Friends of Willard Brook

Board of Directors Meeting – MINUTES

Thursday, January 7, 2010. 7:00 pm. Willard Brook State Forest Headquarters

1. Attending were Bruce Colburn, Joellyn Nevins, Cathy Kristofferson, Don Stoddard,

Duane Cromwell, Eino Kauppi, John D'Angelillo, Emily Norton, Tom Nevins, Chuck

Pernaa, Raynold Jackson and Jayne Perkins.

2. Corrections to minutes - 8b of minutes incorrectly described the placard to be

displayed. The placard is acknowledgment of folks who worked on the mural and

helped make it happen.

3. Treasurer’s report - Eino $2,125.01

4. Membership report - Sussie 64 paid up members; 18 less than 1 year over due; 45, 1

to 3 years overdue; and 11 are over three years overdue. The Board of Directors voted

to eliminate membership cards.

5. Publicity - Newsletter is done and John Belotti to get them to Emily for mailing.

6. December program –

Dec 6 Winter Weeds – 0 participants – bad weather

7. Upcoming winter programs

One hike / snowshoe per month; the schedule is in the newsletter and online.

Cross-country ski “hotline” Kay Fitzpatrick will take people cross-country skiing

whenever weather and snow permit, just call her. All the info in the newsletter

and online.

8. Friends of NRRT – Duane

Ayer kiosk - in the hands of the regional carpenter and on his long list of to-dos.

Reward for vandalism information – sign - there isn't one, it's not allowed.

Washout north of Sandhill Road - Engineering for DCR will investigate this in the

spring.

9. Trails –

Dead Swamp loop marking was done by Emily and Sussie. SCA to do the wet

crossings in the spring as part of their work at Willard Brook.

10. Fessenden Hill Road gate

Installation of temporary gate now that hunting season is over? Bruce and Ed

discussed this and something will be done, probably in conjunction with other

work in the area. It will take a contractor to do the work.

11. Sy Montgomery program – March 14, 2:00-4:00

Publicity - in the newsletter and online.

Refreshments - we will offer coffee, tea, cocoa and cookies. Joellyn will check

our supplies.

Sales of hats, T-shirts, memberships - Emily inventoried the T-shirts and hats. 21

long-sleeved beige shirts and 15 short-sleeved gray shirts. 22 hats with correct

logo and 16 hats with a brown hiking trail instead of the stream. Emily will

check on current T-shirt prices with Little Stitches in Jaffrey.

12. Forest cutting information – Chuck Pernaa explained forest cutting practices and

recommended anyone interested in the forest futures visioning process attend

one of the upcoming sessions. See www.mass.gov/dcr for the full schedule and a

draft of the document.

13. FOWB servicing Townsend Seniors? – John D. hasn't made contact yet.

14. DCR / Forest News – Bruce reported that budgets are frozen, no spending without

approval. 42% budget cuts coming. Pearl Hill Pond draw down is done, about four

feet. Working on signage for horse crossing and for snowmobile crossing for route

119 by the headquarters. In January the office is to be repainted and rearranged.

New storm doors are to be installed soon. 2010 calendars made by Bruce were

available at the meeting. Black & white or color and on disk and can be obtained by

emailing Bruce (willardbrook@state.ma.us) with a request. The dump truck is

disabled and repairs are costly, repairs currently on hold. A pickup 3/4 ton F350 with

a plow for use here will be coming.

15. Mountain bike trail off Vinton Pond Road - Bruce drove in and looked at it. He needs

to verify state property lines and then he will address it.

16. Invasive species eradication - Emily and Jennifer Pettit saw a couple clusters of

Phragmites in Dead Swamp. We are in an area where invasives are not out of control,

so we have a chance at eliminating them. State biologists are enthusiastic about our

work to eliminate invasives, and they will be actively involved in this project. Need to

document locations and have them checked first, and then they can be eradicated. It

was voted by the Board of Directors to set up a Committee on Invasive Species.

Emily will head it up for now.

17. Other business. It was voted by the Board of Directors that the acting president for

the monthly meeting will be the acting president for the whole month. When a

discussion needs to happen before the monthly meeting, call the acting president, who

will then handle it accordingly. The board voted to change the meeting to

Wednesday, February 3, so anyone wanting to attend the DCR Visioning meeting in

Westboro on Feb 4 will be free to do so.

18. Next meeting: Thursday, February 3, 2010, Joellyn chairs (March – Jayne chairs)