Okay, let's get started. It's 7 o'clock. 7 o'clock on Tuesday, April 22nd, 2025. I'm calling this meeting of the Chams Conservation Commission to order. My name is Carl Bishoff. I'm the chair of the commission. We will be following the published and posted agenda. Uh this
meeting is both in person and through zoom. In the case of the zoom not working properly, we will continue the meeting in person. The meeting is being broadcast and recorded by Chelmsford Teledia and will be available on their website and also on YouTube and we do
have a quorum. We have a not quite full committee. We are still looking for a seventh member. Um, but we have all six of the uh current members here. So, we have a quorum, but we don't have any regulatory uh hearings tonight. Nothing in front of us. Do we not have anything
open right now? Do we have anything continued? Yes. Yes. The old the old Westford Road, right? That's okay. Thank you. The only one, but there's that's the only one open, right? Yep. But there's going right now there's three
filings for the next meeting. Oh. So, so far and they made more. Okay. So, all right. Enjoy the law the law while it lasts. Yeah. Yeah. Enjoy that. Well, we still have a decent sized agenda. I don't think it'll go till midnight, but uh we we do have a good
agenda. Boy, did I get Mark's attention. All right. Uh Peter, you had uh a first thing to talk about was uh we have an opportunity to get some expert help from uh a member of our community uh in the form of a environmental science uh soon
to be graduate. Yes. And uh uh Gracie Wood is here tonight and she'll tell us in a second about herself. But I also wanted to share first with the commission. Uh Carl and David Coons and I had had some conversation about
establishing a a position or two uh well let's call them intern unpaid interns that would be students high school or college that would help us with whatever the student had time for and whatever
the student was interested in. So I took the liberty of capturing some of that discussion in this position description that I've handed out. And uh one thing that sort of drove the interest is I had the pleasure of meeting Gracie Wood who
will come and tell us about herself, but she was interested in uh finding a way to help us over the next six months. So Gracie, if you wouldn't mind, just just a few words about yourself. Hi. Um, I'm Gracie and I'm a student at UMass Law,
as they mentioned, in environmental science and I'm just interested in helping out with whatever I can really with the conservation commission. At school, I do a lot of stuff. I mean, a wide variety of stuff um about like
sustainability. Um, I do GIS mapping, hydraology, just like stuff of plant life. So, I feel like I could have some to contribute from that. We have a lot in that in right in those areas. We have a lot. I I'll say I just
got a a text from the young man around the corner who's a freshman at UMass who helped us last summer. He's also looking to help us uh with some GIS stuff. So, um so I think it's great. I think it's great to have um do we have questions
for for Gracie? Anybody? Well, I I was just going to add um Gracie and I have had some conversation. Of course, a lot of this depends on how much time the individual has, right? But and we're not we haven't settled on anything tangible, but one example that I would find useful
that you had some interested in, I'd love to have a map in front of us of wildlife corridors because one of our rigs is this um help me out David the uh uh contiguous property the cumulative effects you know and and we talk about
wildlife and I think it would be very helpful to sort of have in front of us a bit of a map and that would be one idea. I think there's lots of other ideas though and it really depends on what the student in this case you Gracie would find interesting. So David you've uh and
I you and I kind of committed to each other to make this thing work and be sure that there's you know things of interest and of value. So So along those lines I think uh there's always a great need for documenting uh wildlife
resources on the commission's uh properties. Um, I don't I don't know if you've done much with certifying vernal pools. Um, if if you're aware of that, but that's that's something that's really fun, really good to get to know.
Um, and we we we have a number of I know there's a number of uncertified vernal pools on the commission's properties and and and and it can also be uh as much you know just just you know photographing you know going out on a regular basis looking looking for uh you
know interesting wildlife and just making a photographic record. Um I I I keep hearing about bobcats being seen on commission lands. Um it would be really good to to have a set of those. We're we're working on modifying the uh the
town website uh to post wildlife sightings. Um and that again that would be a really big help. That sort of thing. Yeah. And and and I might just mention um Gracie is obviously the daughter of
Paul and Christy Wood who have a lot of and so Gracie you have a lot of experience kind of watching the the hearings at the Hilddrth property where it captured a lot of the issues before us. So there's all kinds of things that we could you know use some help on. So
thank you. Great to have you. Thank you. Appreciate it. All right. Um, thank you, Peter. Next up is a report from our planning board liaison. Now, our I'm just going down to the control room. Oh, okay.
Should we keep going? Yeah, keep going. Our planning board liaison also now the planning board chair. Chair. Okay. Congratulations. Uh, thank you. So, yeah, last meeting we had our reorg meeting. Um, I am the new chair. John Souza is the vice chair and Joel Luna is
the clerk. Um we also did our liaison appointments and I continue to be the concom um liaison. We had two informal presentations and discussions uh for two potential projects. One on 256 Chumsford
Street, the Chelmsford Mall. Uh they're looking to do potential parking lot improvements and two upscale uh fast casual uh restaurants at the entrance where those two upper parking lots are. We also had 191 195 Riverneck uh come
before us with this uh informal presentation as well. Uh it's the home uh the the single family residence property plus the vacant lot right next to it. Um potential contractor yard uh for that location as well. We had a
discussion on Kate's Corner continuing that and uh we also talked about the aquifer protection questionnaire uh that you guys also got. Um after that uh meeting I compiled all of the uh questionnaires from the planning board
members and submitted it on behalf of the planning board. Um so we'll be reviewing that questionnaire tomorrow's meeting. Um we've also continuing the Kate's Corner discussion, hopefully closing that out soon. Um potentially
going into a more formal public hearing phase of of those changes uh down the road. And then we've got another potential area for that new zone that we're looking at creating. Uh the owner of the mills across from the
establishment uh where the dance uh location is uh they came before us with a proposal for their property to also be included in this new zone that we're looking at creating. Uh it's more of a it's more of a buffer between industrial and residential. So, it's a we're
calling it potentially a CB light uh where there's a little bit of a commercial and uh light industrial use. And that's pretty much it. We don't have any uh regulatory uh items on the agenda this week. Um as well, um it's
going to be a pretty short meeting and then we'll be heading over to the uh town meeting premeating uh for the zoning articles right after that. What time is your meeting? Our mean Oh, yes. Sorry. Our meeting starts at 6 this week. Okay. Uh it'll probably last for
about an hour and 15, hour and a half and then we'll head over to the other meeting. Okay. Any any comments, questions? Yeah, Chris, a question. Um is your is the planning board's gap analysis questionnaire on your agenda?
It is now. And then we submitted one on behalf of the commission, but I didn't copy anyone. I don't think I get copy outside of the commission. So, I don't know if Oh, we want to share that with a planey board. If you want, ask Carl or me. Doesn't matter. Okay, that's fine.
I'm sure it'll come out in the discussion soon anyway. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Anything else? All right. Thanks. Thanks. Thanks. Thanks, Chris.
See if David's coming back. Can keep going. Okay. Next up, uh, as I said, no regulatory hearing. So, next up is discussion and future status of the costsou. So, um, we have, um, I'd like
to talk about a way forward uh, on our reservation management. We currently have a anou, a memorandum memorandum of understanding with the Chsford open space stewardship. The last signed is from 2017.
There was an attempt to change it in 2021 by adding the Russell Mill Conservation Commission Native Plant Park. It I don't think it ever got signed, but that was the only change. So essentially the 2017 version is is still the latest as far as I can tell. Um the
issues I'm seeing are that COS has not and will not communicate with the commission on any kind of regular basis. Um, we should be having regular in-person uh discussions with the trails stewardship organization here in our part of our meetings. Um, it shouldn't
be through email and Facebook postings. Um, I don't consider the relationship working well. I think it's not working well. I don't think it's effectively supporting the interests of the land that we are responsible for and the people that like to use the land. Um, so
I see some issues there. Um the terms of theou uh one of the terms includes that concom and cost will work together. I don't really see that happening. It doesn't happen. There's supposed to be a three-year work plan to be generated. Um I've been on the commission six years
and I haven't seen anything uh come before the commission in terms of a work plan. Um the uh sites uh are somewhat cherrypicked. Um uh cost did not want to work. uh support Warren Pole CS has not
agreed to support Kulis which is a a commission property at the moment you know being the commission the town uh manager and the select would ask the commission to take responsibility for kulis so it's kind of cherrypicking and then there's been issues with social
media a lot of I would consider uh attacks on the commission and uh incorrect information not being corrected so this is kind of where I'm I'm coming from um our open space and w plan uh just updated and submitted
recently. Um one of the goals in there is on stewardship and um an action was to revisit and strengthen land stewardship program as part of the land management plan and that's owned by us the conservation commission. So when I step back and think about that I don't
think we're in a strong position working with costs. I think we need to do something different. That's my that's my take on it and that's my recommendation. So, um, I'm looking for discussion and comment from my fellow commissioners and see if if, uh, if we're on the same page
or if, uh, anybody sees anything different. Peter, do you want to start us off? Do you have anything to say? Yeah, I mean, I feel like I'm still the new guy because you all have been doing this a long time. Um, but as I look at the documents and whatnot, what strikes
me is the oldou and the open space and wreck plan emphasize working together. And as you guys know, that's important to me because this land stewardship requires a lot of different
people working together. And so I've been a little bit frustrated uh to Carl's point that we don't seem to be working together and I think that's really important. Secondly, um yeah, there has been some negativity on social media,
not from us, but other parties and uh I've gone on record that's not the kind of town that I think I live in. Um, I'm kind of new last couple years getting involved in this stuff and I've been pleasantly surprised at how just about
everybody in town, DPW, board of health, planning board, goes on and on, have been incredibly open to communicating, to meeting to hammering out differences of opinion. And to me, that's what it takes, not personally because that's
what I want from the town. That's what it takes to be good land stewards because it is complicated to do it with a lot of moving parts. And that's my only observation is Okay. Thanks. Appreciate it, Peter. Uh Chris, I mean, there's been um there's been a
lot of good accomplished over the over a number of years. So, I mean, I think we have to remember a lot of good has been accomplished and um Okay, you make sure you're speaking up. It's I was I saying um Mr. Chair, there's been a lot of good accomplished. A lot of good work has been done. Uh we're all
volunteers and we're all doing the best we can uh in that capacity. Um I would say that um yes, I mean to be honest with you, we we certainly had some communication issues and we're um you know, we have responsibility under um
the town bylaw and under state law to to maintain our oversight of these reservations and it's difficult if we're if we're not getting information, we're not getting responses back. So it makes our our our job you know quite difficult at times. So there's been challenges. I
mean I think the you know you got to look though there's a lot of goods been done for sure. I can't take away from that but on the other hand maybe this is the time to take a look at making some changes and try to make things better. So those are my thoughts. Thanks Mark. You have anything? Yeah I think last uh
our last meeting was very eye opening when the boy scouts came before us and they got in a situation they should never be in. Right. And that made them look made us look foolish and never should happen. And I think that's I think they were steered on the wrong
path. They think I don't think it was in the interest of conservation or cost. It's just upon themselves to do what they wanted to do. And I'm I'm in favor of the severing ties, doing something different. Yes. Okay, Bill. Yeah, I
agree. I think it's uh it was years ago was we had a great relationship. it seemed to have changed lately. So maybe it's time to move on and go in a different direction and uh more positive direction. I think it's I think I
support a change in that. John, I agree with every everything. Okay. But I saw with the Boy Scouts was the same thing that the steering wasn't steered in the correct path. Yeah. Yeah. So Okay.
So per the um then I you know the that's pretty consistent across the board. Um so I'm looking for then a motion to notify cost of termination of theou. I will upon that um motion I'll I'll send a note and um and uh we can move forward
and talk about something future. So Mr. Chair, I think procedurally um last time I looked at the mu I think it was what a six-month period notice. We we we give a notice u to u to terminate effective 6 months from from today presumably then. Okay. Good. All right. Well, I'll make a
motion then that we uh terminate ourus with the uh cost jumps at open space stewart um group effective six months from today. Motion from Chris. Do I have a second? Second. Second from Bill. Further discussion? All in favor? I I
Okay. Motion's unanimous. I will send a notice and um I appreciate it. I do want to say there were many good uh events over the years um but it just has not been working lately. While was talking about what otherus do we have? Um we we have
one with the u youth soccer for the Russell Millfield, right? Which um that's like 15 years or 10 years old. It's a long old but there's I don't think there's really any issues there. How about the bike? And then the um mountain biking group and we have um we
have a good relationship with them. We have a good Yeah, it's it's gone great. I've been out to the site with them and walked the site with them and they point out some things and that's going well. Um we did a update to that although I don't think we ever officially signed the update, but um everything's going
going fine there. Yeah, we may want to look into updating that and signing that so it's all official and that's it. That's the only and that's and then going forward there's other groups and other people that want to do projects. Yeah. We're not going to do with anybody at this point going forward. We're going
to structure it differently. Yeah. So plan I think um I think what we want to do is is we've talked offline a little bit about having commission members assigned to sites to as a starting point which is just kind of being a point person for each site. So we could
possibly do something like that. Um, I've also, um, I asked Chris and he agreed to be a representative to the scouting organization in town. Yes. So, be the commission representative. So, if anything wants to be done on the town commission site, you know, properties,
um, Chris can be a point of contact for that. So, I I appreciate that, but I think the main thing is to create a subcommittee, some kind of a trails subcommittee, which David and I talked about, and it's like that's just the normal thing in every other town. It's a trails subcommittee that has a reporting relationship with a lead person that
would report into us on a regular basis. I wouldn't prescribe it has to be every meeting, but you know, monthly or quarterly or some some regular update. Um, there's things that are going conservation members or the public or who's it could be anybody from the public. It could be one or two members
from the commission as well on on this on this subcommittee and um they would create plans um for sites for different you know for all the sites. I I'd like to see stewards assigned to each site you know a steward that's responsible to like clean the parking lot and keep an
eye on trails and whatever and kind of in partnership with a commission member be kind of like the lead people on a given given site. Um, we do have some people doing that on a number of sites already. I would expect that they'd like to continue doing that, but we
definitely have some sites that are open and so we have to figure that out. So, I think what we need to do is start looking towards building a uh a subcommittee of a trails trails management site management whatever we want to call
it subcommittee. Five people, seven people, something like that. But it's or at least have a person that is the key, you know, point of contact that's willing to come in and talk. I what I what I get concerned about is that we create another subcommittee
that goes off in their own direction a little more than than we might like them to from and the board doesn't have a a hand in everything. It becomes its own entity which then we're back in the same position. Right. could I would rather
see maybe each member of the board have a site or two that they not control or run but they just take a look at and they can report back. Okay. Uh say uh Warren Pole K everything's Warren Pole's
going great. The parking lot needs a little bit of dirt. So we'll put that on a maintenance list. Mhm. And it doesn't have to be a long I I would like to see it at each meeting have a land management might go 20 minutes and then we're kept up to date. It becomes more
of a not just all regulatory. We're doing land uh maintenance. So like I'd be willing to I'm up at Oakill all the time. I'm over at Kuluses all the time. I wouldn't mind. Uh I could take a look at those,
report back on those sites. Not that I'm making decisions, but I'm the liaison between the board and and what's going on at those sites so that I don't have to go to all all sites and know what's going on. You know, if everybody took a little bit of interest. Yeah, I I like
your thinking. You know, if I could add, as you may recall, the open space and wreck plan calls for creating a land management plan for each at least the big reservations. And I think doesn't really define what that is, but I I
think a lot of us were thinking like a one page, you know, this is sort of what the plan is. And then that could become the basis of the steward's focus along with some of the routine stuff that you mentioned. And then like you say, we could make a structure. You could have a maintenance. Yeah.
Uh and you could have a project column. So the these are ongoing maintenance issues that you did a you know half an hour or half a day jobs and then you have the big projects or things you'd like to do at that site. So say if a Eagle Scout or or citizen wants to do
some work on a specific site, you say, "Okay, well at Warren Pole we have this, this, this, and this. We'd be interested in you doing pick from that list. Right. So have it structured so that each site has a maintenance and a project. Right.
And then that that structure would address your question or concern, you know, of how it how people how that reports into this commission to avoid, you know, what what you're, you know, concerned about. Um Yeah. I mean, there's other people that that are
interested in doing work on the sites. It's not just us. There's a lot of other people. Yes. So they could like ADA people someone interested in ADA could help us with that piece of the pie or uh somebody
who's got a piece of machinery that okay we need to move a couple rocks around maybe we you know talk to that person but they work within our our liaison on the commission right so that everybody knows what the other one's doing so nothing's getting done
because I've seen things with different sites where things are being done that aren't part of the big picture and it's good work that people are doing but it you got to have a plan should be visible. You don't build a house without
a plan. Agreed. So you might have somebody doing pulling evasives out of something out of the woods somewhere but maybe their efforts could have be better served in the parking lot area or here and because it builds to the bigger picture. I don't know. Just a few ideas,
but makes sense. I mean, I wouldn't mind having a couple sites where I I go a couple of pretty much every day, right? You know, and everybody if everybody did that, we'd have a better hands-on. Russell Mill, it's your backyard. That's my
backyard. I can have my daughter look out her backyard and watch, you know, over there, too. We We'll get you an electric bike so you can cruise the bike trails. Uh, I'm not. As long as I don't have to talk to anybody on a computer on time.
You give them my phone number, right? No, that works. That works, too. That's all. So, why don't we Could I add one thing? Yeah. I I just feel like I want to say this. I know we're all thinking this, but um in this vote we're about to take or No, guess we didn't take it. I
mean, we're not we're not We want people using our land for events. We want volunteers that have good projects. We want the public, everybody to have access to our lands. I mean, this is not about that. We want to keep it wide open
for the public, anybody. We're tasked to manage the properties. If we don't manage them, right, we're not doing our job either. Right. Agreed. And if we're not, doesn't mean you don't appreciate everybody's efforts. I mean, there's people that do a lot of work on a lot of different places you don't even see. I
walk I go up to Oakill almost every day. this people go in there and cut trees that fall on the trails and you don't know who they are. You don't see them. They don't come looking for you know any gratitude but just they just take care
of it. They just take care of it. So and that's the case on quite a few sites. Yeah. Yeah. So there's a lot of good people. They're doing a lot of stuff but so I think we need some control. We need to manage the property that we've been tasked to I would suggest that we think about how to move forward without taking
any specific action now. see if there's anyone out there in the community that's willing to um work with us in some way. But I think I like the idea of having us being much more active. I'm in favor of that. But um think about that in your own area if you have any particular sites. I know Chris I like Crooked
Springs. Crooked Springs right in your backyard. So you know um you know whatever we can give an example figure that out if I can. Yep. At Thanksgiving forest doing the garden. They came before us to discuss how they were going to do things down there and what they
were. DPW got involved. We met with the neighbors down there. I was down there today. There's a beautiful little shed. It's not a shed. It's a small little building that holds a 250galon tank that they fill with water. The thing is
beautiful. Yeah. It's put right where we asked them to put it. Nobody took it upon themselves just to bring something down there and put it there. It was it was an effort of a lot of people and it looks beautiful. Maybe a little work needs to be done as far as
grading a little bit where the trees were cut and all that stuff, but this, you know, minor things, but it it looks beautiful, right? The building's beautiful. Well, the same thing is we had the Becky Warren was here at the last meeting, right? Last meeting. Yeah. Talk about the invasive removal plan at Warren Pole that she wanted to do. they
got going on that last week. It looks great. It's it's it's already happening. So, but that's what happens when you work together with the PE when people come in, they discuss what they want to do, you give the input, and you go out there and actually work with them, right? And and if I could, excuse me, if
I could add because, you know, we're all out there. The beauty of the pollinator effort and working together is because the commission was brought in, right? And Carl, you you probably led most of this, I realize. Um but DPW was brought in to take to help with invasive
removal. So we added another town objective to the project. And then um well he's here tonight. Dave Sperry came by with some of the ADA work he and others have been doing and with at least a conversation about future plans for more ADA access and a fishing dock. So
there were like five, it like ticked off five things on our town plans, right, that are good for the town because we worked together. Yep. Right. And that's what we have to strive for now where I think it was going a different direction. Yeah. Thank you. Okay. So, I think we're going to get
into more land management stuff soon enough. Um we're not going to get to that yet, David, but um we have a couple more items, but um we we will talk about land management in in detail in a few minutes, but we have a couple more items on our agenda right now. Gap analysis.
Um, Peter and Mark, you guys submitted to the consultant. Any comments or anything you want to underscore here? Yeah, I just like to mention I think I sent everybody a copy. Um, what Mark and I did, we took everybody's comments, but
uh, I did a fair amount of word smithing on the document. It says the same thing, but it was a little clunky as a first draft. And basically it just said, you know, we can do a little more with our existing regs and the town and we probably need some new regs. So it's
nothing new there. Okay. Regs or policy or something? Do we know if there's I know you also included a comment about like we really need to have a conversation discussion and not just submit some questions. Do we know if that's going to happen or not? I don't.
I did ask um Mr. Lassard the consultant to at least let me know if he received it because I have not met him and he did uh generously respond quickly. Yes. Yes, I have your your comments. So I do not know okay the answer to that. Um I do
think that um the different boards involved are really more or less on maybe not on the same wavelength for exactly what to do but everyone is I think I wrote this I think I added this Mark you know everyone the good news he asked for positive and negative things going on and I think I wrote you know the positive thing is all the different
boards recognize this is something important and want to work on this I mean that's a great you think about getting something done in a town you know everyone involved is wants to do the right thing we just need to figure that out. Okay. So, that's cool. I like that. Well, I hope um I hope we get
something really positive out of this and I know that in combination with some of the bylaw regulation changes we're looking at, all of that might help us going forward with some of the complicated and challenging um permits that come before us. So, I'm going to remain
optimistic. I hope it gets we we get we improve in that area because we're a little bit handcuffed in places. Okay. Um but um I have to admit I don't know what the next step is um after the questionnaire has been submitted. Has right has he indicated Mr. again? Okay.
Should we ask you or it would really be of health? I think isn't it? It's the board of health is sponsoring this this initiative. So maybe it's Donna Greenwood or Okay, I I'll see what I can find out. I mean that's really how this thing started. Don't you recall we were having trouble on one of the approvals
and we called a big meeting of all the different entities. Yep. That's how this thing started. So my hope was we and and at that meeting by the way which Evan Balansky put it together but brought in the what four or five different entities. Everyone agreed at that meeting that it would be a good to meet
and people were even talking about quarterly and that was a year and a half ago. So I thought you know there's probably the precedent to do that coordination. You want to just find out the status and we probably need to wait for our consultant to give the recommendations I would think. Yep.
Right. Okay. Um, next on our agenda is the illegal sheds. And um, so my understanding of this is that you know we we received a complaint from um, Mr. St. John many months ago on six I think it was six properties in town with what he claimed to be containers in wetland.
At least I think he complain, you know, in wetlands and I'm my Google Earth and GIS look on this as most of them they're not even near wetlands. So there's nothing illegal about having a container in private property. That's just not an
issue. And if there are a handful, I'm I'm not personally I'm not looking to go chase anything down because somebody's um making a complaint about some other people because we we happen to put some pressure on him to to make a change. So
I'm looking around, I'm seeing nods in agreement. So, I think it's worth it to say let's, you know, we appreciate the input, but um you know what I saw this I did, like I said, I did a Google Earth and a GIS look and uh and I did a
driveby on all of them, too, and I didn't see anything that was egregious um that that concerned made, you know, big concern for me. and and and I not infrequently um or or the building department not infrequently gets people coming in inquiring about sheds, you
know, uh what is the side the size need a building permit. Uh they're always advised, you know, even if they're exempt from having to get a building permit, they still need to satisfy zoning. They still need to satisfy uh you know, wetland regulations. And uh in
fact just today some someone was in asking about that and and it it turns out they do have a lot of wetlands in in and near their property. So I said uh you know which which is you know a typical response. Please stake the four corners of the shed. I'll go down and
take a look at it. Um you know and then make some kind of a determination whether or not you need to file with the commission. I mean, there there is an exemption, you know, for for putting uh sheds uh on lawn if if they're small enough and there and they're at least 50
ft away from the wetlands. So, um you know, I consider it, you know, part of my job to, you know, get involved in assisting people with that. I think that's Yeah. And it's good. I think your judgment's uh as good as better than any of ours. You've been doing this a long time, David. So, um I think that's the
right the right approach. And and if I could just if I could just add the way I'm looking at this thing is our regs talk about applicants telling us what the environmental impact is of their actions. We're not really pushing that a lot. But to me the question is is there environmental impact? So the original
big shipping container on top of wetlands that were partly filled with tree trunks and dug up is more of an environmental impact than when David sees a shed and says, "Put it on peers and yeah, plant some bushes here to temper it to mitigate a little bit, you know." So there's different levels here.
Someone tattling on somebody down the street because it's been there for 20 years and it's like we're not the conservation police. Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. you know, if it if it really if it's like dripping oil or or you know, something. Okay. All right. But, you know, I mean, I don't want to say we're
not concerned, but we, you know, I I just don't think we want to keep pursuing this any further. Okay. Any any other comments or Okay. Um, continual business update on Freeman Lake parcel boundary surveys,
David. Um, I'm I'm waiting until the beginning of the fiscal year uh for the commission's budget to replenish before I ask for an estimate to do those five grant balance. We just don't have any money at the moment. Couple more months
uh maybe. Yeah, we're actually not that far. You could even start in May or June because by the time you get it, we'll be in the Yeah. Okay. Uh I know it it takes forever to make these things happen. It's frustrating, but um well, we also talked about
putting a fence as well. So, get get that estimate and hopefully you'll be able to do all of that, you know, at the start of the fiscal year. Okay. All right. All right. Um land management. We will talk about uh well, first I want to talk about um one quick thing is on
Saturday we did do our cleanup on Robin Hill and the right reservation on Actton Road. We had Mr. Gibbs, Mr. Vines there from the commission. I was there. Uh Ken Dues and Jamie Durg from the land trust were there. Um we had Brian Strip who used to who was on our open space and
wreck plan. He was there and we had Rick Burgess and Will Oborf who were just friends of mine who I put the put the you know turned their elbows and twisted their arm and they showed up. But we had seven or eight people there and um we got a lot of trash. I think it was you
took one two. Two you Yeah, I think we had like eight eight bags of trash. Yeah. Um that we got along Actton Road. Um and it looks way better. It looks a lot better. Huh. And a fire extinguisher. And a fire a working fire
extingu a loaded charged fire extinguisher. And um uh all the way down um Parker to uh Right Reservation parking lot. Got that fire. And then all the way down Actton Road to Burning Tree Lane more or less. And the other end of Actton Road down to the one of the
neighbors houses a ways down. and then up Biome Street until another another neighbor's house. So, you know, we own that Robin Hill property. That's our Robin Hill reservation. So, I was really pleased. We had a good turnout. Um it was about an hour and a half, two hours of work. Um so, it was it was a good
good volunteer effort. I really appreciate it. Um I've got two bags sitting in front of my house right now. Uh getting ready to go out to the to the uh Harvey pickup tomorrow. Um so next is the discussion of the land
conservation trust Burbank gardens and conservation land. This is the East Chelmsford um across from the uh fire department. So the land trust just more of a refresher the land trust owns about a quarter of an acre adjacent to our
parcel which is 9 and a/4 acres. This is also adjacent to East Charleswood Water District and so St. Joseph Cemetery. It's a lot of open space in that area. I guess you don't call do you call a cemetery open space? It's green. It's green with some with some granite. Um um
and so the Land Trust has been developing their site into uh including a park and a native plant garden. Um that's um they're actively working on that. We voted nearly two years ago. I had to I had to dig to find this. It was June of 2020
2023. we voted to allow the creation of three to four parking spaces on our property to benefit the site. Um, and then nothing's happened since then. So, I'm just kind of reminding us that we're going to get that to happen. I will
reach out to uh Christine Clansancy to the DPW to try to get that to happen. Um, we're looking for four spots for parking, including one of them being an accessible spot. And then in addition, they're looking to have some kind of an agreement to um allow ongoing
maintenance on that combined. It's kind of a combined property. We have a lot of land in the back in the woods. We're not talking about the woods. We're not talking about any of that that goes back most of the ways, but there is a an area that was cut grass. It's a it's more or
less a lawn. they have someone who wants to maintain that and um they just want our agreement and our approval to cut the grass on a regular basis on their side and our side do the weeding and make it a nice place. By the way, um East Chford is very light on open space,
green spaces. I thought it was part of the environmental justice uh block. It's not this area is just outside of that, but it's definitely the right thing to do to support this kind of a of an initiative. um in that area. So So where so where are those properties located
again, Carl? Canal Street. Yeah. Look for Canal Street. Is that it right there? Yeah. Yep. So it's that parcel right there and the little white notch just above it on right there. It's that little tiny notch. Uh that that Nope.
Nope. Right there. That's the land trust parcel. Okay. And then ours is the big one that surrounds it. So, the only space that's going to be mowed is, you know, they have that blue spot and roughly I'm going to just guess roughly
the same space to the left of that um is I I think it's in that order. Is that right, Dave? Nodding. Yeah. Yeah, it's something like that. It's And it's just um it's already a green It's been a green mode area for years other than
there was a house there that's gone, but it's been mowed forever. Um, so we're not changing really changing anything there. We're just going to allow them to do that. So, well, didn't uh Warren B have interest in that for something? Didn't Becky Warren have something to do
with that? Well, Becky is part of the land trust and so she she and Dave and Scott Venier. I get it. Um, all you know, this is the land trust trying to, you know, move forward on this. I think they've engaged Jean Carla Kalpus who's
the the town expert on native pollinator gardens. She's been involved in helping them get that going. I know they were doing stuff last year on this. So, I think Scott's on the on the call. I was advising him to enjoy his trip out out in Michigan, but he might have joined
and Dave's here, but I don't I I'm just bringing this up to remind the commission that that's what we agreed to and we're going to try to move forward with that. try to work with DPW to make that um happen. I think it's a good thing. Um I don't we don't need to vote on anything or anything like that. Um
but yeah, Peter, so the mowing is the small parcels we mentioned, not the No, not the bulk of it. No, I've walked that back area and it's it's possible that we could put a walkway and a trail in there, but it's very, as you can see, it's very wet. Um it's kind of a cool
area. It's it's and it's wooded, isn't it? It's all woods. Yeah, it it would be a very challenging canal went through there. Yep. Yep. It's right there. Yeah. Still see it. Yeah. Yeah. It would be it it could be. But that's like, you know, maybe someday we get to that. We got enough on our plates. And And is our
excuse me, is our parcel, David, right where your cursor is? Can you click on the Yeah. We don't own on the other side of canal, do we? No. No. Okay. The East Chel Water District and there's a private lot there with some Yeah.
Another conversation for another day. Yeah, exactly. There there's two water districts down there. Are they both? They're one's east and one's center. Yeah. Oh, okay. Okay. I I think Yeah, that sounds familiar. Okay. Yeah. Well, those are the wells.
Way more complicated. I know. Well, those were the wells that we were concerned about cuz right across the street more or less is 270 Bill Ricker Road. When I say across the street, I mean groundwater hydraulically. Yeah. Okay.
Okay. So, um like I said, I will um I have like a list of things to connect with DPW on. So, that will be on my list. I just wanted to run it by you guys first and um unless Scott pipes in and says I missed something or Dave, but I think I've I've got it covered. So,
okay, let's keep moving. Now, if we want to Dave, you want to go back to that slide deck on the land management and reservation updates? And um so um I will go through this um fairly quickly. If you want to start
there, David, go to the next page. Okay. So um I'm going to uh Yeah. Can you shrink that up a little bit? Okay. Sorry about that. Or make it full screen. Or can you read that? All right. I can make it a little
Yeah, not can't make it any larger with There you go. That's good. That's fine. So, um I'm I'm going to I'm going to break this into two parts and I'm going to do a little bit of a what I
understand land management, conservation, property. A little bit of a I don't know what you call a primer or something like that. go through some things for setting the stage here. So, we have conservation reservations or conservation areas, whatever you want to
call it, on the left, which are generally our classic public access, trails, parking lots, and all that kind of stuff. We know the usual suspects. And then we have conservation land, which can be very limited to possibly no
public access. Um, there's typically no designated parking. There's no kiosk. There's not necessarily marked trails. It's just and it's not really actively maintained. Whereas our reservations are maintained. You know, we keep trails clear. We have signs. We have uh all all
of that stuff. So, the examples on the left of the Cranberry Bog, Redwing Farm, Russell Mill, Crooked Spring, but on the right we have, you know, we have a three refuges. We call them wildlife refuge. the Blackbrook one, the River Meadow Brook, and the Bob Bobby Greenwood one,
which is down off of Conquered Road um by Al Gangquin, I think it is, down that way. We also have that property. We just looked at the 116 Riverneck Canal Street property. We have that. Um we have Freeman Lake parcels, which we just talked about a few minutes ago. So, and there's many of those parcels. And then
there's many many many individual parcels all around town that are just r some of them are kind of random parcels. That would be on that right side of the con of the conversation. I'm not going to spend much time if any on the right side.
Peter I know you talked you and I talked that that's really good habitat that's good protection. It's good in all that but it's not so much public access anymore. Just a comment. I was looking at some of there's like I don't know who has a
number. There's like a hundred of these random parcels sort of left over from when the town was developed. And sure, mostly wetlands. They're dividends, but but they're but they're mostly like hardcore habitat and carbon sinks and you know, all the stuff that we're here
to protect. So, it's kind of a a great resource even though they're not a a management and they don't get discussion visibility. And that's okay because that's where the Bobcats need to move to, right? And some of them are physically landlocked, right? Yeah. I
think it would be uh ultimately it would be nice to be able to get for commission be able to get access. Yeah. To as many of those as possible, you know, just to inventory them and see what's out there. Doesn't mean that, you know, trails would go or whatever. But that's a
matter of of approaching, you know, budding property owners for easements, that sort of thing. In in a way like a CR, we should be checking to make sure we're not getting encroachments. We're not getting somebody, oh, somebody built a pool on our property or Yes. or throwing their yard waste on our land or
whatever, which I'm sure is happening. And and I know that that has happened on some of them. Okay. So, if you go to the next page, this was um my nerd um I had to like put together a table here. So,
this is not necessarily 100% accurate. I'm going to say that right off the bat. Um, this is a listing of our properties and some other non-conservation properties for the purposes of showing some contrast. And I know it's a little
um dense and wordy here, but everything on here I think is open space article 97 property. Um, most of the properties that are conservation commission care, custody, and control, that's legally our responsibility.
meaning it's more or less we own the deed. Um you know we we control the deed. The next column is it's our responsibility. So the only difference there would be the two parcel the two properties that the select board has asked us to take responsibility for
which is Warren Pole and the coolest property. And those um ultimately should move into that second column of care, custody, and control um once we get the CRS um nailed down and all of that, but um but they're technically not not
legally under the care custody and control of the commission. That would require a town meeting vote and it would require a town meeting vote to make that happen. Correct. And then we have the conservation commission classification. And this is I'm making this up.
Reservations are, as I said earlier, trails, parking, public access. Land would be generally not trails, public access. Although refuges, if somebody wants to walk on a refuge and get their feet wet, nobody says you can't, but um
that's it's just that's not the the main purpose of those properties. the last three properties on Oh, and then some of them were acquired through CPA funding, um, the Community Preservation Act funding. Um, and some of them have or are getting a conservation restriction.
And one property in town, the Sheen farm, is the only one I know of. There may be land trust properties, but I know that that for us, the um, the town, I think this agricultural preservation restriction is the only one on Sheen Farm. That's the only property with
that. So those bottom three properties are managed owned under the care custody and control of the town manager and the select board not the conservation commission. So when we talk about the costou for example that we voted on earlier um that those properties if if
he's supporting those properties that doesn't change that doesn't have anything to do with our decision tonight. We're talking about the properties above that uh above that line. So those properties are still uh still under the care and in fact at one time the town
manager talked to us about taking over some of those and we chose not to. Um and I'm still not inclined to take that over. We have enough on our plate without adding more. So anyway, this was kind of my way of helping to organize a
lot of these properties and we could go down with many more rows of properties, but most of them would be in that category of isolated parcels and they would be you know, however we acquired them. Some of them they were tax um you know tax forfeitures, some of them
donations, some of them we bought, some you know whatever, but most of them would not have a a CR. Most of them would not have an agricultural I don't think any of them would have that. Um uh but but all of them would come come in that first and second column of article
97 and care and custody and control of the conservation commission. So it just for me it helped to categorize. It's my nerdy self. Peter. Yeah. This is very good. You did a lot of work.
Uh thanks. Yeah. Again, I won't swear it's 100% accurate, but I think it's close. Um, help me on just for my own edification. I mean, the the Wetland Protection Act applies everywhere. Yes. And I should know this. Are all of the
parcels open to the public, including the landlocked ones we're not talking about? How does I guess I don't understand that exactly. I It's land, right? You know, we're part of the town. So, let's let David answer. I don't Remember, Carl, that we had this
conversation with town council with respect to the uh the Warren Pole CR and council. I remember council saying the conservation commission can prohibit public access on the properties if the commission is so inclined that just
because it's town owned land doesn't necessarily mean it has public access. Okay. For one, so it can, but we have not done that as far as I know. Correct. So, at the moment, I believe if anyone goes for a walk on conservation land, you know, as long as they abide by the
land use regulations, which are consistent across all of our land, um, then I don't have to exercise normal caution. So, if you go on any property and it's posted, no trespassing, right? Stay off. I mean, you know, you got to stay it off. But if it's not posted, the
assumption is going to be it's open to the public. Yeah. Does that help, Peter? Yeah. No, thank you. Okay. Yeah. Thank you. All right, let's keep moving. Um David, if you go to the next slide and then that I'm just going to go through the reservations. So, just so um we
start see Oh, hopefully you can shrink that a little bit. Yeah, there we go. So, across all of our sites. So, you know, as as you all know, I'm I'm pretty involved in a lot of our reservation sites um going forward. Uh so in terms of us taking on a lot more
responsibility and possibly working with some other volunteers um we there's trail maintenance going on. I expect that will continue to keep going for the most part. I don't see any real change there. Trash cleanup uh is ongoing. I cleaned up some trash today
at our sites. Um they're looking good. We you know they've been in good shape. Um we c we should be updating our trail maps. um uh and signage and trail markers. Um we have a volunteer who's been working that. She's in fact she's
um in Michigan with Scott right now working that, but she's she's doing some work there. And um along with uh uh Gracie, maybe the young man that worked with us last summer on um on the wetlands flagging, he also is doing some
GIS work. So I think we can really make some progress in that space going forward for all of our sites. Um we have invasive management going in many places. The coolest friends of coolest farm have been doing a lot of that over the last few months. Becky's family has
been doing a lot. We've been doing a lot at Warren Pole for in other areas for since we bought the property. We've been doing invasive management there focusing in very specific areas. Um, but we have a lot more that we want to do there. Um,
uh, David, we've talked about Oxbow getting a real step forward for us will be getting some kind of an herbicide applicator. Um, that can really unless you do that, I think you're a lot of it you're just kind of I won't say
shoveling sand against the tide, but a little bit. Um, and then accessibility. This is a big thing that we need to do based on the open space and recck plan recommendations. There's a lot we need to do in that space. Kiosk management. I find when I go to the sites, our kiosks
are all over the map. Some are empty, some have old stuff, some are, you know, there's stuff on them that shouldn't be there. So, we need to be a little more aggressive and active on that. Um, you know, I can we can do some stuff there. And then I've heard a lot of people saying it would be nice if we had more
interpretive signage on almost all of our sites. things like, you know, here's what a vernal pool is or this site was bought in, you know, 1983 and here's why it was bought or the cranberry bog history or whatever. You know, there's a lot of cool stuff that we could be
putting some more uh interpretive signing out. So, all of our sites, these are things that we can be doing on all of our sites. Now, I'm just going to kind of rapid fire go through all the rest of the sites. So, Cranberry Bog um we definitely need to be doing some more
um very specific accessibility changes there. Um that site I think is very close to some work but to to being a really valuable accessible site because it um uh it's it's got a nice long relatively
flat path that goes out to the dam and that's a big payoff when you when you have a site that you want to be accessible. You want a really good payoff. You want the the person going there to to really enjoy what they're going to and the cranberry bugs topnotch. So that one with some work um
I think we can really make that one of our premier accessibility trails uh sites. Um we have some invasive management that has been done over the years, but it should be really we should step it up there. Um we do need to David, we've talked about this
monitoring the water level at the at the dam, the um developing guidelines for the flashboards. Um that's just something on us. It's not so much a stewardship. Well, I guess you it falls under stewardship, but we need to figure out what to do there. It's not
consistent. Um, we need to know. We have a certain friend who keeps reminding us of that. And, uh, we do need to do that. Um, we do need to based on the, um, engineers report a couple years ago, five, six years ago, um, remove all
stocky and woody growth on the upstream and downstream sides of the dam embankment. We did take the trees down years ago, four or five years ago, four years ago, and we have been cleaning that and doing it, but there's still some more that needs to be done there. And then the other thing I've noticed is
that we do have a spot on that dam where turtles tend to drop eggs every June or often in June. And the dogs go across that dam all the time. And I think we should be putting a sign up. We should get a sign made that says turtle nesting season. And I don't know if it's good
practice to put a fence around it or not cuz I guess the turtles drop their eggs and they don't come back. Am I That's correct. Yes. So maybe that's the right thing to do to protect them. But um Well, you want you want to make sure that the turtles can get to their nesting areas. Um so I don't know. We
have to but at least we should have a sign because there's a lot of people that cross that very narrow area with turtle nest right here and people walking. So, at least a sign would say, you know, look, but don't touch, keep your dog away or whatever. So, that's
that's the cranberry bog. Next one is the Redwing Farm. So, the number one thing I think at Redwing Farm to me is the split rail fence is in really tough shape. Um, I had talked to Bob Morris who's a neighbor who shares the split rail fence and has his own and he's in
the same boat. He thinks it needs to be repaired andor replaced in places. So, we need to dig in and do that because that gets a lot of photography, a lot of people visiting. It's a beautiful site other than the neighbors that are a couple doors down. No, those people crazy, don't they?
So, um you know, and in general, the site's in pretty good shape. You know, the couple of the neighbors, Bob and uh Mike Riley, cut the grass and so it's in it's in good shape. It's uh that that site, but there's a lot of invasives there. So, there's always opportunity
there. Next, next one is uh Thanksgiving forest. So, we have talked about this. So, Bill, good comment about the uh that cube. I I saw that water cube. Beautiful. It's it's a great great job you did. It fits in there perfect cuz
it's uh old barn boards it's made out of. And it looks like the uh they have a trash bin there, too. He made the trash bin, too. The same person. Yeah. So, that's that's a that's a good one. So, they're moving forward. We do need to figure out I forgot again to put on there. We need to talk. I I should have
them come talk about the um the deer fence. So, I will connect with um I think it's Jeff Jeff and Karen and we'll figure that out. Um invasive management Thanksgiving forest has some spots. I mean, we did the Norway maple trees. Um
and there's a few spots, but it's not it's not the worst compared to some of our other sites. Um and um I know that uh the land trust is looking at doing some more accessibility to River Meadow Brooks. So that's a you know a future thing. We're happy to work with them on
that as as things um evolve over time. But that's something we can keep in mind. Next one, Russell Mill. Um invasive management. I can tell you that the um the kiosk in the front the middle parking lot is just a disaster. We need
to uh I will connect with uh the NEA guys and see if we can get some stuff. Um that site is um there's a lot of invasives there along that way. Um the commission native park native plant park up front um I think it gets
mowed pretty regularly. My friend Dave here uh cuts it during the summer. Um that got set up like four or five years ago and it's just kind of I I I don't know. I I think we need to think about what the long-term plan for that site
is. I tend to want to do less maintenance as in general is if possible, but um it's a nice spot. It's and it's a nice area. It's connected to the the um the Mil Pond area right there. So, um I don't know. I'm I'm not I don't I don't have a strong feeling
one way or another. It's Is that where the shed is? Yeah, that's where the shed is. Yep. Um I can tell you that the driveway is in really tough shape. That's one of the things on my list to talk to DPW about when you drive in there. Um, keep your jaw clenched or you'll lose some teeth. Um, it's pretty
rough. Um, keep Yeah, but speed bumps. Yeah. Yeah. Well, that does occur to me, but it's really bad. Um, it seems to happen every year. Yeah, it does there. Yeah, it's cuz they use the they use the um the pavement shavings or whatever they call it, the grindings, and it just
doesn't I'm not You got to put it in like that. Yeah. Yeah. Um, and then the other thing is a perennial concern is the soccer containers. The big, speaking of containers, these containers are sitting there and these are storing the
soccer equipment, the, you know, the field maintenance and the nets and all that. And they're just ugly as hell. I mean, they're just really ugly. But I don't know a better solution. You know, I I I'm open to ideas. It's just it's just ugly. It's just we have this nice
beautiful conservation area and then there's these two big trailer containers and they're they're ugly. The most important thing is they're secure. That is Yeah. Yeah, they are secure and they get used. I mean it's not like they're you know they're it's not like they've been sitting there forever um and never
used. They get used and um but anyway, next next one is uh right reservation. So, um there's a we we made some good improvements on the walkway last fall and then winter came. So, we've got a bunch more that we want
to keep doing um throughout the site with the same kind of design and improvement on that site. Invasives are all over on that site. We got a lot of work to do there. Um there is a start and stop project to do a tree tour mapping signage thing there with Jim
Martin and um so hopefully we can get that going with our friend um Amy as well and uh I think that would be a great that's a great site for that kind of a thing. Um, and then there's also, if you if you guys know, there's this manure spreader that's um sits off kind
of towards the burning tree lane uh area and it's kind of remote. It's a cool thing. There's a tree growing out of it. It's an old ancient thing. It's a little we could have a little little side trail to create some access. It's an interesting artifact on that site. It's
a great site. Um and uh so next one, Warren Pole. So Warren Pole, um we uh are doing a lot of invasive management there in the upper field uh and also now in with Becky's um honeymoon cabin site
area. Um we are the meadow's coming along quite well. There's a lot of native plants there. There is some invasives in there, but the meadow is in I think it's in good shape. The edges of it don't seem to have a whole lot of woody growth. Typically, trees grow into
a meadow, but because it's a wet meadow. Uh, it seems to be doing quite well, but um, you know, we need to work a little bit more with ox it'll it'll be a couple of months before the purple loose stripe is in bloom. So, we'll see how bad that is this year. Yeah. So, we Yeah, we and
we we still haven't figured out a funding thing for that. So I we have until May 15th to come up with some money if we want to do it this year. May maybe we do a small test thing or something or something. Couple hundred bucks. Yeah. See what happens. Um I
would very much like to this has been uh almost since day one. I even remember talking to the disability commission about this four years ago and I didn't get a lot of response but I think an accessibility trail to Putnhambrook from where the kiosk is. If you know Warren
Pole, if you walk from the kiosk through the brush, create a trail down to the brook. This time of year, as the mig bird migration happens, the birds are off the chart in that area. And just having a very short um paved, not paved,
but pvious um accessibility trail has to be the right, you know, meet all that. Um especially for someone who's um uh can't see, you know, but but can hear, would be a wonderful spot. Um, and I think that would be a really good um
something different from just the normal walk out to a place. Um, but that trail would be wouldn't be all that long. It would be pretty short. It's a babbling brook this time of year. The brook waterfall or something. Yeah, there's a little waterfall right there. It's it's
a it's a great spot, but it's just completely locked in by invasives and all kinds of um uh brambles and all kinds of stuff. We need to figure out the museum shed um has a lot of agricultural implements. Um I mean
they're nothing's nothing's happening to them. They're just sitting there. It's this is the shed up on the hill. Um but some at some point we probably should address that. Um I think it would be great to add a couple more benches in a couple of key spots there. We got a
bench right by the kiosk uh last year, I think it was, or the year before, but I think there's a couple other places that we could put a couple of benches because the views are really good there. And then longer term, um we've talked in the past about the actual putting a
connection in to Wright reservation, which would be just a simple path, but getting to that path um through the through the woods is not trivial. There's a lot of wet area. would probably be a fair amount of raised walkway, but having that connectivity to
the right reservation, it would be nice to connect to the Robin Hill, but I'm not I'm not in favor of crossing Actton Road um in terms of encouraging that. So, yeah.
All right. Next is uh what's the next one? Lime Quarry. So, um there's there's a lot of walkways and bridges on that site, but generally in pretty good shape. Um invasive management in places, but not it's not crazy bad. Uh, I just remember
there's uh the the state uh we abut the state uh property with the um rest area and there's some there's a chain link fence there that they I believe it's their chain link fence and there's a couple of trees down that have destroyed the chain link fence and I think we need
to ask the state to come and fix their fence. They probably don't know it's almost destroyed but not not that big a deal. Um, I could see us doing a little side trail as you come into the property from the parking lot and you take a right. As you go around a little ways,
there's a really big wetland area off to the right that I've bushwacked over there and it's kind of a nice little wetland area. I could see us doing a little side trail there someday maybe. But well, I think I think that is a vernal pool. Uh, I don't know that it's Well, that there is vernal pool in
there. I I think there is. But I mean beyond that. Oh, beyond that there's a kind of a pond which you can almost see the pond from 110. Okay. And I think it might even be part of Beaverbrook. Uh Beaverbrook comes over and then goes back. So I'm not certain. I think I know what you mean. Yes. Um and then you know
the the parking area there's that little island. We could put some native plants in that area or something like that. Although I wouldn't want to do too much to hurt visibility. But um but lamb quarry is you know it's doing well and I would call it low on the list of needing
a lot of attention. Did the garden club try to do something out there at one time? There was talk about it. I think they did but well before my time I think Dave McGlaughlin worked with them on something. We did we were working with them some years back and initially it looked pretty good. I haven't been out there in a while but I think the water
was an issue, wasn't it? That was a problem. Yeah, the water was a problem. Yeah. But if get the right plants. Yeah. Yeah. Well, even then you sometimes you need cubes, water cubes to establish the plants and then and then pull it away. Oh, I'm sorry. I thought you meant it was too wet. No, no, the opposite. The
opposite. Yeah, it's too dry. Yeah. Next one is uh Coolis. So, Coolis is on our list. So, um we need to get accessible parking signage. The kiosk and picnic tables we talked about um making those happen. The friends of Kulis have been
doing a lot of invasive management. Um they had uh the com the task force had recommended an accessible trail. I think that would be great. Um I don't you know we have to see a plan and all that. Um just like if we did at Warren Pole, we'd
have to have a plan. Um we do need to do protection for the vernal pool with a split rail fence and ultimately remove the debris that's in the vernal pool um sometime this year hopefully. Uh, I think we should review the need for the shed. Um, the property, you know, the
the the the the Kulis family had said originally when they sold the property to the town that they really wanted it to be used for hiking and wildlife habitat. Well, that's what, you know, that to me is um
is not mowing the grass every every week uh all summer long. It's it's let it let it be habitat. Um, and that's what the original intent was and that's what we're we're looking for from a conservation point of view. Um, there's also the request to um raise the walk uh
put a raised walkway in the back. Um, uh, there was a there's a a bit of a walkway bridge back there, but the um the one we did at at Wright reservation um I think if we did something like that there would be good. um a native plant
meadow um would be great. I think th those were also in their recommendations and um but we need to get a botanical survey done on that site like we've done at Warren Pole and we're it's like pulling teeth getting those surveys
done. But based on those surveys, you can then really do the right thing in terms of a long-term native plant meadow. And I I look for a meadow versus a garden. You know, a garden to me is a very small contained and I think those that site needs big big bodacious plans
and that's not simple. That's that's a lot of work to do it right. So that's Coolis. So So you're So Carl, in this you're really just talking about the big parcel. You're not you're not Yeah. I mean when we when we talk about the other two parcels uh we you know the task force made a recommendation for
agriculture for haying on one and pumpkins on the other and that's what's happening. That's what we've agreed with them on that and um that's all, you know, that's that's moving forward. The other recommendations they made were the um we we we talked about this last year,
the new house um uh wildlife refuge and um or uh rehab, not a refuge, but a rehab. And our opinion and and certainly the town council came and said, "This is article 97 property. that is not something you are really want to do
because it would be while he said not technically impossible it would be extraordinarily ownorous and so we said nope we don't and and expensive and yeah so we said nope that's not something we want to do there okay and I think there's only one
or two more crooked spring oh yeah one of our favorites so accessibility trail to the dam so the dam if you know the dam is just to the left of the parking area and Um, it would not be a difficult lift to get a accessibility trail from an
accessibility better. I think the handicap spot on that site is probably going to need to get moved over and be better marked and then uh a a good trail down to where the dam is. There's a nice little sitting spot and that would be a good thing to do and get done and we
could have a project to make that happen. Um, I think there's also a possibility if you know the sewer line trail, which is the long straight more or less straight shot. Yep. That we could put some uh handicap parking at the end of that on the Crooked Spring
roadside. That would allow parking there. Would probably have to move the firegate in 5 to 10 feet just to make that happen. And then you'd have some parking there with a long straight shot and then put a path and like a a raised
platform. and you're looking out over what I call the Beaver Dam area. There's a big massive beaver dam wouldn't be hard to do and it's a beautiful payoff. That's a great great spot. The grade's relatively flat. Somebody in a wheelchair could wheel right out, create a great view of wheeling back and it's a
great viewing area. And if you were sitting there, you get to I've sat there and you know I haven't seen right below you too. I haven't seen the beaver there this year, but um they're'll be back. They'll be back. Yeah. So that's one. Um there's always invasive management. Oh,
the the relocate to trail segments. We talked about that a few weeks back. I think that's one that we need to get on and make that happen. It's um we have some discussion about exactly what to do there, but I think we need to make that happen longer term.
Um the Graniteville Road um walkway bridge. So, if you're all the way at the other end of the site at the upstream end of the site, there's a walkway bridge. It's a combination of I'll call it cluj together projects that get you across crooked spring from the the the
sewer trail to the other side of the property. Right. And it's it was underwater a few years ago. Couple years ago, we had flooding there. The the beavers were there. I think the long-term plan should be to build a real bonafide bridge that's, you know, a foot or two or three or whatever the right
height is across that whole area. I mean, it's not cheap. It's money, but do it right. Get that whole walkway out of the water and a beaver come. We don't care. The neighbors might get might have an issue, but let's let's do one thing at a time. I think there's also some
possibility of um we have to understand what the DPW storm water plan is there because right now storm water comes off of Granite View Granite Graniteville and runs right directly into the stream which has to be fixed. I I for me I think that's a high priority. it's
second or third on their list in the next five years, but um Christine has said we'll get there. So, we just have to be patient and live with the uh live with the walkway bridge that we have for now, but I think we want to keep that in
mind um long term. And last couple ones, uh Oakill, um Oakill, you tell me, Bill, you're there more than me, but Oakill does pretty well. It's it's it's it's busy. There's somebody there usually all the time. Yeah. There's stuff, you know,
there's I know you've said there's trees fall down now and then or branches, right? There's a tree on the main trail right now that fell down this weekend. Uh that hasn't been cut up yet. Okay. Um this one and Deep Brook we both know we know that there's some trail neighboring
property issues that we need to work and resolve so that we can have a much better network that's not not like you know we're kind of like not let's not ask the question. It's like let's go address this. Let's get it resolved and get those resolved. But that's the same
thing for both Oakbrook and uh Oakill and and the next one David Deepbrook and I think I think that's the end if I'm not mistaken. Yeah, that's the end. So that's so I think the the story I'm
trying to share is we have a good handle on what needs to be done on our sites. There's a lot of opportunity for projects. If we have scouts, if we have volunteers, if we have churches, if we have clubs, whatever, we can parcel out. There's always invasive management that
we can Absolutely. Basic planning board said they wanted to do a team event or something like that. You know, I just I'm just throwing out ideas here, you know, that uh uh they wanted to like pull weeds at at conservation property or something like that. I don't know. Just, you know, just crazy ideas, but we
can come up with stuff like that that can um that that we can happen. So, if you see things that you'd want to add to this list, um I think what makes sense, Dave and I are working with um James from Paul's office getting our website.
We're almost there. We're almost there. And I think we'll be able to put a lot of this information out there and make it very visible and make our town website actually useful. And I won't swear it'll be easy to navigate, but it
shouldn't be too bad. I think we should be able to make it work. and and helpful. Um, so Kyle, can we put on the agenda for agenda for the next meeting that we have the list of the active sites and
then pass it out to each person? Sure. So that we can keep this ball rolling and not just forget about it after tonight. Y So I' I'd like to see it on the agenda next meeting and say, "Okay, here's a list of sites. Who's gonna take a look at each, you know,
each site? Okay. I I agree. Let's do that. Any other comments or thoughts or are you looking for comments later? No. Uh yeah. Yeah. I mean, if you have if you have any like if you know a specific
site we should do this, send that to me. We can put it in there. or if you have a more general, you know, well, I have one general, generic, one general, if I may. Um, we joined the Sbury Valley Trust and you've been doing some work and you guys have been. Um, they just released their
watershed plan and we should talk about that later, but there's a whole bunch of things in there that they think is important for the conquered river watershed that ties directly to this conversation. And I'll give you a super
quick example. Um, there's a bunch of action items about grassland birds. And I haven't digested it and I don't even know what it says. But some of these, you know, we start talking about fields and whatnot. Maybe there's a way to dovetail or participate in their
watershed plan which might bring some technical expertise. Mhm. And I don't know, maybe some grant money for something, but we can look at that later. Okay. And the other quick thing is what happened to the we were on the Carile Chumpsford dam subcommittee and
last time I looked at that they were looking at Carile and maybe it's done maybe it's over. Um they were looking at removing the dam instead of rebuilding it. Their dam that they're talking about would eliminate the pond that has the turtle nesting
berm. So, there's some big picture things out there. We ought to That's our property. They're talking about their dam. There's another dam. They're rebuilding it. Well, that's not what's in their newspaper. As of a couple months ago, they were looking at removing the dam. Huh. But anyway, my
point is there's some big picture regional things we should Let's not talk about it now. Yeah, we can find out. I think Sylvia I think Sylvia is still the agent over there. I think so. Yeah. Yeah. So, it's I mean, maybe it's a non-starter. It was just somebody wanted to look at that. But they were they had slowed down some of that other stuff
that we were working with them on and somebody was looking at that idea because it was, you know, like a million bucks or whatever. Yeah. The number was to rebuild the dam. Okay. Just just a general. Okay. Thank you for putting that together. That was uh Okay. A lot
of work. That's good. Thanks. That's good. And agents report. David, anything? Uh nothing. Nothing there. Nothing else. and approval of minutes. We have minutes. Praise. Praise Vivian. Praise Ola.
So, we have February 11th, February 25th, and March 11th. This is the really exciting motion to approve February 11th. I think that's the one that was uh nobody was absent. Um although uh actually Chris, you were
only here for part of it, I guess, if I remember right. Yeah. On Z. I um I did think I checked in. I thought it was, you know, I missed a little bit in the beginning, but I was kind of out there in the Zoom, but I don't think you discovered me out there in the Zoom presence. I think it might have been
earlier than 7:24 to be honest because I remember catching me when we learned you were there. Exactly. Yeah. When you actually got there, I don't know. Yeah. I was I was pretty close to the beginning as I remember at some point. I think I suggest you change it to like 705. Yeah. I mean, because you know, it
wasn't really until we were roll kind of doing a roll call of questions and I kind of said, "Hey, Carl, I'm out here." And you kind of went through everybody and and I was like last one there and I'm kind of, "Hey, I'm out here. I'm out here." You know, I I I take that back on February 11th that on the uh second
page, a little more than halfway down. One second. So, can we change Chris's time to 7? Let's say 7:05. It was like 7:05. Yeah. Okay. Thank you. Easy. whatever you need. Okay. Go ahead, Mark. It was the uh let's see one of the blocks remaining. Mrs.
Harold explained that the house was constructing 85 and it says the board of appeal approved the setbacks last fall. I don't remember I'm saying that. Is anybody I don't think it was saying that you
said that, but I'm not sure. I don't know. I don't know what it means. Well, this is 61 Smith Street. Yeah. Um, yeah, ZBA did have to um uh approve a special permit. I I think it might have been for
a setback relief. I construction of the house. No, the addition. The addition Oh, that they're proposing. I I can go I can go back and double check exactly what I think Moren said it. All right. I think she did, too. I didn't I didn't remember that. Okay.
[Applause] Uh the motion to Okay. So motion from Mark to approve the minutes of February 11th with the one change as noted. Second. Second from Bill. All in favor? I I Okay. So meeting number one. Next
one is meeting number two, February 25th. Uh John was um I think you were in Peru. No key. Yeah. Okay. you weren't here. I know that. A nice place.
All right. This was when we had the RDA for uh uh what we just talked about, Pineh Hill, Caroline Farley, and um continued continued. All right. I'll take a motion for approval of the meeting minutes of
February 25th, 2025. Okay. Motion from Mark. Second. Second from Chris. All in favor? I uh so all and John abstained. Next we are up to March
11th. Uh everyone was here. [Applause] That's right. We had a little change in sequence in this one. All right, I'll take a motion to approve the minutes unless I hear changes. I don't see any changes. Meeting minutes
for March 11th. So move, Carl. Mark. Uh motion from Chris to approve. Motion uh a second from Peter. All in favor? I I Okay, motion approved. And one last thing from David. Uh yes, I
did think of something. So, um you know, there's three weeks now before the next meeting. So, I think the uh the wetland bylaw and regulation review subcommittee, we should meet. We we should plan to have a meeting sometime.
Um th Thursday of next week looks good for me. Thursday. Thursday is a tough one. Well, yeah, t Tuesday would be good except that, you know, I'd have to get I'd have to get the agenda. Um, well, I guess I'd strictly speaking I'd have to
get it posted by Friday. Okay, let's um we can close the meeting. We can figure it out because it's just three or four of us. Yes. Okay. Have to hold it. Okay. Take a motion to adjourn the meeting. Move. Motion from Bill, second by Chris. All in favor? I adjourn. Thank you,
Cheria. Appreciate it.