chuck spoke with Dave Grinsell, our Town Finance Coordinator, to clarify the SCC accounts. He wrote up a very clear summary of the structure of the accounts which Dave will run by Town Counsel. This document will give us a solid foundation and shared understanding moving forward. To summarize it briefly, the Conservation Fund is our unrestricted, non-lapsing account. It has three sub-accounts. The Sievert King Hill Gift is a new account to contain only the Sievert donation. The Stewardship Fund is another new account to receive other donations, including a possible $1,500 donation coming in February. The Donation Fund is an existing account linked to Blackbaud, the payment processor for donations made at the trailheads. These donations will be collected and sent to the BOS for approval on a quarterly basis. Once approved they will be transferred to the Stewardship Fund.

Trail Maintenance and Development

Trails Advisory Committee Report

Update on the KHR donation system – See above.

Update on Brontosaurus work at KHR – Chuck said that Neil Butcher has finished the mowing, and another invoice will be coming in for approximately $2,000. After some discussion about how to pay it, Chuck made a motion to pay the final invoice for the brontosaurus mowing out of the Special Projects line item, with the remainder coming from the Mowing and Plowing line item. Debbie seconded, and the vote was unanimously in favor.

Update on further KHR trail clearing – Henry reported that he did some trail clearing on the Nichols Trail with his chainsaw. While there he noticed that the Putnam Bridge, that had been displaced by flooding, was sitting back in place, albeit precariously. Gerry Putnam must have moved it with a tractor. Henry would like to have stable footings placed under the bridge as a future Volunteer Day project. Chuck said the junction at the top of Walrus and White Rabbit was cleared by Fred Sievert and now needs some signage to keep snowmobiles off the private property. He is in contact with Aaron Flewelling and they will go put up the signs. Chuck said he has cleared out the very large culvert on Penacook Path several times recently, but with the extreme rain events it keeps failing and causing erosion. Because of the impact on the watershed and on a trout stream, he thinks it might be possible to get grant money to replace the culvert.

Regarding Webb/Crowell, Henry said that the trail there is one of our jewels, and has been chosen by ASLPT for one of their DIY walkathons. A QR code on the ASLPT brochure will bring up Chuck’s map on a hiker’s phone screen. Henry is working on a pocket guide to Webb/Crowell and hopes to have posts with QR codes that people can click on to get deeper information about flora, fauna, history, geology, and more about the area. He would like Chuck to review the geological information.

Appointment 7:20: Rick and Susie Stockwell

The Stockwells have owned their land in South Sutton for 25 years. Their land abuts the Webb/Crowell town forest, and they love to walk the trails there. They walk from Webb/Crowell along the Lane River into their own property, where there has been an active beaver dam and pond for 25 years. There is a beautiful waterfall further along and there used to be an old cabin. A large esker provides a view of the beaver pond. There are fish, including native brook trout. They would like to donate a 15 to 18 acre piece of their land that abuts Webb/Crowell and runs along the eastern side of the Lane River to the SCC. They are also thinking about donating a small area on the west side of the river. They would like to see the SCC develop trails on the land and would like to have input on where the trails are laid out. Henry expressed the SCC’s gratitude for the generous offer, and passed out handouts listing the criteria for acquiring land, the steps that must be followed, and a co-occurrance map showing that the land is in a hot spot of high priority habitat. The parcel meets many of the criteria on the list, in that it protects a river and abuts land already conserved. Henry went over the steps to be followed, which include a site visit, a survey, an appraisal (for tax purposes), a title search, transfer of title, and the placement of a conservation easement on the land, held by a land trust. In this case, there is already an easement on Webb/Crowell held by ASLPT which could be expanded to cover this additional parcel.

Henry would love to extend the Webb/Crowell’s pond trail and make it educational and user-friendly. There is a very wet area that would need to be re-routed. He said this would be an excellent project for a Volunteer Day. Don said it would be great to have a blind on the esker overlooking the pond. Chuck suggested getting Andy Deegan involved, and Henry said he would contact him. Debbie said Andy could help with finding a surveyor and appraiser. ASLPT’s next lands meeting is in March. Don asked the Stockwells what kinds of uses they would not want to see on the land; for example, timber harvesting. He said beech trees are threatened by a new invasive pest and it might be worth considering harvesting some while they still have value. Rick said they would like to keep the forest canopy intact. He said since they can see the pond from their house he would not want to have people fishing right there. The SCC cannot vote yet to accept the parcel, but we stated that we welcome the gift and want to pursue it. The next steps will be for Rick to talk to his bank, and Henry to talk to ASLPT. Henry recommends that we pay the legal, survey and ASLPT stewardship fees out of the Conservation Fund.

Review of Intents to Cut and Logging Issues

• Robert S Bristol Charitable Trust, Harvey Rd, T/L# 10-124-023, 10 acres of 50, Tim Wallace, forester. This is at Muster Field Farm. Tim has done harvests there in the past. Bonnie said she toured one a few years ago that looked good.
• J. Wells and S. Claroni, Dodge Hill Rd, T/L# 4-323-231, 37 acres out of 41, Eric Oxman, forester. Bonnie said she heard the logger would be Barry Wheeler. Joanna said she spoke to him and he said he uses oxen to log.

   

Wetlands Review

• Report on Joanna Murphy’s visit to 555 Shaker Road. Joanna and Bonnie each visited the site in December. Joanna took pictures. She said there is a built-up gravel driveway that ends with a considerable drop-off. She was concerned that there is a large wet area, a pond, really, to the left of the driveway, and this might be part of a much larger wetland that extends into the neighboring property. She did not see any hay bales or silt fencing. Joanna invited the homeowner to our meeting but he had to cancel, and said he would welcome any questions we want to send him. We will talk about this at the February meeting, and Joanna will show her pictures on the big screen. Bonnie will get the wetlands permit application from the Town Clerk so we can look at the engineering drawings. Don said that once work begins again at the site, we can ask the state forest ranger to take a look at it.

   

• Copy of Amended Wetlands and Non-Site-Specific Permit 2018-03498 from NHDES for Janovitz, Eaton Grange Rd, T/L# 1-248-391. Ms Janovitz explained that they applied for a permit in 2018 for 2 48 inch culverts crossing a wetland for a driveway. That permit expired and they applied for a 5 year extension that specifies two 14 foot wide concrete bridge spans in place of the culverts. This is actually better because it allows a natural bottom for the stream and provides for greater water flow. Henry said we endorse their ecologically sound choice.

   

• Standard Dredge and Fill Wetlands Permit application from NH DOT to replace a 48 inch culvert conveying Thistle Brook under Rt 114 with a 8′ by 5′ box culvert. This will have a bottom covered with simulated natural material that will allow better fish and turtle passage. Spotted and Blandings turtles are known to be in the area, and the workers will be given brochures for turtle ID and told to cease work if they see a turtle laying eggs in the work area. All sightings of threatened and endangered turtles are to be reported to NH Fish & Game. Wildlife-friendly erosion control matting is to be used. Construction is anticipated in summer to fall of 2024. Bonnie read through the application and said it sounded like the DOT considered alternatives and came up with the best design they could given financial and time constraints.

   

New Business

Report from ASLPT Outreach Committee Meeting on 1/8 – Debbie said it was a quiet time of year with not much news. The ASLPT failed to get an LCHIP grant for their large project in Springfield and are working with the Conservation Fund. Bonnie attended in Chuck’s place and said there is a big controversy in Warner going on with the expansion of the Concord to Sunapee Rail Trail and impact to endangered turtle habitat in Warner.

SCC Annual Report – Bonnie sent this to Julia Jones, the new Town Admin, on 1/8. She thanked Henry for providing the content and Lynn and Chuck for sending pictures.

Old Business

Update on special King Hill Reservation donation – There is a public hearing at the Sutton BOS meeting on 1/15 when the BOS will vote whether to accept the $15,000 Sievert King Hill Gift.

Miscellaneous

Timber credits – Don said there is a hearing today about this issue.

Protecting Sutton’s aquifers – Joanna expressed concern about the lack of drinking water protections in Sutton. She pointed out that there is a major aquifer under the golf course on Kearsarge Valley Rd, and that that land is under consideration for future development. Although Sutton’s 2005 Master Plan contains language recommending that the town create an Aquifer Protection Overlay Zone to protect this aquifer in the northeastern portion of the town, and the SCC’s Strategic Action Plan cites a goal of conserving properties containing high priority water resources by 5% per year, Joanna is concerned that none of this is being done. We will put this on the February meeting agenda for further discussion.

Correspondence

 

• NHACC’s December eNews containing a wealth of information – news from other concoms, training opportunities (notably the Taking Action for Wildlife training series), citizen science efforts to collect data about shorebirds and precipitation, grants (notably American Trails Capacity grants) and more.
• Email from NHACC notifying us of a public hearing on NHDES wetlands rules updates.
• Updated Forest Management Plan for Wells property from Eric Oxman, forester.
• Letter from SPNHF thanking us for the $100 donation.
• Agreement with Sutton Ridgerunners signed by Aaron Flewelling and Henry Howell.
• Phone call from Betsy Forsham regarding use of KHR’s legal name on the Sievert King Hill Gift, which says “King Hill Recreation Area” instead of “King Hill Reservation”. Chuck explained that he chose that name so as to include the Maple Leaf and Bean Quarry areas.
• Forest Notes, magazine of the Forest Society (SPNHF), Fall 2023 issue.
• Newsletter from the Sunapee-Ragged-Kearsarge-Greenway Coalition (SRKG), Fall 2023.

   

Adjournment: The meeting was adjourned at 9:05 PM.

Next Meeting: Wednesday, February 14th, 2024, at 6:30 PM, at Sutton Town Hall.

Respectfully submitted,

Bonnie Hill, Secretary