Conservation Commission Special Meeting Minutes, 06.15.2023

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Conservation Commission Special Meeting Minutes
June 15, 2023: 5:30 pm at Broad Brook Community Center

Present: Linda Hecker, Bill Jewell, Anne Montgomery, Steve Soszynski, Susan Bonthron (taking notes)

The meeting was called to order at 5:32 pm.

Approval of May minutes was unanimous.

Linda reviewed the May Action Steps:

  • We learned that we had enough money in reserve to pay Leslie the estimated cost of completing the design overhaul of the Natural Resource Inventory (NRI);
  • Bill Jewell noted that he had gone over the facts in the NRI and it looked fine.
  • It was also noted that Patti had been paid and the ash tree by the town hall has been treated.

We decided to replace July’s formal meeting on the third Thursday with trail work at Weeks Forest and meetings of sub-committees: Nature Apps workshop; Natural Resource Inventory editing; and Wildlife Corridor signage.

Nature Apps workshop will happen at the BBCC on Saturday morning, August 19th. Linda Lembke will demonstrate the iNaturalist app; Anne Montgomery will demonstrate the Seek app, and Susan Bonthron will demonstrate the Merlin app. Steve Soszynski will bring the Conservation Commission iPads so that people can try out the apps, which he will make sure are downloaded onto the iPads.

Natural Resource Inventory update (need to rewrite Introduction, other tasks): the NRI
committee will meet to write the Introduction. We expect that Lesley Malouin will generate a corrected Table of Contents. We also need to make sure that we include a list of Tables, a list of Maps, and a glossary.

Other Business: Anne Montgomery asked about the intention to have Patti Smith give a talk on the NRI in the fall, but no date is scheduled yet.

The Joint meeting with Planning Commission began at 6:00 pm and was concluded at 8 pm

  • Jeannette Tokarz introduced the Strategic Planning partners, Dan Mallach and Emily Lewis of Dubois & King.
  • Questions/discussion followed, related to the presentation.

Respectfully submitted,
Susan Bonthron (acting secretary)