Open Space, Natural Resources, and Trails Committee

By City Clerk at 8:24 am, Aug 24, 2022 Present: Jonathan Sherwood, Pascal Rettig, Rick Hucksam, Steve Thiel, Peter Frey, Tracey Chalifour, Vanessa Johnson-Hall, John Lopez 1. Call to Order 2. Minutes from January 26, 2022 meeting 3. Public Comment - N/A 4. Communications – none at this time 5. Chair's Report ● Coastal Trails Coalition trail cleanup - Garrison Trail - watch for that if can volunteer Saturday 4.23.22 ● MLTC Conference - Jonathan co-presenting with Greenbelt. ● Partnership Grant with Essex National Heritage to do improvements at Deer Island. Request for determination in hands of DPW. Replacing sign, trimming fallen trees along path or threatening to fall on pathway, and light gravel touchup on parking lot. 6. Special Guests/Presentations • Carol Decker, W Newbury, Native Plants in New School ● Postponed to May meeting ● Will be discussing W Newbury Wild & Native efforts to have native, non-invasive plants incorporated into planting plan for Pentucket School. ● Cons Comm original approval of Amesbury Elementary includes native plants. 7. Referrals • Review Draft Recommendations from Open Space and Natural Resource Management Planning Working Group [attachment] Representatives of OSNRT, Cons Comm, Lakes and Waterways part of ad-hoc committee to help City think through steps to improve planning and management of open space & natural resources. Will inform how to implement Master Plan and Open Space & Recreation Plan. ● City needs a single person to be a point-of-contact to coordinate management of parks and open space. ● Organize & centralize information and resources. ● Cons Comm has requested funding from the mayor for management plans. ● Discussion on how to decide who owns required open space set-asides, and what that decision process entails. A recommendation by OSNRT? Could look at regulations to see if finding by Planning Board is required that proposed open space has value as open space. P. Rettig does not believe this exists.  ● For additional parcels designated as open space: having an emphasis on continued inventory of new parcels acquired for conservation purposes. Baseline documentation ● Management planning: There was initial conversation with hiring Mass Audubon for management plan on Battis Farm. Initial estimate was $7-8000. This was provided to John & Angela. ● Recommendations are with Dept. of Community Dev. and Planning 8. Ongoing Projects • N/A 9. Other Business 10. Motion to Adjourn: Moved S. Thiel, 2nd. V. Johnson-Hall, unanimously approved.