October 18, 2022 | Bonnie Hill Sutton Conservation Commission Draft Meeting Minutes Wednesday, October 12, 2022 Present: Henry Howell, Chair; Barbara Hoffman; Don Davis; Chuck Bolduc; Debbie Lang; Jim Morris and Bonnie Hill. Absent: Lynn Wittman; Wally Baker. Members of the public present: Pat Tivnan, Jane Williamson, Linda Magoon. Call to order: Chairman Henry Howell called the meeting to order at 6:35 pm. Previous Meeting’s Minutes: The minutes from the last meeting on September 14th were unanimously approved. Financial Report: Debbie sent out a financial report before the meeting. In September, $277 was spent on Turtle Crossing signs and training for the iNaturalist program. We have spent $3,309 year-to-date out of our budget of $7,612. A LUCT payment of $10,670 was credited to the Conservation Fund, which had a balance of $180,231.29 at the end of September. The King Hill Fund had a balance of $2,064.65. The Capital Reserve is at $57,581.34. Henry and Debbie will present the SCC’s 2023 budget to the committee on October 17. Henry pointed out that although we have spent less than half of our allocation, the remaining expenses for the year will overrun the amount we have left. This includes $3,400 for mowing at KHR, $1,500 for gravel for repairs to Eaton Grange Rd, 3 potential conference fees of $60/70 for the NHACC annual meeting, $250 in annual dues to NHACC, $100 to SPNHF, $100 to the SRKG, and $50 to Friends of Mt Sunapee. Even if we move money around from other line items to Special Projects and take some money out of the KHR account, we will still have to make up the shortfall from the Conservation Fund. Bonnie expressed extreme prejudice towards that option, and suggested that maybe we need to ask for more money in our Special Projects budget since we are being asked to pay for non-conservation-related items such as gravel road repairs. Don said that if the town is forbidden to spend money on repairing a class 6 road, then aren’t we, as a town agency, also forbidden to do so? He said that Eaton Grange Rd should really be made a class 5 road up to the entrance for Webb/Crowell. Henry said that we should let the BOS figure this out. Trail Maintenance and Development Trails Advisory Committee Report Mowing at KHR — Chuck said that Dave Carey mowed the KHR trails two weekends ago. Dave said that the edges of the trails are becoming hard to mow. Since the drainages are at the edges of the trails, we are in danger of losing those, too. The drainage swales are clogged with debris, causing washouts. This can’t be repaired without hauling in material, which is difficult because of the access. Chuck and some of his friends did some clearing on the Hominy Pot and Felch trails. Chuck said the skiers like to use the Felch Trail and White rabbit to make a loop. KHR Donation System — Jim said he will send a memo to the BOS via Elly, asking them to approve his proposal for the BOS to allow us to receive bundled donations from a payment service on a quarterly basis. KHR Beaver Dam Status — Water is up over the top of the Putnam footbridge now, and the beavers need to be removed. Henry said John McBroom, a frequent trail user, recommended Burke Patterson of ‘Live Free Wildlife Solutions’ as a possible beaver removal company: The road agent has been asked also, and DES has a list of companies. Henry said it was decided not to use a beaver deceiver, as that would maintain the water level at its current height, which is too high. Anne Payeur of ASLPT looked at the dam and came to the same conclusion. She told Chuck that the conservation easement allows removal of the beaver dam since it impacts the trails. ASLPT has a form we need to fill out. We are allowed to get rid of the beavers without a permit, but removal of the dam requires permission. She recommended moving the footbridge farther downstream so it is not at a pinch point. The material removed from the beaver dam will have to be hauled away, or beavers will just re-use it. Review snowmobile agreement and trail maintenance — Barb had sent out a draft agreement for the members to review. Henry sent her a list of projects to be placed in an attachment to the agreement. Chuck and Don also had ideas for what should go into the attachment that were not all quite the same. Barb asked if the list of projects was actually agreed to by the Sutton Ridgerunners club (SRR), and Chuck said in general it was, if not in specific detail. He has walked the trails with Aaron Flewelling, who agreed to provide a day or two’s work with an excavator. Chuck said that he would be present and the work would be at his direction. Don specified that the club should remove all coverings used on the waterbars by a deadline of May 1st , they would provide the GPS coordinates of all waterbars, and they would provide signage. He said the SCC should be held harmless. There was a discussion of liability and it was decided that we are already held harmless. Chuck said the agreement should be kept simple and flexible, and we need to have it done by November’s meeting. Bonnie said it seems that there are two separate bodies of work that we are requiring: one is the big repair job with the excavator (a one-time thing?) and the other is the ongoing annual maintenance that the SRR should have been doing all along and is expected to do from now on, namely keeping the culverts free of debris and helping to prune back branches at the sides of the ski trails. Barb pointed out that the agreement will need to be renewed every year, and can have a new attachment each time, so for now she will use Henry’s attachment. She’ll send her finished document out for us to review, and we will approve it at our next meeting. Appointment 7:00PM: Lindsey White of GZA, to discuss utility pole removal by Eversouce Ms. White reached out on behalf of Eversource to answer questions about their distribution line retirement project. The line is being retired because of maintenance difficulties due to terrain. She handed out copies of the permit plan set to each of us for our review. The existing 3410 Distribution Line crosses through portions of Warner, Sutton, and Bradford, with about 2 miles in Sutton. 59 of the 146 poles to be removed are in Sutton. They will be preparing two Conditional Use Permits (CUP). One is for proposed temporary timber matting in wetlands, and one is for Steep Slopes. Where access and work pads are proposed in wetlands, temporary timber matting will be used to minimize and prevent rutting and compaction within wetlands. Upon completion of work, timber matting will be removed and temporarily impacted areas will be stabilized with mulch. Vehicles such as bucket trucks will need to access the poles, and temporary grading will be done in some places to allow for this. GZA will be monitoring the construction. The timeframe is December through May. In answer to questions from the SCC members, Ms. White said that Eversource will continue to retain and maintain the corridor after the poles are removed. The poles can’t be left standing because of liability to Eversource, and all poles will be hauled out. Maintenance of the corridor will involve the use of mowing rather than herbicides. Minimal tree cutting is required, as the access road already exists. No fill will be brought in. Henry said he was impressed with the care taken during a similar project in New London. The matter will come before the November meeting of the Planning Board. Review of Wetlands Applications and issues None. Review of Intents to Cut and Logging Issues: Town of Sutton, Route 114, T/L #s 4-312-539 , 4-313-462, 20 acres out of 21.41, Karen Moulton (Burl Land Clearing), logger. Bonnie said this logging was started before the BOS signed off on the Intent to Cut. New Business None. Old Business Update on Low Salt Road issue – Debbie said nothing has been heard back yet concerning this. Preparation for November 9th SCC meeting – Henry said he and Chuck had a lengthy meeting today with Matt Tarr, Tim Fleury and Leo Maslan at KHR. It was decided not to try to combine a discussion about whether to log KHR with a discussion about carbon storage and sequestration on public land, as this muddies the issues. First we need to educate ourselves and figure out how we want to manage all of our properties, and then we can have a separate discussion about how to manage KHR. Leo said at the meeting that the carbon storage issue adds a whole new aspect to the forest management plan, which needs to be updated to talk about what trees to cut and not to cut and whether to cut anything at all. Henry said we need to take KHR out of our ads for the meeting, which will be called “Management of public forests in the time of global climate change”. The forest management plan will not be presented. He will give a PowerPoint presentation of the material in the Forest Carbon publication, and this will be followed by a talk by a representative of the Northeast Wildness Trust. The meeting is going to be an educational presentation. At our December meeting, we will then discuss how we, as a Conservation Commission, want to apply the principles of global climate change to our own properties. Logging can’t happen now until next summer or winter, so there’s lots of time to figure out what we want to do. Chuck also spoke of his impressions from the meeting. He said Tim and Matt have an advisory role, and they are out of the discussion now. The meeting will be a learning opportunity to get more info about this aspect of forest management. Ann Payeur of ASLPT will come, and Dave Anderson will talk about the Forest Society’s Eco Reserves program. Henry would also like to get representatives from the other local Conservation Commissions to attend. Henry hopes that the public will hear the educational presentation and be more understanding if we do decide to do the logging. Jim asked if we should have some kind of product of the meeting that we can send out to the people who won’t be there. Debbie suggested putting the slide show on our website. Linda Magoon suggested notifying NHACC so they can mention it in their next newsletter. Barb said our forest management plan is going to have to be amended, and Chuck said that can be done. He sees forest carbon as another goal for us to balance, like maintaining wildlife habitat. Chuck will ask Leo to send us a bill for his time today. Don brought up the fact that our November meeting is the day after Election Day, and the room is going to be full of voting booths and tables, limiting its capacity. Don will ask Elly if the space is available on November 17th, and Henry will check the availability of the NE Wilderness Trust rep. If that works out, we will hold our regular SCC meeting on November 9th and have the educational meeting the following week, on the 17th. Correspondence NHACC September eNews, announcing that the annual meeting and conference will be in person on November 5th at Pembroke Academy. The deadline for 2023 local source water protection grants is November 1st. Upcoming Lunch & Learn sessions will be on Agroforestry Practices in the Northeast (October 12th) and Working with Journalists (October 26th). Forest Notes, magazine of the SPNHF, Summer 2022 issue. Lakeside, quarterly publication of NH Lakes, Fall 2022 issue. Conservation News, newsletter of the Merrimack County Conservation District. Letter from Jim Oehler of NH Fish & Game, informing the SCC of a wildlife habitat improvement project to regenerate young forest at Cascade Marsh this winter, using a Brontosaurus to mow old gravel pits. Invoice for $250 for 2023 membership dues to NHACC and announcing annual meeting. Letter from ASLPT asking for 2023 membership renewal. Postcard from ASLPT announcing annual meeting on 10/23 at 3:00PM. Email from Pat Tivnan with pictures of the Putnam footbridge at KHR under water from the beaver dam. Adjournment: The meeting was adjourned at 8:45 PM. Next Meeting: Wednesday, November 9th, 2022, at 6:30 PM, at Sutton Town Hall. Respectfully submitted, Bonnie Hill, Secretary