Woodlands Management Committee Meeting Minutes
Attendees: Phil
Notestine, Josh Bingham, Bob Dewing, Jerry Uhrig
Guests: Kyle Bolo, Peter Bolo
Administrative
Minutes from the previous
meeting are on the website.
Special Report
Kyle Bolo reported on his
Eagle Scout project, now completed. He researched the problem of providing safe
habitat for bluebird fledglings and built 20 bluebird boxes which he placed at
appropriate locations in the Borough. There are 9 around the soccer fields in
Halsey Frederick Park at the edge of the woodlands; 5 at Haswell
(Midvale) Field; 4 at Taft Field, and 2 at the Fliflet
Bird Sanctuary. Kyle consulted with Mrs. Diane Nelson, an avid birder with
several different styles of bluebird boxes and the New Jersey Audubon Society
before choosing a design that combined ease of construction with ease of
cleaning and maintenance. He brought one of his boxes to the meeting to
illustrate. The boxes are constructed from cedar boards and afford an easy
access for inspection and cleaning.
We discussed how best to
monitor the boxes. Kyle offered to follow up with this as long as he can. He
felt that even after he leaves for college next year, he would still be home
enough to check on the boxes.
Status Reports
1.
Deer: A report on the deer harvest to date was
provided by Marc Weiss of the United Bowhunters of New Jersey; totals are 8
does, 3 bucks.
2.
Topics for discussion:
1. Invasives article for January H&S - Let's try
eating them.
It
is a good time of year to look at a new approach to controlling invasive
vegetation. Let’s talk about eating them. A number of people and organizations
have been promoting this for a while now. A good website is http://www.nps.gov/plants/alien/recipes.htm
which is maintained by the U. S. National Park Service. If you explore the
links a bit, here is the sort of thing you might find:
Garlic Mustard Soup
Submitted by Gaelyn Reid and Sarah Yalov
1 ½ cups shredded garlic mustard leaves and stems
2 chopped carrots
3 potatoes
4 Tbsp dried oregano
6 Tbls dried basil
3 Tbsp minced garlic
½ cup soy sauce
Boil 6 cups of water, add potatoes and carrots and let cook for 15-20 minutes. Add the remaining ingredients and cook 20-25 minutes.
Bon
appetite!
2. Update of Goals for coming year
Woodlands
Management Committee Goals for 2008
1. Work constructively with
Eagle Scouts to support projects
2. Plan and organize invasive
work groups
3. Support youth environmental
education especially working with Recreation Commission
4. Contribute to maintenance of
current lists of flora and fauna, especially birds and herptiles
5. Assessment of Deer
Management progress
6. Comprehensive Invasive Plant
Management Plan
7. Monitoring Plan for Threats
to Woodlands Trees
8. Woodlands Recovery Plan
a) Deer Exclosures
b) Reforestation Demonstration
c) Replanting
Other topics:
We noted that the term of Phil
Notestine was about to expire. Phil very generously agreed to serve for another
three-year term. A coach I once had used to say that no one was indispensable.
That may be but Phil does come very close.