Conservation Commission Minutes

Meeting date: 
Wednesday, January 24, 2018

Attendees:         Karen Day, Candi Fowler, Stephanie Kokal, Janet Renaud, Roger Lessard, Carol Irvin, Craig Morrocco (guest), Chris Kersbergen (guest), Megan Ham (guest), and Janet Lutkus (minute-taker)

The meeting was called to order at 7:35 pm by Chairperson Roger Lessard. The following items were addressed:

  1. Greenfield Conservation Commission (GCC) presence at tonight’s Greenfield Zoning Board of Adjustment (ZBA) meeting – Roger Lessard.
    • Roger asked that one member of the commission leave tonight’s GCC meeting to attend the ZBA meeting downstairs beginning at 8:00.  At the ZBA meeting, permission is being requested to put a self-storage business on a property in a wetlands conservation district so at least one member of the commission should be present. Carol Irvin volunteered to go down to monitor the ZBA meeting. To be addressed is ZBA application 2018-02, Lot # Map R1-29. A variance is required to put a building closer to wetlands and put a driveway culvert over the brook running through it.
  2. Accept or Amend Previous Meeting Minutes – Commission members.                
    •  Janet Renaud made a motion to accept the minutes, which Roger distributed and commission members reviewed prior to the meeting. Carol Irvin seconded the motion. All members present approved.
  3. Status of Natural Resources Inventory (NRI) – Roger Lessard.
    • Roger reported that he recently communicated with Henry Underwood of SWRPC, who is currently working to incorporate all requested changes to the NRI. Henry is aware that SWRPC will not get paid until it is complete and commission is happy with it.
  4. Brief Introduction of guests – Craig Morrocco, Megan Ham, and Chris Kersbergen.
    • Craig Morrocco is here to discuss the pollinator project which he started on his Old Bennington Rd. property. Megan Ham is a third grade school teacher at Greenfield Elementary School, and is a self-taught bee keeper. Chris Kersbergen is interested in bee keeping as well.
  5. Roadside Roundup discussion among Commission members -- Roger asked commission members to voice whether or not they want to continue having the Roadside Roundup.
    •  Candi Fowler expressed positive feelings about the event and is in favor of continuing it.
    •  Stephanie Kokal said she is not in favor of having the event this year and thinks the commission should take a year off and see if residents miss the event. 
    • Roger Lessard expressed the opinion that mailing the collection bags out to all residents does not give the commission a return on its investment.
    •  Carol Irvin agreed with Stephanie that the commission should take this year off from holding the roundup. If the commission does hold the event this year, Carol does not think they should mail the bags out to residents. There is a large effort on the part of the Givers to meet to prepare the bags for mailing, and not many commission members can make that meeting.
    • Karen Day said she wants to keep the Roadside Roundup but feels the commission can make changes.  She feels the commission should track the roads that are covered and plan to clean the roads that do not get covered. 
    • Janet Renaud voted to abandon the Roadside Roundup.
    • Roger suggested the commission take this year off from holding the Roadside Roundup but still make bags available at the library and the recycling center for a town cleanup around the time of other local Earth Day events.    
    • Karen expressed the opinion that if the commission decides to cancel the event this year, they should cancel the whole thing and not provide bags.
    • The general consensus of the commission was to suspend the Roadside Roundup for 2018 and gauge the public’s reaction.
  6. Possible warrant article to raise or remove limit on dividend from land use change tax – Discussion among Commission members.
    • There is a $5000.00 cap on the Change of Use Tax which goes into the conservation fund when people take property out of current use.  Roger advised that this year is probably not the best year to introduce such a warrant article, and it should wait for another year.  The commissioners agreed.
  7. Greenfield Conservation Commission (GCC) Presence on Town Website/Facebook page – Discussion among the commission.
    • Roger suggested simply creating a Facebook page for the conservation commission instead of having a presence on the Town Website.  The commission agreed to this and asked Candi Fowler to be in charge of producing the page.
    •  The Facebook administrator for the page can refuse to post contributions by residents that are not appropriate. 
  8. Commission-sponsored program offerings: The Loon Program – Discussion among Commission members.
    •  A commission member is needed to coordinate with the Greenfield librarian Beverly Pietlicki, and Kittie Wilson, the presenter of a program on loons, to agree on a date when the program can be presented in the Wensberg Room. Stephanie volunteered to help coordinate this.  Roger will send Stephanie the necessary details. The program is to be scheduled for spring and will depend on when library schedule can coordinate with Kittie’s schedule.
  9. Pollinator project – Craig Morrocco, Megan Ham, Chris Kersbergen.
    • After Craig acquired part of the Robertson property, he wanted to do wildlife habitat work. He worked with Catherine McGee to do early successional habitat work. Catherine suggested creating a pollinator habitat. 
    • There are two different types of management protocol. One protocol is to put heavy white plastic down on the plot which ‘cooks’ everything. A problem with this protocol is that deer ran across the plot and left slices in the plastic. The other protocol is to till the plot just once a month 3-5 inches down.  The Xerces Society in Massachusetts (https://xerces.org/) gave Craig a list of recommended seeds to plant ,which were not easy to find. Craig used a seed mix.  It was recommended that Craig plant just before the ground freezes or put the seeds on top of the snow.  Craig said that the best time to plant is at the first frost and you don’t have to till the soil at that point.
    • The maintenance protocol follows.  At one point later in summer, you lop everything off at 12 inches high with a weed whacker.  The size of the area is .1 acres.
    • Roger thinks there are partners who may help pay for seed for the GCC pollinator project. Karen said another option is to use conservation funds for seed.
    • Ray Cilley has registered his field (across the road from Craig Morrocco’s plot) as a bee sanctuary where people can raise their bees, and he has built a bee house.
    • Roger suggested that when broadcasting the seed, you can mix it with kitty litter or sand, to prevent clumping.  Craig measured his area and mixed his seed with sand and sowed the seed by hand. 
    • The proposed site for the GCC pollinator habitat – a railroad bed in Greenfield – has a 45 degree slope. Roger talked to Peter Leishman who has a maintenance agreement with the state for this property.  Once bare ground becomes more exposed, Peter said he’d be happy to look at the area with Roger.  The commission can ask Peter not to spray herbicides where they want to seed the slope of the railroad bed. Members asked if additives would be needed to fertilize the soil. Craig responded that the poorer the soil, the better.
    • Roger suggested that local businesses may be interested in being part of this project.
    • Roger expressed the need for a scientific start to this project. One suggestion was inviting someone from the University of New Hampshire (UNH) to speak.
    • When asked how Megan learned about the topic, she replied that she taught herself about the bees by reading, and watching YouTube. 
    • Roger expressed the view that a subcommittee should be formed to work on this project and asked who would like to be on the subcommittee. Stephanie and Candi volunteered for the subcommittee but do not want leadership roles.
    • The subcommittee should build awareness and look into where to get seed. Candi suggested talking to local gardeners.  
    • Candi suggested the commission begin the effort with an article in the Spirit describing the state of the bees in New Hampshire.
    • Karen said she is willing to talk to the Selectboard about planting Zinnias in beds around the center of Greenfield. Karen asked if the intention is to spread mix of wild flowers everywhere.
    • Roger suggested choosing a night for the subcommittee to meet and to put a brief announcement in the Spirit (coming out next week) about it.  Karen was asked if she could produce a quick announcement for readers to contact the Greenfield Conservation Commission if they are interested in helping stop the decline of the bee population and giving the date of the first subcommittee meeting.
    • A suggestion for the date and location for the first subcommittee meeting was Wednesday, February 21 at 7pm in the Greenfield Town Hall. There was general consensus among the commission regarding the suggested date, time, and location.
  10. Inventory of GCC maps, creation of primer for new members, etc. – Discussion among Commission members.
    • Roger advised that the commission needs to keep records in a manual so they can pass information on to future iterations of the commission. 
    • Candi asked what is involved in inventorying the maps.  Karen replied that there is an entire filing cabinet of maps to be inventoried. Janet Renaud offered to help Candi facilitate the work.

The meeting adjourned at 9:00 pm. The next regular meeting of the Greenfield Conservation Commission is February 28, 2018 at 7:30 pm.

Minutes respectfully submitted by Janet Lutkus to Roger Lessard for approval, corrections, distribution, and posting.