TOWN OF SUTTON

Sutton Conservation Commission

Draft Meeting Minutes

Wednesday,  April 14, 2021

 

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

Members of the public present: Ken Milender, Andy Jeffrey, and Pete Savickas of WRLAC.

 

Call to order: Henry Howell stated that the meeting was being held remotely because of Covid-19, and summarized the rules for conducting remote meetings. Every person attending identified him/herself by name, gave their location, and listed other people that were or might be present. Debbie volunteered to be the contact person for people having difficulty connecting, and she gave her phone number. Henry called the meeting to order at 6:40 pm.

 

Previous Meeting’s Minutes: The minutes from the 3/17/2021 meeting were approved unanimously.

Financial Report:

Debbie had sent out a financial report before the meeting. In March the SCC Admin budget had only one item charged against it – $100 for plowing (billed to Special Projects account). The SCC Admin budget for March 2021 YTD:

Secretarial services      $0 spent vs full year budget $1267

Dues.                           $150 spent vs       ”                $1300

Expenses.                    $0 spent   vs.       ”                $800

Supplies.                      $0 spent    vs.       ”                $170

Special Projects.          $275 spent vs.     ”                $4000

Total.                          $425 spent  vs.     ”               $7537

At the end of February, the Conservation Fund had a balance of $148,141.57 and the King Hill Fund had $1,649.75.  The Capital Reserve balance at the end of December was $50,570.65. $58 from the King Hill Homeowners Assoc. will be deposited to the KHR fund, to reimburse us for damage to the KHR kiosk.

Correspondence

• Email from Lorri Himes clarifying our bill paying procedures. We need to communicate better.
• Email from Elly Philips regarding re-appointments for Debbie and Don and appointment of Jim Morris.
• Email from NHACC regarding Lunch and Learn zoom session on “Maps, Data, Action – Working for Wildlife and Habitats” April 21^st at noon.
• NHACC March 2021 eNews newsletter with info about the state-wide BioBlitz, grant opportunities, NH Timberland Owners Assoc. workshops, and more.
• Email exchange with Anne Payeur of ASLPT regarding community service help with SCC nature trail and citizen science projects. She pointed us to other resources for those projects, as her work is supposed to be related to invasive species. Bonnie will contact her about the water celery at Smiley Grove.

.

Review of Wetland Applications and Issues:

• Copy of a Request for More Information on a Standard Dredge and Fill Wetlands Permit application from DES for M. Gross and J. Hastings of Shaker St, T/L# 09-668-062, DES File # 2021-00047.
• Copy of a Utility Maintenance Activity Statutory Permit-by-Notification from Eversource Energy for vegetative maintenance within ROW. Impacted resources include a temporary non-tidal wetland, temporary intermittent stream crossing, and temporary perennial stream or river crossing. Bonnie asked Ken what he knew about this, since it affects the Warner River. He said that Eversource has a big program going on that started early last year, and they are now getting to Sutton. He said WRLAC signed off on it.

 

Review of Intents to Cut and Logging Issues:

 

Appointment:  7:00 PM: Ken Milender, chair of the Warner River Local Advisory Committee

Ken introduced himself, along with the other two Sutton representatives, Andy Jeffrey and Pete Savikas. The third Sutton rep, Bob Wright, is resigning in May. Ken explained that the Warner River received a Designated River designation in 2018, which gave some additional protections to the river and to a corridor of land extending one quarter mile from each bank. . The WRLAC is kind of a combined Planning Board and Conservation Commission for that half-mile wide land corridor. He said humans and nature can coexist; it just takes time, and time is money. The WRLAC gets notifications of permit applications within their corridor, and they have a statutory responsibility to provide guidance. This includes land use permit applications that do not go through DES, such as when Naughton wanted to expand their operation in Bradford. WRLAC aims to make friends and assemble a group of allies. They are looking for assistance from the 5 towns along the river (Sutton, Bradford, Warner, Webster and Hopkinton) in revamping the permit application forms. They would like a checkbox added to the bottom of the form that indicates whether the project is within the protected corridor. They have talked to the Sutton BOS, and Elly has been very helpful in getting a data layer added to the GIS property map that shows designated rivers. They were hoping to have it show the corridor, in addition. One of their projects is the VRAP – Volunteer River Assessment Program, that conducts water quality tests for pH, dissolved oxygen, etc. The water quality has been good. Sutton is one of the quieter towns, compared to Bradford and Warner, as there are only 30 or so Sutton properties in the river corridor. Ken said the FEMA flood maps are being updated and are in the draft stage, and Warner is setting up a subcommittee to review and comment upon them. These maps relate to the entire Contoocook basin. Andy is the webmaster for the committee, and Pete is their grant-writing expert. They are looking for another Sutton rep to take Bob Wright’s place. Henry said the WRLAC sounds like it is in a similar situation to SCC, in that we have no real regulatory authority. All we can do is notify DES if we see a problem. He asked Ken how they deal with property owners along the river. Ken said they mainly stay out of their way. If they have relevant land use permit apps they are notified and advise. They are hoping the SPNHF, the ASLPT, and all the CC’s will be allies, but haven’t started a big outreach effort yet. Jim said he just looked at their plan and saw a section on trails. Ken said they are trying to come up with a trail guide. Andy said they hope to gather info about trails in the 5 towns that are within the river corridor for this guidebook. The aim is to get the community more actively engaged in being good stewards, and providing community maintenance, etc. Henry said we have a map of all the rails in Sutton and will get it to the WRLAC. Ken said he hopes it will knit the towns together, get people to visit their website, and get people outside. They do want to keep a balance between the use of trails and the needs of wildlife. David Carroll, the turtle naturalist, is a Warner resident and has requested that some areas be left untouched. Chuck said he is working on trail mapping for Sutton. His larger aim is to get all our trails mapped in GIS and online so they can be more easily maintained. He said lots of organizations are interested in using the same data, and this is hard with printed maps. Ken said they have a corridor management plan which was just submitted to DES. They hope to have it adopted by the 5 towns and incorporated in the town master plans.  Barb asked if the WRLAC reviews permits for land abutting the tributaries in addition to the Warner River. Ken said they do have the ability to respond, but more as an interested party. He said in Warner they did get a grant from DES to restore culverts on one of the brooks. The culverts are outside the corridor but important to the river itself. Pete said their charter is defined by RSA, and they would like to have it expanded, but that would take both an RSA and the manpower to service the larger area. He said they have a basic marketing plan, and that grant writing has not been very fruitful so far, so they are underfunded. Ken said it’s more like they are unfunded. They are all volunteers. Don asked if they have considered gathering together information that they could give the riverfront property owners about what they should be aware of. As an example, he pointed out the article that the SCC puts in the Town Report called “Are you considering logging your land in Sutton?” They could include a summary of the DES rules, info about invasive species, etc. Ken really liked this idea and will bring it up at their next meeting. Ken asked us to let him know if we know anyone who would like to join the committee. Henry said the FEMA floodplain maps are a hot topic for insurance reasons; some homeowners got hit hard with the last changes. Ken said now is the time to get your voice heard. Henry thanked Ken, Pete and Andy for the wonderful presentation, and said it’s good to know that they exist. He said the river is in good shape, and that is impressive, and that the SCC will be very supportive of their efforts. The WRLAC reps left at this point.

 

Old business

Choosing a forester for KHR — Henry said that only a few of us were present for the discussion at the last meeting, and maybe we need a review. Chuck said both Eric Oxman and Leo Maslan were good options, and both were very kind to go out with him and give their opinions and recommendations. He said Eric is local, uses the property frequently and cares about it. Leo is experienced with working with the New London Conservation Commission (NLCC). He is very comfortable with that and with public outreach, and has an interest in trails. Don asked if Eric had done the recent logging on North Rd, and Chuck confirmed that. Don said it was very well done, with four separate landings and was some of the nicest landing work he’s seen. Wally, who drives by it every day, said it was the best logging he’s seen on North Rd. Chuck said the forester is like an architect – you tell them what you want and they will design the project to meet your requirements. They make decisions based on what the landowner wants. Henry commended the logging job Eric did next to Webb/Crowell, and liked that he is a neighbor of ours. He said Leo gave an impressive presentation at the Ester Currier area. The NLCC gave him parameters and he implemented them well. Don said that when Leo talked about boundary lines it made him think of something we should include in our requirements, which is marking the boundary line and moving the Nichols trail off of private land. This way the cost of that can come out of the logging proceeds and we won’t have to pay for it later. Henry said that is something either forester can be asked to do, and in answer to a question from Wally, Chuck said he thought they would be equally amenable to doing it.

Barb asked what we would be paying the foresters. Chuck said they get a percentage of the job. Their price structures are similar. The town would get a percentage of the stumpage. Barb asked if we know that percentage, and Chuck said it depends on several factors, and varies for hardwood vs softwood. And who the logger is, Henry added. Don said the non-productive parts of the logging would come out of our part of the percentage. Chuck said he would ask them both to give us an idea of their pricing structure. It depends on market conditions and lots of other variables. Jim added that it could change over time. Chuck thought there would not be a big difference between the foresters, as they both gave us $8K to $10K as similar rough ideas for the amount of profit from Section 5. He pointed out that we are not signing a contract now, we just need to stop wasting someone’s time. By the time we set down all of our requirements, it may turn out that the job is not worth a forester’s time. In that case, if one refuses, we can go back and try the other one.

Debbie mentioned a letter to the editor in the last InterTown Record from Fred Sladen of North Sutton. He was unhappy that there was no public hearing regarding the logging project that was done at the Esther Currier area for NLCC. Chuck said we don’t want to turn people against the SCC, and we might need to reach out to let people know about what we plan to do. Jim asked about the timing of the project, and Chuck said it would be a while from now. Henry asked each member to give their opinion on the foresters. Chuck said he would recuse himself since he is friends with Eric. All members agreed that either one could do a good job for us. Henry spoke of the “Say Yes to Forestry and Wilderness” talk that he and Bonnie attended at Saving Special Places, in which some of the habitat issues of forestry were addressed. Bonnie said that that talk did increase her already-considerable misgivings about logging.  She said that if habitat improvement is one of the goals of our project, then we need to make sure the harvest is managed in a way that is sensitive to wildlife. Henry said birders have strong feelings about logging, and maybe we should consult with NH Audubon. He said we want to get the town behind us, and in a public forum the topic of logging vs. leaving the forest alone would surely be raised. Chuck pointed out that we don’t have to do the logging. Henry said the management plan for KHR does say we should do forest management, and Chuck replied that we already do that by keeping the fields mowed to provide habitat. Henry said let’s hold off on that for now and take a vote. The members voted to hire Leo Maslan to conduct the KHR logging project. Chuck said he would notify the foresters of our decision. Wally said that at the next meeting we should discuss what we think is important, and then we can bring Leo in to talk with us. Chuck said he would ask Leo what he needs from us. He asked if everyone was still in favor of going ahead with the logging, and no one said no.

New Business

Prioritizing Sutton’s conservation lands for public access – Henry said this would involve adding a new layer to our strategic plan, showing what properties we have designated that we would like to be left alone. We will move this discussion to next month.

 

Discussion Topics for ASLPT “Spring Roundtable” – Henry said this is where representatives of all the CCs in the ASLPT’s towns get together, and each brings up issues to discuss. He asked what people would like him to bring up. Wally asked how other towns prioritize their lands, decide what should or should not be available for recreational use, and how they handle overuse of their lands, especially since Covid-19 brought more people out.  Jim asked about funding, and funding sources. (Don said he would send Jim his document about SCC’s funds, their sources and uses.) Don brought up Land Use Change taxes. The original deal was for the penalty money from developing land to go to CCs to enable them to conserve other land as open space. When the CCs are asked to do other things with that money, that goes against the deal, and there is a danger in losing support for the program. Bonnie said that Covid-19 has induced wealthy people from NY and Massachusetts to come here and buy land, and land prices are now so high that it is hard to imagine we will ever be able to buy anything to conserve. She wonders how other towns are handling this – bond issues?

Focus projects for SCC in 2021 – Henry will send us a document with ideas. He would like everyone to focus on something, both as a group and as individuals. Some ideas are energy for Sutton, solarizing public buildings.

 

Trail Maintenance and Development

Trails Advisory Committee Report

Spring Trails Clean-up Volunteer Day – The group chose May 15th for this, to allow time for advertising. Because of Covid we will work in small groups or individually. The trails sub-committee is inspecting the trails to see where work is needed. It turns out we are responsible for the Sutton section of the SRKG and it needs work, so Henry is working with them. The Mountainside folks are interested in helping us. Don suggested checking out the Nature Groupies’ Trail Maintenance booklet on the cooperative extension website.

GIS map of KHR – Chuck is working on this with a senior from KRHS, and he said they are making progress.

 

Report from the Select Board – Wally said we are now allowed to hold meetings in person. (The group consensus was to continue to meet remotely for now.) Eversource is going to be cutting down trees, and they have been marked with blue and white tape, including the last shade tree next to the road at Horse Beach. There will be a public hearing about the tree cutting. Bonnie said an OHRV ordinance was on the BOS agenda, and she asked Wally if he could convey the SCC’s position to the BOS. She made a motion that the SCC ask the Town of Sutton to continue to forbid the use of OHRVs on Class VI roads in the town. The vote was unanimously in favor. Wally asked Bonnie to send him a statement in writing.

 

Adjournment: The meeting was adjourned around 8:55 PM.

Next Meeting:  Wednesday, May 12th, 2021, at 6:30 PM.

Respectfully submitted,

Bonnie Hill, Secretary