Sutton Conservation Commission (SCC)

DRAFT Meeting Minutes

Wednesday, April 12, 2023

Present: Henry Howell, Chair; Don Davis; Chuck Bolduc; Barbara Hoffman; Debbie Lang; Jim Morris; Wally Baker; and Bonnie Hill.

Absent: Lynn Wittman.

Others present: Tom Schamberg.

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 March 8^th were unanimously approved.

Financial Report:

Debbie sent out a financial report before the meeting. In March we spent $180 on plowing, for a total of $450 YTD. There is no separate account in the admin budget for mowing and plowing. $242 was spent from Special Projects. The Conservation Fund had a balance of $195,750.91 at the end of March. The King Hill Fund had a balance of $1,585.75. The Capital Reserve is at $69,088.00. The annual allocation was cut in half this year. Chuck questioned the logic of this, since our capital reserve is not used for scheduling purchases the way the other town C.R.’s are.

Trail Maintenance and Development

Trails Advisory Committee Report

KHR donation system – Chuck and Jim worked together on setting up the Blackbaud account, and tested it by making donations. Chuck now has access to the API for connecting the payment platform to the website and will work on setting that up. Chuck said Blackbaud is very rigorous about checking the accounts, so there is no possibility of embezzlement. Henry asked if we can use this at other properties, and Chuck said we could in the future if we want to, but we would need to create another account, as this one is just for KHR. We could also post the same QR code to allow donations from other trailheads, but we would need to make it clear that the donated money was going for KHR maintenance. Jim said Blackbaud will sweep the system and post the donations to the TD Bank account every month. Don said we should make sure this income is shown in the annual Town Report, and Chuck said we should be able to generate reports from the system. Debbie said she would add this info to her monthly financial reports. Wally advised that all money must be accounted for.

Status of Keyser St/Penacook Rd parking lot owned by Muster Field Farm (MFF) – Wally talked to Steve Pacquin about this, and Steve said he doesn’t mind if we plow it, but the road agent has to agree to do it. Wally said he doesn’t see this situation as being any different from the Horse Beach parking lot, and by next year we should have some kind of agreement in place, since it is for the benefit of the town.

New KHR trail map – Chuck brought a large laminated copy of the new map, which he is going to hang up at the Maple Leaf kiosk. He has already hung one up at KHR, and posted the page of rules. Henry asked about trail junction maps, and Chuck said he is going to use the same map at each junction, with a “you are here” sticker. Henry said he has a laminator, and he is going to get the maps and stickers from Chuck and position the stickers, using his list of trail junctions.

End of season report regarding snowmobile use at KHR – Henry went up there and said it looked like the snowmobiles weren’t using the full extent of the trails. He said some access was blocked by fallen trees and they didn’t clear it. Chuck talked to his back country skiing friends, and they said they didn’t see any snowmobiles in the forbidden areas. Chuck and several other people tried to get the gate open at the Bean Quarry trail, but couldn’t do it. A new lock is needed. Henry thought that the opening to the Bean Quarry trail was farther down the road from there, and Chuck said that since the logging is it hard to find. Chuck said the new drainages worked well. He suggests having the snowmobile access from Hominy Pot trailhead bypass the normal entrance, so they don’t have to go over the plow’s snowbank. He thinks minimal clearing would be required. Henry said this would require another gate, and the snowmobile club would need to provide that. Wally asked about renewing the agreement for another year. He suggested we do a formal motion in August or September. Chuck will go up there this summer with Aaron Flewelling to check out the Bean Quarry route, talk about the alternative access at Hominy Pot, and ask Aaron how the season went from the snowmobile club’s perspective.

 

Trail maintenance – Henry asked about the state of the trails. Bonnie said there is a large tree down at Webb/Crowell requiring a chainsaw. Chuck said he will be getting his friends together to work on the KHR recreational trails, but someone else will need to maintain the habitat trails and keep them from growing in. Henry asked about having volunteer days. Chuck said he thinks it more effective to have small groups go out throughout the season. Don said his tractor has a chipper, and wood chips would be good to put down on the wet parts of trails. Chuck said there is a large area of Oriental Bittersweet at KHR that is worrisome, and Bonnie will send him the contact info for Doug Cygan, the invasive plant expert at NH Fish & Game. Don said there is also a lot of bittersweet at the entrance to the Enroth trail. He is going to try to mow that trailhead area, since our former mower Gerry Gagnon has passed on. Henry would like everyone to come up with lists of what needs to be done to the trails, with the aim of having a trail day in July. The one we had last July was very successful. Jim suggested we try to have a trail day on the same day every year, with primary and secondary dates.

 

Wetlands Review

• Copy of letter from NHDES requesting more information regarding the Standard Dredge & Fill permit application from Lucas J. Brown Trust, Camp Kemah Rd, T/L# 02-448-231, replacement and repair of grandfathered dockage structures. NHDES file number 2023-00411. The applicant was given three options to proceed.

   

• Copy of Standard Dredge & Fill Wetlands Permit granted by NHDES to J & R Sigua, 51 Penacook Rd T/L# 01-173-097. DES File Number 2022-03327. Permission was granted for the two 50 foot docks and the ten foot connector.

Review of Intents to Cut and Logging Issues

• A and T Gaunt, Rt 114, T/L#s 04-194-527 and 06-311-022, 55 acres out of 89. Bonnie said the map does not show wetlands, but the property is up a steep slope.
• Greatwoods LLC, Eaton Grange Rd, T/L#s 01-338-510 and 3-406-095, 50 acres out of 238.1. Nicholas Brunet, logger. Bonnie said this is the third cut on this property: 60 acres were cut in 2021, 75 in 2022. The property does have extensive wetlands.

   

• I 89 State ROW project, I 89, 14 acres, Michael W. Brown, logger.

   

New Business

ASLPT outreach representative for July meeting – This meets every 3 months and is a good opportunity to find out what other conservation commissions are doing. Chuck can’t make the meeting on July 10^th, and his work schedule may necessitate having another member of the SCC take this over. Barb will attend the July meeting, along with Debbie. Debbie will send out the minutes from the last meeting to give us an idea of what is discussed. This will be put on our agenda in June so that we can give Barb and Debbie ideas for what we’d like to see brought up at the outreach meeting.

Report from Saving Special Places and other webinars – No one attended the SSP virtual sessions. Some members attended the Forest Carbon webinar by Dr Ali Kosiba from UVM and found that much of it was stuff we already knew, though well done and well suited for people new to the topic. Barb attended the 3/31 NHACC Wetlands training class and said it wasn’t very good. Bonnie attended the state’s Conservation Funding webinars and said they were a whirlwind tour of a large number of possible grants, and that the presenters were generous with their contact info and offers to help.

Old Business

Forestry at KHR – Henry asked Chuck if he had heard from Leo Maslan, and Chuck said he will follow up with him again. He has told Leo that we will pay him to amend the Forest Management Plan. Once we have the plan, Henry asked, what then? Chuck said we then have a plan to follow for however we want to implement it, whether by commercial timber harvest, volunteer maintenance, grants for brontosaurus trail widening, or whatever, depending on what we can afford. Henry said we have to make a decision about the timber harvesting at some point, as he is still getting a lot of pushback from people in town. Debbie asked if we should have another public meeting, and Chuck said yes. He could put together a presentation showing how much it costs to do everything that we need to do to meet our goals for the property. If people say they don’t want a commercial harvest, we could ask whether they would be willing to donate money to help with the maintenance. We are not doing it for a profit, but for the health of the forest. Jim wondered if we should consider planting southern tree species to get a jump on global warming; this could be a model for other public forests. Chuck said even without the obstacles created by our recreational concerns, KHR would be a marginal harvest, breaking even at best. Wally said a harvest that breaks even financially would be a good plan; we could manage the forest in a responsible way without placing the onus on volunteers. Chuck thinks having a meeting would be worthwhile to get some input, plus possible volunteer hours and donations. Henry asked if we would be presenting an implementation plan to the public, or getting their input into one. Chuck said our main problem is that we don’t have a coherent vision of what we want to do. Barb suggested we get the updated plan, then talk among ourselves and reach a consensus. Henry agreed, and said we could follow up with a well-publicized public meeting in summer or early fall. Henry said that what got people upset was the way Leo laid out the monetary values at the end of the plan. Chuck said those were just stumpage values; just a way to show the inventory of the forest. Wally said we need to figure out how much it would cost to do what we want to do, and how much of that stumpage value we would need to take out to cover the cost. Chuck agreed, and said maybe that amount couldn’t be covered, and we shouldn’t go ahead with it. Chuck said we need to really want to do the timber harvest, and he isn’t all that keen on it. It would be a lot of work, and he has already put in a lot of work on this. Henry thinks the monetary parts of the plan need to be modified to reflect climate change. Chuck said the climate change stuff is pretty much the same as our other goals – creating diversity of species, ages, etc. Henry disagreed and said there is a whole different approach that needs to be taken – keeping the trees that are most likely to survive climate change, etc. Chuck agreed that the forester’s actual process of marking the trees would be different. Barb suggested that at the next meeting we look at the revised plan, and also review the exact wording of the vote that we took when we originally decided to proceed with a timber harvest. Henry said that when we do talk to the public, we all need to be on the same page.

Update on road salt reduction – Debbie said Jenn McCourt has continued to try to get an update from Doug King of NHDOT. He said they’ve had people moving around to different positions, and he will try and get us an answer by the end of next week.

Properties of Conservation Interest – Bonnie said she learned by chance about an interesting property that might be going up for sale. Henry said he will contact someone who may know. Jim said that we should create a playbook for purchasing conservation property, and document the playbook. Chuck said it is important to develop relationships with landowners in town. Jim said in the land trust he worked with, they regularly went through their open space inventory and discussed who had relationships with the owners. Don said it is also important to look at our conservation criteria and see whether properties meet our criteria

Miscellaneous

Plastics recycling – Jim brought up the cessation of plastic recycling at the Sutton transfer station, and Chuck said very little plastic was getting recycled anyway. Debbie has talked to Diego Solimine about it, and he said they were never able to get any information about where our plastics were going. Only the #2 plastic has any value for commercial recycling. Debbie wondered whether several towns could get together and pool their #2 plastics to be recycled. She said that Lois Kilnapp, the manager of the Bradford transfer station, is progressive and active in the town, and she might be a good person to reach out to. Barb said she is interested in doing some research on plastics recycling. Chuck said the best thing to do is just try not to use plastic. He said you can buy laundry detergent in sheets, with no plastic container. Bonnie said you can also buy it in bulk and re-use your own containers. There is a store in Contoocook (The Witching Hour) that sells bulk laundry detergent, dish detergent, shampoo, and other things.

Correspondence

 

• NHACC March eNews, with ideas for Earth Day activities, news of other concoms, notification of Climate Change training program on April 11, long list of grant opportunities.
• Email from NHACC with opportunity to sign on to letter opposing the governor’s proposal to eliminate professional licensing and certification for foresters, soil scientists and wetlands scientists. Henry said Rep. Tom Schamberg wrote him a supportive letter in response.
• Email from NHACC with notification of Conservation Funding Sources webinar 4/6 and 4/7.
• Forwarded email from Lake Sunapee Protective Association inviting community members to learn about a new molasses and magnesium chloride road de-icing process initiated by the Sunapee Highway Department.
• Lakeside, quarterly publication of NHLakes, Winter 2023 issue.
• Newsletter from the Sunapee-Ragged-Kearsarge-Greenway Coalition (SRKG), Spring 2023.
• Conservation News, newsletter of the Merrrimack County Conservation District, March 2023.
• Forest Notes, magazine of the Forest Society (SPNHF), Winter 2023 issue.

   

Adjournment: The meeting was adjourned at 8:50 PM.

Next Meeting: Wednesday, May 10th, 2023, at 6:30 PM, at Sutton Town Hall.

Respectfully submitted,

Bonnie Hill, Secretary