Warner Conservation Commission

Minutes of Meeting

November 7, 2007

Attending:  Chris Connors, Nancy Martin, Peg Bastien, Brian Hotz, and Jim McLaughlin (recording). Adam Bronstein and Dan Sundquist from the Forest Society. Also Stave Varnum, Lois Shea and Fiona Shea.

Approval of Minutes of October 3, 2007

The minutes of the meeting of October 3, 2007 were amended by deleting the four words at the end of the sentence under “Newpaper Article.” The minutes were then approved with this amendment.

Fiona Shea

Fiona Shea presented the Commission with $162 to be placed in the Town’s Conservation Fund for land protection. Fiona raised the money by selling pumpkins and pumpkin bread at the Warner Farmers’ market. Nancy Martin thanked Fiona for her contribution.

Natural Resources Inventory

Dan Sundquist and Adam Bronstein showed three draft maps that they have prepared as part of the NRI project: forest resources, water resources and wildlife. Chris Connors intends to have the scenic information ready for Dan by next Monday. Discussed strategy for reviewing and finalizing NRI maps. Agreed to have a session with the Conservation Commission and Dan on December 19 at 7:00 P.M. to establish the mapping of co-occurrence of multiple resource layers.

Land Protection

Courser - Brian advised that the Courser easement won’t close by the end of this year, but will by next spring or summer. WCC commitment to this is $67,500. Ausbon Sargent is in the process of raising funds for it through private donations.

Martin - Due to the low value of these two properties which affects their tax deduction, the Martins have decided not to pursue a conservation easement at this time.

Other possible easements - Brian said the Bound tree property is still a possibility The company is in bankruptcy and the bank is pushing for a sale. Brian has an interested buyer, and will continue to follow up. The 150 acre property on Gould Road is another possible target.

Brian is working on a report on easement activity since the Town authorized current use penalty money to go to the conservation fund. The Budget Committee meets on December 3rd. He will email a draft for review.

Wetlands

Mason Hill Road - Chris reported on a possible wetlands violation by a logging operation of removing more than 50% of the basal area within 50 feet of wetlands.

Letter from Lost Cloud concerning logging on Champagne property (Cunningham Road) and their request that no inventorying of historic cellar holes be done without Mr. Champagne’s approval. Sarah, Nancy and Chris had viewed this property and observed substantial wetlands. Three culverts have been installed in the road. Ted Young has been interested in this project and will be given a copy of the letter for his information.

Received a letter from Paul Mulcahey that logging on the Kearsarge Indian Museum easement will begin soon.

Melvin Mills  - Chris found that a retaining wall had been permitted in 2004.

Poverty plains Road - Peg will check out alleged water quality problems.

Harte property - DES inspection has not taken place yet.

Chris recommended that the local ordinances be reviewed for conformance with changes in the State’s Comprehensive Shoreland Protection Act (CSPA). It was pointed out that this is the purview of the Planning Board and that there isn’t a rush to make changes to the Town’s regulations in advance of State rules going into effect on April 1, 2008. If State regs are more stringent than local, then those will pertain.

Newpaper Article

Jim will submit an article on Fiona’s gift for the next issue.

Future articles could focus on individual layers of the NRI as they are completed. Also mentioned was the idea of putting the maps in the Library for people to review and possibly offer corrections as appropriate. Chris will ask Nancy Ladd about this.

Planning Board

On Wagner subdivision, Suggested that letter from DES to Wagner requesting additional information/clarification be shared with the Planning Board.

Lovejoy subdivision proposal has been reduced to a minor subdivision buy limiting it to three lots.

Other Business

Jim will check to see about getting a WCC email address put up on the Town’s web site.

The Commission will address rules of procedure for actions on emergency basis between WCC meetings at the next meeting.

On NRI - scenic views/roads inventorying, the Commission voted to approve expenditure of $499.50 to Jennifer Campbell who worked a total of 27.75 hours under Chris’ direction to complete the inventory. This assistance had been approved at the October meeting.

Brian advised that due to changes in the law regulating the siting of sanitary land fills, the Canterbury site for the Concord Cooperative has been ruled out of eligibility.

Meeting adjourned at 10:10 P.M.