June 14, 2022 | Bonnie Hill Sutton Conservation Commission Draft Meeting Minutes Wednesday, June 8, 2022 Present: Henry Howell, Chair; Barbara Hoffman; Don Davis; Lynn Wittman; Wally Baker; Debbie Lang; Chuck Bolduc; Jim Morris and Bonnie Hill. Members of the public present: Tom Schamberg; Sheldon and Betsy Boege. Call to order: Henry Howell called the meeting to order at 6:40 pm. Previous Meeting’s Minutes: Debbie moved that the minutes from May 11th be approved, and Don seconded. The minutes were unanimously approved. A motion was also made to approve the minutes from the special meeting on June 1st. Don asked that the minutes be corrected to say that Pat Tivnan exited KHR through the Putnam land and not Muster Field Farm. Bonnie will make the correction. The minutes were unanimously approved as amended. Financial Report: Debbie sent out a financial report before the meeting. There were no expenditures in May. Chuck asked if a second payment was made to Leo Maslan for the forest management plan, and Debbie said she would check. We have spent $2,076 year-to-date out of our budget of $7,612. At the end of May the Conservation Fund had a balance of $ 166,828.68 and King Hill Fund had a balance of $2,059.79. The Capital Reserve is at $57,581.34. Trail Maintenance and Development Trails Advisory Committee Report >Spring Trail Cleanup Henry said that the three key areas, KHR, Webb/Crowell and Enroth/Lefferts have all been checked for maintenance needs, and he has put this info into a matrix. KHR had logs across some trails; Henry has cut them but they need to be carried off. He asked if we need a Trail Day. Lynn said it would be good for community relations. Henry said that’s true, but only if we have enough for people to do. He said one good-sized project would be to clean up the Nichols homestead. This would involve lots of chain saw work, plus cleaning leaves and debris off of the foundations, and creating a path through the area. It could take 4 or 5 people half a day. He would like this to become an attraction for people to walk to. Don said there is another cellar hole a little farther along on the Nichols trail. Henry said another sizable project is to create a link trail on state land along Rt. 89. This would require applying to the DOT for permission. He said this is a great time to ask, because they are now working on this stretch of the highway and will be putting up fencing, etc. He said all we need is a fence between our trail and 89, to keep people off the highway, and it would be nice if the DOT would build that fence for us. This could enable us to have a nice loop trail past the Nichols homestead. Lynn said another project is to put color-coded stickers on the trail signs at KHR. She has started this but could use some help. Henry said we also need to take a brush hog up Penacook Path and down the White Rabbit to make a walking path. There are downed trees in various places around the ski trails. Chuck says he goes out there with some friends periodically to work on those, and they don’t need to do that on the official Trail Day. Barb asked about the legal requirements for volunteers. Henry read aloud a form from the NHACC that we can have volunteers sign when they show up for a Trail Day, to free the town from liability. Kids will need a parent to sign the form. People adopting a trail also need to sign a form absolving the town from liability. Henry passed around pictures of the wildlife trails showing how overgrown they are. March Hare in particular needs a lot of work. Now that the wildlife trails are going to be managed by hand instead of mowed by machine, we need a lot of volunteers with brush saws to cut saplings. Jim suggested we have a trail day every year at the same time, so people can plan for it. Lynn agreed that this is a good idea for the future, for occasions like Earth Day. Chuck said we need to create a good email database, with privacy assured, and Debbie asked if that would serve instead of placing ads. Nature Groupie was suggested as a place to publicize the Trail Day. The day was decided to be Saturday, July 9th , with July 10th as a rain date. The meeting place is the parking lot at the Hominy Pot Rd trailhead, at 9:00. The Trail Day will be publicized on our website, the Town website, in the post offices, in the calendar section and Judy Lowe’s column in the InterTown Record, and with an ad in the Shopper. Lynn will design an ad. People are asked to bring gloves, sturdy shoes, insect repellent, and water. We can’t let volunteers use power equipment unless they are under our direct supervision. Chuck gave permission for his phone number to be used in the ad. Lynn will email her KLPA list, and Debbie will contact the SRKG Greenway people and Nature Groupie. Bonnie will ask the people at Amy Highstrom’s butterfly monitoring group, to see if any of them are interested in helping to maintain the butterfly habitat trails at KHR. Don said the SCA is looking for projects for kids to do right now, but Henry said they are very expensive. Chuck said they are great for serious projects like trail building. Don asked if we can have Jerry Gagnon mow the Enroth/Lefferts parking area twice, for $50. He will tell him yes. >KHR Donation System Jim said he has no update on this. Regarding the idea of a “Friends of KHR” group, Lynn asked if we would be allowed to do this, as a town agency. Chuck said there are other ways of doing what we need. Review of Wetland Applications and Issues: R & J Sigua, Penacook Rd, T/L# 8-135-049. Wally said the landowners want access to their dock. They have a permit from DES, also the Planning Board and a special exception from the ZBA. Wally said the work is consistent with other properties on the lake. No excavation is required, and no cement will be used. He is trying to make everything as pervious as possible. There will be a set of stairs, and a small patio three feet away from the lake, with pea stone and bluestone slabs, pitched so that nothing will drain into the lake. The SCC members reviewed the plan and had no objections. Review of Intents to Cut and Logging Issues: Summary of KHR Forestry Management Plan June 1st meeting & logging issues Henry said that we all should have received the letter from Pat Tivnan. He said that he looked into the new Current Use changes in Vermont that allow for land to be kept forever wild. He also read some research from British Columbia about how old growth forests are better at sequestering carbon, and how logging releases carbon into the atmosphere. Old growth forest has multiple layers in the canopy, which leads to greater richness of lichens, fungi, etc. A young forest regenerated after logging has only one layer in the canopy. He said he did a lot of research on this topic. Lynn said she thought Pat’s real concern was that the meeting was not advertised well, though she was also worried about the trail becoming a “2-lane highway”. Lynn thinks we need to have another hearing, in order not to alienate people. Chuck said it’s OK with him if we don’t do the timber harvest, but we will need to rely on volunteers and on the proposed donation system in order to maintain the trails, and these things may not work. He said we may be able to get help from the snowmobile club if we open the Bean Quarry trail to them. He said we can also use money from the Conservation Fund to maintain the trails if we need to. Jim asked what the net amount might be from the logging, and Chuck said it depends on many factors. He said the logging can’t be done in the winter if we are using King Hill Road for access, because of the same factors that keep us from being able to plow the Maple Leaf parking lot (liability issues for the Angelis). Chuck said he has contacted Leo but he hasn’t heard back yet. Henry asked if anyone is opposed to having a public meeting. Chuck said that all our meetings are open to the public. Barb suggested we ask someone from the ASLPT to come, and she said we should pay Leo to come. Henry said we need at least a month to fully publicize the meeting. He said the meeting minutes state that we agreed to do the logging, but they should have said that we agreed to go ahead with the next phase of the project. Jim said once a decision was made to log, then that should be carried out. Chuck said no, we still need to get public input. He said a lot of things have to happen before the saws start – public outreach, walking the site with Leo, etc. Henry said that decision was made on 6/1, but Pat’s point is that there wasn’t enough time given to publicize the meeting, so the decision should be reconsidered. He asked if August would be too late to have the meeting, if we hoped to log in the fall. Chuck said no, there is no hurry. If there are other ways to do this he’s fine with it. It was decided that our regular August monthly meeting will be the meeting for public input, with plenty of notice. Don suggested putting up the notice at the dump, in addition to the post offices. Chuck will ask Leo if he can come to the August 10th meeting, and he will let him know where we are with this. Debbie said that Andy Deegan wanted to come to the August meeting to talk about the updated ASLPT Conservation Plan. She wondered if we need to have an extra meeting now just for that. She said Andy will come to the August meeting for the logging discussion, and she will ask him for possible dates for another meeting. New Business Proposal for human-made floating loon nests on Blaisdell Lake – Henry had proposed this, but Debbie cited information from the Loon Preservation Committee that said they only float nest rafts where the loons have tried to nest but failed for multiple years due to a problem that a raft can fix, such as water level fluctuations or lack of adequate natural habitat. She said there is no evidence that loons have tried and failed to nest at Blaisdell Lake, and it appears that the loons there are immature and not ready for mating. This proposal was therefore dropped. Sutton Code of Conduct review – Wally said Dane Headley is still working on the final version, trying to make it as benign as possible. When it is ready we will all need to sign it. Report on Colby-Sawyer year-end presentation – Lynn summarized the report for us. Basically, Kezar Lake is in good shape. There is erosion, but it is happening on private property. Salt is coming in from Rt. 114 and elsewhere. No e. coli was found. NH Lakes Conference – Lynn attended this and said there are some reasons to be alarmed about the state of the watershed, including the problem of cyanobacteria. Money needs to be raised (through grants?) to do a study of the whole watershed, which could cost $60,000. She said Lakes people and the various conservation commissions need to work together on this. Old Business Snowmobile Usage on KHR trails – Tom Paul is coming to the July meeting to discuss opening the Bean Quarry trail to snowmobiles. Bonnie said she is not in favor of this, as the Ridgerunners have already asked for more trails at KHR, and where is this going to end. She said they say they will help with trail maintenance, but they haven’t done any maintenance on the culverts on the trails that are open now, and that was part of the agreement that let them use the trails in the first place. Henry asked if anyone else was in favor or not in favor, and no one spoke. Wally said we should have a one year trial. Barb agreed that we should open one trail for a one year trial. Update on Low Salt Road issue – Debbie has received information from Jenn McCourt saying that the procedure is for the town to submit a formal request with the required signatures. NHDOT will review it and if it is deemed feasible, that is when a public meeting will be held. The letter will be reviewed by the BOS, road agent, police dept., fire dept., and the school dept. All of the interested parties will get together at a BOS meeting. Debbie will contact Elly to get this on the BOS agenda. Horse Beach Parking plan update – Wally still hasn’t heard back from the engineer, and is going to bring it up again. He’s going to ask the road agent to dump a load of gravel in the boat launch parking lot and spread it out. Henry said people are parking on the grass at the Kezar Lake Natural Area. Update on Japanese Knotweed reduction project – Wally said he needs to talk to Ernie Brake about this. He asked Bonnie to contact Doug Cygan, the invasive plant expert from the USDA who did the herbicide spraying last year, and ask him whether he is going to come back this year to spray again. Correspondence Email letter from Pat Tivnan responding to the discussion on June 1st about the KHR forest management plan. Email exchange between Henry Howell and Katheryn Holms, chair of the Newbury CC regarding the status of land owned by P. Teloian that had been discussed last year as possibility for conservation easement. Katheryn told Henry that the former chair of the Newbury CC has moved away, and nothing happened with this. In the meantime, the land, which includes a large parcel in Newbury and a small one in Sutton, has been logged. Email exchange between Bonnie Hill and NHDOT regarding Turtle Crossing signs on state roads. Bonnie asked what we need to do to get permission to put up signs on Rt 114 at the town wetlands. The DOT said they do not allow such signs. They only allow signs for animals large enough to cause injuries when hit, and they are considering eliminating those. Email from NHACC with a wrap-up of 2022 state legislation that was relevant to conservation. Email from NHACC announcing that applications are now being accepted for Taking Action for Wildlife’s third annual Community Conservation Cohort, an in-depth training program and hands-on project work. NHACC May eNews with info on easement monitoring, news about efforts by other ConComs, training opportunities (lakes conference, bird ID, bat counts), grant opportunities and more. Adjournment: The meeting was adjourned at 8:47 PM. Next Meeting: Wednesday, July 13th, 2022, at 6:30 PM, at Sutton Town Hall. Respectfully submitted, Bonnie Hill, Secretary
