Condensed from approved minutes
Present: Nan Kaplan, Jerry Hersey, Larry Chase, Mary Anne Broshek, Jesse Schust.
ASLPT Report: Amy Papineau’s talk on Pollinators in the Landscape, on September 22 in Wilmot, was well attended. A round table for Conservation Chairs of twelve ASLPT towns will take place on October 20.
The ASLPT Board is currently going through a self-assessment process, as is recommended for all non-profit organizations. The ASLPT organization will be 30 years old in 2017. Currently Andy Deegan is very busy with assessments.
Tim Fleury said that emerald ash borer will progress throughout the state. ASLPT is currently intending to emphasize community commitment activities and projects, e.g. community walks, social media, etc.
Meeting with Select Board and Planning Board: There was a discussion at the September 27 meeting about the plan to put land adjacent to Bog Pond into conservation.
Proposed steps are: the wetland boundary is not necessarily the boundary of the proposed conservation easement. The Conservation Commission (CC) would like to meet with ASLPT and review the report from Earle Chase and propose a boundary. This will take into account the Town’s gravel needs, the buffers recommended in the Natural Resource Inventory, and the Master Plan.
The CC will take steps to permanently mark the wetland boundary and review any outstanding restoration work that is planned.
The CC will prepare a draft conservation easement proposal that provides information on boilerplate restrictions and more detail on where the Town has flexibility to describe the restrictions. We will also include the results of any conversations with area landowners on their interest in conservation easements.
The CC would then like a combined meeting set up to review this information and invite Andy Deegan from ASLPT to answer questions and talk about the benefits of a conservation easement and any other topics that the Planning Board and Select Board may be interested in.
Bradley Lake: The water quality at Bradley Lake is tested once a year as part of the Volunteer Lake Assessment Program, in conjunction with the Andover Village District (with Mike Vercellotti). The results have always been good. Earle Davis runs the same tests at Highland Lake three times a year.
Monitoring Reports
Newman Easement (October 11): Larry, Tina Cotton, Nan, and Jerry conducted the monitoring assessment. The landowner expressed concern about trash and campfires at the falls. Larry will check about access routes to determine whether any steps could be taken to encourage more responsible use by visitors. Derek Mansell mentioned problems with the markings of the Town line. We will notify the Select Board of this issue.
Fenvale Easement: The monitoring assessment may still need to be done. Mary Anne will check whether the monitoring has taken place, and the CC will do it if necessary.
Budget: We won’t need a warrant article to move unexpended appropriation to 2017 because we won’t have any unexpended appropriation.
Wildlife Action Plan maps: Larry will mount the map on foam core.
Movie – Chasing Ice: Jesse will continue to explore the options for a screening date and co-sponsors and will speak with Larry (CC/Andover Energy Committee) about the plans.
Forestry workshops: Jerry is looking at collaborating with Dave Pilla on a Forestry Management Workshop in spring.
Other Business
We discussed the concerns of a Bradley Lake landowner who had questions about local logging work. We will ask Marj Roy to ask Doug Miner to check on the situation.