The Eightmile River
Wild & Scenic Study Committee
Meeting Minutes – April 28, 2003, Salem Town Hall
Present - Study Committee Members: Anthony Irving, Peter Sielman, David Bingham, Jon Morris, Nathan Frohling, Sue Merrow, Sally Snyder, Walter Smith, David Tiffany, William Koch, Maureen VanDerStad. NPS Staff: Kevin Case.
Absent - Study Group Members: Eric Belt, Charlie Fredette. NPS Staff: Jamie Fosburgh.
1.) Meeting Called to Order at 5:35 PM.
2.) Minutes of March 24, 2003 Meeting Approved Unanimously – 1st Sielman, 2nd Merrow.
3a.) Outreach & Education Sub-Committee Report – Smith reported on the May 19 community meeting in Salem. Ralph Lewis will provide a special presentation of the unique geologic features of the Eightmile River Watershed. A draft of the meeting announcement flyer was distributed for review. Smith noted two of the main goals of the community meetings are to introduce the public to the Wild & Scenic Study and collect their input on issues and interests related to the watershed.
Publicity for the meeting will occur through newspapers, local email trees, local boards, the town website and the land trust. Irving noted it will be important to also directly contact river abutters. Case will check with Leslie Kane and others to locate abutters mail list from the NEMO Eightmile project work. Morris suggested it would still be a good idea to get co-sponsors for the meeting. Smith agreed noting time constraints made it difficult to get such support for the Salem meeting. Morris will look into getting East Haddam Conservation Commission support. It was also recognized it is important to reach a broad audience for these meetings, and try to attract interest from the business and education constituencies. Case will work to develop a list of such key people/groups that need to be on our outreach mailing lists. Case also mentioned the brochure and website are being designed with hopes of final products by May 19.
Also, Merrow mentioned June 23 would be a good date for an East Haddam Community Meeting. Nick Bellantoni, state archeologist, was suggested as desired presenter for the meeting. Case will work to book Bellantoni.
3b.) Cultural/Historic Subcommittee – VanDerStaad reported subcommittee members are tasked with getting highlights of historic interests within each town. Merrow, with the help of Anita Sherman, unearthed a 1997 draft report of archeological site potential for the Eightmile River Watershed. This will be distributed to the subcommittee for review.
3c.) Natural Resources Subcommittee – A draft of the geology map for the watershed was presented. It was noted Ralph Lewis will work with the subcommittee on the write-up.
In the area of water quality Snyder has collected a significant amount of information that suggests high water quality and high macro-invertebrate diversity in the watershed. Although, it is challenging to claim statewide water quality uniqueness for the Eightmile as only 15% of Connecticut’s rivers & streams have been sampled.
Case noted a meeting was held with USGS to discuss the hydrology of the watershed. There appears to be a relatively straightforward way to defend a claim of natural flow conditions in this watershed. USGS has some good statewide comparison data of other watersheds that may help in establishing outstanding resource value status. Some interest seemed to exist to establish a second stream gage in the watershed to develop better baseline flow data. Also Hamburg Cove was discussed and the possible advantages of modeling sediment transport and hydrology of the area. The subcommittee will also be discussing flow modeling options with other stream flow experts in the state.
In the area of Ecology/Biodiversity the subcommittee has refined the workplan approach with a goal of using both individual species and well as ecological intactness as two outstanding resource values of the watershed. It is envisioned most of the data developed will be in an appendix format and the results or outcomes would be a narrative write-up.
The potential vernal pool mapping is completed. It now needs to be entered into GIS. It was suggested it will be helpful to add latitude and longitude to the information when it is entered. A vernal pool assessment training session was held earlier in April in Lyme with some town and conservation district staff, and land trust and study committee members. More trainings are planned as a volunteer assessment corps is developed to assess the quality of potential vernal pools in the spring of 2004. The Committee was interested in receiving copies of the Vernal Pool Best Development Practices book published by the Metropolitan Conservation Alliance. As well it was agreed Case should purchase and distribute copies to all the Inland Wetland Commission members in the three towns.
Frohling noted the Management Subcommittee should get up and going soon. Case noted that he and Krause had met to begin organizing a review of existing river & watershed related regulations and programs.
4a.) Old Business - Gravel Operation Proposal Near Beaver Brook – Belt read Study Committee letter into the record at the Lyme Inland Wetlands Commission hearing on the gravel pit application. The Nature Conservancy also submitted comments. Fosburgh followed up with Army Corps on the letter he sent them in mid-April regarding the project. He was unable to reach the person responsible to respond to the letter.
4b.) Financial Policy/Budget – The Committee reviewed the draft financial policy document dated 4/22/03. It was agreed the Committee will use the calendar year for its fiscal year and new subcommittee budgets will be required at the beginning of the new fiscal year for approval. No changes were made to policy items one and three. Item two was changed to read “Subcommittees have the latitude to expend funds within their lump sum allocation in a way that helps them best achieve their goals. Any expenditure in excess of their budgeted lump sum allocation must be approved by the full Study Committee.” The Financial Policy with noted changes was approved unanimously. Sielman 1st, Merrow 2nd. See attachment for final policy in its entirety.
(Note: Subsequent to the meeting it was noticed that one issue was not addressed in the policy under item 3. It still needs to be determined at what dollar level individual requests for funding must be approved by the full committee – to be taken up at next meeting.)
4c.) GIS Support – Case reported a contract has been established with the Connecticut River Coastal Conservation District and a sub-contractor has been selected to help them undertake the work. He should be starting in two weeks.
5.) New Business – A new meeting time was discussed to better serve Committee members who have multiple night meetings on Study Committee meeting nights. A 4:30-6:30 meeting time was agreed upon to be implemented for the foreseeable future beginning with the next meeting on May 19.
Smith suggested that in light of the important, challenging and long discussion regarding the Study Committee’s role/response to the Lyme Gravel Pit application it would be beneficial to establish a structure to address such significant items in the future. Possibly such items could be referred to ad hoc subcommittees made up those Committee members interested in the topic at hand. Or an Executive Committee could be established to analyze and make recommendations to the full committee on topics such as Committee policies, finances, structure and functions. Irving noted such a committee could help the Study Committee stay philosophically on-track. Bingham suggested a written proposal for such a committee is made available for discussion at the next Study Committee meeting. Smith will start a draft.
6.) Next Meeting Date – Salem Town Hall, May 19, 4:30 PM (pizza for the hungry) – Community Meeting to Follow
Meeting adjourned 7:20 PM.
Submitted K. Case