Sutton Conservation Commission (SCC)

DRAFT Meeting Minutes

Wednesday, August 9, 2023

Present: Henry Howell, Chair; Don Davis; Barbara Hoffman; Wally Baker, and Bonnie Hill.

Absent: Chuck Bolduc; Jim Morris; Debbie Lang; and Lynn Wittman.

Call to order: Henry Howell called the meeting to order at 6:35 pm.

Previous Meeting’s Minutes:  The minutes from the last meeting on July 12^th were unanimously approved.

Financial Report:

Debbie sent out a financial report before the meeting. In July we spent $629 on secretarial expenses. There is $6,051 left in the admin budget. The Conservation Fund had a balance of $199,894.23 at the end of July. The King Hill Fund had a balance of $1,601.61. The TD Bank Donation Fund has $100.86. The Capital Reserve is at $69,088.00.

Trail Maintenance and Development

Trails Advisory Committee Report

KHR donation system – There are no new developments.

Report on Volunteer Trail Cleanup Day – Henry reported that we had a successful day, with 10 participants. The Lyon Brook trail at KHR was re-routed to bypass the area flooded by beavers. Lots of lopping was also done, and some smaller downed trees were cleared. Henry and Mike Heffernan did a lot of cleanup on the Nichols Trail, but there is still chainsaw work that needs to be done there. There is a wet area halfway along the Hominy Pot Trail where a culvert failed. Henry thought that the snowmobile club had dug that culvert out, but in any case, that area is now re-flooded. Henry had built some plank bridges in advance, and he placed those at the site. He said the Old Felch Trail, going all the way up to White Rabbit, is eroding from the heavy rains and needs some serious water bars built. On a separate outing, Henry brush-hogged a footpath up the slope on Penacook Path.

The bridge connecting KHR to the Putnam easement was dislodged by the raging brook and has come to rest farther downstream. Henry said that having made a decision to leave the beavers alone, the SCC now needs to think about whether we want to try to save the trail access between KHR and the Putnam land. The KHR side of the bridge is now a wetland, and the Putnam trail is all flooded. He said the bridge could be grabbed by lassoing it from a tractor on the Putnam side. Then it would need to be placed on some good stone footings. He showed us an article from The Week magazine about re-wilding beavers, and said that he believes working around the beavers is the right thing to do.

Wetlands Review

Appointment at 7:00 PM: Ray Critch, of Bedford Design Consultants, to discuss Conditional Use permit for T/L# 3-022-098. Ken Tentarelli, the property owner’s father, was also present. Eric Tentarelli, the owner of this parcel of land on Beaver Pond Road wants to build a house, driveway and septic system. A shoreland permit was obtained, and Peter Stanley gave his approval for the septic system. The driveway, however, impinges upon the 75 foot wetlands buffer, so a Conditional Use Permit is required from the Planning Board. This requires a signoff by the Conservation Commission, as well. Ray Critch provided some documents for the SCC’s review, including an overview of the topography of the parcel, and a sketch of the proposed driveway and its relation to the wetlands buffer. The proposed driveway is in the location of an existing driveway that was used for logging access. A portion of the driveway is within the buffer of the wetlands on the opposite side of Beaver Pond Road, but it is only 42 sq feet. Keeping the driveway in this location would minimize disturbance to the land. A new driveway totally outside the buffer would end up being on a steeper slope. Wally asked if they had talked to the road agent, and the answer was yes. Wally said that if it was OK with Adam Hurst and Peter Stanley, then it is OK with him. Henry said he knows this land extremely well, and putting in a whole new driveway would make no sense. He thinks the plan is well-designed and is a non-issue for the wetlands. Mr. Tentarelli said his son is a wildland enthusiast. Henry said he recommends putting a conservation easement on the property through ASLPT. Bonnie will write up a letter for Henry to sign saying that the SCC has reviewed the plan. This will be sent to the Planning Board and Mr. Critch.

Copy of letter from NHDES regarding wetlands violations at Peacock Hill development –

DES File #2023-01976, T/L# 1-195-092. Bonnie read the letter out loud. Wally said that the BOS and engineer were all there last Monday and they had determined that the original complaints had been addressed. He said the engineer has been there every day since. The BOS did not seem to know about this letter with new complaints that was dated July 26^th. Bonnie gave him the letter to take to the BOS. Wally said it is now up to NHDES to check on the situation.

Prime Wetlands discussion – Barb asked if this is something we want to pursue, as a means to protect land from development. If so, we need to find a college with a relevant program of study and students that are available to help us conduct a wetlands inventory. It is a lengthy process. Barb will research this further before our next meeting.

Bridge removal on Keyser St – Wally alerted us to a project that the town is planning to do, which is the removal of a small bridge near 112 Keyser St. It will be similar to what was done on Penacook Rd. It will be replaced with a large box culvert with a gravel bottom. Two pumps will be used to pump water across the road, and Keyser St will have to be closed for several days. The SCC will need to sign off on this, and Wally will send some documentation to Bonnie so she can draft a letter for Henry to sign.

Review of Intents to Cut and Logging Issues

• N. Brunet for Greatwoods LLC, Eaton Grange Rd, 10 acres out of 58.4, T/L# 3-329-058, Nicholas Brunet, logger. This looks to be high ground, but Don thought there were problems with deep skidder ruts in the past. The damage was eventually repaired.
• C. Courser, Pound Road South, 25 acres out of 86, T/L# 5-815-136, Aaron Sterling logger. There are some wetlands on this property.

   

New Business

Status of town recycling committee – Barb said the committee has 7 to 9 members so far. Some members met with Diego at the transfer station for an hour to get his side of the recycling story. There is a group, the Northeast Resource Recovery Association (NRRA) to which Sutton belongs, and all recycling efforts are supposed to be channeled through this organization. Each committee member is collecting information about what neighboring towns do, etc. The focus will be on plastics, specifically, and on education to help people reduce their use of plastic. Henry asked if the effort should be expanded into Maine and Vermont. A regional force could be more likely to get something to happen, such as supporting research to find environmentally friendly alternatives to plastic.

Mowing the trailhead at Enroth/Lefferts – Betsy Forsham expressed concern about the unmowed entrance to the Enroth trail at Rt 114. She wanted to honor the generosity of the Enroths in giving us that land, by making sure it looked inviting and cared for, so she asked Ernie Brake if he would weed-whack it, which he did. Henry and Betsy exchanged emails in which Henry offered to pay Ernie to mow, but Ernie said he would do it as needed for no charge.

Report on statewide butterfly monitoring day – Bonnie reported that the Lake Sunapee Butterfly Club had a successful day of monitoring, and that the Sutton team identified 19 species of butterflies on 4 properties, including some uncommon ones. The properties monitored were all ASLPT conservation land, and in Sutton included King Hill Reservation and 3 privately-owned parcels with conservation easements.

Old Business

Update on road salt reduction – No further word from NHDOT.

Camp Wabasso – The camp has closed. One 46 acre parcel with beautiful frontage on Blaisdell Lake has an assessed value of $3.2M. Henry said a committee has been formed with representatives from the Blaisdell Lake Protective Association, ASLPT and the SCC. We need to think about how much we care about preserving this land. It is not shown as high-priority habitat on our co-occurrence map.

Turtle Crossing Signs – Bonnie was planning to take these signs down at the end of July and store them for the winter, but is very sad to report that the signs are all missing, presumably stolen.

Signage for Horse Beach pollinator gardens – Henry brought in the sign he had made that will be posted next to the raised beds. He read the text out loud. It is a metal sign with yellow text on a brown background. He also read aloud a letter from the Natural Resource Defense Council about neonic pesticides and how deadly they are to the pollinator population. These are the most widely used pesticides in the US at this time.

Review & response to ASLPT regarding 1) any potential expansion of snowmobile trails on SCC conservation land, 2) large pile of gravel in Webb/Crowell parking lot . These were issues reported by easement monitors. Andy Deegan will be attending our meeting next month and we can inform him of the snowmobile trail changes then. Wally will ask Mike McManus about the pile of gravel at Webb/Crowell.

Winter Road Maintenance Course – LSPA and the UNH Coopersative Extension are offering this on August 22.

Correspondence

• Phone call from Diane Lander regarding bittersweet management. She had seen in the SCC minutes that we were going to brush-hog some Oriental bittersweet, and wanted to share her own experience with doing that, which was that the bittersweet was stimulated to grow and take over more areas. She has had good results on a 5 acre area using a combination of Garlon and Escort applied by a service. This cost $3000 for the first treatment, then $1000/yr for last few treatments using backpack sprayers on smaller recurrent areas.
• Mailing from the Merrimack County Conservation District with the 2023 Local Food Guide.

   

Adjournment: The meeting was adjourned at 8:35 PM.

Next Meeting: Wednesday, September 13th, 2023, at 6:30 PM, at Sutton Town Hall.

Respectfully submitted,

Bonnie Hill, Secretary