um I'm going to go ahead and um call the meeting to order at 7:02 p.m uh could I have a roll call please mike Pod present selena Thomas
present uh Veronica Keel present emily Fine present remotely remotely emily is the only one of us that is remote we're supposed to note that in the minutes I understand so all right
um the meeting is being recorded and it will be uploaded to YouTube i I'm just going to check and see if there's anybody else recording i don't see anybody else on but us all right i'm hearing none um
additions or deletions um I don't have any um right now I I should say that when we get to see our models I'll talk about all that but um I don't have any additions or deletions to the menu to
the agenda does anybody else no I'm just glad that I wasn't named as a person who opened the can of worms at the beginning of last you weren't so I have an addition maybe um it might not be it i'm wondering
about specifying the exact portion of the property that will get the CR um that is something that we're going to talk about um adoring during this um did I put well I guess
it's I sent out the deed and I think a map again I mean which they were repeats from what you had gotten early on because I want to look at that because in the discussion of the CR models I think we need to talk about should we
add that I don't know if it's an added thing or if it's part of one of the others Um so let's go um 2.15 let's add a discussion of the map of the property and the deed i think we
might need to discuss it before we discuss the uses okay because depending on what the CR is going to pertain to will depend on what we have to include of allowed and not
allowed so let's call it 2.05 05 um discussion of the deed and the property map it all kind of goes together it does um are you good with that Emily is that
okay with you yep and Mike Michael is that okay with you okay so we'll add a discussion of um the deed and the property map as 2.05 we could call it 2.0 let's call it 2.0
before 2.1 all right um Emily wrote the minutes for uh April 10th the April 10th meeting did everybody get a chance to read them yes so um is there Let's take a motion
to accept first and then we can discuss so is there a motion to accept make a motion to accept the minutes of April 4th 2025 is there a second second
all right so discussion on the minutes is there anything that should be added or subtracted or clarified or anything like that i don't believe so Michael no um all
right i don't have anything to add or subtract and Emily you wrote them so I assume you don't have anything either to add or subtract all right so um a roll call vote in favor of the minutes starting at
the table here with Mike said yes selena Thomas yes veronica Kell yes emily Fine yes all right so the minutes are accepted all right so um we're going to go to 2.0 which is a discussion of the
deed and the property map i was really hoping that Todd was here because I really wanted that's why he's on the committee the water department to be involved with looking at this and making their recommendations and thoughts and
just saying a blanket i mean we we own the property just to make a blanket statement um we know where that stands so all right so let me get to um the the CR i'm
going to um share my screen i was going to bring up the um map this is 424 packet so what did I send out oh I didn't send it i I sent an email of these things in
there so I sent the deed correct yes all right so I'm going to bring up the deed and then I'm trying to remember which map i think it was 2449 was it that one there was so many yes that one has a
really bad photocopy version of the property i I think that's the one that's referenced in the deed and that's I think why I sent that one out so all right so um now I have to screen share
so I'm going to pull up the deed there it is can I shrink this down all right um are we looking at the deed now yes all right so on the deed um there were three parcels
um the the part that is and and they do uh refer to the plan can I share the plan at the same time let's see i can Okay there's the plan can it bounce back and forth between the plan
and the deed i wonder oh I can't all right so um let me go back to the deed and then we'll we'll go back to the plan i I might there there must be a way to bounce back and forth between the two
i think if you share your window instead of the individual documents then you can just then I could do it okay here we are so there are three parcels one is B2 containing 4.65 acres b1 which is open
space containing 7.67 acres and parcel D contain containing 33 acres so we're going to look at those and then there's a fourth parcel which
is B3A containing 24.4 acres all right B3A which here it has a dash and here it doesn't but that's the nature of the beast way back when this was done it it shows as existing wells
and within a 400 foot radius of the existing wells and the access strip for Mason Road may be used by the towns and water department as the site of a future well and access and egress there from
the remaining portions of B3 B2 and B1 shall be known as Holly's playground okay so now Oh it worked um Okay okay uh and can I can I flip it it's going to go
upside down and actually the other one you sent There is a better one it's clearer yeah yeah um but this is the one that's referenced in the deed so I'm going with this so this is B3 and the
access piece is out here on Mason Road so this is the well site and I believe it includes the furthest field um the existing field yeah so I believe
um the link that I had sent that went out to everybody that was the maps of yes the property if you get rid of all of the layers you can see the field and where it is on that parcel can you share
that i'm I'm gonna Let me talk about this one i think the well site is right here and the 400 foot radius is this which I don't believe includes the fields no it does not and um my So if
you go back to the deed and let me see if I can do this i did okay so it says um the portion of parcel B3A shown on the map as existing wells and within a 400 ft radius of the existing wells and
the access strip for Mason Road may be used by the towns and water department as the site of a future well and access and egress what I'm what I'm trying to make sure is that the water department
gets what they want for the well and that the soccer field is able to remain that's what I would like to see happen and Michael I just want to address this is kind of off the subject what you said
last time about what happened in Chelmsford and an office building going up that is exactly why we're doing this so that we don't wind up with someone in town saying "Let's dig that up as a sand pit gravel pit we can get money there."
I want to make sure that the use that's in the deed is the use of the property and a CR does that it's just how do we do it right how do we make what is meant to happen happen in the way it's
supposed to in perpetuity right well just to make clear I will reiterate what I said at the end of the last spiel um regardless of how I came across I am totally in favor of the CR that's
if you have any doubt in your mind no I didn't okay um but I I just wanted to to say that's why we're doing this and it's to um and I I really did want Todd participating on this committee so that
we have the water department included in this so this is what I see the property is owned by the town but this says it can be used by the water department and so the idea is to write the CR and have
the ownership and what is included and excluded as part far as property goes to allow this to happen and I'm not the water expert um you know Todd is so to
so we really do need that um piece but anyway so back to the really terrible map um so that's the part that is it's this part up here and the ingress and
egress now my question is for you Emily is do the turtles does the species inhabit this parcel of Yes yes
that's a very busy area especially for um the the most threatened of the species um so yeah unfortunately
we need to think about that even if we decide to deed this differently or to have a a different CR um on part of the property than a different part um we need to see that that's
specified somehow i mean could um I'm wondering if under the allowed uses we could have a section for the water department you know that that shows that one of the allowed uses is
for the water department if they desire to to activate those wells and use the area um of that 400 ft radius
around around you know so so that we can word it so that it agrees with that portion of the need and and that um the allowed use is um
the the maintenance of the species happens from the a certain period of time whatever it is April to November or whatever and that the water department if they were going to install a well they did the work at a different time
from that critical time period so is that the proposed location or is there a well there now there's no well there now but there are test wells there are test sites okay that's what I found i walked the site oh good two days ago and I found the test wells yes and I was
surprised and when last night at the Conservation Commission meeting I showed them a picture that I took of the two pipes that were a couple feet apart and they were surprised as I was that it was on the embankment it was at the top of
the ridge yes wasn't down lower but that that is where the test wells are and and it's where I mean in my discussions which aren't recent they were from a couple years ago that is the
planned location they didn't seem to think it was going to be anywhere different so um yeah um one other point is that the um the access thing there um that has been used
by the abutters um they have all sorts of they have gardens fences furniture in there so that's just that can be in and that can be addressed
if the when the if the water department wants it yeah if the water department wants it and you know um the water department could decide whether to address that sooner rather than later it's not I don't think it's really in the purview of I mean I guess we could
but I don't know it's an encroachment of some sort so someone must force it it's usually the land use coordinator which we don't have right now who starts that sort of um action you know at least that's
what's happened in the past when we've had encroachment now what happens that's the test well what if they decide okay we're going to put the well in and they find that it doesn't produce the amount of water and they would like to drill somewhere else in close proximity does
that need to be built into the CR2 or I don't know it depends on maybe I mean I don't know either it depends on how how
uh says and within a 400 foot radius of the existing wells and the access strip so the existing wells are the like you said they aren't they are test wells but this is how it was written um so that is
something that you really want the water department to weigh in on but if you go by the deed it would be it's this you know it's where those test wells are yeah it looks it looks to me like that's
that's where the water department may put their wells is in that circle right so within within that any part of that circle you think the 400 foot radius or the that's what I that's how I am
reading the deed radius of the existing wells and what was the date on this deed we have a date that we can easily read I think it's a 2003 bottom I'm looking at this right here
yes y 2003 so it's been a long time um all right so to what you were saying the Tesa fields are not within that 400t radius they are on that same parcel but they are outside of it
so so what do you So we could we could specify that the the water department has exactly what's in the deep the 400 ft and and block that part out from the
CR the CR isn't included there but we would want to put something in there or there's that water supply CR right that um and I think that could take care of everything as long as the water
department was willing to hold the CR they would get their rights to the water but they'd also have to maintain the habitat of the of the whole thing thing so you're
thinking giving them B1 B2 B3 all parts well they don't wait it still stays with the town of Town right they just are the CR holder for the entire property
same as if we had Mass D or Nasha River Watershed right yeah they hold the CR for the whole property and they follow what needs to be done for the whole property for the whole property so it's just who is the CR
holder right if the water department would be willing to be the holder I think that would be a good avenue because they're invested in the town they you know it's and they're
going to be very invested in keeping the property for water use as well so they may I was hoping our water department person would be here too i was too um I
have a question though um because um I I think I earlier learned that since the town of Townsen owns the property that um that the conservation commission
would not be allowed to be the holder of a CR because the conservation commission is part of the town of Townsen's government And wouldn't that apply to the water department
no because the water department um is a special case according to um one of the things that went out was a link the CR for water supplies and in that it says a CR for drinking water supply purposes
may be held by a municipality or water district through its board of water commissioners so to me that says our water department can hold the CR even though we own the property of the town
okay that is a question that we need to get an answer for yeah we definitely would have to verify that my understanding of this is correct can the water department through um
BOWC pulled uh sorry I'm slow okay pulled a water supply CR i read that stuff too and I I agree with you um it read that way hold a
water supply CR if the town is the property owner because it is true that's why we couldn't have the conservation commission hold the CR right um and and uh the conservation commission at the
time voted not to take the property and I'm not willing to change that at this point only because in five years the conservation commission could say we don't want it anymore or we're just going to maintain i'll
just point this out not that I'm I just want you to be aware of the fact that in the minutes of the meeting when they voted to um relinquish their um ownership of of the
property it states that the um CR would be held by a land trust that's what we were trying to do that's right that is what we were trying to do but the water department is not a land trust no it's not yeah but it's I won't tell anybody
but if you don't but but they do have the um they do have a right to using that piece of the property right um a deed right so it's not ownership of the property but they have a deed right to
use the property and that um you know the other option is to cut this into two part pieces you know say okay there will be a CR held by this person on this part of the property a CR held by another on another part of the
property that's another option and the other the the other issue is would the water commissioners be willing to um be the holders and
um do what's required of um the holders of a CR which means you know the annual inspection of the the entire portion of
the property um that that's under the CR and you know would they be willing to do that that is also a good question so that's question number two here do I not remember correctly at the first meeting
there was some talk about the town would still own have control over the soccer field so they could negotiate the leases and all that with the the soccer or any other entity and the strip the CR would
only apply to the strip that would be the burm the ridge and the and so it wouldn't be that the water department would hold a CR over the entire ire property only that portion of the property that we want them right and
that was my big question because for allowed uses and non-allowed uses if we are not including the soccer fields in the CR portion of the property we don't need to say that soccer is allowed
because it's not part of the CR area that's true and that's where I was like wait how it's My understanding that the the soccer fields and parking area and
access road are not part of the CR this I don't it's it might sound a little off topic but I think it relates a question I have to what you just asked what is your title and who who determines uh what the maintenance
projects are going to be who's involved who initiates the projects how is it uh what's the process that that happens are you asking me yes oh um well up
until this year it used to be just a a couple of us and we are um permitted through the um natural heritage and endangered species program
um to do the work that we're that we do and um so our permit has specific requirements of how we do that work and
um we have also gotten advice from them about how to um improve the habitat um and really what what we have to try to do is prevent um that ecological
succession that would occur if we didn't pull out the saplings and so on because the the species we're protecting need the sunny sandy area um and so we get advice
um from them but there is no official nonprofit group or anything it's it's just um those of us who got permitted and then um as we get more volunteers they
get added to the permit as subpermedies um and um so this NHSP issues the permit to you correct yes and this is something that they do
across the state inhabit that area yes our permit is is um not designated as that that area in particular our permit is for Townsend town of Townsend
uhhuh so if someone finds a a species in their yard yes they could call Emily or one of the permitted people to have the um you
know have things protected so So your question was whether or not the water department would be willing to take on the responsibility to do what you're doing now no no i don't expect them to go out there during nesting season for six
hours a day no only crazy people like me do that themselves but um to have it done no the um as far as I understand it the holder of the
CR has the responsibility of making sure that the allowed uses and prohibited uses are being adhered to and they have to do an annual check-in so once a year they need to go and check
the property and make sure that things are kosher you typically will walk the grounds and um make sure that the markers are still there that there hasn't been any encroachment right over the ends um I almost think they would
want to do that because it's their water source area right right you would think that the water department would be invested in in the CR part not necessarily in the endangered species part but if they were holding the um the
CR they would it would be a permitted use and we could specify that they would work with the permit holders to see that the property was um and maybe that they have to you know file a report that says you know there's saplings growing in
this area that weren't there last year kind of right and are the saplings in that uh area within the 400 um foot radius we did do some clear yes there's lots of white pine usually um well what
what we've been doing the past couple of years is um we go out there and any really small white pine saplings that we can pull up by the roots we do and then um the ones that um have really grown to
I don't know Christmas tree size those ones we cut at the at the base um there are some invasive species there's u um some bittersweet growing so we try to pull that um the also on the
river side on one of one of the sandy slopes um there's a bunch of Japanese knotweed and so um we had planned uh to put hardware cloth on top of of those plants so that
they would self um sort of they would grow through there and then um they would grow so wide that um they just get girdled at the bottom and die but it's so steep there we
weren't able to do that so now every 3 weeks or so during the growing season I go there and I cut the stems of the Japanese knotweed and bag those um and I
was actually there today thinking I needed to get a jump on it and there wasn't any growing yet so yay um but um the hope is that this will this process will starve the roots and the roots will
eventually die right and how many people do you get to volunteer um well it had been mainly Jean and me um the past couple of years and then um
there there were um two or three others who would come um sporadically and help us um especially when it's hatching time because um the hatchlings are adorable and
people like to do that and um and uh Jean really needed a break so um that sort of left me in the lurch and I don't know how it happened but I I got
about five new people to start this coming year and several of them are young so so they'll be taking over for me so in the not not too distant future
all right and who is Jean jean um lives um on Horseshoe Drive uh Jean Erda and um she um recently um started
working for the senior center and having the full-time job and doing the work that we do here was just too much so so she's taking a sbatical we'll call it is
it fair to say that if you hadn't taken the initiative that this work would not be done um there were others that did it before you Emily right okay but to sustain it we need always to
have someone i mean I hope you're around for a very long time but eventually you know someone else is going to have to take over well no it I've I've got two more seasons two and a half more seasons and then I'll be moving to Maine so
um uh luckily though I really think that um I've I've got some people who are going to be here after I leave and continue the work so I'm really hopeful about that
there are some people there are several people one one is um in the Nasha River Watershed Association another person uh lives on Mason Road and can walk there um and she's young um another person is
from Fitchburg and she's a wetland biologist um and I only met her because she saw a nest in the center of Fitsburg and um contacted Nasha River Wershed who contacted me so I went and
I got got the eggs and we hatched out those e those those babies so anyways I got her involved and then one time I was there and um there were two college age guys there and um one of
them is majoring in biology down in Florida um and he does work with similar animals down in Florida and um he's going to be helping
us and I think he graduates in another year so these are people who are truly interested in this type of work um so I'm really hopeful that that um continues
and I know for the field maintenance piece or the you know the clearing of the trees and all that that we did there were a lot of people that came to help with that that happened in like the November time period uh October November
and um there were a lot of people there and James was involved he he helped a lot with that yeah and I think the soccer program put out a call for help that anybody who could come and help remove trees there were people there
there there were I don't know um 20 or 25 people helping out not not this past year but but the year before the year before and that was in the spring near Earth Day and a company
had actually gotten in touch with the Nshawa River Watershed Association asking whether there was anything that they could have their employees do for Earth Day and so they they got a bunch
of their people to come um and I also have um people from the Harris Center in um in New Hampshire um they
um and the Harris Center is sort of like an Ottabon place you know it's all about um um teaching um about natural history and nature and they have a lot of um people who work for the Harris Center
who go into the public schools in that area and anyways they came and helped us at that habitat um uh restoration time so yeah so we were able to get a lot of
help okay and then um Sai Montgomery and and Matt um Patterson who wrote wrote the book about these species and
um they they also have helped so So there's no official organization but it seems like it's sustainable for the foreseeable future yes yeah it would be great if somebody from the conservation
commission participated it's really an an amazing amazing thing to see it's like watching a nature program on channel 2 but you're there and uh it's just I don't know well you kind of read
my mind oh good i will get in touch with you yeah good um so I so looking at the map here we are thinking that the the CR
would cover the the you know um this piece of property you know coming in from Mason Road the 400 ft around the test wells and then along the edge we have better maps where the soccer field isn't and out this way
for the CR coverage of the CR are and the two questions I have is can the water department through the board of water commissioners hold a water supply CR if the town is the property owner and the second one is related would the
water department be willing to hold the CR so those are the two questions around that so right now um that is the exploration for looking for the water department as CR
holder um and the the um conservation restriction would include the parts of B3 that are not on the soccer field so um correct
you know so around the soccer field right around this way i I mean we would have to get better than than this map okay to define that but yes so like the south side yes the stuff down this way
and over here where's the I think this is the way you come in correct right here yeah I think so i can't read that very well yeah and all along um the river side of that access road
there's nesting all along there over here in this 30 acre parcel D open space so we would want that piece and then the part that's along here where on the other side of where the parking is and
then the the 400 ft um well access um excluded or included in the CR so basically everything south and west of the road and so last
soccer field yes yes so I guess I must have missed it as you're coming down the driveway I didn't notice a big open space to the left it's all trees now it's all trees now yes but the species still uses that yes yes
there are I from being there so many years I think the same individual animals go to the same spots year after year after year it's
It's like clockwork i know where I will find the nests so and that that hillside that is as you're driving in on the left it didn't used to have all
those trees that used to be much more sandy and the saplings have grown up over time yeah most of the habitat um maintenance has been done at the far end because it's furthest away from all
the goings on right i think I also imagine it was a matter of um the amount of people you could get to do the work at different times right yeah
okay so so um I'll do what I can to find the answers to those two questions um and uh actually this this has been productive it it gets us going somewhere
um on this uh let me Oh just one other point is that um there is a section closer to the houses but um on the other side of the
soccer field where there are also nests so just saying south and west doesn't quite work where where there's sort of that indentation um here above the word parcel B3 right
in the middle right in yes right in yeah right in there we Yep there's nests there too i mean there are nests in people's yards in the development you know they those animals can't you know they they just don't know
but I think if we we can specify the the part and and still you know if there were you know activity in in areas outside of there that doesn't mean you can't protect there right you
know right so we can somehow specify that it's just that we don't want you know when we look at prohibited uses we don't want the pro prohibited uses to be occurring in that space area
okay so um all right we're we're at 7:46 so we're pretty well set on this should we get a better map up um I don't know emily can I ask is is there overlap between the use of the soccer fields and
the periods of time when the species are moving yes yeah they're supposed to before they mow they're supposed to scan the fields but they don't do that i mean there was one
time um one of the people in the evening had found something and they called me i was home so I drove down there and I walked across the soccer field towards the person and I looked down and there was a
little hatchling on the soccer field and so I picked it up and and took it to the river but the very next morning they were mowing so I think I was supposed to
go there that day but yeah there there is an overlap it's almost a perfect overlap of of use of the soccer fields and the um time when there's the species activity can you estimate how
many adult species i have records that I have kept for about 15 years and I can um share those records i'd rather not okay get it
publicized though um but um as the years have gone by the numbers have gone up which is you know really hopeful yeah gratifying
all right so let me All right so I'll get I'll get the answers to those two questions we had on our agenda um allowed uses and prohibited us allowed us and can we just have a a
quick discussion on that yeah what we're I was going to be more more formal about it but I I think we'll just talk about this some more at the next meeting but Okay i can save it for the next meeting no no no let's talk well
I'd be interested to get your thoughts but you know I'm a retired teacher i've taught uh middle school science with a strong natural history flavor for almost
30 years and I wherever I go I'm sort of looking for opportunities around the campus looking for places to take the kids and so I'm always sensitive about oh this would be a good location for one thing or another and that's what I had in mind when I took the walk very very
long walk the other day and um it sort of pres educational uses kind of presents a conundrum on the one hand I think in a situation like this you want to keep the the um the location the discussion kind of hush- hush the more
people that know about it the more they might actually want to trump through the grounds and even though there's a benefit to uh teaching kids about uh conservation and stewardship and all that um so I went there with that in
mind and I have to be honest I didn't see anything other than maybe talking about the the species itself maybe the ge the glacial history of the area the sorted uh glacial drift
that came down from the outwash from the glaciers and maybe even some hydraology but I didn't see anything that um a discussion that you couldn't have in many other places and so my take on it
is sort of limit the num by by limiting the educational opportunities and I really don't see a lot of them there um kids tramping up the hillsides i know
personally there are some locations where I would not take uh kids to because if they slide off the hill they're you know 30foot non-stop slide into the river having said that you know and my next part of the question was going to be the discussion that we just
had about this group and and what you're doing to maintain and um the uh help the species so my take unless you have another opinion is that I don't see any reason why should we should let
teachers bring kids there and um potentially um erode the embankments and so I don't know that's my take okay i think as far as education goes it
um I think you have to think about the the which students you know an environmental education class it might be at the high school it might be a really um an opportunity but to to have
second grade maybe not this is what I was going to to say i was sort of outlining it and down here is having said that older students and adults being involved that's why I was going to ask you um the question I asked the question ahead of ahead of time yeah
sure um so I think it depends on what you have to think about i know but that makes it tricky wording you know educational use limited to what yeah um but anyway for environmental education
or you know high school um age or even specify high school ages adults you know there's actually a different place in
towns that has a very similar um geology ology to it um it's off of Route 13 um along the river uh and it's Fish and Wildlife Land
oh I know where you mean it's right after the bridge going south from town yeah it it's an that is also an old sand and gravel pit um or was you know
at one point um and you're right uh that's another that could be a like a preliminary you know uh learning opportunity not part of this CR but it could be used for that like I said there
are other places you could teach the same lessons to little kids right right here in town yeah you don't have to take them there so I think currently the property is not
used as an educational source um I'm wondering if we would need to include that as an allowed thing on the CR in the idea that maybe someday we
might want to or because the CR can be modified in the future if we find a use that we would like to like we can the town can town can amend the CR are to bring another use on if it becomes
necessary it still has to go through the whole process right um but it's not a current use of the property like right now there's soccer there there's the people who go for hikes
um and then there's the habitat maintenance piece i don't know that there's anything else that happens there yeah I I actually um sort of wrote a list um because I'm there a lot there
are people who walk their dogs there um and I think dog walking is absolutely fine but I think the dogs have to be leashed because very often dogs will attack these protected species and
um and can kill them isn't and also I think people should be required to remove their dogs wastess waste from from the site after they walk their dog
there um and hiking I have I have no problem with with hiking in there um but as far as prohibited uses those sandy slopes um people have to stay off of those sandy slopes
um because um erosion is going to happen with sandy slopes anyways but um those sandy slopes are especially important for nesting um
but we need to be able to word it so that the people who are um permitted um to protect the species are able to go onto those sandy slopes just for that
for those protection purposes um another prohibited use that I suggest and this is because someone has actually done this is um we need to prohibit mowing on
um on the CR area between um the end of April like April 20th and November 10th there's there's a a person um who walks his dog regularly down there and he's
he's scared stiff of ticks getting ticks so he just takes his riding lawnmower down there during the the prime time when these species are going to be walking around and he creates all these
paths to walk but I think that's something that shouldn't be happening because besides being hit by motor vehicles getting chewed up by lawnmowers um is the second major cause of death
for these these species um so I would think under the not allowed um motorized vehicles of any kind including lawnmowers are prohibited i agree with that okay and that might
take care of the the issue motorized vehicles of any kind do you know who puts the bluebird boxes up yes um trying to remember his name um but he
also not only does he do the bluebird nest but he also is involved in protecting or helping monarch species and there are a lot of um milkweeds that grow down there and he often goes down
there and collects the the um monarch eggs and takes them so that he can hatch let them hatch in a protected area um and he lives in towns and I just
don't Gary is his Gary s sur or something like that well it's a good thing just quick one sentence off topic
i read a book about monarchs this uh was a guy who's um studying them and uh he said that 50% of the babies um after they hatch when they take their first bite 50% of them
get their mouths get flooded with pressurized latex so right off the bat 50% of them are gone and there's also black swallow wart which is in the milkweed family where some of the monarchs lay their eggs and
that's poisonous it kills all of the the caterpillars that hatch any other allowed uses prohibited uses we we'll talk about this more at our next meeting um prohibited interacting with
wildlife i'm thinking of people who decide that it'd be fun to pick up a species because it's there okay moving and removing wildlife
harassing wild there we go or we could say removing reptiles i because I'm just concerned about you know the monarch eggs oh right right right right yeah
we still want to allow for that I guess all right collecting vertebrate wildlife a little more general so um I had permitted persons conservation efforts
for habitat restoration and then permit head holders are allowed on sandy slopes but public must are not allowed must stay off yeah are you typing that you can send to all of us
thank you what about bike riding that would be a negative between during the nesting time okay in the part the CR part I think i mean kids probably ride their bikes to the They don't One or two
will ride in and park in the parking area kind of thing but they don't ride on the hill no I didn't see any tire marks on any of the open embankments going up to the top well that's good a few footsteps but
Well actually we did have some difficulties with with um some boys who were riding their bikes down the sandy slopes one year yeah i I think
um bicycles are are No I think that's fine um but but not I wouldn't I wouldn't want to prohibit them from the soccer area right but the doesn't cover the soccer area so they
can ride to the soccer area okay all right um All right and I think the the that time period that's critical is like April 20th to
um to around Thanksgiving in that area cuz we do get stragglers in November and we get early ones um near the end of April they're not nesting but they're walking around
so would things like riding bicycles and um motorized vehicles be okay outside of that critical time period i'm not saying they should or there shouldn't i'm just curious um it depends how heavy the motorized
vehicle is um because although um I'm out there a lot and I protect a lot of nests sometimes sometimes there are nests that we don't
protect and that don't get uh dug up by skunks and and other predators and there's one particular species that where they sometimes overwinter in the nest um and
their nests are quite shallow so if it's a heavy motorized vehicle it could crush them and I think the other issue with allowing things sometimes and not others is then well there's the who monitors
but there's also the oh I didn't realize it was the wrong time right so I think having a blanket makes it much easier for everyone to understand you just can't do this here okay and there's plenty of places in town where
you can do all these other activities that's right so there's some nice signage there you know it's like I can't remember if it's like beyond this point there's uh critical habitat or however it's worded can we put additional signs
with the list of like no bike riding beyond this point i have signage written down i think we should yeah and the other thing is well how realistic is it because there are only a few um
exposed embankments where the sand is exposed how realistic is it to put some kind of fences up there so nobody can get to it anyhow so in part of TASA's proposal for the field expansion we want to put a split
rail fence along the edge of the soccer field to delineate like we need to stay on this side the reason it's a split reel is because it does allow for um movement of our lovely critters and it
also makes it so if a ball goes past during a soccer event they can grab it and bring it back so this would be if you're coming down and parking it would be to the left of the parking area so along the parking area we weren't going to do it there but as soon as you get
out to field two okay from where the parking lot is all the way down out so that it shows like this is the end of the soccer day over here and then we could put fences signs on the fences
or a post with a sign behind the fence or whatever yeah we already have a few signs kind of in the scrub there that say don't go this way but without the fence there sometimes people are like "Oh I'm going to go for a walk while my
kids playing." Right right and um James actually um put up some signs um this past last summer um to try to keep people off of the sandy slopes yep
and we might want to um delineate where where the hikers can go up to the top and where they can come down there's a there's a trail right in the corner of the parking lot the far corner of the parking lot there's a trail that leads
up and that's that's one where even though we get nests right on that trail but that's that's the access for hikers to get up to the top if they want to walk up there um we could
we could put a walking trail somewhere yeah I mean we could and then we could put you know little markers on the tree to mark show people how to get there um if there's a particular Most people if there's a marked trail most people will
stay on the mark trail they won't bushwack and I will say the Tesa families are very good about not going out beyond the fields it's mostly the visiting families right you don't know
they don't know and they don't the signs are there but whether or not they see the sign because they're going here and the signs over here so yeah I think if it had a designated hiking sign those are really visible okay
all right um so if you could write those up and send them out to us that would be useful so as far as the review of the CR models goes let's find out about the water
supply CR and focus on that and get those answers and then discuss further if we need to from my standpoint the EOEA one isn't really what we want we would either need the water supply or if
that for whatever reason doesn't work the NHSP or the MISA one which would mean we would have to discuss the holder um or fish and wildlife um Ann tells me that the fish and
wildlife one is different from the MISA one the MISA one is the one that I sent you and um so anyway the EOA what's good about that is looking to see um the documents that you can look at to say
okay this is protected why um so uh the other thing I want to make sure is that our deed is solid as far as what do you mean by the deed is solid that it that it there isn't that there wouldn't be any
question about it being ownership of the town i I looked at this before and talked to Adam about it and it wasn't but I just want to confirm um that's all that's what I mean by that okay
um I believe the Mesa CR was that the one that they were updating or No they sent me the updated one in 2020 okay um and uh I will I didn't send
Mike Jones i that just got away from me but I will okay um to check on that and if that's the case you need to I one of the things that I sent out was a a link I think it was or was it a PDF i can't remember which one I did to the
documents that the EOEA one um wants you to specify in the CR this is why we're protecting this property you know these are the conservation values of the property and I don't think we want to do
that correct I don't think we do okay um but if if our water supply CR idea falls through then we may need to I don't know um so depends on the route
um has anyone been able to contact the NSHA river wershed to see if they want to would you like to talk to I can do that yeah please i have so much on my plate but to have it you know I'm willing to do it but um yeah if you'd
like to talk to them Selena I did and the answer I got way back when this was our Futterman days was they wouldn't and um uh Townson Conservation Land Trust was in the process of merging with North County and North County had concerns
about all the uses of that property and um and funding to keep things going okay so that kind of ended that discussion but it might be worth talking again I think um
so all right um let me get back hopefully the water department will work i agree did I Did I X out of that no there it is i have it up all right so um
that's CR agenda for next meeting is then to solidify as much as we can uh CR model and CR holder in all of the CRs that I've ever seen
there's a paragraph that that you do for allowed and disallowed if you could just pull out one of those and look at it and we'll use Selena's list that she typed up while we were talking and kind of think about how we're going to word that
um because no matter who we use that's the case um Um so that that would be the the the two agenda items I have for next time cr model holder of CR and allowed
disallowed okay anything else all right then I will write up that up how about next meeting how does everybody's schedule look for me it would be better if it was
after town meeting meaning after May 6th so that's out two weeks i have a conflict on that Thursday thursday but I could do the following
Thursday if we wanted it to be three weeks i have a I could attend remotely the following Thursday if we want to stick with Thursdays you have um conservation on Wednesdays Michael um and I have tons of soccer meetings on
Tuesdays okay every Tuesday all right so but let's go with Thursday the 15th and that'll give us plenty of time it's not like there's a rush to do this when is your lease up though but we can Our
lease is good um one more year i can't remember when we was it 22 or was it 23 i think it was 22 um the the other piece of it is for the
um the field expansion to be able to move forward right um we are still working with National Heritage to try and get other stuff done with them okay
so I think the fact that this is moving forward is a positive they might be like "Okay well we don't have to wait for this to be done before we can do that." Okay but I'm I'll let you know if I find out differently all right that's So um are you good on
the 15th Emily yes okay so let's schedule for 700 p.m on the 15th i will be out of town that day but I will make sure that I get in on I won't be here i'll be on Zoom
okay i move we adjourn um motion to adjurnn at uh 8:16 is there a second second all those in favor i mike poted yes
selita Thomas yes veronica Kelly yes emily Fine yes all right meeting adjoin adjourned thank you everybody