12/15/2011 CONSERVATION COMMISSION Minutes

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Conservation Commission 'Minutes of December ber 1 , 20'11 Public Hearings Marsinpee Town Hall - conference Room 1 Commissioners: chairman Jack Fitzsimmons, Vice chairman Shaw, Brad Sweet, John Rogers, Lloyd Allen, and Steve Cook Staff Present: Drew McManus (conservation Agent) and Iris Carpenter(Administrative secretary) Call Meeting To Order: 6:55 prat Pre/Post HearinAgenda: 1 Minutes: Approval of the following minutes: November 1 T 2011 & December 1, 2011 Motion made, seconded and unanimously carried to approve the minutes of November 17, 2011 and December 1, 2011. 2 south Cape Beach Research Plots (U-Mass Dartmouth) !Agent McManus seat notices out to Fish & Wildlife and some other environmental groups to try and track down the person who created the plots. Responses revealed that it was a grad student from UMass Dartmouth studying under Brian Haus who is a professor at UMass Dartmouth. The plots were created to monitor the effects of sea level rise.on the.s itrnarsh. The student has also placed these plots,in other towns a well but never thought to seek town's approval prior to creating the plots. Briain Haus will be coming into Conscorn on January 12th for a presentation that will give a brief summary of what the research will consist of and what mitigation will follow. Vice Chairman Shaw asks if there should be some type of filing and the'Agent responds that often times if the project is in the interest of a resource area improvement or environmental monitoring, it falls under Conscorn waiver of requirements but than is a decision that the Commission can make at Mr. Hau 's presentation. Chairman Fitzsimmons mentions that they also placed plots in Sippewissit Marsh without gaining permission from the Falmouth Conscom. They,were'told that the plots needed to be immediately filled back in and not to.come bank. Falmouth was very upset and refused to allow Mr. Daus to show any slides. Agent McManus states that-all work is currently on hold until Mr. Haus has come before the Mashpee Conscorn. 3 Land stewardship updates—Agent McManus states there has been a lot f progress with the Virtual Town Hall website. It now contains a lot of information regarding the Land stewardship Program including a form that can be filled out online for observations of assigned parcels; as well as a sign-up,fora to become a Land Steward. The Agent and Kelsey Boyd have continued mapping trails which eventually will produce PDF files and links that can be accessed from the website. It will contain information such as a brief history and description of the parcel and a map with associated trails. Agent McManus Kelsey will be meeting with the cub Scouts and also the Friends Group with The Mash,pee National Wildlife Refuge to discuss some projects that,they would like to see happen specifically on some of the Conservation parcels that are part of the refuge. 1