Woodlands Committee Meeting Minutes
June 16, 2004
Attendees: Jerry Uhrig, Phil
Notestine, Martha Dwyer-Bergman, Blair Schleicher-Wilson
The minutes from the previous
meeting were approved.
Reports
Deer
Phil reported that the
Environmental Commission does not see the need to do a second survey of the
community; however, they are in support of the second deer count for this
upcoming year. Phil has had numerous
people tell him of their support for the culling and that they have noticed a
reduction in the population. Phil
explained that this is partly due to the fact that during the late spring, deer
are less likely to be seen due to various factors: return of dense foliage
hides them from sight and during this time the does are birthing and traveling
smaller distances. The life span of a
deer is 7 years and female become fertile within the first year of life. During the summer the deer community divides
into two separate groups: families (does and fawns) and bucks. Phil’s opinion is that Woodlands should do a
town wide survey even if a small group voices concerns.
Phil will again contact the
bow hunters from Mendham. It is likely
to be necessary to again allow hunting in our woodlands in order to get
approval of our culling permit. Phil feels that bow hunting can be done
safely. He is very much against having
individuals hunting with firearms in the woods. He also recommends that we post permanent
signs stating “No Hunting Allowed Without a
Permit”. The Tourne County Park does
have such signs posted.
Trail Abuse
Phil noted that he has seen
and spoken with bikers on the trails that are “No Bike” trails and has spoken
to them. The biker’s body language
conveyed an attitude of defiance to the trail rules. Other members of the community have also seen
bikers on the walking paths. Jerry noted
that the signs and gates have been vandalized throughout the woodlands and need
to be restored. Also, the bike trails on the posted trail map at Birchwood have
become badly faded from the sun. They should be redrawn to make it clear where
the bikers may go.
Status Report for the Council
Jerry reported that on Monday June 14, 2004, he
presented to the council the Woodlands Status report. There were approximately 10-15 members of the
public in attendance. Jerry emphasized that at this time Woodlands sees two
issues as priority: Deer Management and Control of Invasive Plants. Jerry also
mentioned the Sudden Oak Death that has been found in California and
could become a national problem as a result of an infected shipment of
camellias from the Monrovia Growers of Azusa, California. These plants were shipped to ten states. We
are not sure whether New Jersey was
among them or not. At this time there
are no known oaks infected in our area but we need to keep track of this.
Correspondence
Correspondence: Jerry received a letter from the PNC BANK ( the local branch is located at the corner of Boulevard and
Route 46) stating that the bank is interested in doing volunteer work within
our community. Jerry called to speak
with the manager, however the manager was not there, thus he explained to the
person on the phone that the Woodlands committee was looking for volunteers to
help remove invasive plants from our woodlands.
The response was that this particular individual was hoping for an
opportunity to read books to children.
Martha suggested that we contact the SLAP (Sheriff’s Labor Assistance
Program) to see if they could be used in this type of situation.
Publicity
Martha reported that the
Mountain Lakes Day event on Memorial Day was very successful. A number of people approached and took the
flyers and said that they were interested in helping. The more that we can get the public to become
aware of the conditions of the woodlands, the better.
The Woodlands Committee needs
to have a website designed for the town to keep abreast of these types of
situations and to be able to post our information. Phil mentioned that Lesley
Garrison who is a high school student in Mountain Lakes will
join us to help. Her mom, Kathy, is a
website designer. Martha was told that
there are students in the 10th Grade who need to complete community service
requirements that we could use to create a website.
Data Gathering
Jerry met with Troy Ettel and
Eric Stiles of New Jersey Audubon at the Negri-Nepote-Leni Trail in Franklin Township to
inventory birds. The meeting took place at 6:30am on
Wednesday, June 9. This land had been
farmland and was purchased by the township to preserve the natural grasslands
habitat. It is now being inventoried as
part of a comprehensive stewardship plan being developed by New Jersey
Audubon. Jerry showed the data sheets
and master list of the birds. The
approach was to walk the trail and mark on the map locations of wildlife
sightings, in this case birds. Then on
the data sheet report the location and the species sighted. A new map is used every time the person walks
the lands and then the sightings are compared so that a base line can be
established and possible territories of species determined. Also, a vernal pool is in the planning stages
so that such a habitat can be showcased to the community.
Woodlands Walks
Friday morning June11, 2004,
Jerry, Linda, Martha, and Patty and her son walked the trail in Richard Wilcox Park that
was hiked by Jerry Uhrig on April 9 in the company of NRCS botanists to identify major
invasive species. The trail begins
behind the storage building at Birchwood and continues along the high ground
above the lake, past the well house at the back of the lake, along the trail
into the woods and eventually looping back to Birchwood. Linda took notes and Martha took digital
pictures of various areas. Martha will
send these pictures to Jerry with the notes attached in the near future. It was noted that there are poison ivy vines
much too close to the trail for the safety of the hikers. As a mater of fact, as you approach the trail
the tree that is so close that you could brush your hand against it as you
walked by was covered in poison ivy. In
spite of the fear that poison ivy invokes in many of us, it is a native plant
that provides food for the birds. A
reasonable policy would be to remove poison ivy wherever it might pose a hazard
in high-traffic areas but otherwise leave it for the birds. We passed three
vernal pools but we did not observe any activity. We did watch a scarlet tanager for awhile. He
seemed to be foraging for food around his likely nest site. The trail passes
through one of the most extensive tracts of invasive species in any of our
woodlands: Asian bittersweet, winged euonymous, privet, Asian honeysuckle.
Borough Lots
Linda and Jerry looked at the Morris/Lake
Drive lots and the Bird Sanctuary,
they are both getting cluttered.
Rockaway Terrace has extensive dumping.
These are all overrun with invasive plants. Phil suggested that what needs to be done is
make them neighborhood habitats for wildlife, not people friendly areas. The question is: are there species that we
want to favor over other less desirable ones?
Borough Lots are unique in that they are “EDGE” not “CORE” areas. A “CORE” area needs to have a 100 meter
buffer then the inside becomes the “CORE”.
These lots are much too small for that definition.