Stewardship Plan/COnservation Easement

 Work Session

 

July 24, 2008

 

Present:

Curt Springer-Forestry Committee Chairman

                Betsy Sanders-Forestry Committee

            Chris Lauria-Forestry Committee

Chris Giordano-Conservation Commission Chairman and Selectman

                Bob Moore-Selectman

                Wade Parsons-Chief of Police

            Bruce Schwaegler-NH Audubon representative

            Ellen Snyder-Ibis Wildlife Consulting

            Dave Knight-Danville resident

Phil Emilio-Danville resident

                Joe Reynolds-Danville resident

                Jeff ?-Danville resident (Curt’s neighbor)

Dennis Francoeur-Boy Scout

 

The meeting opened at 7:09pm and was televised.

 

Introduction

Curt opened the meeting by welcoming the members of the public and members of the Forestry Committee, Heritage Commission, Conservation Commission, and Board of Selectman.  Curt explained that the town voted in 2003 to create an easement for the town forest.  The easement is a legal document binding the town to manage the forest using commonly accepted best practices.

 

The history of working with Audubon was explained.  Bruce was introduced as a volunteer and trustee of Audubon whose knowledge is extensive.  Ellen was introduced as a certified wildlife biologist hired to assist the town with the stewardship plan.  Jennifer Hunter, not in attendance this evening, was introduced as well.  Curt explained that work began on the plan earlier this year and this meeting is to explain to the citizens of Danville what has been done so far.

 

Curt reminded the audience of a site walk planned for Sunday July 27th and turned the time over to Ellen.

 

Two Major Purposes of the Stewardship Plan

Ellen began by explaining the two major purposes of the Stewardship Plan.  One is to understand the features of the forest.  This entails writing about, talking about, and understanding the wildlife, plants, recreational areas, habitats, historical information, and current condition of the forest.  Past information is used as well as current facts.

 

The other purpose is to meet the provisions of the conservation easement deed.  One provision to accept the Conservation Easement is having a Stewardship Plan in place.

 

Maps

Ellen began a Power Point presentation.  She said that one of the first things to consider in a piece of property is the landscape context: where does it sit in the town.  This is particularly important to wildlife that move across boundaries and more especially in southern New Hampshire where wildlife habitat is shrinking.  Wetlands and waterfall are also major features of the town forest.  Water moves into and through the town forest affecting other water bodies.

 

Ellen indicated on a map the conserved land throughout town and areas surrounding the town forest.  Great meadow, the power lines area, and wetlands were indicated.  She showed that 30-40% of the forest is wet.

 

She then showed a topographic map.  The highest elevation is about 320’ and she also indicated undulation and drainage.  She said that a topo map is good to reference when laying out trails.  Access from Colby Pond recreation area was shown on the map as well as the heavily used powerline area.

 

Ellen explained the soils map with the great diversity of soil types and slopes.  There are no prime farmland soils of statewide significance, but there are locally important farmland soils.

 

A water resources map was also shown.   Wetland protection areas were delineated as well as a watershed divide.  Ellen defined vernal pools as a pool that dries up at some point during the year, so do not support fish, but are significant for amphibians.  She said there are guidelines about how to work around vernal pools, particularly in the forest, which will be discussed later.

 

Ellen talked about the habitats map, habitats being one of the major stewardship goals of the town.  The goal is to protect and manage the habitat for the wildlife.  Major habitat types in the town forest include: (1) the wetland systems, (2) early successional habitat along the power line which is a disturbed, human created habitat, (3) young forest around the old gravel pit (at one time early successional), (4) hardwood, which Ellen points out is very important for wildlife diversity, (5) soft woods shown as solid pine stands or solid hemlock and (6) much of the forest is mixed wood.  It was pointed out that the forest is relatively young with a few trees over 100 years old.

 

Wetland

There are intermittent streams which are important because they are at the top of the watershed.  Protecting those is an important piece behind protecting water quality overall.

 

Ellen spoke about the forest having not just wetland, but the diversity of wetland which adds to the diversity of wildlife. This diversity is a significant feature of the town forest.  She explained that many of these wetland types are found in concentric rings.  The wetland types are:

 

 

Wetland Wildlife

Beaver are prominent wetland wildlife.  They are key to maintaining these wetland areas.  Other wildlife take advantage of beaver flowages.

 

The second most common species of wetland wildlife are great blue heron.  Their rookery is historic, at one time the largest in the state.  It is now decreasing in size which is not uncommon.  Ellen said that a study would need to be done to determine if the decline in the number of nests is due to a disturbance or not.

 

Some wildlife found in the forest that need vernal pools are spotted salamander, blue spotted salamander, and wood frogs.

 

River otter and Blandings turtle have been found in the forest.  Blandings turtles like diversity, living in the wetlands but possibly using the sandy area under the power lines to nest.  This specie is of concern in New Hampshire.  They don’t reach maturity until 15-20 years old.  This requires them to survive crossing roads for many years.  And as they can travel long distances, they are vulnerable to disturbance as well as road kill.

 

Red-shouldered hawks have large territories which include the town forest.

 

Early Successional Habitat-Powerline Corridor

A very disturbed habitat type since it is maintained by PSNH keeping vegetation below their powerlines.  This created a dry shrub community with a little wetland.  Prairie warbler, eastern towhee, field sparrow, chestnut-sided warbler, and indigo bunting all nest and forage in this habitat.  These species won’t be found in the maturing forest except perhaps the indigo bunting.  It is unknown if these species are doing well or poorly because of the disturbance under the powerlines.

 

Oak and Oak-Pine Forest

The town forest hosts species such: oven bird, affected by fragmentation; scarlet tanager which prefer open forest; black and white warbler, which feed along bark; white-crested nut hatch which nest in cavities; pileated woodpecker, also a cavity nester and the largest woodpecker in New Hampshire.  Ellen pointed out that these species prefer a diversity of levels such as canopy and forest floor.

 

Chipmunks and red-backed salamanders are also found in this area of the forest and are relatively common.

 

Pine-Hemlock-Mixed Forest

Ellen pointed out that if we just had an old forest, most of these species would not be found.  Those found in the town forest include: black-throated green warbler; blue-headed vireo, formerly known as “solitary vireo”; red-eyed vireo; pine warbler; winter wren, which prefer fallen trees and have a beautiful song; hermit thrush, also have a beautiful song; fisher, a wide-ranging predator; and porcupine.

 

Habitat Structure-Diversity

The major thing to think about when studying the forest is the habitat structure.  Considered horizontally you find some but not all mature forest, small pockets of new growth, some wetlands, and the area under the powerlines.  Typically the more horizontal diversity you have, the more wildlife there is.

 

Vertical diversity looks at the floor to the tops of the trees.  Is there much leaf litter, waste, humus, fern, wild flowers, mushrooms and mosses, dead wood on the ground?  Moving upward you consider: is there regeneration of seedlings; are there different stages of dying trees; and what’s the overall forest itself?  There are pockets of diversity, particularly in the north eastern part.

 

One of the goals of forest management is to restore diversity.  Ellen said it’s not necessarily the goal to have wide diversity everywhere.  For example, hemlock tends to grow densely thus preventing much undergrowth.  Thus there is less vertical diversity in a hemlock grove.  Nature provides some disturbance which makes for diversity and humans can manipulate the forest as well.

 

Goals need to be decided and a balance needs to be achieved between human aesthetics and structure for wildlife.  We need to decide what we think looks good and what wildlife would consider good.  Ellen said that wildlife tend to like what we may call “messy”: fallen trees, etc.

 

Part of wildlife structure is food.  This includes:

 

A wide variety of wildlife food is needed to feed the wildlife year-round.

 

Great Meadow

A question was asked regarding the age of the great meadow.  Ellen said she did not know but thought the beaver will be there for a while as there is still food for them.  She mentioned that it needs to be decided if we want the beaver there, keeping in mind that they provide an important part contributing to the wetland which is a key part of the forest.  A classic method of forest management is to cut back an area of wood and create regeneration for beaver.

 

Rookery

The heron rookery, as Ellen said, is a shorter term reality as the nesting trees will eventually fall.  Dave Knight spoke about heron nests that are close to highways.  There was a small discussion about heron nests and human disturbance.  Ellen said the town forest seems to have a fairly stable wetland system.

 

Deer and Bear

Chris G. asked about white-tailed deer or black bear.  Ellen said deer are fairly common and are doing well.  Black bear are more adaptable, she called them raccoons without the tails, and are also doing well.  Bear are fewer than deer and like fruit in the summer.  There are more sightings in southern New Hampshire.

 

 

Charlie Moreno’s Plan

Ellen was asked how she views Charlie Moreno’s plan.  Ellen said they’ve worked together on plans before.  Charlie has mapped the forest in great detail.  His information went into the beginning chapters of the Stewardship Plan talking about the current condition of the forest.  Forestry management really depends on what the stewardship goals are: do we leave areas undisturbed, do we want to do active habitat management which can be done at the same time as forestry, is creating future opportunities more important.  Ellen said a licensed forester must be consulted if active forest management will occur.

 

Stewardship Goals

Ellen described the stewardship goals as the overarching priorities of the town and are described in more detail in the draft Conservation Easement deed.  This will also be an appendix in the Stewardship Plan.

 

Ellen said that she understands wildlife habitat is a high priority, and, as listed here, these are not in any particular order. 

 

  1. Conserve and manage wildlife habitats, wetlands, water resources, and ecological processes

¨      Ellen explained that the Easement goes a long way in taking care of this aspect of the stewardship goals.  Maintaining water quality is a high priority.  She mentioned that the town forest is relatively free of invasive species which is great.

  1. Provide public access

¨      This includes recreation.

  1. Preserve cultural and historic resources

¨      The stone walls are an important feature.

  1. Provide for agricultural use if desired

¨      Preserving the capacity for growing food there is important since it is unknown what will happen in the future.

  1. Retain in perpetuity for sustainable forestry

¨      It is possible to have forestry and still meet these other goals.

  1. Retain the scenic quality

¨      This, as Ellen said, is totally in the eye of the beholder.

 

Invasive Species

Chris G. asked about what Ellen meant by “relatively free of invasive species.”  Ellen said that she would have to check her notes.  She thinks there may be a smattering here and there, but even under the powerlines are mostly native shrubs and saplings.  There is no purple loosestrife, milfoil, knotweed, buckthorn, or bittersweet.  Creating big areas of disturbance tends to bring in invasive species.

 

Ellen said that what’s in the forest is partly because of what’s outside the forest.  If the borders outside change drastically, it can change the forest as well. 

 

Habitat Management

·     Wetland and water resource protection: Are there setbacks and no-cut areas?

 

Stewardship Issues

Ellen showed a slide of the section of Tuckertown Road that is flooded.  She said this is a big issue.  Pedestrians may cross if they don’t mind getting wet, but it is illegal to drive a motorized vehicle through wetlands.  She explained that there are a series of low spots along the trail north of the flooding.  Off road vehicles are traveling these trails.  This is causing erosion and eroding which is a concern for the whole area.

 

Ellen showed a slide of the beaver flooding and areas of erosion around the powerline corridor.

 

Ellen talked about the old gravel pit that it contains trash.  She explained that just behind the old pit is the young forest habitat.  She expressed the opinion that this the trash is unsightly, but the overall area could be a good a wildlife area, as turtles could nest in the sandy area and some birds would use that area for foraging.  She said that the town could say that a shooting range should not be there because it creates a mess and also that it disturbs the wildlife habitat.

 

Ellen showed a slide of the rookery and said there are a lot of trails around the area.  The town needs to consider if these need to be maintained, are these good places for trails, are they disturbing the heron nests, etc.  She said the wetland system here is very nice.

 

Chris G. spoke about the flooding along Tuckertown Road and that there is a difference in elevations between the beaver dam and the flooded road.  With that, he did not see how Great Meadow would be flooding Tuckertown Road, especially with the pond levelers working.  Curt asked about Terra Realty.  It was mentioned that the level of the road would need to be raised as erosion has lowered the road bed.  It was mentioned that the functionality of the pond levelers needs to be verified.

 

The dumping issue at the shooting range was addressed as a key issue.  There was a discussion of installation of gates at the end of Tuckertown Trail to prevent trucks from entering the town forest.

 

Bob asked: How does the SP obligate the town to address issues?  Are we obligated by the easement holder to address these?  Ellen answered that Tuckertown Road and the area under the powerlines are not part of the easement.  Bruce stated that the idea of the easement is to have ongoing supervision issues, to have natural areas that are sometimes managed, and motorized traffic heavily impacts the area.  If recreation vehicles are tearing up wetland, by state law it’s the land owner’s responsibility, whether public or private owner.  Bruce explained that travel through wetland is against the law.  The question was asked if off-road behicles will be allowed.  Curt answered that the only areas where these are allowed are on Tuckertown Road and under the power lines.

 

Dave spoke about doing things right the first time and for the right reasons.  He expressed the opinion that the forest isn’t big enough to ever make enough money to pay for itself.  He doesn’t like to see “some clown” clear cut 50 acres next to the town forest, and feels that there is enough cooperation to make things work within the forest.

 

Curt mentioned the discharge of firearms in the forest.  Chris G. said that he didn’t feel the question was clearly posed to LGC specifically about target shooting.  Curt explained that he was asking how to regulate all shooting.

 

Chris L. talked about a sign that he had installed in such a way, that someone facing the sign would read that shooting in that direction is shooting toward the Colby Pond development.  That sign is full of bullet holes.  He suggested using the same regulations that exist for hunting; i.e. no high powered weapons, etc.

 

Betsy suggested having committee members meet with the Chief of Police to figure out what can be done.  What can be enforced will need to answered by LGC first.

 

Wade was asked what is legal and not legal in the town forest.  Wade said the statutes are very vague.  One is that there can be no discharge within 300’ of a home and the other is reckless use of firearms.  The police department receives few complaints about hunting in the forest.  By shear evidence of what’s in the forest, it’s apparent that they are being reckless.  He said there isn’t much they can do about shooting in the forest.  However, if it were decided that it is illegal then the police could do something about it.

 

Curt asked if anyone is willing to say they support target practice.  Phil expressed the opinion that the pit in the forest, in spite of it’s proximity to Colby Pond, is the safest place to discharge firearms.  He said that even if the town makes it illegal, it is unenforceable.  If that area is closed down, those who are being reckless won’t spend money to go to a fire range, they’ll find another area which is not as safe, for target practice.

 

Bob said in no way should the town sanction a firing range on town owned property.  Curt said that by town vote, shooting on town owned property can be made illegal.  It then becomes enforceable.  There was a long discussion about shooting in the town forest. 

Bob said that after hearing at length the goals for the stewardship plan and conservation, shooting in that area is completely incompatible.

 

Curt mentioned that there was a problem with ATV’s and someone stepped up to take some responsibility.  He expressed the opinion that this would be easier if someone would take the same responsibility regarding the shooting issue.

 

The purpose of the site walk is for Ellen to illustrate the important issues and will be able to point out certain areas for discussion.

 

Chris G. asked about the planned Eagle Scout project of a blind for observing the heron nests and a safe distance for placement of the blind.  Ellen explained that the rookery is close to a subdivision so the herons may be adaptable to some disturbance.  Some level of monitoring may need to be done and some education to the public can be beneficial as well.

 

There was a discussion about what the next meeting will cover.  Curt asked for a motion to adjourn from the Forestry Committee.

 

The meeting adjourned at 9:33 pm.

 

 

 

Minutes are prepared by Janet S. Denison, clerk