Warwick Open Space Plan Committee Meeting May 27, 2009 7:00 PM Warwick Town Hall Minutes taken by Brad W. Compton: 1. Meeting called to order at 7:06 pm. 2. Minutes of 5/13 approved unanimously. 3. Follow-up on "TO DO" from last meeting Clare checked into PCBs; apparently we have none, or at least none to speak of. Whew. Have broadband paragraph. Will be edited extensively by Broadband Committee. Mary Williamson: digitized soils data from Jennifer Smith (Mt. Grace staffer 978 245 2055 x22) who specializes in agriculture. She mapped all prime and secondary ("state importance") agricultural soils that are currently farmed in Warwick. She made a couple of maps. Scanned 1960's maps, geo-referenced; some had problems with too few points, resulting in some distortion. Used 2005 land use to find agricultural land and mapped prime & state importance soils that intersected agricultural land. Consensus: very cool. We'll include USGS topo map version in report. 4. Committee Reports - Acreage of water & wetlands done. Pat Lemon is working on list of historical sites; will be done soon. Teen meeting June 13, town hall, with pizza. Kimberly's colleague Whitty have done a lot of work on Chapter 4, whittling it down and focusing it more on resources in Warwick and especially on watersheds, which state sees as important for open space plans. Mary Williamson: Ashuelot River may be included in Conte Refuge in the future, but not soon. Survey results: 54 surveys were tallied by Matt, Dustin, George, Brad, and Ted, thanks to a spreadsheet Matt put together. Matt has tallied results. No analysis or comparison to 2002 survey results have been done yet. We want to do a write-up for the newsletter. Kimberly thinks a comparison with 2002 survey will help direct us. 5. Dave Shepardson has information on streams that were omitted from 2002 plan; he'll email it. (Not received as of this writing.) 6. Species Cadet Subcommittee: subcommittee wants to write a couple of paragraphs about species for body of report, and include tables as an appendix. David Brown's preliminary bird list is done (but nobody can read his Works file). David will do mammals too; Brad will do reptiles and amphibians. Group likes including list as an appendix; Kimberly says this is fine. 7. Community Outreach II - Update on Survey status, Returns, Processing, Ability to meet June deadline - Survey Subcommittee (Karro Frost arrives to start taking minutes at 7:35 pm.) Comparison between 2002 survey and current survey. Kimberly mentions that most respondents feel that the town feels the same as it did previously. Matt Hickler notes that the questions asking for encourage, discourage are good for direction. He is done with the survey. Kimberly ntes ambivalence on whether the state should develop recreation opps on their land. Kim was concerned with many people having had their drinking water tested within the past 5 years. Most people haven't had problems with their well water other than sodium and some Coliform; discussion ensues about Moores Pond prior water testing. Ted will do a write-up providing summary of current survey and then compare to 2001 data. Patricia Lemon will do numbers. Kimberly will include both the blank survey and the results of the 2009 survey. 8. Chapter 5 Discussion - Discussion of Criteria for Acquisition of Protected Land - Mary Williamson will have this for the next meeting, she will prepare a draft and circulate to OSC and this committee too. 9. Discussion of Kimberly's Agenda Items - A. Final Draft of Section 3 especially rewrite of Broadband Paragraph - Patricia Lemon noted that she just heard from Reva Reck who did an extensive rewrite and will have final version soon for Kimberly. B. Near Final Draft of Section 4 - Comments on the Connecticut River, Ashuelot River. Matt Hickler mentions the letter from Pat Swain (NHESP) and the valuable information that she included. Any additional comments should go to Kimberly as one draft instead of as multiple comments. Species sub-committee and Dave Shepardson will rework this section for Kimberly and Witty by July 1. C. Update on Section 5 - Materials have been sent to Kimberly already. Mary Williamson will provide criteria for acquiring unprotected land. Mary will also do a rewrite of the new Chapter 61 rules. D. From timeline of April 15 1. Discuss beginning draft list of needs, goals, and objectives - skipped over. Kimberly is leaving a pad with a large print out for us to use to discuss at our next meeting. 2. Discuss June Public Outreach meeting to discuss Survey Results and community open space and recreation goals, issues, concerns, priorities: Now is the time to have a public meeting to discuss survey results. Matt Hickler recalls that at a prior meeting the committee decided doing either the public meeting or a survey. Ted asks if we could do a meeting in September instead of doing it now. Kimberly feels that the survey results should be finalized, the committee should develop a new set of goals and objectives and then we could present to a public meeting in September. Clare Green suggests put up an easel at the library to get additional comments. Review these ideas at the next meeting. E. Discuss 3 problems - Kimberly's homework assignment top three environmental problems. This discussion informs the action plan section. Ted Cady: beavers, deterioration (erosion) of woods roads and trails, maintaining community spirit. Karro Frost: Non-native invasive species, wetland education, ATV Brad Compton: ATV, illegal dumping in old cellar holes, lack of economy in town that allows residents to work here in town so many of us need to commute long distances to work. Matt Hickler: Open fields - we don't have enough to keep our diversity; Ponds - new state regulations, new dam regulations all the liability falls on the dam owners, and the state is encouraging removal of all dams in the state. Huge amount of biodiversity may be lost when these are lost. (Grassland birds are disappearing as an example.) Mary Williamson: invasive exotic species, houses built in fields, funding for conservation, even though much of Warwick is protected, there are still special areas that have not been protected in town. Dustin Shepardson -runoff, sedimentation from roads into streams; illegal dumping both on and off roads; eutrophication of ponds (especially Moores Pond) Dave Shepardson - maintaining fire roads in town - many have really deteriorated and they are needed; negative impacts from beaver flooding, i.e., the browness of the water in Moores Pond; the Moores Pond study was following Coliform bacteria up Grace Brook, it would be good to find out whether that is still a problem. Clare Green: Beavers and their impact, and the encroachment of many animals including bears and woodchucks quality support, control; the town looking at going more self-sufficient looking toward the future, energy, recycling, wind, all levels, tightening our community abilities; protecting the species that are special to this area; trail maintenance. George Roaf: signage and new Warwickian orientation would be nice! so many gems in town and I don't know where to start or how to start (just got to Devil's Washbowl for the first); Picnic area and trees were just cut when he moved in. Kimberly notes the Groton OSC has a trail map illustrating special places and the protected land open for public access. Matt notes that one thing is there could be a spin-off from this committee that would include taking care of some of the tasks that we have discussed, such as a trail map that could be on the web. Karro notes that this might be better to make as a booklet in the library instead of putting it on the web. Dave Shepardson discusses some maps, one from Charlie Morse's History of Warwick. One has historic sites, and natural areas, and asks if information from it could be included on a map. Dave Shepardson and others should circle areas on the map that should be included on an Open Space Plan map for next meeting. 10. Recognize Committee's high dedication and morale and note approximate half way point in process. Ted provides refreshments for the committee. 11. Assignments and Items for meeting June 10: Discussion of tasks for next time: Review each person's environmental concerns and select top five or six and include some explanatory text to go along with them. Dave's info on additional streams and lakes Review historic map and which sites should be included on the Scenic Resources map. Survey results Criteria for land acquisition Patricia Lemon will provide comparison of 2001 to 2009 surveys. Easel at library. Discuss Ted's summary write of surveys Meeting June 24 (Kimberly will not be attending this meeting) Discussing needs, goals, and objectives from survey results We can include goals from 2002 and we can say what we've accomplished so far. And it might be a good opening paragraph for the action plan. Review sections 6, 7, and 8 12. Other business and Adjourn