Woodlands Committee Meeting Minutes
Attendees:
Jerry Uhrig, Phil Notestine,
Martha Dwyer-Bergman, Blair Wilson
The
minutes from the previous meeting were approved.
The
meeting opened with a brief discussion of how best to keep the council up to
date on the work of the Woodlands Committee. We determined that in addition to
the planned six-month report in the June/July time frame, it would be helpful
to include all members of the Council on distribution for the minutes.
Christina Whitaker can take care of it. Jerry will provide her with the minutes
after they are approved so that she can distribute them.
We
discussed publicity briefly. Jerry mentioned that we do have an allocation of
pages in the Borough Home and School Bulletin. Also, Blair noted that in
addition to being liaison with the Woodlands Committee, she serves as well for
the Website Committee. So there are at least two good options for educating the
public about the work and concerns of the Woodlands Committee. Another would be
through local garden club plant sales. But someone would have to focus on it to
see that things get done.
Another
topic briefly touched on was how we
might make the best use of the expertise
of John Linson, who is the Borough’s Aborist and works for the town on a per fee basis. Sue Marshall, chair of the Shade Tree
Committee, should be contacted to see if there is any overview of the health of
the trees in town that was done by John Linsen for
Shade Tree. Update: Martha spoke to Sue Marshall Thursday morning and Sue stated that no such
report has been done by John Linsen. The only report that Sue knew about was the Radis Report, which all members of the Woodlands Committee
already have.
Reading Material
The Dying of the Trees (Charles E. Little), The Pandemic in American
Forests. Jerry noted that the book was written by with
the general reader in mind, thus it does not have extensive scientific
notations. It encompasses the entire
country and the various issues that are being faced,
the most common issue is pollution from various sources. Jerry mentioned that it was difficult to read
because of the depressing conditions of the forests. However, he said that The Once and Future
Forest was a positive and practical book that gave you good approaches to
view the process of improving the health of the forests.
Grant Application: Invasive
Exotic Plant Control Grant
Gary Webb
has applied for this state funding, even though
The New
Jersey Audubon Society is working on a management plan for two separate tracts
in
Vernal Pool Workshop
Jerry Uhrig and Phil Notestine attended
a vernal pool workshop conducted by biologists from the DEP Endangered and Nongame Species Program (ENSP). Vernal pools are essential
for the survival of certain amphibians, known as the obligate species. The obligates include five species of salamander, one frog,
and one toad. There are an additional 21 species of amphibians that rely on
vernal pools but not to the extent that the obligates
do. These are known as the facultative species. In exchange for learning how to
identify these species and analyze vernal pools, volunteers provide the results
to state ENSP biologists. So we gain both the expertise and the data that we
need for our own woodlands inventory, as well as access to data that ENSP
already has on our area.
Lesley
Garrison, a
Hemlocks
Jerry
stated that hemlocks may have a life span of 450 years. He suggested that we make sure that we
include hemlock saplings in some of our Richard Wilcox sample areas. Martha
will call the Northern Regional Forester to inquire about the state of the hemlocks.
Deer
Phil
reported that there was no culling last week due to the windy weather, however, there will one or two more days next week
and then that will conclude the culling for the year. However, he reported that a resident is
feeding the deer in the Tourne area of the
woodlands. There was a discussion
regarding the need to inform the community that this is counterproductive. We discussed the possibility of having a
Borough ordinance prohibiting the feeding of deer. This would be similar to the
rules on geese.
Martha
reported that she had received information on sterilization from a resident via
e-mail and USPS. The information
concerned three different programs. The first related to deer studies on
sterilization that are being done by the U. of Wisconsin-Madison in the town of
Blair reported
that Freeholder Jack Shreier of
Martha suggested
that we might want to created a controlled area of
fencing within
Woodlands Survey Sheet
We went
over the worksheet and made additions to the species. It is too long to include here.
Martha
will make the changes and add to it the Invasive plant list and send it to
everyone later.