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Home My WebLink About2024-05-14 CAC MinutesTown of Danby Conservation Advisory Council Minutes Page 1 of 4 Town of Danby Conservation Advisory Council (CAC) Draft Minutes of In-person Meeting in Town Hall, and via videoconferencing Tuesday, May 14, 2024 Council Members present: Jonathan Zisk (Meeting chair), Joel Gagnon, Anne Klingensmith, Don Schaufler, Katharine Hunter, Brittany Stein Council Members absent: Margaret Corbit, Renee Owens Others present: Ronda Roaring (Danby resident) Meeting was officially called to order at 7:10 Deletions or Additions to Agenda: Klingensmith wanted to add getting a letter to the easement owners on monitoring by around July. Chair said we could add to Item 2 on Agenda. Schaufler had done research on Migratory Bird Act but it was decided to add it to item 3. Privilege of the Floor (PoF): Roaring wants CAC to get more involved in issues involving town, such as the one with West Danby Water District. District may not have enough space for the office building proposed and there is an issue of building on town land or fire district land, and then who owns it? She thinks it will be situated too close to wet land. Hunter said this was not a definite plan yet; it was only a “what if”. Some discussion of what the CAC “mandate” is, and how the proposed “trigger” of CAC involvement would work, especially since the CAC is advisory. Approval of March 13, and April 9, 2024 minutes (This was inadvertently skipped because we had not yet mustered a quorum when we got to it and forgot to come back to it.) REPORTS AND UPDATES (from the agenda and additions) Town of Danby Conservation Advisory Council Minutes Page 2 of 4 1. Status Report: Conservation Easement Tax Abatement and CAC letter to town board – Gagnon, Klingensmith Klingensmith led the discussion about adding in Danby conservation easements that pre-date the enactment of the local law implementing the abatement in exchange for conservation easements program. Such older easement properties, we discovered, are ineligible to participate. Question was asked “Do we want to reward people for putting land in an easement?” Tax reduction is an important incentive to encourage people to keep their land undeveloped. There was discussion of the paradoxes and disadvantages of giving tax abatements for temporary easements, re- explaining to new members, and reviewing possible solutions. In the end, there was consensus that it would be desirable to enable participation in the town program by all owners of land protected by permanent conservation easements, regardless of which conservation organization holds the easement. Since this would be more inclusive than what the town board is on record as supporting (which is to seek authorization to include all town conservation easement properties, not just new ones), it was decided to recommend that broader scope to the town board before approaching Kelles and Webb for a legislative amendment of the original authorizing law. Next step would be to go back to contacting Kelles and Webb but concentrate on only retroactive tax abatement. (Schaufler brought up the question about what other towns did. But other towns had not had this same problem since they used the temporary conservation easement option from the beginning.) 2. Status Report: Easement monitoring – Klingensmith, Corbit Klingensmith was thinking of using a Mail Merge from a Word form letter (based on a sample letter supplied by Hunter from her experience with another conservation organization) and a data spreadsheet of names and addresses. It would also personalize the time and date for the visit (which can be set in the spreadsheet). 3. Status of Timber Harvesting law – Schaufler, Zisk Schaufler is still working on this document. Gagnon said it was mostly for protecting roads (but Zisk noted that this is an umbrella since - if roads are Town of Danby Conservation Advisory Council Minutes Page 3 of 4 misused - so will woods be). Any hope to add Best Management Practices can realistically only be as a recommendation, not as a requirement. Schaufler noted there is no inexpensive way to enforce them. Gagnon remarked that at the least it would be useful to know how much logging is being done in Danby, but Schaufler thought it be tough to get a real handle on this. It was concluded that the main purpose of this law was to allow the town to shut down a destructive operation, if necessary. Migratory Bird Act – Schaufler said that the language of this Act has been a gray area since 1913. There has been back and forth on its interpretation for over 100 years. Also, the woods to grassland (hay) ratio has changed over that time period (creating a much different environment for different birds). Klingensmith said the change from criminalizing was a Trump administration interpretation change in the courts. But she noted the law still was important and still carried weight. She said you could make a case that any logging (by decreasing habitat) was killing migratory birds. But she was pretty sure that no matter how this Act was being interpreted in the court currently, it was not going to affect this Danby logging bill. Schaufler agreed. 4. Updates on on-going easements – from leads on each easement • Zisk still needs to finish previous woodworking responsibilities before finishing Andi Gladstone and Ben Altman easements • Klingensmith reminded people to enter their working easement files in monitoring spreadsheet, which she went over with members • Gagnon said we were close to finishing with Brian Caldwell • Gagnon reported on progress at site at Troy and Nelson (owned by Adam Cartman and a sister, who do not live there, but have a tenant) – CAC needs to create an easement negotiating team to walk land by perhaps mid-June. Discussed this property. Close to Updike. There are some easements already there so a new easement’s value is increased. 5. Status of checklist to “trigger CAC involvement in town planning of land use”– Zisk Zisk is restrained by the same commitments as above. Town of Danby Conservation Advisory Council Minutes Page 4 of 4 6. Follow up on Crystal Buck’s report on money available for buying development rights on farms that qualify. How should this be advertised? – what is the best way to notify possibly interested people. Was this put in Newsletter article? There was some question about this program. It could become very time consuming for CAC to become involved. There is also the question of where the best land is in Danby and whether it is still being farmed. Often only hay is being mowed there now. Is anybody in Danby doing a CSA? Jed Jordan on E. Miller has blueberries. There is also a Blueberry U-Pick on 96B near Muzzy Rd. We need a synopsis to explain how this program works. We need a bullet list from Crystal Buck of what is needed to apply. (Later note: this program is called the Farmland Protection Grant. See April CAC minutes. For more information see Crystal Buck at Tompkins CCE or David Behm in Ag and Markets. See https://agriculture.ny.gov/land-and- water/farmland- protection-implementation-grants-program.) Additional item: 7. Discussed process of getting a new Secretary with Betsy Keokosky leaving. There was no Executive session Next Meeting is on June 11, 2024, at 7p.m. Adjournment at 8:40 pm _____________________________________________ Submitted by Elizabeth Keokosky (Secretary) using recording