Conservation Commission Meeting

JOHNSON CONSERVATION COMMISSION MEETING MINUTES OCTOBER 9, 2025 Present: Lois Frey, Sue Lovering, Noel Dodge, Peter Hammond Absent: Dean Locke, Adrian Schmidt Guest: Justin Hennard POLLINATOR GARDENS We have 6200 sq. feet of rototilled and smoothed gardens to be planted on Saturday, October 18. The plan is to dig native perennials from Sue’s gardens on Friday, the 17th, store them in buckets of water, and plant them with the seeds on Saturday. Ryan Speer did his usual good job of rototilling. A motion was made and passed to buy no more than $250 in seeds for the purpose. Sue will order six pounds of the ‘Showstopper’ wildflower collection from Vermont Wildflowers. They’re presently having a sale. Sue and Lois put announcements on Front Porch Forum inviting the public to come and help. Buzz Osgood, who has a tractor with a mower and lives on Wescom Rd, has offered to mow the paths around the gardens and out to the road. We accepted with great appreciation. GOMO TOWN FOREST Mike Green has finished his fact-finding overview of Gomo and is putting a management plan together. He’ll be in touch when it’s done. Noel reports that there are saplings that need to be removed from the apple trees. Regarding the boundary survey, it’s not going anywhere quickly. Mark Day will not give a price to do one side, while Matt Reed Surveying proposed a $2500 preliminary survey to be done before the actual survey. That seems nutsy when two of the lines are already etched in stone by the state. The long-suffering Peter will talk to Matt Reed again, as well as contact LCPC to see if they have surveyors on staff or can furnish any money for the project. JOURNEY’S END UPDATE There has been no word from JE Steward Adrian. LUMBER UPDATE Noel attempted to reclaim the bat house lumber from Jared but had no luck. He will try again. EMAIL CONTACT LIST Lois and Sue put together a list of roughly 75 contacts to send to folks interested in our programs and news. Noel can add his CBC list; he’ll send it to Lois. NEW MEMBER RECRUITMENT We need new blood! We have three empty seats waiting for enthusiastic, committed people who want to work for the environment. Lois encouraged each of us to give some thought to who might be interested. So, it was completely swell that Justin Hennard attended with an idea to join us and decided that, even after listening to us misbehave, he wants to join up. How swell is that? Justin shared with us his interest in land preservation and proactive environmental work, which fits perfectly with the JCC’s mission. He’ll contact the Selectboard. PRINDLE PROPERTY UPDATE Economic Development guru Carl Rogers is working with Noel on a conservation easement for Prindle that should have been done ca. 2000. It will be a standard agreement that will include a stipulation that no winter recreation will take place at Prindle because of its status as a deeryard. It can have a management plan. Prindle was surveyed years ago but we should use a metal detector to locate the corner pins and mark them. FLYER HOLDERS Sue was authorized to buy four flyer holders for the new brochures. She’ll bring them to the municipal building, Woolen Mill, Johnson General, and the library. They cost about $5 each. FLEA MARKET Much to some members’ disgust, Sue mentioned the unsold Audubon prints that still reside under the guest room bed and asked if we should do another Christmas season flea market sale. We can ask for donations of nicer items that would round out two tables worth of space and, if possible, get tables against a wall. Lois and Sue will take the helm at the Sunday, November 16, market if Sue can get an application filed. Everybody is encouraged to give or get donations to sell. And everybody is welcome to step up and lend a hand on sale day. As before, proceeds will go to the CC’s reserve fund. CHRISTMAS BIRD COUNT In a good piece of news, Noel tells us that Cambridge’s Annette Kalinski wants to take over and run this year’s CBC. She plans to start early, pick a date and organize the whole thing. She has a list of potential birders and we can help by recruiting in our area. SHARING TIME: RECENT OBSERVATIONS • Lois had two large coyotes on her trail camera recently. • Peter saw four deer wandering in the village. • Sue had a hawk fly parallel to her car window while driving along Whitcomb Island Road early one September morning. It was miraculous. • Noel observed that skunks are active at 2 am. • Everybody agreed that raccoons are huge this year. MISC • It is entirely possible that Justin was swayed by Lois’ home-made cookies, a clear indication of his intelligence. • No one mentioned the upcoming International Wombat Day on October 22. • When the Powerhouse Bridge needed to be reconstructed in 1998, it was done using lumber taken from Prindle. Adjourned at 8:20. Next meeting is on Thursday, November 13, at the library at 6:30. Submitted by Sue Lovering, Secretary.