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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2019-04-30Conservation Board/4-30-19 Page 1 of 4 Dryden Conservation Board April 30, 2019 Members Present: Peter Davies (chair), Bob Beck, Gian Dodici, Craig Schutt, Tim Woods, Jeanne Grace, Milo Richmond (alternate), Nancy Munkenbeck (at 7:24) Absent: David Wilson, Anne Clark Liaisons: Craig Anderson, Planning Board; Dan Lamb, Town Board The meeting was called to order at 7:04 pm. In the absence of D. Wilson and A. Clark, M. Richmond was made a voting member for today’s meeting. Review and approval of minutes dated March 26, 2019 C. Schutt made a motion to approve the minutes as written, M. Richmond seconded the motion, minutes were unanimously approved. Reports and updates Dryden Rail Trail – Bob Beck Have received official notification from NYS Department of Transportation of the $1,476,540.00 rail trail grant. B. Beck advised this is 80% of what is needed to complete the trail, and the 20% balance will be made up with other grants and commitments. These funds will be used to complete 3.25 miles on the western end of the trail and the pedestrian bridge across Route 13. We are also building spur trails to go under the bridge at Route 13 and Fall Creek. B. Beck also provided information on the trail celebration that will be held on May 11 th. Agricultural Advisory Committee – Craig Schutt Has emailed the draft minutes from the Agricultural Advisory meeting on April 10, 2019 to all members of the Conservation Board for review. Environmental Management Council (EMC) – Steve Bissen S. Bissen was out of town and missed the April 11th EMC meeting so there is no report this week. NEW BUSINESS Deer Population Management – Tim Woods Looked into increased culling of the deer through hunting in the Villages and within the town. We have two guest speakers tonight, Professor Blossey from Cornell (Natural Resources Department) and Courtney LaMere (deer biologist) from NYS DEC. Conservation Board/4-30-19 Page 2 of 4 Joey Guernsey from Klein’s Archery was going to come to give us his perspective on how archery is working, by feeding the deer with corn to draw them to a central point and taking them right in the Village. Since he was unab le to come tonight, maybe we can get him back later to talk about this. Discussion ensued between Professor Blossey, Ms. LaMere and the board regarding culling the deer: • Possible decline in number of hunters and what can be done to fix that • Access issues – due to farms being subdivided for housing • With permission from landowner/homeowner you can shoot (with a gun) within the 500’ setback of a home (bow is 150’ and crossbow is 250’) • Ecological and conservation concerns • Increase in the number of hunters will not help you control the deer population. The deer do not use the same travel paths where hunting has recently taken place. • Discharge ordinances • Nuisance permits would require the municipality to have a deer management plan created by the municipality. • A controlled hunt would be possible if the town applied for a Deer Management Assistance Program (DMAP) Permit. This allows DEC to give the municipality extra tags to give to hunters during the hunting season. Suggested an outreach program to reach out to landowners to try to open more land for hunting. The DMAP deadline is August 1st, the municipality would not need a management plan for this program, and DEC would provide 2 extra doe tags per hunter, per season. There would be defined hunting areas within the town. • Farms, golf courses or similar organizations would have access to nuisance permits for crop damage and would be able to shoot the deer at the time the crop damage occurs. • There is a lot of information on the DEC website, and C. LaMere will leave information she has brought with her that goes through the types of permits. • Once the Town makes a plan for what we think we want to do and why, Professor Blossey and Ms. LaMere would be happy to come back and help us move forward with the next steps to determine our best options. • This is not a one or two-year operation, it will be ongoing to manage the deer herd. T. Woods discussed possible ways to increase the number of hunters and to increase it long term. This means education of young people to become hunters. T. Woods spoke to the athletic director at the high school regarding their archery program and he is willing to work with Klein’s Archery to try to get a program where kids could walk over the Klein’s after school and do a bow hunter’s safety program and a shooting club to teach them to become better archers. Those two aspects would increase the number of bow hunters. He also went over to the Dryden Fish & Game Range and talked to them about increasing the number of youths that are members of their shotgun group. They are very interested in putting together a civilian marksmanship program that would be funded by the federal government Conservation Board/4-30-19 Page 3 of 4 and organized through individual shooting clubs. The members of the club would work with the youth to train them to become better shooters. We need to recruit landowners to allow us to put them in a database, so we can match the hunters with the landowners that would like their land hunted. P. Davies suggested the possibility of having a community meeting to discuss deer management and hunting and having Ms. LaMere come to take part in the discussion. C. LaMere – Cull permit – Shooting over bait at night - DEC would require a management plan to be put together. The best way for a community to do that is to put together a small committee with representatives from government, resident s, and landowners. DEC needs to see a list of the negative impacts the deer are having in our community and how we will measure impacts over time. Maybe a resident survey to see how the community feels. Mill Creek Preserve Subdivision – New York Land & Lakes Development, LLC We have a 908-acre parcel in the town that will be subdivided into 40 plots. The Planning Board wanted to get the Conservation Board’s opinion on the proposed subdivision. Bob Lesperence and Alan Lord of NY Land & Lakes provided a presentation to the Conservation Board and answered questions. The Conservation Board reviewed the section of the Full Environmental Assessment Form “E.2. Natural Resources on or Near Project Site” for this project and made a few corrections/changes to this section: • n – Does the project site contain a designated significant natural community? Should be answered “Yes” with a notation that that portion of the project is the land being deeded to the Town of Dryden. • o – Does project site contain any species of plant or animal that is listed by the federal government or NYS as endangered or threatened, or does it contain any areas identified as habitat for an endangered or threatened species? “Yes” Northern Long-Eared Bat. P. Davies offered the following resolution and asked for its adoption: RESOLUTION #3 of 2019 from the Town of Dryden Conservation Board to the Dryden Planning Board regarding the Mill Creek Preserve Subdivision WHEREAS, New York Land & Lakes, Development LLC has satisfactorily answered the questions of this board, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the Town of Dryden Conservation Board approves the subdivision as presented and has no concerns. Motion was seconded by N. Munkenbeck and unanimously passed. Conservation Board/4-30-19 Page 4 of 4 OLD BUSINESS Finalization of Conservation Easement Monitoring Protocol- Jeanne Grace • Discussed wording of the handbook, minor changes made. • C. Schutt mentioned he did not find any mention in the document of the Methods and Selection Criteria for Land Protection Acquisition that this board put together in December of 2014, to determine if a property would be accepted as a conservation easement. It should at least be referenced in the document. • Discussed monitoring of conservation easements on behalf of the Town and reporting back. Conservation Board members will send any corrections/changes/suggestions to J. Grace within the next week for updating. J. Grace will update and then forward to R. Burger for his input and then for attorney review. A few members of the board will take the base line report form and go to one of the Ellis Hollow properties and do a “test run” to determine if anything has been missed. R. Burger will contact the property owner to obtain permission for our members to go on the property to do this report. Finalization is tabled until the May meeting. Ms. LaMere provided the Board with links to the information on deer management at the NY DEC web site: NYSDEC Deer Overabundance Webpage: https://www.dec.ny.gov/animals/104911.html Community Deer Management Webpage: https://www.dec.ny.gov/animals/104961.html Community Deer Mgt Handbook: https://www.dec.ny.gov/docs/wildlife_pdf/commdeermgmtguide.pdf DMAP Webpage: https://www.dec.ny.gov/animals/33973.html Report to the NYS Legislature: https://www.dec.ny.gov/docs/wildlife_pdf/decdeerreport18.pdf There being no further business, T. Woods made a motion to adjourn the meeting, seconded by M. Richmond and unanimously approved. The meeting was adjourned at 9:50 p.m. Respectfully submitted, Chrystle Terwilliger Deputy Town Clerk