Minutes of the Thetford Conservation Commission – June 8, 2011 at 7:15 PM

Present: Li Shen, Amy McElroy, Skip Sturman, Eric Pyle, Libby Chapin, Stephanie Carter, Bob Pulaski, Connie Snyder

Absent: Ann Lavanway

1.  6:00 pm: Walk at Taylor parcel. Following the walk, we went to the Thetford Town Hall for our meeting.

2.  The minutes from May 25 were approved as amended.

3.  Approved the Arrowwood Environmental Invoice #2011-200 for $500.00 for the wetlands talk and talk preparation for two environmental professionals.

4.  Summary of talk with Selectboard about how the $5,000 for managing town properties will be used. The Selectboard expects the money to be used for the goals of the Management Plan. The Selectboard would like us to present a three year plan on spending the money. $5000 is the cut-off for having to get three bids for the work. The Selectboard was supportive of using any funds that are generated by logging to support costs for carrying out the Management Plan.

5.  Ehrhard Frost received the UVLT Patchen Miller award.

6.  Libby attended a VT Lakes and Ponds seminar. She reported on the workshop that she attended on Shoreline Development. She brought us a copy of model Shoreline Protection by-laws that can be used by various towns (VLCT Municipal Assistance Paper Technical Paper #6). The VLCT (VT League of Cities and Towns) provides model by-laws can be accessed in a pdf or word doc format at the “vlct.org” website (under Resource Library). The by-laws are available for download for any towns to use or modify. Only 10% of VT towns have enacted shoreline buffer protection.

7.  Libby reported on Lakefest. Libby asked if the Thetford Conservation Commission would like to have a presence at Lakefest. Lakefest is on Sat August 13, from 10 to 3 at Treasure Island (Rain date is Aug. 14). Amy is willing set up a table with invasive pamphlets and maybe our Wetland map. Amy will ask Peggy Willey of the West Fairlee Conservation Commission what type of display they are doing, so that we don’t duplicate their display.

8.  There was a discussion summarizing the Matrix walk on Shep Butler's property on June 4.

9.  A black bear talk by Forrest Hammond is taking place at Woodstock Town Hall on June 13 at 7 pm. It is sponsored by Woodstock Conservation Commission and Marsh-Billing-Rockefeller National Historical Park.

The meeting was adjourned at 9:00 pm.

Reminder that Commission members should let Li know ahead of time if they cannot attend Conservation Committee meetings, so that she can plan accordingly.

We will skip the next meeting on June 22, 2011. The next meeting will be July 13.

Respectfully submitted,

Amy McElroy