April 13, 2017 | Town Admin Sutton Conservation Commission (SCC) Meeting Minutes Wednesday, April 12, 2017 Present: Dan Sundquist, Acting Chair; Don Davis; Henry Howell; Jane Williamson; Wally Baker; Chuck Bolduc; Debbie Lang; Barbara Hoffman and Bonnie Hill, secretary. Absent: Chris Ashton. Debbie sat in for Chris. Call to order: Dan Sundquist called the meeting to order at 6:35 p.m. Introductions: New alternate members Debbie Lang and Barbara Hoffman were welcomed aboard. Election of New Chair: As acting chair, Dan asked for nominations for a new chair, and Wally made a motion to nominate Dan Sundquist, which Don seconded. There were no further nominations. Dan accepted the nomination with the following conditions. His timeframe for serving is one or two years. Because of the needs of his consulting business, he may need to miss 2 or 3 meetings per year, and will not be able to be on constant call for SCC business. Instead, he requests that people who have issues to discuss make an appointment at Town Hall and attend the monthly SCC meeting. He will be delegating responsibilities to others, perhaps in the form of small committees. These are the projects he has in mind: Update the Strategic Conservation Plan. The objective is to identify high priority areas for conservation. This should be an interactive committee process that will include updating both the document and the mappings. Set up a standing trail crew. This should consist of 5 or 6 people with a leader. Their duties will be to walk the trails, perform trail work, and recruit other people to help as needed. Provide mentoring for the next chair. Wally agreed about the appointments, and he brought up the possibility of changing the meeting times or dates as needed. People needing appointments can go to Town Hall, and they will contact Dan. The agenda will be posted on the Monday before the SCC meeting. Jane suggested using the town website to post public information and info about subcommittees, etc. The vote to accept Dan as chairman was unanimous, with one abstention (Dan). Appointment with Fish & Game: At 6:50, Ben Nugent and Don Miller from NH Fish & Game talked about the results of the Stream Crossing Assessment and the Next Steps. They were joined by Chris Connors from Basil W. Woods Trout Unlimited. Ben said that 208 assessments were completed, and the local volunteers want to continue. While they are concerned with crossings serving as barriers to fish, the towns have other concerns about crossings. These include impact on aquatic habitat (geomorphology), the general condition of the crossing, and the vulnerability of the crossing to flooding. Two Flood Resiliency and Community Action workshops will be held in Warner on June 14th and 28th. Part of the plan is to look for situations for collaboration on grant-supported improvements to culverts. Road agents and selectmen are urged to attend. Wally was in favor of the idea because there are some culvert projects coming up in Sutton this year. He plans to attend the workshop. Dan said the highway dept. has made a survey of all culverts, with mappings. He asked Ben to send info so he can discuss it with the road agent, and he noted that the road agent needs to be at the workshop, and that detailed specs ahead of time would be helpful. Keyser St and North Rd have some culverts that may need engineering support. Wally said the professional services budget can be tapped for engineering support if needed. Chuck asked about design considerations. Dan asked Ben for a shape file. Don asked if there are grants for trails, and Chris answered yes. Don said there are two culverts in KHR that are significant barriers to fish. These need to be replaced by something that would allow mowing equipment to pass over – maybe a bridge. Dan said this would be an interesting project for a warrant article next year. Ben said they can assess these culverts. Ben said last year they started a landowners’ engagement project in Warner. They encouraged landowners to sign up for a survey. They would like to do one in Sutton this year, maybe in early June. They will send mailings to people who own property on known trout streams in town. Dan said he can say that the SCC supports this. Chris talked about the volunteer river assessment program, or VRAP. They met with DES. There will be testing in major tributaries of the Warner River, by 6 teams. Each team does one test per year, starting in June. This is to capture the current condition of the watershed and provide data to the EPA. Dan said we can advertise this on our website. He suggested the InterTown and the Shopper, and to let the lake monitoring teams know about it. Chris also mentioned Youth Fishing Day at Merrill Pond Park on April 29th. This is a free fishing event for kids. Wally suggested giving this info to Heidi Thoma. Ben heard Dan talk about updating the strategic conservation plan, and he said he would give Dan information about Sutton to include in it. Ben, Don and Chris left at 7:20. Previous Meeting’s Minutes: A motion was made by Don and seconded by Henry to approve the minutes of March 8th, 2017. There were no issues found with the minutes, and they were approved. Financial Report: There is no updated financial info. Correspondence: Forest News by Wadsworth Woodlands, Winter 2017 issue, with article about LiDAR. Review of Wetland Applications and Issues: Copy of a Shoreland Impact Permit, #2017-00277 dated 2/23/17, for the Ritz Compound, T/L# 8-184,257, Penacook Rd/Kezar Lake to raze existing primary structure and rebuild slightly larger than the original footprint. Approved 3/23. Copy of a Shoreland Impact Permit, #2017-00570 dated 3/2/17, for the Jeffrey Family Trust, T/L# 2-478,356, Lovett Rd/Blaisdell Lake to raze the existing primary structure; build a studio/workshop within the same area; construct a new primary structure. Approved 3/27. Review of Intents to Cut and Logging Issues: Spencer, T/L# 9-884,028, Rt.114, 1.3 acres. Nicholas Rowe, logger. Hill, T/L# 10-895,352, Stonehouse Rd and Stony Brook Rd, 94 acres. New Business ASLPT News – Don reported that ASLPT is giving a landowner-oriented presentation April 13th in Sunapee on putting land into conservation. There will be 3 speakers, each with different situations. Another will be given later. On May 6th Andy Deegan will be leading their Spring Awakening hike at KHR. This will be from 9 to 11 AM, starting at Maple Leaf. Cleanup of Town Wetlands– Jane reported seeing a lot of garbage in the wetlands off 114. She asked if we could ask the state to halt traffic so that a cleanup could be done, perhaps by high school students doing community service. Don said the NSIS and the snowmobile club do clean up that area. Jane volunteered to organize a cleanup. ASLPT Roundtable report– Dan attended this meeting, in which the CC chairs report what their towns are doing. Dan reported that SCC is going to be updating the strategic plan. A big negative that came out of the meeting was about ATVs in the Mink Hills. Apparently the Warner BOS gave the ATV clubs permission to ride on the class VI roads, and now they are totally out of control, including Jeeps and people from out of state who read about it on the Internet. Berlin and Hopkinton are both having a lot of ATV problems, as well. Henry said they are also riding on King Hill Rd and Poor Farm Rd in Sutton. Saving Special Places Conference: This took place on April 8th and Jane attended. According to Dan, about one third of the attendees were from conservation commissions. SCC Properties and SRK Greenway Reports Wells property – This is a 6 acre property abutting Webb/Crowell that was tax-deeded to the town by George Wells. The map and lot number is 04-110-318. Dan said we need to make an appointment with the BOS to have this turned over to us. Wally will check the status of the property with the BOS. Other properties – Dan said we need to figure out how to scout the trails for issues, and he asked us all to look at the properties when we could. Adjournment: There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned around 8:05 PM. The next meeting will be held on Wednesday, May 10, 2017, at 6:30 p.m. Respectfully submitted, Bonnie Hill, Secretary