so we are now recording to the cloud and this is a meeting of the Conservation Commission Land Management subcommittee and due to suspension of open meeting laws by the governor of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts this meeting is taking place via zoom and we'll be uploaded to
our town of amers YouTube channel by Our IT staff um I have made Alex the co-chair and Dave you want me to make you the co-host okay so means that if there's members of the
public on you'll tell me because I can't see it I can take a look too I can how do you see that in how do you come to see that um so the way I have it set up is that I see you guys and then I have a
um menu on the right for participants and and then I can see the panelist and the attendees oh I don't have that so just I'll try figure that out some other time and not waste time on it so keep an eye out there's no
attendees at this point okay so um the agenda called I put conservation land rules and regulations on First and um and then beavers enforce
management and Michelle has to leave at one and I think probably item one will take our hour um I am mindful of the date and um try and roll right along so the
reason I put land rules and regulations on is because when that uh item came before the commission we had a favorable vote for everything in there except
hunting so the rules as they stand now uh have the revisions in it except we have the original language for hunting and there's a bunch of other things that we changed and we went back
to the commission with some adjustments which they approved but not for hunting so um I have sent you a document that is the rules and regulations as as
as approved with with um some language highlighted that I'd like to address and move forward and this has nothing to do with whether there is hunting or whether there isn't
hunting um the the document simply needs to be updated and right now the commission has voted to favor hunting so with that I'd like to share um where is the share button here
it is is so can you see uh a document with a bunch of red stuff at the top yeah okay so I'm going to quickly go down through here um and this note at the top is a
temporary note to just record what this document's all about and it says essentially what I just said is that uh the commission voted to approve these proposed rules except number 23 on December 17 the subcommittee approved
revisions to mountain bikes and horses and also dogs and added number 29 about Trails which are all highlighted in yellow and on the 18th the commission approved those proposed Provisions
without modification and approved with modification uh for Clarity on those that are in Gray and so I'll just quickly go down through so you get an idea what this looks like you notice so far there's no gray there's no yellow so
here's mountain bikes you remember working on this and there's no proposed changes now these changes went before the commission were approved and I will note that although we said mountain bikes and horses are um
are can be can H can that use can happen anywhere there is a place on the website where it it lists where Trails cannot are not allowed for mountain bikes and horses and there's a conflict between what we're going bringing
forward and what's on the website that that needs to be cleaned up once these policies are approved are we suggesting that we defer to this the highlighted section so that the website conforms to this new rules
and rag just to clarify what yes once these rules and Rags are go through the hearing and come public comment and are in fact in force there's a conflict right now the web lists somebody did a
lot of work and they identified all kinds of trails where it's not appropriate and is appropriate and so on so forth I I would just say in general Alex the website we're gonna just whole wholesale change everything once
all of these are approved everything on the website just changes as per what the commission approves so yeah I I I wouldn't spend too much time on what's on the website now because it's all it's all just going to be
replaced by what the commission approves yeah Dave I you'll notice that I sent out a a note um when I'm Waring around the website for one purpose and if I bump into something I saw that this morning I'll never remember to go back so I just
take time to note it that's all but in terms of the rules and the rags and what not we'll just wholesale boom it's all coming down so this stuff under mountain bikes and horses is highlighted because that's where we made a change and that change has been
approved we don't have to do any work with it today or in the future and here's dogs on leashes we you I'm just recalling what we did uh we made exception for dogs on leashes which was approved and here's a gray
area dogs are not fam and um unless the activity is in association with a licensed Hunter so we the commission made some changes there and that and they are in what you're
seeing so that's done now here I'm GNA come back to this because this is fishing and hunting and just go to the bottom there's 29 where modifying Trails is not allowed
and the commission made some some changes which were approved so going back up to this stuff here um no matter where hunting winds up right now this document has the original
language in it and to me there are problems with it that need to be addressed um just so the original language for fishing for example is fishing is allowed on conservation land in accordance with mass
law don't all Wetlands avoid damage to Banks if fishing license is required so on so forth and um what was approved as item
22 was fishing is permitted we're not posted so um my note on my my note on the side the original role was temporarily inserted here by me so C sub committee
can see the original language and decide if any change needs to take place there's the whole thing um can I ask a question about this one yeah so you included
in on 23 the language a proposed revised rule was not approved on December 3rd are you suggesting that be included in our rules and rigs or is that no it's a working this is a working document for
I'm just recording what happened okay maybe that's more clearly put in a comment because I assumed that it was more of a statement of the process no no once I think once we figure out what to
put here and I have some suggestions which I've already drafted and presented to this committee which which maintains hunting and that is to adds a public safety element um all
this um blue would come out okay the the section that I'm talking to isn't in blue that's why I was asking it's it looks like it's standard text so it's like the first sentence on 23 I mean I was just my
comment so if it's blue maybe just put it in blue so we know that it's temporary cuse I was just confused because the yes the hunting revision wasn't approved but it also
wasn't but we haven't voted I got I got it in the time we'll be on today I'll go through all that but I wanted to start here sure um and because we're going to have to deal with with the issue
here and we may be out of step with the speakers but our time's short so we need to do something anyways yeah I can I can make that blue you're absolutely right therefore the default by default the existing rule remains now this was a
note that so here's the original language for fish go back to that um what was approved I think was uh um up here under
22 in the original language was they were it was it I don't know what we want to do with fishing then the town of amorist exerpt uh ex
this original language from August 11 of 22 is is exactly what remains so when they disapproved our proposed 20 item 22 disallowing hunting
by default the original language is in effect and um I so my comment here is that the original blue was temporarily inserted here by me so the subcommittee can see original language and decide if any
change needs to take place so with that I'd like to switch documents and show you what um what I wrote hold on or maybe I should show you something
else show caption share I'm going to share a document which um Michelle and Dave have seen before so um it's not we're hearing about deer
hunting a lot but the hunting on conservation land isn't just deer this is a list of the all the animals that for which there's a season including down to
um um I I've got migratory Birds on here but I didn't actually go and write them in but so down to 27 there are 20 there are wood Chucks you can read the list and the black is up top is the calendar and the black
is the season so there's a lot closed in December during the deer shotgun and primitive arms or no just the shotgun season so that's why that's white and on
the right is the hunting implements so archery rifle there are Shotguns there are rifles allowed for gray squirrels coyotes including dogs we don't know the town doesn't monitor who's hunting we
have no idea if anybody is out there and likewise we don't monitor Trail use so I thought I would just present this is this is what it looks like is possible on conservation land in amorist
there's hardly a time when some hunting isn't allowed um Alex or Dave did the guest speaker touch on any of the other species besides deer or was it just focused on deer just deer okay so we have no idea like
what so I got another I got another slide here and I can explain um so if you take away all if you take away the majority of the black and you leave leave available for
hunting that which is most controversial Deer uh for example and in talking with the state they would like to have hunting for things that provide entry into um
hunting for young people or the inexperienced and they would be pheasants turkey uh grouses in here I don't know if we got any grous on the on they're in the area but I don't know if they're on our conservation land and rabbits so if you if you disallowed
everything else you get rid of these big black areas and you get rid of a lot of rifles and you get rid of a lot of Open Seasons where um you can do anything you want any time of year except during the
shotgun deer season that's down in here all these animals here so I could go Crow hunting on I think it's oh where's crows brow crows are available for hunting on
Fridays Saturdays and Mondays I shot crows as a kid um I thought it put a put an owl up in a tree and they dive bomb it it was you know anyways we have so here's an alternative
that we might consider to so your point here and this is this is interesting you know I think we've seen these before a couple weeks or months ago whatever meeting ago um so your point is to say what from a safety standpoint and
just a Simplicity standpoint saying listen we're going to allow we're going to allow deer pheasant Grouse turkey hair rabbit but we're just just gonna clean the Slate we're we're not going to allow the other stuff we're going to
allow these four or five categories of hunting period this other stuff it's harder to control harder to know when it's happening and and and just focus on the main these main categories of hunting it's a POS it
is a possible alternative if it could be administered and that's a big question about whether or not it could be administered but that's you'll have to get some feedback to that so I just what do you mean by administered as um the
town how do you and how do you you put it on the website or you know I how can it be enforced that's a administrative issue yeah
um but but I think it's to me me it's a it could be a proposal coming from this subcommittee back to the full commission to say listen we we've heard some of the information we've learned some things at
least from one speaker maybe we'll have more and and we think consolidating if you will and and allowing simply fewer things to be hunted on conservation land for the following reasons is the way to go um
yeah so I I had convers ations with the um head of the belter Town Office of Mass wildlife and um that's where I got the
news that they would like to have available the their their entry points call it that for younger hunters and turkey is popular again I I don't think there's any grow but the states stocks
pheasants I think on Atkins flats or other places I think that's the only place but yeah pretty consistently Atkin slats and so um in deference to them and trying to keep controversy down this
is the group that I thought uh develops in in listening to the state and um and and for examp example I didn't I didn't include Bears I didn't include so
here what would be the rationale I guess because that was one of the criticisms that we got before toward the subcommittee and and our initial proposal what would be the rationale for for eliminating those that's what is it
a dozen or more categories of hunting on conservation land and only allowing five or six above to uh improve Public Safety while allowing
for common game to be hunted still with the most popular yeah and and I might add again if we're thinking of Rashel that it would be easier for our limited
staff to know understand be out in the field during these Seasons than the previous slide you know the the previous uh that one to go wow you know how do we know I
mean you can hunt like you said Alex he hunt pretty much every month of the year I mean that's just a lot of the door is wide open there and we don't have a lot of staff and we've got a couple thousand acres of land and 125 miles of trails to
get there so it's an interesting proposal I I think it might be one to talk with the full commission about well was just trying to figure out a way to um deal with two activities
which um could conflict and yes I understand there's been no accidents with deer there have with turkeys uh there are with bird hunting even a vice president at one time shot his hunting
partner um so there could be somebody out there plinking any time and um you know when I was a kid I'd go off with my brother in a 22 and we would shoot
squirrs um what about is duck hunting not on here Alex here oh migratory game okay gotcha but I don't know where on I was trying to think where on conservation land we can there's ducks what about geese would
that be same where what bers of water are they on um one place would be um between the naratic rail trail and say kastr Lane out in that area uh kind
of uh out in the the the kind of Greater Brickyard area um along the Hop excuse me along the there'd be PL hot Brook sorry along hot Brook and the Beaver
ponds they're gonna be wood ducks yep and there may be malards and black ducks um oh yeah definitely malards yep but I I just didn't know what to do when I was making this I didn't know what to do with migratory Birds Dave to be honest so I just
put it on the list but I I mean there is a season but I if somebody said do we have that on conservation land I couldn't answer the question yeah well this is an interesting proposal is to really kind of consolidate and say hey we're willing to consider these other
types of hunting but just to simplify things and make it safer and and easier to administer and and oversee we're we're we're we're not going to allow the following things so we heard a lot about deer hunting and
the conversation right now is about deer hunting it's the mo would be the most controversial and we heard that deer hunters aren't going to be near Trails because people walking will scare where the deer and no Hunter wants to be where
somebody else is if they're going to cause deer to go away so but that's not true with with you know any of these other things things they aren't going to they could be hunting quite close to a trail anyways so this is what it looks
like it reduces uh the the recreational exposure and to a much more limited uh degree and this last slide you'll notice all these cross outs are going to disappear it simply tidies up this
slide it's the same you'll notice it the black doesn't change just all I did was eliminate the animals that for which hunting seasons are being eliminated it was a transition this is a transition
slide to this so um you know would this fly and um I don't know it's it's the best idea I can come up with other
than Banning it all uh in the public public interest because it's it's not about deer it's about to me it's about public interest and Public Safety with this going
on I think the mige birds is still a question mark yeah I think we should add that just so we can visualize it mean I can do that okay I can do that um then my other question would be given where
we've all been over the past couple of months what would be our what would be our process for this would we I I yeah I'm just well the charter this
this the policy issue rests with the subcommittee the education rests with a full commission right now our term is coming to an end pretty soon I hope
Michelle well I as going to say ask a different question see go ahead and finish if Dave's question so the this the the policy issue rests with us so I think it's our our within our Charter like with every other rule bring it mash
it around and bring it to the commission for their consideration and vote and um this would take some time this wouldn't be like a 10-minute thing I mean the speaker that we just
had was scheduled for I think a half hour and he was on for an hour so um um and surprisingly we didn't have members of the public calling in so I
would um I'm what I was going to do is write up what our choices are as a subcommittee and um they are to um come forward again eliminating all
hunting come forward with a compromise alternative like this um and I suppose there's other Alternatives I was I was going to write up a memor like a memorandum of
facts but I'm not I'm not going to debate the dear speakers the other option would be status quo just keep everything as it is and yeah we can people can hunt all the you know the leave it the way it is yeah and cut it
down like this or eliminate it all together and the the only problem I saw with this alternative is if the town thought it could not be administered that's always a question with every single thing we do
well okay it's the only thing I could think of go ahead Michelle practically speaking the less we have to administer the the fewer Hunters that'll be out there the the fewer you know we're
eliminating you know 12 14 categories of hunting and and Times of year and times of day and and interactions and we're focused on one two three four five plus my you know
ducks and geese so 2 4 six kinds of hunting as opposed to I forgot what your original list had but 20 some odd you know so I I think there's something to be said for
that and I and I you know I mean are we really going to get skunk Hunters coming out of the woods saying oh my goodness you're eliminating skunk hunting I have I I I shot one when I was a kid I would love for somebody to come to my back three season porch and Hunt right
there for the next couple of weeks and take out that skunk on my preseason porch English sparrows I'm I'm I'm loathed to not hunt English sparrows and starlings but I'm willing to give it up can't stand either stand either one of
them they're not protected under the migratory bird treaty act good rid get rid of them well I really appreciate this Alex it's a really wellth thought out and researched alternative so thank you for proposing this um it was an it
was an afternoon putting putting this one slide together yeah no this is excellent and I appreciate the visuals too and I assume that migratory game birds will be coincident with existing um other existing Seasons so
it's not going to add a lot of black it's like November December or do you know off hand yeah from from English sparrows down it's all year long but the if we add migratory game birds is it gonna change the way no okay well I
think that you can hunt birds during the shotgun deer season so that there this would probably be here but there's lots of migratory birds that are require a federal license and EST state license and it's not I don't know if we have snipe I have to do the homework on well
what migratory birds do we actually have in our area yeah I guess water fowl Gees water fou Woodcock Woodcock snipe we have snipe Woodcock I'll have to go look up what
those seasons are and then and then I'll have to figure out if I break them down or just put it all in there under migratory Birds um so a couple things if you do draft that memo I'd love to be able to just look at it and have a chance to you know
add language to rationals and stuff second thing um one thing I noted from what I some Recaps of the the the speaker on deer hunting was um some statements about how bird hunting is
actually more I don't know risky or something I don't know the language so I'm just noting that um that was said but we're keeping in the the main birds so not addressing that um and then uh I
have a question about pheasant so there's no native Fe okay pheasants are non-native and could be and cannot be stocked on conservation lands so where are they are they stocked on DPW land on Atkin slats like how are they what is
that stocking program that they're getting onto Atkins flats for decade the state has stocked Atkins Flats so it's a combination of conservation land and water supply
protection Land overseen by DPW and lower Atkins Flats okay so you're right there's there's no native yeah that parenthetical isn't correct then or it maybe it is but it's not being observed it says pheasants are not native and
could not be stocked on conservation land I think think I when I wrote it I think it peasants are non-native and could or could not be stocked on conservation land there's an issue there but a typo huh just a typo you mean I
think so well it is kind of a weird thing to be stalking non-native species on our conservation lands but and none of them survive the winter yeah um they're raised to be killed and they they don't
survive unless somebody feeds them out their back door and Bob White is that do they stock those on no no um yeah I guess I just wanted to point out that is what my takeaway from the
um the deer hunting synopsis was there was a comment about it and yeah that's an interesting observation because I actually followed up with the speaker on that and he did confirm that statistically uh bird
hunting is a is more dangerous than deer hunting there we didn't go into greater detail I think I teach Hunter Ed for the state and we go through um quite a bit
of safety discussions about turkeys because the person is dressed in camo they're sitting still and they're calling and most of them don't put some blaze orange on on a branch or something
to let somebody know they're there and we try to get people to sit against a tree so at least their back is not exposed and they they can see in front of them if there's somebody out there so they may be on the edge of a
field um I've walked up on on turkey hunters several times without seeing them and all of a sudden they jump up and wave their arms and because I see their decoys out out there and thinking they're turkeys and uh it's hard you
can't you can't see them so there are accidents where people shoot with without seeing what they're shooting at so Hunter to Hunter accidents yeah mainly got it yeah um I guess just to follow up then
like when we are looking at this and we're saying that we're addressing the recreation Public Safety while maintaining hunting we're doing that by reducing the season seasonality scope of hunting but not
addressing sort of the risk and implementations of it um so I'm just stating that it's a good point the number of people injured during turkey hunting is pretty low and anybody to get a hunting license
has to take Hunter Ed so and anybody to get a license to carry used to have to take underhead so we have classes down the fishal wildlife service all the time and they're all around the state and a lot of people take them so the number of
accidents for turkey is is pretty low but what's what I think we're reducing is exposure and I I could even leave Public Safety out of it it's simply there's a lot of potential exposure to people who
are using our trails and um we get rid of that exposure that has to improve Public Safety um and I'm I'm just just sort of
stating it I'm not like suggesting anything differently well there will be um I don't know how much push back there'll be but um if you take away some of the arguments by leaving deer and leave
leave all these for another day um personally if I could if if I think of what I have to go through on the minan National Park to carry a musket during Patriots Day activities the safety stuff I have to go through is
unbelievable and that's that's the Park Service um so I the other thing I think we need to do if we're going to allow hunting
is to include that 500 foot buffer on all our conservation lands to see if it's even feasible now that we have that law for example on Simon's lot I think it's Simmons or Simons we have a
map uh showing the buffer and um it eliminates a a big part of that of that area and the buffer is not marked nobody has gone out and flagged where the buffer is the law also says
you cannot discharge a firearm or an arrow inside the buffer but it doesn't say you can't fire into it so you could shoot a deer in the buffer if you shoot outside the buffer even if it's towards a
house so um I think when when um when we offer the on the hunting page and I I sent you an email on where hunting's discussed on the passive Recreation page and the hunting page the
hunting page provides a map and none of those Maps uh show where the 500 foot buffer is so I think Michelle brought up well maybe we ought to look at whether or not all the areas where we allow hunting um
are still suitable we've never done that and you know maybe some are maybe some aren't it would that 500 foot buffer might make a difference so I would recommend that I think I've already sent Dave in a notes
asking that the maps for The Haunting areas be updated to include the buffer yeah um sort of adjacent to that but I was thinking about the memo of facts that you were talking about and if we do the status quo which is the
buffer um what I think we should be clear that that status quo what we're not doing is adding any buffer or protections to the trail system and so we're defaulting to mass wildlife's recommendations and policies Mass
wildlife manages lands for wildlife but not public record ation whereas the Conservation Commission manages land for conservation and Recreation and what we're not considering in the status quo is how other land managing for Public
Access might be considering trails and Public Access that was a bit of a ramble what I'm just saying is what the status quo is what it's based on and what's not considered in that I think we should be clear when we're providing it to the commission
so I we do not have a a meeting as of this subcommittee before the next concom meeting and I can't be at next Wednesday I'll be in Nebraska looking at the crane migration on the Plat River so I I've
already told Aaron that and you Michelle that I can't be there so we have a while to put a package together um and I have shown Dave and I've shown
Michelle I think the a m a graph showing the grow growth of amest over several decades and it's a pretty steep curve as UMass grew so I think that map is also a
surrogate for increased use in our Trails just simply because we got more people and UMass was growing so we've we've had an increased use of of our Trails uh the allowing hunting comes
from a long time ago never been re-evaluated um and whether the town is at fault or could be criticized for not having monitoring Trail use and monitoring hunting and the lawyers might
say no that might actually put us at risk we maybe better off not having done that I don't know what the answer to that is but the fact is we don't monitor use on Trails we don't know which ones are busiest we don't know which which
areas which conservation land is hunted the most there's a lot of unknowns and um so somebody might say well before we make a decision on Hunting maybe we should evaluate all that and that may part be part of the conversation I don't
know it's hard to tell this you know I'd like to get it over with um and come to either come to some decision as a commission rather than having it drag out for six months again I think Michelle I agree
with Michelle and and uh thank you for putting together these two these two spreadsheets I you know with with the dates and the kinds of hunting I I think it I think presenting
options makes a lot of sense is we're we're kind of at that point where status quo you know we we presented something about eliminating hunting allog together and and you know I'm not sure we had vocal opposition to that from any more
than one commission member but it certainly caused other others to pause and ask more questions but this is a compromis position I I think it's worth vetting it with the the full full
commission so here's a thing I wrote on [Music] um not I didn't do it right while you're looking for that Alex did we I don't want to get a Sidetrack but did we um did we any
include anything about uh deer stands or or um blinds in any of our tree stands tree stands or blinds the use of tree stands or blinds no we did
not so here's here's the document that I had up originally and I wrote something to stick in here um to improve the language and what I
wrote assumes that the uh status quo is in effect and um so I'm going to bring that up knowing that Michelle's going to leave pretty soon I think when Michelle leaves you no
longer there's no longer a quorum of this body so I don't have a hard stop at noon I just have a lot of I mean one I just have to get back to some real work yeah some paid real work
paid work some paid work like a job profession it's volunteer stuff you know this is my anyways I wrote up a thing on blaze orange to I wrote up a
thing oh yeah you sent that to us yeah I did okay oh maybe we could all open that up that might be easier yeah you sent that to us um I don't mean to go back to fishing but did we have any major issues with fishing or was that a
simple five minute boom done um what they approved is 22 and I just stuck in the original so you could see it I'm they've already approved it I don't know oh okay so if it's approved yeah want to add anything
about like um cleaning up um tackle and stuff like that just I I know it's obvious and you're not supposed to litter but just every time you go to puffer's Pond or anywhere else where there's fishing there's always
line or yeah plastic stuff and line and I don't know just always it seems like we have we have notes like that in other places and I saw that there was a note about not leaving your bait live
bait but more often I think that the the lures are the trash look behind yeah it's the litter it's the the fishing line and uh the bait um containers which often end up in the
water and in the Wetland and yeah a bucket that puffer's pawn might be more effective than rules that a lot of people don't read bucket a trash a trash bucket oh there is one
just we have those but but some sort of signage I can I can stick something in here you know and bring it back to you about cleaning up sure I think we just trust you to put it
in there um what what did you want us to look at uh Orange blaze orange yeah I I've gone in I I can you see that it says personal
safety recommendations at the top no we can't see your screen okay hold on but didn't you send that to us it's in an email this morning yeah did okay I can just go to that um that might be easier again Alex I I have no problem with this
I'm not sure is this really part of a policy document or does this just get added to our website under the hunting page um I would put it on the website I would put um I would put in the rules it's a
Bruce may say it's too many words um and I I stuck in the original draft because at the top it says um that it's a redraft or at least the the title says that it's a
um revised draft I'm just I'm just saying that to me it's not really policy it's simply a recommendation that when you go out during hunting season you and your pet should wear orange it is a recommendation I don't think we can require it
no but that's what I'm saying why does it need to be part of the policy discussion we're we're just trying to get to the Finish Line on policy this could just be added to a web page when we revamp the web page yeah in in association with the new whatever the
new hunting Rags are we add this I think this is good stuff good information it's great recommendation so um yeah and this this video if you watch that video Michelle
you'll see that Mass wildlife has gone out of their way to try and improve safety of of turkey hunting it's all it's it's about a turkey hunting situation and in Hunter Ed we had a a
video we used to play about dos and dos of of turkey hunting from a safety standpoint anyways um that's what I originally wrote In this is what I rewrote up above blaze orange for safety and it it's just a
recommendation Dave I think it would be good to have it on the website and I uh I did put down F at least 500 square inches because that's what the state says and I couldn't come up with a
rationale for recommending less I think it's I think it's fine I think we can certainly put it up on the website when we revamp it as per the new regulations but I I talked to Mass wildlife about
this and in their headquarters about writing something up like that and um um they were all for it as a suggestion realizing we can't order people to do this
right again just to get get to it before I go you had also made um one of the items was uh the taking away hunting from the passive Recreation page and the website and Dave already
said we're going to do a revamp the website but I would just suggest that we still maybe on the passive Recreation uh page let people know that hunting is permitted on on conservation lands because I think a lot of people don't know that and so just have like a
oneliner there and just say during these months or Seasons it's permitted where some orange see this page for more details or something yeah I I don't think hunting's passive so I no I I think that's the
technical uh definition of passive Recreation excludes hunting so I agree with that but it's it's it doesn't do any harm to put something on the passive page just to let people know yeah so my recommendations Down Below in
that document um or you know I just I did that this morning because I I bumped into the passive page and just took the time to write it up and send it off otherwise I'd never get back to
it so um and then Dave if you would if we're going to try and put forward the suggestion of the compromise reduction in hunting on the on the public lands if you would somehow find time for Aaron Or
whoever to produce maps that have the 100 foot buffer on them for our conservation land and wait the the 500 foot buffer the 500 foot buffer that's state law that's yeah I made a note of that
refresh my memory we want 500 feet from every occupied dwelling is that what we want yeah it's a public saf law at state level and and remind me it doesn't include barns right or does it
it includes occupied dwellings OCC occupied structures so I don't know what occupied means if you have a horse in the barn is it occupied yeah that's I mean if you have a barn on your property there's an
assumption that you would go to that barn and do something in that Barn so to me it would seem that that would be an occupied structure but I have a vague memory that it it wasn't so maybe find that out okay like a Tobacco
Barn you know I mean you're in there sometimes of the year but the rest of the times may just be quiet nobody in there yeah so I have sent out that law and it is in our appendix um I can can send it to you
individually so you can read it again but so and and and where we're going with this again it's been a long time since we talked about the setbacks s apologies for my fogginess so let's say the commission says yeah we want to move forward with
the uh compromise uh suggestion that you put forth today Alex but then we would produce these maps and essentially we would look at every Conservation Area we honestly we' probably zero in on the the
ones that are currently listed because those are the largest conservation areas the Atkin Flats the podex the mon hoo range etc etc and and let's say the commission say yeah we want to go forward with the uh compromised uh approach and then we
would say oh and here's the map that is driving decisions as to which areas are even open open to this compromised approach I.E Simmons field we might find that 70% of Simmons field is within 500
feet of an occupied uh structure dwelling yeah and the Simmons the Simmons map is is not what you with the with the buffer um is not what you get with a link that is on a hunting
page um that Simmons map is is elsewhere in the website I just happen to bump into it searching uh around and but it it that's why I brought it up with you is uh that yeah and I can I I bought
Simmons farm for the town years ago and it was owned by the Hampshire College former Hampshire College president so I know the property quite well and I can Vision on three sides it is there are houses on three sides of it yeah so I I can imagine it's a big field but once
you put that 500 foot buffer I bet it's the lower the Western portion is the only huntable portion of that field that's right yep so the Eastern the eastern boundary is the the houses come right up against it yep yep okay I can
have Aaron work on that that would be a good companion uh um you know exercise for this compromised uh approach to hunting good good so Erin's going to turn into a pumpkin in
about a minute Michelle Michelle Michelle excuse me so that's that's um I still need to get through beavers and I need to get through um um the forestry thing beavers is
taking a little bit because we've been talking with mass I have been talking with Mass wildlife and the guy who is the fur Bearer person is also the bear person and um and he's been pretty busy with
beers that are denting and beers that are still wandering around I had a bear and two Cubs in my backyard just the other night and she hasn't gone to she hasn't hibernated all winter wow so um
Dave Waddles that you're talking to yeah Dave told me that out of the 26 or 28 collared Bears two-thirds of them went silent in the first week first week of November and that the other third has been wandering around
since and climate change impacts yeah and it's not all about bird feeders because I have bears at my place in New Hampshire which is miles from any bird feeder and I got pictures of them on December 6 and since wandering around in
the snow so anyway yeah so I've I've had I've been talking with Dave to um and he's been very good about providing me information on beavers and rules and definitions and all that and there's
this um image that describes the PO the the procedure for permitting which is really difficult to understand and so it got restructured and we sent it to them I sent it to home uh to say have we got
it right and he hasn't gotten back to me so I I sent him a note just the other day saying I know you're busy with beers in the winter but maybe you could get back and tell me if we've made a mistake here anyway so um the beaver thing will
part of its process um and part of it is um you know when to trap and the the state makes recommendations on when it would advise not to and and gives reasons so I was just
going to adopt them okay I know Michelle I wouldn't mind transitioning as well here as I've got a couple of deadlines this afternoon but so so we won't there's a commission meeting next Wednesday we won't have anything new for them next Wednesday and
then we'll meet the following two Tuesday and we'll work on beavers and anything else Alex management okay what was that sorry Forest management for Forest management
okay sounds good and have a great time you're you're going to uh watch sandill crane S crane migration there will be upwards of 400,000 on the Plat River what and um so I go go out and sit in
blinds that are owned by the Trin trust I'm taking my son it'll be my fourth trip so it's it's it's amazing if you think of the waste of an hourglass that 80 Mile Stretch on the
Plat River is the waste of their migration pattern so they gathered there to put on fat while they wait for spring or better weather to come to the north before they take
off and um I know the guys that that run it and how it how that trust got established after a court case for poos Dam and they do a great job and um Jane Goodall
frequents the place when they come back to roost on the river um the sky is just just full of birds um with their wings out flying over the blind down into the river
it's it is one of the largest migrations in North America awesome I saw them on the consumes in California and it was Unforgettable that Sunset when they come into Roost well have fun Alex it's a
good reason to miss a concom meeting yeah very many no you don't you have almost perfect attendance right but um my dates are from 9 the 9th through the um um through through
Wednesday so um we have a we have a couple of Sand Hill um nests in Massachusetts now which is kind of a new thing at least in our lifetimes um up in the berkshares which is pretty cool Cold Bird and there's always hoopers
hooping cranes on the river too we see them very cool thank you very much we'll U all right enjoy your trip sounds fantastic ler we got a lot done today and I we'll try and write up that fact sheet or whatever it's going to be that
sort of explains the Alternatives great thank you Alex you should probably vote to um to end your meeting and I'll end the I move to adjourn I second all right see you later
bye have a great trip bye all bye bye