Sutton Conservation Commission (SCC)

Meeting Minutes

Wednesday, May 10, 2017

Present: Dan Sundquist, Chair; Don Davis; Henry Howell; Jane Williamson; Wally Baker; Debbie Lang; Barbara Hoffman and Bonnie Hill, secretary.   Absent:  Chris Ashton, Chuck Bolduc.  Barbara sat in for Chris and Debbie sat in for Chuck.

Members of the public present: Cathy Baker

Call to order: Dan Sundquist called the meeting to order at 6:35 p.m.

APPOINTMENT: 7:00 p.m. –Presentation by Dan Sundquist on behalf of the SCC to Betsy Forsham. Betsy was given a beautiful framed photograph of the Milky Way over Gile Pond, by Garrett Evans, with an inscription thanking her for her 18 years of service. The back was signed by SCC and BOS members. Our thanks go to Henry Howell for arranging this lovely tribute.

Previous Meeting’s Minutes: A motion was made by Henry and seconded by Deb to approve the minutes of April 12th, 2017. Bonnie said the acreage on the Wells lot should be 6 and she would make the correction. There were no other issues found with the minutes, and they were approved.

Financial Report:

There were expenditures for secretarial services and for dues to the NHACC. There is $2776.88 in the town account, which is 85.92% of the budget.  As of April 30th, the Conservation Account contained $105,645.06 and the King Hill Reservation account contained $5685.13, for a total of $111,330.19 in the Conservation Fund. Henry will have some expenses from the vernal pool project, but he does not yet know the amount. Dan said this can come out of the regular budget.

Correspondence:

• NH Lakes Association quarterly magazine Lakeside, Spring 2017 issue.
• Notices from Eversource with consent form for tree pruning and removal for land on King Hill Rd and Wadleigh Rd.
• Brochures from SPNHF with Events and Reminders for owners of conserved land.
• Telecon with Andy Deegan (ASLPT) re: land acquisition abutting Webb-Crowell. See below.

Review of Wetland Applications and Issues:

Review of Intents to Cut and Logging Issues:

• Bobella, T/L #8-574,166, Poor Farm Rd., 25 of 35.6 acres. Eric Oxman, forester.
• Dupre, T/L #7-578,502, Cotton Rd., 2 of 24 acres. Nicholas Rowe, logger.
• Parshley and M. Angelone, T/L #6-648,426, Chalk Pond Rd, 14 of 15.88 acres. Eric Oxman, forester.
• and K. Kendall, T/L #6-603,411, Chalk Pond Rd, 20 of 22.58 acres. Eric Oxman, forester.

Regarding wetlands involvement, Dan said SCC does not have the police power to look for wetlands issues, and it is the loggers’ responsibility to follow best practices. Anyone who has a personal interest in a property can get written permission from the landowner to investigate, but the SCC board does not authorize such investigation. He cautioned us that entering private property to look for issues can lead to serious legal problems.

Old Business

Schedule for Kezar Lake Natural Area public info session- This will be combined with our monthly SCC meeting and will take place on Wednesday, July 26^th. The public will be invited to attend, through notices in the Shopper and the InterTown Record. Dan will give a PowerPoint presentation about what we know the issues are, and comments from the public will be solicited for incorporation into the management plan. Don said a similar kind of public session was held for King Ridge.

New Business

Volunteers needed for Water Celery weeding at Smiley Grove- Dan received a call from Chris Connors looking for help with this. It will be an ongoing effort, taking place on Sundays. Anyone who can help should give their names to Dan to pass along to Chris. It will require wading into the stream to pull the weeds. Apparently the weeding done last year did not have a large effect.

Vernal pools education at KRHS- Henry was not able to attend the vernal pool workshop because of his work with the vernal pool project. Right now there are two major projects at KRHS. The vernal pool bridge is all built and just needs to be transported to Gene’s Walk. It will be taken to Gerry Putnam’s land on a flatbed truck, with Wally’s help. Henry is going out with the kids next week to clear trails. Wally is going to help with the footings for the bridge. The kids will then carry the bridge to the footings and re-assemble it. The other project is the final planting of the rain garden. On June 1st there will be a dedication of the rain garden, with a plaque. The garden is being named in memory of Tom McLaughlin, the teacher who died last year. The plaque will describe what a vernal pool is and its effect on the ecosystem. Henry is looking for help making a wooden sign for the rain garden with routered lettering. Jane and Don suggested Seth Benowitz, of Bradford. Dan suggested that SCC members might help with the painting of the sign, if there isn’t enough money to have the whole thing professionally done.

SCC Properties and SRK Greenway Reports

Woodlot & Grange donation – Dan spoke on the phone with Andy Deegan of ASLPT about this 8 (really 8.9) acre parcel that is being donated as part of a wetlands mitigation. There is a court order on the land, so it has to be transferred to a land trust (ASLPT) and then it can be transferred to the Town. It will be merged with Webb/Crowell, and maybe the Sprout lot and the Wells lot can all be merged with it. Wally will talk to Elly about the status. Since Betsy was here, she added some information. She found a plan from Bristol Sweet, and did some deed research. The deed says 9 acres. The value of the land does not make up the full amount of the mitigation, so there is money left over. Betsy suggested that that some of this money could be used to cover the cost of an easement (and its stewardship) on Webb/Crowell.

SRKG Trails – Henry said that the SKRG trails need work. The schoolkids are working on the Lincoln trail. He would like to get grant money to get the SCA kids from Manchester to come and do trail work next year. The grant covers half of the cost and we would have to cover the rest. Don said talk to Gerry Gold, as he knows all about this, and has offered his land for the kids to camp on. Henry said he will talk to him.

Maple Leaf – Jane was on the hike there last Saturday and said that contrary to our expectations, the trail was not very wet. She said it looked like someone had piled up white stones to come back and steal later. Dan said it is unlawful to take stone from a boundary wall, but interior stone walls belong to the property owner and they can sell them.

Trail Plans – Dan asked Henry if he could help evaluate the trails this summer and determine what needs to be done. Henry said we need mileages for the trails. Dan has a high-end Garmin GPS unit that he will lend out this summer for people who want to walk the trails. The data, which includes waypoints and tracking, can be downloaded into GIS and into Dan’s mapping system, which includes contour information. Tax map info and all kinds of other stuff are in there, too. Henry said that we need to decide as a group which trail system we want to focus on. At the next meeting, Dan will bring a map of Sutton, and trail project priorities can be discussed.

Stone walls – Don was contacted by a man from Virginia who uses Lidar to study stone walls and offered to lend a hand to the town. Dan said there might be changes needed to the tax maps that will make them more accurate.

Dark Tidings – Dan alerted us to a new virus on deer ticks. The Powassan virus is transmitted in 15 minutes from when an infected tick bites, and it goes to the brain. Henry testified that wearing clothes treated with permethrin helps to repel ticks.

Adjournment: There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned around 7:55 PM.

The next meeting will be held on Wednesday, June 14, 2017, at 6:30 PM.

Respectfully submitted,

Bonnie Hill, Secretary