July 20, 2021 | Bonnie Hill TOWN OF SUTTON Sutton Conservation Commission Draft Meeting Minutes Wednesday, July 14, 2021 Present: Henry Howell, Chair; Don Davis; Chuck Bolduc; Debbie Lang; Jim Morris and Bonnie Hill. Absent: Barbara Hoffman; Lynn Wittman; Wally Baker. Call to order: The meeting was held at Town Hall. Henry Howell called the meeting to order at 6:40 pm. Previous Meeting’s Minutes: The minutes from the 6/9/2021 meeting were approved unanimously. Financial Report: Debbie had sent out a financial report before the meeting. In June the only charge against the SCC Admin budget was $100 to NH Lakes from the Dues account. YTD total spending is $525 out of a total budget of $7537. At the end of June, the Conservation Fund had a balance of $148,180.14 and the King Hill Fund had $1,708.19. The Capital Reserve balance is $50,570.65. Henry said he has spent money on signage materials that he will need reimbursement for. Chuck pointed out that most of our expenses are incurred at the end of the year, such as for mowing and plowing. Correspondence Email from Elly Phillips notifying SCC of a webinar on beaver deterrents, July 15th at 2:00. Bonnie will send out the link for this. Letter from NH Lakes thanking the SCC for donation of $100. Copies of emails from Elly Phillips regarding repairs to the Horse Beach boat ramp, for our information. Emails from Lorri Himes regarding the unauthorized withdrawal of water from Gile Pond by a drilling company. Thanks to Lorri, this was stopped, and we now know that explicit permission from the abutting landowner is required before water may be withdrawn. In this case, the state of NH was the abutter. Email from NHACC announcing Taking Action for Wildlife (TAFW) Community Conservation Cohort training. This is an in-depth training program aiming to create cohorts of people to work on community-based conservation projects. Teams of 3 to 5 people from each community will attend online training sessions from September through November and receive assistance from TAFW in pursuing a community project of their choosing. The SCC members seemed to feel this was too large a commitment to take on. Email from NHACC announcing the NH BioBlitz that will take place in September. Training sessions will be offered via Zoom on Aug. 10th at 12:00 and Aug 12th at 4:30. A link can be found on the SCC website. NHACC June eNews announcing 50th anniversary celebration, the NH BioBlitz, grant opportunities and more. Notice from Eversource regarding tree cutting on scenic roads and on conservation land. Henry passed out a list of 59 trees that will be cut on 8 scenic roads in town. There will be a public hearing regarding this, to be announced. In addition, they have asked for permission to cut 7 tees on town land on Wadleigh Hill Rd. Henry said he will call them tomorrow to give consent. Review of Wetland Applications and Issues: Copies of two Standard Dredge and Fill permit applications from NHDOT for work on bridges over I-89 in Sutton. This is for our information, only. According to the applications, there is potential Aquatic Resource Mitigation (ARM) funding available. Chuck said that we need to figure out how the rest of this process works, and he will contact Meli Dube at NHDOT, as she was his contact last year when he submitted our prioritized list of possible ARM projects. Henry said he would talk to Elly and Lorri about what is potentially available to the town. Jim volunteered to read through the applications, which were very long. Review of Intents to Cut and Logging Issues: R & M Cloutier, Shadow Hill Rd, 50 out of 54 acres, T/L#s 05-698-411 and 05-732-541, Stillwater Forestry. Don said this work is currently being done. It is a clear cut and a muddy mess. Since the land is under an ASLPT conservation easement, Don contacted them, and Anne Payeur checked it out. She said according to the terms of the easement this is all legal. The SCC members agreed that the language in these easements needs to be changed so that the intentions of the original owners are not violated, or people will stop putting conservation easements on their land. Don said this the second time this has happened in Sutton in the last couple of years, and it is going to happen more often now that more conserved land is changing hands. Debbie said the ASLPT’s insurance costs have greatly increased because of this kind of thing. Copy of Forest Statutory Permit-by-Notification received for Chan Trust, T/L# 03-022-098, DES file # 2021-01818. Copy of Forest Statutory Permit-by-Notification received for C & W Phinney, T/L# 03-016-336, DES file # 2021-01817. Old business Prioritizing Sutton’s conservation lands for public access – Henry explained that this exercise was to determine which of our town properties we would like to leave in a natural state, and which we would like to encourage recreation on through developing trails and parking access. He said he felt that KHR, Webb/Crowell and Enroth/Lefferts are places we should encourage the public to use, as they already have developed trails, and KHR is an iconic public park that is extremely popular. Chuck agreed, and said that he doesn’t see us creating a lot of new trails elsewhere because of the lack of resources. He thinks that encouraging people to access our land will lead to more interest in conservation. Henry brought up the idea of improving the parking lot at the Enroth Trail, and Chuck said if there is not enough room to add more trails there, it wouldn’t be worth the time and money. Bonnie said the parking is not that bad; she was able to park a Prius there. Debbie said that Russell Pond is another popular recreation spot, and has an existing parking area. Bonnie said that a lot of trash is left there, and Henry said we should put up signs to discourage that, and keep an eye on the parking lot. Don said the Settler’s Oven is very historic and could use a new plaque. He will try to find the original text that was used. Henry would like to see more trail development at Webb/Crowell, and said we need further discussion about keeping the parking lot plowed in the winter. Henry said he would like to see the trails at the Bean Quarry made active again, and there should be a plaque about the quarry, which was the source for foundations for many of our local buildings. Bonnie said she was hoping this property could be left natural, as it is the largest conserved property we have that isn’t currently being used for recreation. Don said one advantage of having people go in there is that they can help keep an eye on the property and report problems such as ATV usage. Jim suggested we have very well-defined, well-marked trails to try to discourage people from going off trail and creating new paths. Henry sees the Maple Leaf property as an extension of KHR that provides an important parking access point for KHR. Regarding the Kezar Lake Natural Area (KLNA), Henry said that Lynn is encouraging us to put in a demonstration garden, but that there are no plans for trails elsewhere on that land. Don said there is a spit of land going into the Town Wetland that could be possibly accessed by creating a spur trail off the SRKG and would be good for a bird blind. Chuck asked if we should show the Lincoln trail (part of the SRKG) on our map of town trails. Henry said our name (the SCC) is on the sign. Don said the SCC did the layout for the Sutton portion of the SRKG and got the landowner permissions, and then turned it over to the SRKG. The remaining properties on the list will be left alone. Henry concluded by saying that one of the duties of the SCC is to have trails and get the public to use them. The action plan for the town encourages us to link our existing trails together, and maintaining public trails is part of our mission. New Business NHACC Conservation Commissions Survey – Since there was no time to go through this, Bonnie will send it to Henry for him to complete. Publicity T-shirts for SCC volunteer helpers – Don made an inquiry regarding this but has received no response. Trail Maintenance and Development Trails Advisory Committee Report Deferred to next month due to lack of time. Adjournment: The meeting was adjourned at 8:50 PM. Next Meeting: Wednesday, August 11th, 2021, at 6:30 PM, at Sutton Town Hall. Respectfully submitted, Bonnie Hill, Secretary