Open Space Commission - Regular Meeting

So I would like to call the meeting to order. Oh, what time do you have 53 early today because [laughter] you're my man.

So I I wanted to start by saying uh I put the agendas together and I'll often share who they are or someone has something they want to put on the agenda that's fine. Uh but if I don't hear from someone and you have a topic that you think we should address, uh we can always amend the agenda given that it's scheduled meeting and not a a special meeting can't change. Uh so that's why I put on the top approval the agenda. Does anybody have anything that's not an discuss? I just mentioned my thing to you. So it's Yeah.

Yeah. So that tends to know personally I like to be pretty flexible in our meetings. So if you're off topic and there's nobody uh connected in public and I think that will be perhaps something that'll uh people realize these meetings are are being are available online. Uh I think we may have eventually some public comments but nothing tonight. So would someone make an approval to accept the January meeting minutes?

Any discussion any corrections? Any changes to the minutes? All in favor accepting the minutes. opposite. And this is our annual meeting since it looks like all three members outstanding have all been um reappointed and it looks you did you raise your hand already. Christine, could be sworn it again? Oh, no. I forgot. I have not done it. Oh, so but you you you Fred and I are all shown as

Yeah. Yeah. But yeah, about to go and get sworn in. So I had actually had a new member at at a meeting last evening who couldn't vote because he he was did not get in. Did not get sworn in and he can't vote. So are all the officers are you still interested in rem? Yes, I'm happy. Would someone make a motion to a motion? Second comments. Any thoughts? We go ahead and vote. All in favor accepting the officers.

I opposed. Okay. [laughter] So, as far as the budget goes, Fred was there last night and he said he's been at the town and Paul quite late the last two nights. Yes. I want to go home and go to bed early tonight. That's fine. Just as long as you saw you've got our budgets passed. [laughter] Open the space and road safety both had their budgets. Okay. Very nice.

Um so, um we had a flat budget. We have some monies left over. So, we have uh roughly about $4,800 in carryover stewardship funds from last year. And I expect that we will expend that and more beavers that work well to uncert our our regular budget. We've only spent 73% of it so far. Most of that, a lot of that is is we haven't spent anything yet. Legal legal tends to basically be a unpredictable account when you have issues with making acquisition or so forth. Uh and we're a little bit uh short on on what we expended on stewardship, but that's partly because It's been cold. Peter hasn't been out much. He did get snowshoes, I think. And

Facebook Marketplace. Yeah. And we're down. Hi. Is it the open space? Yeah. Are you John? I am John. Hi. Come on in. Good. Maybe those things work. [laughter]

I was worried that the door downstairs was going to be locked. It's at 4:00. Like, oh, yeah. No, we don't lock it for meetings. Um so let me so let me take a quick break. So uh John applied uh for membership in all space uh and and all musicians are built but I asked him to come to a meeting uh if there's an opening that occurs if he could say he's been to a meeting because that one of the requirements the board likes to see respected applicant and maybe you could tell us a little bit about your your interest in your background conservation job.

Great. So I I really appreciate having the option the opportunity to being here. I moved to O line uh almost four years ago from New York City. Previously to New York I was living in Princeton, New Jersey where I raised a family of four. Worked in the pharmaceutical industry for about 20 years. then ran my own digital health company for 13 years and basically went back to school, got my masters in public health and uh realized living in New York that I really the one thing I missed the most was nature and love dogs and so we were looking on Zillow, spent a good three months on Zillow and just came across Old Line. What reminded me most about old line was where I had grown up as a kid on the weekends in East Tampa, Long Island. And this was in the 60s and 70s. My parents had a property there. And I I just realized that draw a line from East T north and it's all mine.

And a line that reminded me of all the great things about the whole Eastern Shore in those days. Sadly, it's it's totally different place and I just didn't want to be anything like that. Came back to my parents on a farm of eight acres and so open space became a really important topic for us as a family. Um I have brothers and sisters unfortunately I have my uh you know really kind of both my parents died early so we had to decide what we wanted to do with Robert. Um, so it was it was a really interesting discussion, but I ended up buying with my partner a property here that's five acres. It's uh the Harry Hoffman home actually uh that we just love and we're right on preserve. So there's 45 acres of preserve there. Hoffman is one of the names on the preserve and we help that preserve as a steward. I always feel like I'm a steward of land. I don't think we ever really own the land. I think you want to be able to look at a beautiful piece of nature and really say let's preserve it. So I I'm very very much in favor of open space, open space planning. Really really appreciate you're coming by and your interest.

Oh great. Well, listen, you know, I think it's time for us to get involved. I I've been sitting on the sidelines and because of everything that's happening in the world, I just feel like if you think you have the energy and the aptitude, you owe it to society. How many dogs do you want? [laughter] More important question. We have three dogs as I said. Uh we have a mini Labradoodle, Australian Labradoodle who's kind of my dog, 14 years old, great.

Then we have a small vishaw poodle that was 13 pounds who was like the ruler of the roose. And then I rescued we rescued this 100 pound dog who was originally from the Netherlands and we believe it's half sheep dog, half kingp. So it's just a massive white dog. But we call him our gentle giant. He's just lovely. And if people are walking by on civil lane, um sometimes he'll just run down to greet them or alarming to most people. He's very obedient, great. He's he's three years old.

Good swall protection because there's a lot of coyotes. I I've been gearing and you know they are constantly at night barking and I just think they are kind of I love animals all animals, birds, mice, whatever. So we're constantly at odds. Okay, the dogs are barking too much. They're probably disturbing the deer disturbing whatever. But we feed the birds and doing as much as we can [clears throat] for

coming. You're welcome. Thank you for your work. So u I was just talking about the budget. So this agency just got it basic budget approved uh by the board last evening but said they were not going to take up the uh contribution to the acquisition fund but I have no idea where that's at. That's I know that every year seems to be now but again it's a tight budget year she was she was happy that open space and a number of agencies came in flat budgets and they really appreciated that in terms of things coming up I think I mentioned it before but I wanted mention it again because it's been really really being stressed by the town um there's an FOI meeting on February 26th if you can attend it. Everybody's encouraged to do that. And Jasmine had mentioned you're welcome to attend it and we'll pay for your

25th. Wednesday the 25th. What's that? Wednesday the 25th. [clears throat] 25th. I'm sorry. It's the 25th. Yeah. Yeah. Like 60. Yeah. and 6:30 6:30 but there's something happening at 6 I think from from some startup thing would that be relevant for us what would be benefit for other than

it it's good to just to to to go over and listen to what they have to say uh one of the ways that that agencies can kind of get tripped up is is you've had an formal meeting. If you have four members, even if you meet out in open space and you start talking about we need to do this, that's officially a meeting. And the other the other thing about the seminars, I'm sure that's going to be the case at this year. Um either either one of the select people or Katie will go over various top procedures. uh mail uh access and building off hours all that type of stuff. So may not affect you but it may be of interest. So again up to you I I I'm just telling you that what I hear is remember what happened. So

Jimmy, do you want to talk a little bit about Peter's report?

Pleasure that it is. Um, brief. Yes, it's brief. But Peter did come out with me and Joe Atwater um uh must been last month to um do the to walk it for the uh beaver I mean the wood duck wood duck boxes. And he also um I don't think I don't remember if in his December report if he actually noted that he did all the cutups and purchasing of the he might have mentioned that but those are things that he doesn't always include and I would sometimes tell him um this he he he offered to come with um for the wood but he does some a lot of things behind you know ah don't worry about it I'll take care of that don't worry about it I'll take care of it Um, so, um, yeah, it's been really hard to walk the trails. And when we went out to the wood to look at the wood duck box, Fred and I went out, my friend went out and we we uh walked through it so that Joe could walk through it easily. So, it's just Today is the first warm day, so I don't expect much going on. But

where do you think you're going to mount them in? They got to be in the trees that are out. Yes. Are you going to go out on a boat or waiters or?

Um well um yes. Um Joe identified the spot um you look if you're next Logan's br facing Logan's Bridge. It would be to the right of that and there's a little uh clump of area of trees that are um that where a pole could be cons could be put in. Um but it that's the preferred spot. Um and a wood or metal pole, but the metal pole will be less likely to be gnawed at even though it would be out in the water. and then a baffle. Um, so Peter was out there so he knows where to go and Peter could go in waiters, he could go in a little rowboat and you'd need at least two people or kayak to hold the boat and plant the pole and have to have check it out a little bit more when the ground thaws to be sure that there's enough area to plant the pole. Alternatively, it could be put up against one of the trees that um we also kind of identified the area. But that's the idea and it would be one there and one on Ames and he would get back to us on where that might go. And we're are looking at spring, you know, so even before the uh so as soon as the ground is workable and visible, then I would ask that Peter get the equipment. So, how how are you going to sink this pole? How tall is the pole?

Um, it just has to be um eye level. Oh, okay. Still like hit or such eye level. Yeah, like a you know like Greg's eye level more than mine, [laughter] but I always thought they were the dots nest. They don't they don't have to be, but if you also want to clear clean them out. I know this is true. Um that's easier to do. and a baffle would then um protect protect them from the snakes and uh other things.

What's what's your thoughts on that? Because I I did have a discussion with Joe about like I guess whether we're going to use pine or maybe cedar. Uh and Joe said, "Are you are you going to clean them out?" And I said, "I'm not sure we are." He says, "Well, if you if you're not sure you're going to clean them, if you don't clean them, you're better off going with pine the last three years uncleaned and then you can build new ones." because I think the cedar was fair bit more expensive than lumber. So that's an option. Well, they are built cedar that I have felled on my property and had it mil. So there are boards that if there was an opportunity to use them, I would happily donate them.

The boxes are built. The boxes are built already, huh? Okay. For the he was Okay. So he was talking metal for the poles. Okay. Were you talking metal? No, you're talking pine for the boxes. I was talking about the type of wood for the boxes, right? So we went with the pine because it was cheaper. But I think we'll at least attempt to clean them out. Um and um and see just how um like gorious that is. Do you have to put apple things on there to keep like raccoons or stuff like flying out there? Yeah, snakes. Yeah,

I think I've seen whatever. But right under the new house, right? You know, we had the um trail reopened at um near the Beaver Lodge, but not sure what it is. If it must must be a wood duck thing because that would be the only thing. There is a wood duck out there and it was not put up by us. I think it was it's a neighbor. Okay. So, when you're going on the blue trail, the perimeter Yeah. kind of way out in the middle. Yeah.

Well, the the other issue is is a while ago lost track at time. Uh but and Andrea and I met with Jamie Mliski, who's a town HR uh person. Um and we talked about hiring a second steward to help Peter and serve as a backup. Uh Jamie posted something on the town website. She got three applicants. Uh one of them sounded terrific. Uh she called followed up and called each of the three and each of the three thought it was a full-time job and they said they need 40 hours. So we're back to zero. I talked to them [clears throat] today and and u yeah they one of them that you shared was like this guy sounds great. Mhm.

So, we're going to post something on the CLC jobs listing. And the one thing about that is I'm going to stress the language that it is a part-time job. It's a great second job if you wanted to work after work or on weekends or whatever. And one of the things that that Jamie and I both thought would be incumbent u not that it was a bad fit with with Isaac but we did have um another [clears throat] stewart well back I think his name I can't think of it but he was commuting from like Avon and it's just we're going to help, you [clears throat] know, if you if you have too long a commute, you might this might not be the job for you if you're working two hours and you're spending two hours on the

road. Okay. So, in that regard, I I'm going to be uh leaving for a short vacation next Thursday and then come back on March 3rd. Would you would one of you like to have Jamie forward uh any applicants that we get from CLC for you guys to look at? Sure. Maybe the gentleman from Avon like has a summer house here or something. I [laughter] mean I mean he's got to know that Avon's a pretty long drive from or two old line, right? So this was a person in the past. Oh, I'm sorry. I apologize. I thought it was a new

I I know um kind of generally talked about it but it's sort of pressing and as soon as it gets thaws those be beavers took it the small tree down almost hit the beaver deceiver. There's a big one near it that I don't mind if people busy wrapping something around it but just get some steel around it so they won't chew it. The first bridge, they've already girred the big tree near it, and hopefully that's going to come down at some point, and it's going to be bad, but there's nothing we can do about it. But the other one, the newer one, maybe if we put wire, we should put wire around some of the trees there just to

right. So, we have the the cages, I call them, we put around the saplings at Fairy Landing. Okay. Yeah. And um you know, so but they it's not like chicken wire. They've got a pretty big opening. Nevertheless, you could double them up or something. We could double them up. And there's like I think a dozen of them or something. So there's quite a bit of material. And what's nice about them is, you know, you don't have to drill into the tree or nail into the tree or staple. You can just kind of like I tie wrap the one that we

tie wrapped or or wind them around each other like because they have ragged ends and if you just sort of make a little hoop out of metal they I don't know Peter has I don't mind doing it because I'm not on hold on a few other things. So, well, and just let me know where, you know, they're on my back deck so people can come help themselves or I can deliver them if uh if I know who who's going to be doing. So, um I can get them and then Peter explain where my house is and spend there. I would say get them and then you could

I know sometimes you go, "Hey, it's a great day. I'm gonna go out now." But if you have a plan, you could also call Peter. I think that I'm going to be gone most of tomorrow. probably sooner than later. I'll email you sometime later this week. So, we we kind of jumped ahead. [laughter]

So, so we're waiting on Whipple World for things to fall a little bit uh for monster back and try to clear that out and then because I was there at the end because he had to use my waiter so I had to wait till back but the he actually walked in and hooked up this in the culver. He was a little scared of that, but I don't know what why what he had. I never saw it like pull all the way through, but he left one rope so he can do the do it. But he had a I saw how he did it so I can always do it if we needed to do it again. He just had a 1,200 pound uh 12,000 pound Harbor Freight winch that he hooked up to his car battery and that was what he was using to pull it through. So then that that will happen. But I think he said he's going to come back with a bigger rock.

Yeah, he he's he's been good keeping me apprised of what's going on. So is Johnny Egan. Uh just as an FYI, I'll ask Johnny Eaggan about your idea, maybe using coyote urine to keep the beavers out of there. He he said it highly doubts it's going to work, but he said if it does work, let me know. He said well they said that beavers are very habituated to coyotes. Coyotes basically walk around their pond see how they get in there. He said that their beavers

are not uncomfortable with a sent coyote. No talking about that last time but you probably forgot it was this is wolf pee. I got it. If that might scare them fake coyotes up they'll all be next to it. We'll [laughter] tell you that be interesting if maybe back in there. I have it ready to go. We'll try it. If they can extinguish it one for the discerning beavers, they probably

I have to tell you the coyote that I saw was like a wolf. I mean, it was huge. It was like this big gray monster. So, I mean, I wouldn't be surprised if it was some sort of hybrid. Ask me because we had one in New York that was so beautiful and healthy and pictures. Oh, is that a wolf coyote? And I'm like, I don't know. I don't know. We have a good friend that lives in Vermont and there's a lot of Boy dogs between

like a shepherd and a different coyotes. Are they interest posted something on Facebook about two weeks ago? A gold they're saying that's what they think it was was a koi thing was gorgeous and it was huge. A koi dog. A coyote with a dog. They breed with dogs. Yeah, they're close enough relatives they can integrate. It'll be interesting over time if and then if the koi dog goes back into the coyote population growth. I think the eastern coyote is already larger than the coyotes you find out west.

Well, this guy was like I would say 80 to 100 pounds easy. I mean April 60 and this this coyote thing was like it was gray and beautiful and like a very very large Yeah. Yeah. Well, we Well, we had one our other neighbor sent the brown one around. Yeah. We live across the street from Yeah. Yeah. We got frequent flyers. I mean, I think what was interesting is um the struggles of like a brown one and I'm like, "No, that wasn't him. Mine was gray. Ben can't put the picture in the notes, right? [laughter]

Yeah, it's definitely gray. Yeah, mine was gray. Funny and just handsome. So, get out. But he's healthy and very big looking. I think that could be him. We have a den nearby. Yeah, I think I think they do. My daughter heard um them howling one night. She got totally freaked out and I said, "Well, they're not they're they're in the den." I'm like, "Yeah, like go back inside." I love hearing you. It's kind of cool. Sometimes you'll hear the single one and I'm like he's looking for love. [laughter] That's cuz he's hanging out by waiting for it. Has anybody heard of Eweather? Does anybody know who he is?

Yes. He he's an amateur meteorologist and he posts his predictions and I find they're really well thought out often more accurate than the commercial weather service. So I I kind of follow him on on X where he would post these things and he po he's been posting a lot of images lately over the last two weeks of how he's cross he lives along the river now how he's crossing the Connecticut River on the ice going from his side over to good speed side. Wow. So there were tracks on the ice um behind my house

and I didn't dare go down in far enough to venture out to see who it was. I kind of in my mind just just said it's got to be a bobcat, but it very well could have been the coyote or the deer or whatever. Yeah. I I was hiking behind the library across from the academy. I've had it like it was the size of my hand um cat truck. Oh wow. I took a picture by my glove. It was pretty big. So you can tell like I can't tell who I'm like is this a dog? Is this a cat? Like a dog usually have an axe and the cats had like a Welsh

dog. That's Yeah, those are easy ways to identify. I think we should like not scare the public. I have like people that hike with me that one guy was carrying a beard doing a compass thing and our compass nuts. He had a gun in his like pants. Oh my god. We fix a like the last thing I want is come up. They don't come up. And you're afraid of so you're like here. Yeah. It's crazy.

I've had coyotes like this close to me before and they don't they're small. They're the big one. might be a little bit. Listen, I came like he was he was like I mean from here to like I'm going to say like the corner like we were very close like we did like a full eye to eye contact and I ran as fast as I could with my dog on this side of me. So I was in the middle and you know I guess they say don't run well sorry I ran I my grill getting back I was I told it was like quite the calamity. Um, but it was dark and he saw me and I saw him and I was like, you probably go after your dog before I'm sure he was.

Well, the other thing too that was very terrifying was he was quiet as quiet. Like I had scanned the yard. Nobody was in the yard. I took Maple out and all of a sudden I had that creepy feeling. I looked and he was right there. Like where did you come from? Well, they stay out in your yard and they watch your animals come out. Like if you let your dog out and they get a sense of where and when they I'm telling you that I I do believe that's how they they get domestic. Oh my goodness.

So I don't I don't know that there's much risk now given the snow and whatever. But when things fall I'm going to have Martha put something in her we tell people when when you out you're out with the dogs in the springtime it's the coyote season. for pups. The mothers are extremely protective. That was a period that three years in a row we had coyote dog injur dog injuries from coyotes people they were

Oh yeah. Okay. I mean that's just that's awful, you know. It's like so scary. But um yeah and well um I think that's a great idea. By the way, I always read Martha's newsletter because I find it's the one thing that kind of puts me in touch with what's happening in the community. But I think the more we can educate the public about what do you all recommend, I think the better. I think that's part of the the idea education. I hear I hear. Yeah. And uh maybe we should think about a coyote. Yeah.

The other thing I wanted to mention is is we had talked about Bill had scouted up a location uh I guess just south of 95 where you could cut through and connect some of our properties. And I was talking to Sabine O'Donnell about that and I ended up finding an old old survey from before Champlain North was actually state uh tower state property. Uh, and I think she was going to get checked not for that in particular, but for the butter that has property along road along the narrow strip.

So, I think you're saying maybe I mean Bob do or something. Yeah, she's I was going to say we've contacted Bon to give us a a quote or you know a survey knowing that knowing that we have you know some things that he's I think I think he had already marked for us for you know for the you know are they going to just do the property line or the whole property I know I said to Ed she was asking that to be this is this is this goes beyond where where you were this is this is probably there Oh, right.

If you if you along that piece of Whipper wall there, you can see somebody. It's a narrow strip of property kind of goes up to the ledge and somebody has a couple little things in there. That's the property they're concerned about. Oh, it is about whether some ex intrusion our property and their property. Okay. [clears throat] They're quite territorial as whatever they're doing here. I think they come down from mass. That was a nice piece of property. I I wish that open space had got that.

What as far as what I think that I talked to Edy and they were going to get a survey and then she said there was some movement to just say have them hike from Jaden. And I said this is a safety issue. You're saving a half a mile of dangerous roadwalk, right? And it's really hasn't a border issue as we talked about. It was more uh they've had that property for 30 years and they're back with no in there and don't want anyone in there. So we'll see what happens. I thought it just NI is kind of a universal thing to deal with different manifestations.

Yeah. The other thing I wanted to mention, I I sent it around today is is deep has a new program that basically helps with resiliency in their forest. Um, and they could do things that we could we could they would have a force to visit the property. We'd probably have to select one or two. I don't know the people who worked all them. uh and he would maybe give us some hints to selective cutting

how we can introduce more native species. Um sometime sometimes I think we'll look to generate money from timber sales and then something that we've never done before. we can do. I know it's the state was going to cut the preservat cost a little bit of an upward a couple years ago, but that's something we might look into. But I I was pleased that many of the programs that are available basically exclude towns like old Lion they're focused on some of the old larger towns. This is specifically a town of less than 50,000. So I I I sent in basically a statement of interest for old line and and we shall hear the grant program. They're actually not going to DE was actually not going to release the details of the grant program until June. So it'll be down the road. But I [clears throat] thought immediately landing that we have somebody come down there. Yeah. actual force of nursing advice.

Yeah.

The other thing I wanted to mention about landing is is I I hope I sent everybody and I know you got it from for Gateway uh the Amtrak newsletter. You know, I have to just say how impressed I am. I mean, who would read a new Amtrak newsletter? Bug Gray, you know what I mean? Tale of noting, but anyway, just I can't take I'm amazed at how much stuff Greg reads. I was like, "Oh, yeah. I saw that." I don't know. I'm signed up, but I never get these letters, so I have to check.

I would be embarrassed to tell you how many publications But the thing I thought was interesting is is I I didn't realize they were going to do some u mitigation at their access point road and one of the things they talked about was installation of title weapon plant species.

Yeah. Now I reached out to them about that because way they went about it I I I was not so thrilled about. We kayaks down there for fairly late in the spring probably and um they had um mowed the marsh just south just you know between after the had a river bridge crossing uh right next to that on the way out to the Connecticut and they moeded at a time of year that I was like guys you know do you have environmental scientists working on this project because it was the wrong town here to

they they did they move uh just north of their access road. Oh, okay. Pretty big swap. Yeah. Just north of that going from shore road all the way to the railway railway right away. Uhhuh. And do you know when they did that or did it spring? Was there any response from when they got back to me and they were all huffy. This is part of our environmental restoration work. Doing it wrong. [laughter] What are they going to plan? Because they mowed behind the highway years ago

and it did nothing. It was back in two years. You can't just got to keep doing it. If you if you're just mowing, you have to do it every year. Anyway, we can find out what he's doing. That could be interesting. The other thing I wanted to mention is is uh your Fred still on affordable housing. Yes. But he stepped down as chair. Correct. Okay. But um planning is having a hearing tomorrow night. Yes. Uh to consider the resubdolic envelopes. And I'm hoping that'll push it forward so they can actually get working on that and we can kind of Yes.

put that in the river. They were um waiting uh for the survey maps and a letter from the fire chief to um talk about the turnaround in the driveway and other things. And it was um a very slow that, you know, waiting for Greg who's waiting on Ann who's waiting on Russ. And it was just like

and approaching each one multiple times and getting Martha involved and just saying, you know, after a point it's like, you know, there's no response here and and anyway, it's in people and parts are in place. So hopefully it will it has um all the proper stamps and to move forward. Great.

Talked about that a little bit today because it's like one of the only places at Brown where it's flat, wide, and would be good cross country skiing and uh we're going to lose the up, you know, about 200 feet of it. Possibly look at putting a trail. I think Fred said the border he looked it up on our way home and is a rock wall and maybe see if we can find a flat area there. But there's another piece of that's over there. Greg, that if you can look at it sometime on on the GIS map, I highlighted it that comes right off of the road. Right as you come off over the bridge to the T section, there's a strip that when you hit it with a GIS map, it doesn't highlight. And I know from other towns that's usually an old road and that's flat and goes into what would could be a nice trail system.

This is um on the McCullik property um off of Flat Rock you're talking about? Yeah, there was a there is a road back there, right? But we lost part of it with Yes. But there's another kind of road area. Rob McCarthy who does cross country running his wife used to ride horses there when she was younger. So there's that might be some kind of Yeah, that was about um how Oh my gosh. Hold on. Doesn't that about like Maywood if you go in the back? It does. Yeah, it does. Okay.

There's a little strip that as I said doesn't come up as someone's property and it shows property to the north, property to the south. And what is this? And it looked like it might have been old road might have been Rob. Yes. So Rob McCarthy and his wife have a familiar with that but whatever it was. I mean she was recalling your childhood and going through that way.

It would be maybe another flat access but there's about a three mile loop in there that reasonably flat wide and it would be perfect spot to do. So we'll veer slightly off off agenda again. I happen to [snorts] talk to Melinda Kronville today. We we got um Eric Nap actually got forwarded to me and I've shared with a listing of town properties uh from Rivercohawk by Marggo Burns who's their environmental and asking which of these properties are permanently conserved via ordinance conservation easement any legal instrument and I've been reluctant respond there because I'm not quite sure what she's looking for. I think it has to do with eventually perhaps put together an inventory of land available for portable housing development. And Melinda said she would work with us and go that list and try to identify where those properties are and any information that she would have on those properties. So that would be great works. That might be a backdoor way to come up with a listing of complete listing of open space properties around town. There's just to recap a little bit, there are a lot of two to five acre properties in town that the town owns that were uh deed to the town pursuant to a subdivision application. They were subside properties. Uh unfortunately when that's been done in the past the deed has written a ton of old line without further detail showing that that was intended to be open space. So has been a headache. Amanda Blair was a title searcher and she was having

difficulty doing some of this research. Well how do you count for open space that's not a town? you know the association or plan community. Yes. Yes. Yes. Privately own each each Yeah. They should have they should have covenants within their their HOA agreement. How do we account for that total total open space in the town? That's a lot of dirty. It is. It is. But it's it it we're really only concerned with what's Yeah. years ago I I know that years ago

the land trust struggled when when Mike was trying to put together a listing of all open space in town, you know, between what we own, what HOAs own, what the state owned, what the federal government own, what DNC owned. It was a headache

and he did his best. mine's been very active on this and way ahead of us and able to collaborate in some ways that we haven't been able to do. But um you know I think it's it's something of real concern for the rural communities looking at you know what is this affordable housing mandate going to look like in our towns. So hearing a little bit off we'll get back to landing in a bit but I I was talking to Mike Aurelia and and we're just talking with each other about what our various commissions are doing and mentioning we were having difficulty pursuing a conservation ement because we were we didn't have anybody pull that and I said I thought we they were close to a deal with and He backed out. My advice, would you mind if I pursued that? I said, "No, I would not."

I been on the autobomb has spent at least 15 years on the autobond, you know, Joyce who's the head of club very well. I'm going to call her and and talk to her. I said, "Those two properties that we're talking about are in town. It would take Joe Atwater 20 minutes to drive to him and another half hour to inspect each one and he would only have to do that once a year. Mike said, "We would you be willing to pay a nominal amount?" I said, "If they were to hold the E, I we we would pay them $1,000 to put in an account

uh and long as it's not an income recurring expense. I mean, one time thing I'd be okay with." So, he's going to see what he can find out, right? So go to maps and kiosk. So watch us in either of the any of the three on the little subcommittees are welcome to have the floor.

We'll all have a little we all a little something different to say. So the game where we will place all the kiosk type signs tell all the trail heads dependencies in uniform what should be done with so literally They're all pretty much the same size to refresh people's memory.

Uh just hold on. Now in varying forms up for a second. Do you do you have something on your that you want to show us? Um, not yet. Okay. I mean it was this I was going to say I I oh I would this is maybe more for the future than for tonight but as we continue to use the new setup here we should be able to show the stuff out there so we don't have to do I have to pull up the same picture that Ann is passing around but that's

no they're great actually but we made a copy how to do that yes I just have to learn on Okay, I know how to do it. That's fine. Um, so based on what's there and the idea that we had agreed at the last meeting that the the paper the receptacle for paper maps was going to go away. Um, this is a colorful flavor.

We talked about, you know, sort of streamlining it and including a QR code as well to link back to the website. And we didn't remember to think about uh including a land acknowledgement notification, but that could be slipped in here. So, there's there's two versions here. One is most of the maps are um portrait two two are two are landscape and two are landscape. So this is just one, you know, the layout of the kiosks, one with portrait and one with landscape.

One thing that's not consistent is example. This one does not have anything but coyote warnings, right? So we're warnings are every other kios uh yeah, we and and they're all different. The coyote warnings are all like a a Xerox piece of paper that's been laminated and staped on. So, we wanted to sort of talk with the group about how to approach that. We wanted to it's just to sort of clean it up a little bit. the chick,

right? And and I wanted to point out that Andrea very rightly noticed that the the maps should be at the bottom of the kiosk so that you can get up closer to them. Oh, that makes sense. And [laughter] also really good for kids, right? You want to encourage the next generation to get out, walk, get off their phones. So anything that we can put very eye level we do have we do have a verbage though that I thought was actually quite good

for the so we the coyote warning question was best three I don't know who wants to sort of summarize it some of the concerns I mean I think I have um a few you can what's there now I think the three of us felt is inadequate and hard to read because it's big and you know church but um there's plenty of doc coyote warning signs that you can buy on the internet and I guess every one of the incidents involve something with a small dog

sobb I said my dog was 80 I know I was saying that's like a small deer and it was like big coyote but it was protecting the den only during that

period but the um if you're hike as I said you know I hiked 10 times more than I went here and you're you don't there's so many people that won't go in the woods because they're terrified of ticks or they're now used to adding to their fears uh that are usually pretty you keep it like if you have a small dog, keep it with you next to you. We've hiked in like bear country. And I know they make you keep the dog on a leash

because a dog will run out, get a back to you. Um, right. But as I said, I think you want to find that fine balance between scaring people so you don't have anyone on your trails to as I've been in lime and you know body [laughter] I think the should still be there. But yeah, I mean I think they I mean

well just saying keep your pets on a leash would be they do it's not in the people don't know this scary so let let me let me scroll down and there's also suggestions of wording but I could get into that in a little

so the the coyote sign that we had and and much of the the the content on the kiosk did then command up and I don't think we've really done much in the way of changing it but um he came out with a Kylie sign Wendy Hill who was the open space coordinator vice chair of the lime land trust adapted it for use in line and I circle gateway I know her well and she said we could use our design just changed now that's archiving paper. Oh, really? But it's all verb and it's a lot of

pretty dense. It's looks like it was printed like you know on a Xerox or something and then laminated and consequently we're thinking that an actual sign is needed if it's going to be weather weatherproof and readable. So, the other thing I would mention is this commission has debated and argued about dogs on leash for the entire time I've been on the commission. We had one commission member who was adamant. He says, "I'm going to," he says, "I walk every day on open space with my dog and I'm not going to put him on a leash."

Well, this is the thing. I mean, there is a leash law in Connecticut. I mean, people don't always follow it, but you can't force someone. You're just giving information. That's that's the issue too that so we also said you've got to have your dog going on a leash and then it comes down to well who's going to enforce that you know I I don't I don't want Peter to have to come up and confront someone who and you don't know where that's going to go. I mean I've seen people literally have their dog clipped to a leash

but the person isn't even holding the leash. So the dog is on a leash but there's nobody manning them. You know what I mean? I mean, you know, beyond one last thing, beyond coyotes, people are afraid of dogs. I was walking and open my wife and this big dog came running up. He was a friendly dog, but my wife is a nervous about dogs. He was came up and jumped against her chest and knocked her right on the backside. And I'm sorry. I'm sorry. But still, you know, you got people just let their dogs run. Our our trail rules trail rules when we say all dogs under your control specified.

Well, that's probably a hold over the member who Yeah. So, I mean, I feel like if it if it did say on a leash and if people choose not to comply with that, um, at least an individual who is not comfortable around dogs would feel like they had, you know, justification for saying, you know, it's the rules. Would you please leash your dog? And not everybody's going to comply. Most most dog owners if they see you coming they put them on a leash or Yeah. That that's what we do. Um only once they're not

where somebody was very disappointed and we had a nice conversation. It was actually an opportunity to get to know somebody, right? And they actually ended up being lovely and saying that they overreacted. They they would be afraid. But you know, I said no. you know. So, I think it's how we how we I think educating, again, I'm a big educator.

I think educating people however we choose to do that, whether it's in a kiosk or a sign, be respectful, think of other people, you know, that that kind of language I think can help us. Can I just ask like what was the liability? Like like honestly like if we're if we have sign that says, you know, keep your dog on a leash in accordance with what we want and somebody's out there and the dog gets on a leash and the dog is either attacked by a coyote and killed or or the dog that should be super friendly all of a sudden gets spooked and attacks somebody else. I mean, what what is the liability that open space has? Because that is that is kind of important. Is there any

what then? Is there liability? Yes. Like is the town I That's a good question. The town has has obviously liability insurance attorney pure that and try to take a court. I don't know. I mean, we should just maybe just ask. I mean, again, you can only put the information out there if someone doesn't follow the rules. have the police policing the trail, right? There's no way. But but it might be important to know like some something I mean

there really should be a disclaimer. This is how on the corporate side we handle these things and if you step in to our open space property, you are agreeing to the following. So you have some kind of disclaimer. make that as large or as small as you like, but a legal organization would take a look at that and say, "Okay, so if somebody does end up suing, you could always go back to this claim, right?" Say, "We had this." A great time to have that conversation because we have money in our legal account, [laughter] ask our lawyer. It's a great question. Thank you, Maria. We could

have our attorney address that. And we also because of I think not being on the job and the weather and so forth, we have this also a great year to basically completely redo all the the signage on here. So, if you think we need a new sign for coyotes or whatever, this is a great year to do that. You word it something like, you know, for the safety of both your pet and other hikers, please keep your dog on a leash. And then at least you're making them think

I mean you could maybe even like put the state statute there somewhere. I know that again. So maybe we put that in or maybe you put the disclaimer saying you know you've entered open space territory and you assume all wildlife is unpredictable. We ask you keep your pets for the protection of yourself and you know something. I don't know. I mean I'm just throwing it out there because I would hate for We mixed the two issues with dog. Issue one was keep your dog on a leash for its own safety retating. Yes. Yes. So now we're like we made a comment that

and the second one was for the protection of other people. I've gotten bit as a guy saying don't worry it's friend. Yeah, probably. But the I I've seen a lot of dogs and you know if you know dogs, you see golden retriever, no problem. You see some I don't want to get into any particular bra, but there's some I'll walk off the side of the trail. I mean, people always ask me and I've got a golden, you know, is your dog friendly, you know, has she ever bitten, ever bitten? I always say the standard answer is she's got teeth. You know what I mean? Like she's never bitten anybody before, but she's got a set of teeth. So, you know, I mean, I'm pretty safe with a golden, but you just never know.

It is hard to hike. We had we're on a group hike maybe a few weeks ago. Fred on Fizz, he's the best behaved dog I ever seen. And some couple lady, there's 20 people on the hike. We're like, I was going to trip me. No way. But he put it on the leash just if you had to because if the dog ever trip the dog like a good lady, it would be a real big problem. But normally they run around. What's currently on our on our

kiosk is the tunnel on open space trail. No ATVs, notorious sunrise to sunset. So it's very succinct and simple that's consistent on all. I really do love that. I I really do love that. I think it allows someone to make their own judgment about how they want to be with their pet. Just would hate for something to happen and then us to come back and get in trouble. That's all. The old line trust has a sign. I'm not looking to change our rules, but just to compare uh close at sunset, no motorized vehicles, no hunting, trapping, no firearms, no fires, no cutting or removal of anything. Please carry out what you carry and keep dogs under your control. Thank you.

Does your work group again? I'd like I think I think we should sign sizes. I think we should go to the smaller size. Definitely. with all the conservation group. Sorry, which sign are you talking about? [laughter]

Will all the conservation groups? I would not be surprised that there are not companies with science. That's that was one of our questions is how strongly people feel about the micromanaging the wording or can we like get maybe three or four examples and and just say vote for your favorite and that's what we'll scroll up and down. I like both those.

So both both of these plus that one you have to scroll up and down. I um part of what I was what we were looking at were visuals and then the content um one of them is orange coyote I can't remember where it says coyote one it says coyote's habitat so it and then it gives a little blurb as to educating about the coyotes their habitat what they eat and then there four little pictures of like dos and don'ts and we would potentially modify that with the one minus um [clears throat] something about fight back and the other one is a bright orange uh coyotes are active here or something but it's you know it's orange so you see it and then you can minimize or elaborate upon the verbage so

I think there's way too much text on that side Oh yeah because it's really brief and it tells you what to She doesn't say that coyotes are bad. I like the idea of educating people about it, but you know, maybe the kiosk isn't the best thing. We could do something more with the website or have a presentation. You could have QR code on the have a QR code on somebody just say, "Hey, I want more information." But this tells you clearly what to do and what not to do. scraping like it's pretty

I like the idea of having something like that on right on the kiosk. Yes. Question we do fit in kiosk. We're proposing the map trail rules check sign and clary sign and then do we want to do the Coyote the same size. Oh, like the coyote size is always like the size of a map, right? Those are approximations. Oh, I'm sorry. So perfect. I thought the map is to scale. It is to scale. Okay. It's to scale for the kiosk. The only thing that I measured and knew the dimensions of was the map.

I see. Okay. These things were kind of guesses. And um the uh coyote some of the coyote signs that we looked at online looked like they could be pretty big. The tick sign is pretty small. Small and seems like it would be about this. But um

monkey wrench. One of the things that you one of your bigger problems is no one is on this trail or very few people population and um it may be worth a section um to direct people to find the hiker happy hour or I'm hoping in the spring maybe to set up more like hey this Tuesday morning hikes something like that. Um, but that if you don't I know like with the vineyard my son was saying they've taken so much open space that now they're going back at them and wanting to start paying taxes because they pulled so much land out of the tax base. And if you got more support by having more people hiking, you know, I and you know, like I run a big hiking as a group that would be um

you know, I feel that's a great idea that if we could link it to like the website or something because we can't be updating. No, that would be No, that would be way and I think that as much as um I know sorry you don't like we don't like Facebook but I we started a Facebook page for our group um two years ago. I've got like 2500 people already and I don't use that for our signups or postings. But um you can Yeah,

but um it does drop to have a separate Yeah, I that's a great question. I'm gonna I'll ask about that. I know that at one point there were some agencies that were kind of going off the reservation and posting stuff that um was thought not appropriate for a government agency. I guess. Yeah. And and so there was a moratorium put on agencies using Facebook, but I will check it also. Yeah. I know the town has I somehow I'm on an online Facebook page.

Yeah, me too. But everyone can put stuff on there if you you can limit like I know on ours I have to approve if someone wants to post it have an administrator cut it out the chair or yeah Katie to say this is what's going on this event this coyote warning and that's all. But it'd be nice like with the hyper hiker happy hour if you took a lot of pictures and you popped them in there. The social like, oh yeah, there's that. I didn't know she hiked with this group or that's how you pull people. Yeah.

I would put current data on a kiosk. It would be a direct. No, it would be too much work. I I don't think we should get too much in the weeds. I would but I I would urge the the group the working group of Russ and Andrew to come up with specific signs and share them with a small spot for that like to hide the group [clears throat] go to this lead you know I think we're going to have to we need to look at the website again

well yeah I want to get finish here so if you guys have like say a a couple different options for Kylie sign 187 and I can distribute them to everybody. I have a scanner and and I also um Jasmine so the next meeting we can show that stuff up there too so to pass around a lot. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. We'll like select the top three coyote signs and coyotes. I would give you guys free rain to do whatever you think needs to go on there. Kylie text four, right?

And then sign. Yeah. I think is something we talked about. Small, short. Yeah. I was thinking it could just, you know, since it's probably going to be like two sentences, it could go in right underneath the map or something. Just like go down at the bottom. Is it like a dedication or a It's the acknowledgement that the land um indigenous. Yeah, I was going to segway into that. Okay. So, no, you could. So, I don't know if you all looked on my sentent around. I kind of worked through some pretty potential.

There's a handful ones. Yeah. The one I liked I kind of highlighted on there was the second one because I thought it was like a good combination of like an acknowledgement but also like the work that we do which was the one that was um as we acknowledge our indigenous neighbors we must work with the protection of the land the water the flowers and the feathered and furred creatures who accomp that was directed from the wording that I got from the hand council. Yeah. Lovely. Um,

I would maybe almost say something like that. We acknowledged the the indigenous people who cared for the land and we continue to care for the land today. Yeah, I I liked the actually like a combination of one that was modified from the same and then the second one which says and it's not in front of me so I I But um yeah, so like if you combined those two,

you're you're you know, we're acknowledging them, but also saying that we're working to preserve and you know, I think it's important to sort of link that that it's uh right I mean I can combine those two. Which two are you talking about? One and two. Oh, one and two. The the only thing about two that bothered me a little bit was, you know, to kind of was a little long. Okay. It would be these words. That's why I was using that, right? Like the fur friends. Maybe we could just sort of animals. [laughter]

creatures. [laughter] The second one, I don't know if the second one is yours or the Indians, but I the uh we acknowledge the indigenous people who came before us as we worked for the protection of land, water, flowers, and animals. Yeah, that's the one. They don't just have animals and it's [clears throat] one sentence and I would say plants instead. Yes. Land, water, plants and animals. Hampton.

So that that's that's that is an issue that I really that that I I want to avoid any language that can be misconstrued or used in in a fashion that we didn't intend in saying x land belongs to white people and then white people made a bid to reclaim land and that's why this has either have any language on any of that I don't think I've ever seen one in one of the like

probably want to touch it with a belt So what's in this regard um the US working committee Christine's on which the other thing I would ask you Christine is would you be willing to work with Andrea and put together kind of a page on Native American history at open space absolutely so we have they talk about what's that games uh we talked talked about Mr. [snorts] Markham's various what you call stone monuments or or oh

whatever you had you took some great pictures and and uh kind of I again too I we talked about I think maybe do a little research too I think it would be really really cool if we could find somewhere near collection actual of maybe holes or things that the people that inhabited the caves and they actually did ask John I had a good interview with him that I did about

I think I think Markham Star was a little concerned about um we would not identify things would be cool here's an example here's an example of this that was founded located. He's going to hike with us again in a month or so when he clears it up in line. So I can if you need me to ask him anything that new property that we're trying to get I haven't been over there the last couple weeks but that trail and upper three mile um Ed said is loaded with stuff that want to hike over there. We might be able to set up a it might have to be more not a high hour hike but a real hike. Yeah.

Did Did you do you have a good relationship with with Joe? Do you want to contact him and see if he has any images of anything he might have found? Okay. Yeah. And the other thing I wanted to get back to it, I don't know if you wanted to mention that Russ and wrote to me that um one of the things we can do to enhance the website is put in descriptions of some of the descriptions of the trails and so forth.

I've started CT trails effort. So that's going to be part of it. So I bring that up. I would like to give the partial description of the trails partial history. I went through we talked about one a while ago. I think part of that could be open spacees involvement in generating these trails and that kind of stuff is a little bit different from generating what's what's the difficulty of the trail what you see on the trail. Where is it? There's an opportunity to add some pictures once that finally gets up. They'll they'll it's going to take a while to do it. I still have to figure out how to get some of the global database geo database files. See Perry made it made for us to trail. It's my problem not knowing how to file transfer something I can't open up. So, so it's that that piece you also have to overlap with a lot of land trust because you the current maps you have from us are old

and we need to need to update those. We'll have we'll be happy to get in the PDF still. I said we're kind of holding off till the the sale goes through which we're hoping is the five five properties signs out. Yeah. You can send me a contact I can send the PDF website. Yes.

So be given a heads up that looked So I wanted Ed stewards off of you know Hat because I live on enjoy working with E a lot which is really good and and I think when I get more information back from Connecticut trail put the geo database in Connecticut trail appropriate the mortage I can't quite remember the right format

highlighting points of interest and points on the trail. I did most of that when I did the 50 trails. I'm not sure how that translate to to make the trail I'll come back pictures. Um mind you, we have no accessible trail said there's no share access maybe but one there maybe we don't actually changes what is trails what is CT trails

it's a Yukon continual link but it's it's Google CT trails and it's it's a website that is useful for people who want to find places to hike right I I've used it I googled a lot when I first got usually but almost everyone uses all trails right heard of that

an advantage I think because it's it's a lot of land use or a lot of land trust people use just to post their trails the whole idea is to have access to everything throughout Connecticut both Connecticut focused on the area I think it's just nice to kind of be included in Not sure how many immediate immediate interest. One of the things is we we ended up finding our cryptographer through Yukon Clear. Uh and and Yukon Clear has two full-time basically Matt Professionals, Carrie Chadwick and Emily Wilson, you know, and they're they're the ones pushing their thing, you know, and I I would hope any objections or or attributes that fall short of all trails, whatever, they're going to be working on to fix that. Yeah,

I think they'll actually do most of all for you. They were surprised how much we' already done. Well, we've done we've done most of that with the intent of eventually pursuing Did you have more wanted to mention one one thing I wanted to mention about maps is like work on that is if Steve Carage

this will be Yeah. It's going to be challenging because stuff isn't going to emerge in time. No, I'm not talking about the the map of the the just the property. Oh, okay. Just the the plain map. Yes. And then and then Yes. But but sort of over what you could do is I I'd like you to just get a plain map. Yeah. To go with a page on the website and then we can from there take the next step. Right. Well, he seemed to think that the way to do it and without the trails have to walk, it should be pretty fast and simple for him, right? It's, you know, if he can just come out a couple one time probably with

Yeah. me and Russ and show us how to drop the pins in a way when we don't have trail. [clears throat] um you know and and I I'm I'm very interested to hear what he has to say about you know being able to locate our pilot area and it talk about why we talk about

all right so uh we sent out a very wordy update but mainly by way of sort of launch mentioning some proposed goals for this year. There's been, you know, a lot of discussion about are we going to continue to do this, are we going to continue to do that? Um, and um, so I hope you got a chance to take a glance at it. Anyway, um, you know, I won't go through the whole thing. The pond restoration is underway. Um, I actually emailed Roger Wolf at Beep, who uh was involved and still involved actually in the Lord's Hope um by Mmy's project up there. And and I just asked him, you know, I said, "We're a couple years in and we've had really great success and what happened co and and you know, did you [clears throat] know has does it continue to go on?" So um just to summarize what he was that they had a multi-player um involvement there between nature conservancy and state private property owners uh and Gateway actually under some of the expenses as well um to to do basically what we've been doing in our pond at Cherry Landing you know mowing spray patrol in 90s pretty effectively and um but then the coalition sort of fell apart and some of the property owners including Rich Schneerski um who had been really spearheading it either moved or lost interest actually there's a a hunting club up there too that was part of the coalition and they're no longer

interested in participating. So, uh, there's still a lot of state land that is part of co and they the state still works it, mows it at least and sprays it. But, um, he says, "I'd like to be able to treat the entire area, but with the limited crew I have now, we be down there for weeks neglecting other areas that we treat." So, we get there and try to do as much as we can in a short period of time. Um, so after all that, particularly in areas like the lower Connecticut River where brackish marshes provide ample habitat for fragmitees, once you start a fragmitees or other invasive plant control program, you need to be committed to staying in it for the long haul. We know through experience that if you walk away, it will just take a few years for it to invade. [clears throat] So, it was nice to reconnect with him. He's come down to pretty landing a couple of times and a while ago. He brought some kayaks down and we went out explored. Uh that was before we were really doing anything. Um so um that's just sort of by way of saying if we have to make a case for future expenses to manage the frameies or any other invasives really um I think we've got deep on our side um that it's it's not something you can and then uh

when I come my hand not to like gives the first time it cuts like bamboo it's next and you get those green shoots. I can go with a weed whacker and they come down like cutting with the weed whacker glass and easy and if I do that twice a year that's been more than adequate, right? And it's hard with dump muddy and I have two boards and I got to use some like smushies and uh it's been three seconds to not three seconds 30 minutes to do, right? I just want to keep it away from the water so they don't continue to invade the water, right? And that's been

very adequate. And well, you know, if at some point they disappear entirely from the interior of the pond, we may be able to just do the perimeter with a weed whacker and it could even be like a pound, you know. Yeah. Get authorization or something. Um, you know, I think Most people feel like if you have any mature fragmmites by fall, they need to be true. I know that I would never be able to get rid of them all and they're going to if I don't do that, they'll be back in two years as we saw behind the hideway, right?

And but I didn't want them invading. They don't seem to like to be in deeper water. Well, the pond is very, very shallow. shallow on just like that much. [clears throat] So, um I don't know if anybody, you know, had any comments about the suggested goals moving forward. I wanted to mention to you again is you talked about really anthre ones that might be near the road could be problematic if they die and fall, right? Would you consider having a cruise service take those out? We could. Sure. And you know, I think we could probably

as we get post more into the spring, right? You see our budget is like that might be something considered for project. Okay, great. We have the money. I'm I'm all for it. You know, we just they would have to be the stumps would have to be painted. Yeah. So um when I say painted like so they don't sprout basically.

Um so it's sort of a it's a road map for going forward. um trying to think [clears throat] uh but you know with the idea of any future planting watering really remains the the critical problem and um I I watched this webinar with CLC and the and Yukon garden and lawn or whatever on invasive plant management and um it was some of it was you know information I was aware of and there were some good points and it was nice to hear some corroboration of how we've been going about homes, but it it occurred to me that um there may be other land trusts out there in the state that are doing replanting efforts and I'm wondering how they're getting water to their site, you know, so reach out to them and do

you read or get the the Yukon message board that land trust post on that would be a good message. Let me find something for that. Maybe we can post something on that. I think you would get anybody that posted anything on it gets you three or four responses. Yeah. Yeah. You're familiar with that? I'm sure I'm familiar with it. And and if people are like Gray, you know, in terms of their depth of reading and intent and response, so it's gray on a steroids. [laughter] So you would get a response. Well, good. I think I needed a compliment.

Just, you know, we'll we'll see what we get. Very important forward with a rain bucket, an elevated rain bucket. We thought about it. Um it in some places we might be able to get enough rain now in a year without drought. Um because we've opened up the canopy a lot from just the pond. Fresh water. That's what we've been using is the pump. Could you just take like a pump one time, pump it, fill up your rain barrel that's elevated and then put a hose connection coming out of the barrel? Pumping from the pond becomes really problematic because there's so much debris, so much organic matter in the pond. Yeah, is there's no

sucking up water from the pond. You you have filtering a clock that filtered really quickly. that. But yeah, isn't there on isn't there a well? There's a well and there is power, but it's on state land and I don't know that they would how that would go over. It would be a very complicated conversation. Not out of the question, but it's like I thought I saw that like some kind of Yeah. Anyway, I mean it's it's really I mean sadly like the placement of that well is so perfect. I know it's

okay. Yeah. All right. I just have to it went through my head but there is well we can't someday it's like being in an ocean with lots of sea water. Is there an option for solar? Some but it's heavily wooded. Heavily wooded. Right. We have to find Yeah. Again, the state land has lots of open land, but no trees on it except a few, but because that would be something I would like more consider. How do we harness solar? Well, maybe find out that that's how people are areing it elsewhere, right? You know, I don't want to we can't keep reinventing the wheel, but we're

we're getting there. baby steps. And for for the goat fans here, I just wanted to let you know I found out about another y goat grazing outfit very close by uh by my standards anyway. It's in nearville and um so I went to their website and and uh I thought they they looked good. So I mean they like to eat. They like to eat up a rose. They they like some things more than others, but they seem sucking plant that I hope. Well, [laughter] this is why you need a professional, you know, somebody who knows what they're doing

to actually set up the perimeter fence. And then I was like, well, how do you how do you power the electric fence? Oh, you they probably just bring a car battery to block. No, that's a problem. But you could also just like tether them, right? Like didn't you tether them? I I don't know. I'm not a goat expert. Four mile river farm if you guys come shopping there. So they have goats there all the time. They're hugely knowledgeable about every time we stop. We get out see the goats. Well, they may not want to get them into a vehicle and bring them to us. But we could learn more about goats.

We can learn more about goats, but what I'm really interested in is somebody who's going to bring the goats to us. while they're take them away. [laughter]

I just have a couple things I want to touch on and then we can wrap up. Bible. I wanted to compliment Christine for writing a very nice article for such a hopeful feeling reading that

not you discovered you're such a good writer person. [laughter] Uh the other thing is is uh in your sense of sub we are now a municipal affiliate of the Connecticut Land Conservation Council. Um I don't know how much that will help us avail with some of their consulting things but it does give us a discount to the to their conference. Uh and we get an extra discount if we are early bird registering which ends on February 23rd. So if anybody's interested in going to the please let me know maybe by this weekend and I'll send in all our names. You won't have to pay anything. will be built for anybody that wants to attend. Did anybody meet them prior to

No, but I'm sorry. Did I miss you say you would be signing us up? No. If you would if someone is interested in attending, send the name to me and I will send the names of all the open space people to CLC and they will build open space. Oh, okay. All right. So, open space is gonna send they did last year. They also have a good list sort of you know for your questions um that right you know I know I get those all the time as you know responses to this question and that question. So again, I would mention that that there a ABC the annual ABC meeting that morning

in which chairs are totally encouraged to attend and so I will probably not get there till like 12:30. And if that's the thing with you having an issue with you going back still [clears throat] three workshops. Yeah, I've done it before. I went like the first couple times of my house. I know Russ is traveling and Okay. Yeah, I'm going to be away. I know. I was thinking of going, but do you have to go for the entire evening? Perfect. You can go for whatever you think is better.

Be great if you went in the morning since we can't be there. Yeah, but no pressure. And you're um Yeah, this year I can't go. Yeah. So, when is it? When when is it? March 21st. You're welcome for that. Yeah.

The students The last thing I wanted to mention is there's something um so my wife is friends with El who's the director of Lame Art Academy Lart Association well at least and we understand that because certain people seriously complained about the location last year They are bottom line is going to have tables but they're not all the conservation people are going somewhere else. So

okay we basically told them epic if we don't if we're not at lime association we're not doing it that it's not worth it to to do that. Thank you for saying that.

I had a video thing I was going to talk about. Sorry. So, um, [clears throat] Andrea has some some nice video of beavers that we want to want to talk about what we need. So, I have 19 clips about between 10 and 20 seconds of beavers. at Bartholomew chewing at night. I think I sent you all one, one of the better ones where you could actually hear them. There's six deer, some with ducks, one coyote, one owl, and [clears throat] um sitting in the nook of the tree.

Um and I found woman who can has the Adobe setup, which Emily Evers used to have. She was the one who did the last iteration, but she doesn't have that anymore. this woman has that whole setup and she is a graphic artist by training um and um would be interested. She came over for something else and I was getting information about her background. I said and I showed her the video and I said change shift here. Can you do this? You know, can you do that? And so she can. So I just before I bring her on board, I just wanted to

Do you do you have a ballpark figure from her? She did not give one and she won't give one, but I um wanted to discuss that. She didn't offer one. Um I I would my my thought would be if you think it's reasonable and and notice you pay that much for it. Well, then I'm fine with going. Yeah. I I don't know it off the top of my head, but I'll look back. Yeah. I think it was probably 20ish 20. Was it by an hour? Oh, you don't know. Um, I can't recall honestly. I'm sorry.

But other my best guess even with when we started with Alex Roth was that it was uh I think we figured about $20 an hour and we gave him like $200 for like, you know, up to 10 hours or something. Perfect. That's what I was thinking with what my recollection with Alex. And then we did had Riley there who I think comped us on some of it actually. and um Emily Evers and you could give me those figures and then um and she did not it's not very much and the whole thing would be like up to a minute in my estimation and

pay attention to just the beavers with a little deer and owl like the snow cat that's running around and some more coyote pictures. Yeah, they I was I just got a game camera. I haven't been playing with it yet, but you nail a chicken a turkey leg or something so they can't take it away. So, they're stuck on the thing and brings them in. And I think there's some that Ben who lives above work, right? said he thinks there's a the bear den is over across from the pond where we were bear or bear first

in there is a bear. Yeah. So we can throw that if we did one over there. You might get you'll get the bobcat because he runs around in there. Well, we're going to separate. [laughter] I have a camera on a that I have to check probably the battery died but um and it's been in inaccessible um but we could have one on beavers and then one on bear one on this. So okay this and because [clears throat] it's got to be all sustained and finished.

Yeah. Yeah. So, um, her guess was a few hours and I'm going to just give her up to a day, like not 24 hours, but like eight hours. That's good. Specific in terms of the videos or just clips wherever and this is on Barthol. This is just Bartholomew where we have beavers in the camera. as it is now on the website we have a variety of animals uh you know animal videos yes and I don't think any of perhaps there's a reference to Perry Landing and one of the videos that we made there but

um the the rest are sometimes a composite of different properties I think most of them were as okay um old older ones and then we did about five from Fairy Landing and now we have some but they've been named after the animals. I see. They're not focused on they were they were not they were usually all specific to a property because where that's where the camera was set up. Be nice to have some specific to the property though just to bring like people on.

You know I was thinking if we get them done and Bill been talking about Facebook. Facebook's cousin is Instagram. You can put them up as real on Instagram if that's okay with the town. Yeah.

But I'm not I I like your idea, but it just make it one project thing. So, um and if she does this, she would start with the clip of the animals. I think Evan um offered to um uh and maybe yourself. I wrote out something to you, Evan and Fred. And I can't remember who said that based on the video clips that someone could write a little blurb about the animals, the beaver specifically and what they're doing and just maybe something in general to fit into the 40 second clip. Evan is our beaver

and um then she could lay over music and she could do the voice or she could inter have Evan speak whichever is more accessible. That's very interesting. go with it. Thank you for pursuing that. So I don't have anything else. Does anybody else have anything? So motion to adjourn. Um I'm sorry. Um we are February April May. Um so we are doing the first happy hour hike in May. Yes. Just keeping it on the radar. I'd have to look back as to which trail we decided on. Um,

Champagne Champagne South May 6. We might want to change that to north if we wanted to go and look at the um, uh, salamander pool. Remember, we were maybe pool. See if Mike wanted to and then do library loan. Okay. Yeah, I think Mike would Mike Yeah. wants to talk a lot about that. Yeah, he did a great program in his life years ago. Okay. So, we have to a second. All in favor?

Thank you. Thank you.