Warner Conservation Commission

Minutes of Meeting

June 18, 2008


Attending:  Nancy Martin, Peg Bastien, John Dabuliewicz, Russ St. Pierre, Chris Connors, and Jim McLaughlin (recording). Also Sue Hemmingway.

Approval of Minutes of May 7, 2008
The minutes of the meeting of May, 2008 were approved as submitted.

Land Protection
In Brian Hotz’s absence, the following written update on land protection was read into the minutes.
Bound Tree Land (formerly Nichols property) 446 acres.
This property, now owned by Peter McGrath of Concord. WCC has tried on numerous occasions to conserve this property. The land was recently harvested and has been on the market for some time. Brian has been working with a couple interested in acquiring it and selling a conservation easement on it. Brian has walked the property with them and has discussed the easement process. He expressed the Commission’s interest because of the property’s abutting other conserved parcels and its high ranking in the Mink Hills Conservation Plan. Discussions will continue.
Bowers Farm and Forest 500 acres.
Brian reported meeting with Bob Bowers and toured his farm and was impressed with the size of his certified organic vegetable operation. His forest land is well managed and has very high habitat value. The property is an important linkage between our Town forest and Mt. Kearsarge. 120 acres are in Sutton. Brian plans to talk to the Sutton CC about their interest in an easement. He suggested a walk on the property with other members of the Warner CC.
Courser Phase 3.
Nothing new to report.

Natural Resources Inventory (NRI)
The draft NRI report was distributed and Jim asked for comments by July 15 so he can consolidate them and provide the feedback to Dan Sundquist at the Forest Society.

Wetlands Issues
Nancy advised that the Town has two road culvert applications being prepared for NHDES wetlands permits and wants WCC review on them. One is on Mason Hill Road and the other is at the intersection of Parade Ground Cemetery Road and Joppa Road. Both of these projects are FEMA funded. Waiting for the formal applications to be received.

Comprehensive Shoreland Protection Act Workshop - June 26
Chris reported sending out 296 notices of a public information workshop on the new rules governing activities permitted under the Comprehensive Shoreland Protection Act, as of July 1st. So far she has received 10 responses by email. John agreed to write a news article for the Town’s next newsletter on the implications of these regulations for affected property owners.

New Business
Nancy reported that Sarah Allen has advised her that she wants to resign from the Commission due to her inability to attend meetings because of other commitments
The Commission approved recommending that Russ be made a full member.
Sue Hemmingway said that she is interested membership on the Commission at some point, but not this year.

Planning Board
Discussed recent Planning Board activity. Jim reported on Master Plan update work. The consensus of the group was that the NRI should be a part of the Master Plan document, since this information is fundamental to the Plan.
Updating the existing digital tax maps was discussed. Jim reported on the estimate of $3,000 by Cartographic Associates to update this digital layer to 2008. Chris said she would check into other possible ways of updating the changes to parcel boundaries more cheaply.

Russ asked about easement monitoring and will check with Sarah on this responsibility.

Meeting adjourned at 8:30 P.M.