Friends of
Willard Brook
Board of Directors Meeting –
MINUTES
1. Attending were
2. Corrections to minutes - None
3. Treasurer’s report - Eino Balance is
$1,948.42 all bills paid.
4. Membership report –
- Sussie
and Emily need to schedule mtg on membership program
5. Publicity
Winter newsletter: Articles – Forest News
including how cuts are affecting the local
parks; Park
Watch; winter activities at the parks; hunting schedule; Friends Network by
Don;
senior activities
by John D. winter
schedule: need leaders for hikes/walks.
6. October programs
- fall
colors walk – 0
- cranberry
picking – 6 people, 1 bald eagle, 1 praying mantis
- Halloween hike – 3 people, 2 deer
7. Upcoming November programs
- Nov 7 – Neat Streets
- Nov 15 – Intro to Geocaching meet
at Sand Hill parking.
- Nov 29 – Post-Thanksgiving Hike up
Watatic meet at
- Dec 6 – Bare Bones Botany meet at
8. Friends of NRRT – Duane
A.
There was a litter pickup on the Rail Trail by
B. Bruce and Duane also worked on
the trail a couple of times to clear around historical mile markers left from
the days of the trains.
C. Duane and his committee have been
talking about how to increase use of the trail during winter months. Duane will be talking to Bruce and Ed.
D. Murals are in planning stages for
the
E. Ayer kiosk status with DCR
F. Human-powered transportation day
- more discussion in the spring.
G. The question was raised; could a
reward be offered for information leading to arrest and prosecution of vandals
of the murals? This will be looked into
further. The idea is to have FOWB and
another organization put up the funds and place small 8.5 inch x 11.5 inch
notices at the murals. This might help
dissuade vandals if they thought they could be caught.
9. Trails – Sussie and
Ray
- flagging
10.
11.
Last month’s Friends Network Meeting – The Liability issue is still not
settled. Conrad still has it on his
desk. The draft is written for the DCR
policy, and should be complete by year end.
There was a lot of discussion about biomass (state forest trees) as an
alternative energy source. It seems to
not be such a good idea.
12.
Annual Report was submitted and fee paid.
Our copy to Emily.
13. Winter Carnival this year? Maybe but could run into problems. Emily has an idea for Sy
Montgomery, who was willing to come do something for us, to do something at the
new
14.
Forest cutting? There is no cutting
currently going on in the state. It will
be a while before any is done as there are many questions and problems.
A. Forest Futures Visioning Process
in process.
B. State Trees as Biomass??? Still just in discussion at
this time.
C. Marked Trees in
15.
DCR/Forest news – Bruce reported that Peter Elstrom
died last Thursday and was 62 years old. Peter had worked at Willard Brook for
several years and will be greatly missed.
Park
areas are all closed and Damon Pond was drained yesterday. Pearl Hill Pond will be drawn down later and
weed control to be done. The interior roads at Damon Campground have been
reconditioned and at the Pearl Hill Campground also. The park HQ will again be used as a deer
check-in station during hunting season.
There is no one at the headquarters on Sundays. The bridge on
16.
Deciding who will chair the next few board meetings:
December 3 – John D.
January
7 – Tom
February
4 – Joellyn
March
4 – Jayne
17.
Other business – A. Senior Center, geared toward passive activities was opened
in Townsend. A suggestion was made to
have a meeting
with the seniors and have them tell FOWB what they would like us to offer for
active programs. Ray spoke of
18.
Next meeting: