HomeMy WebLinkAbout2022-01-251/25/2022
CONSERVATION BOARD
1/25/2022
Hybrid
Members Present: Gian Dodici (Chair), Bob Beck, Anne Clark, Craig Schutt, Andrew Miller, Nancy
Munkenbeck, Tim Woods, Jeanne Grace
Absent:
Liaisons: Simon St. Laurent (Planning Board), Steven Bissen (EMC), Loren Sparling (Town Board)
Guest(s): David Weinstein
The meeting was called to order at 7:07 PM.
Review and approval of minutes dated November 30th, 2021
On motion made by B Beck, seconded by A Clark, minutes were unanimously approved as written.
Planning Board Update
The Planning Board is planning on making the 2045 an amendment to the previous
comprehensive plan. They are taking comments from the boards, and they are going to reconcile all of
this.
C Schutt says that they are not going to ask the boards or committees for anymore input and the
next version is going to be sent to the public. S St Laurent says that is true but the boards can still have
input in as members of the public.
Town Board Update
They adopted the drinking water source protection plan as an induvial plan. They hope to have
that as an amendment to the comprehensive plan. They were asked to represent Dryden at the Owasco
Lake watershed management council. The problem is finding a representative to attend the meetings. A
Clark offered to attend the meetings to represent Dryden.
EMC Update (Via email from S Bissen)
The majority of the meeting was a presentation from Curt Lindberg about the Vermont Alliance
for Half-Earth. Half-Earth is the premise from Naturalist and Scientist, Edward O. Wilson, to use the
guidelines where half the earth is conserved for biodiversity. The talk was about how we should
collaborate with other conservation groups to improve biodiversity. We should start small, as in half of
your yard, which will lead to bigger conservation projects. The mantra being half-yard, half-school, half-
town, half-valley, half-watershed, half-state. He discussed projects like a bioblitz event where an app
like iNaturalist can be used by students or other groups to do observations about the biodiversity
around them. These type of activities and education will help to preserve our biodiversity.
Rail Trail Task Force Update
1/25/2022
Game Farm Road Crossing Plan is moving forward. The town hired Barton & Loguidice to do a
plan. They had a meeting with Town of Ithaca, Town of Dryden & Tompkins County Highway and are still
trying to get some guidance on how to best proceed in the early part of their work. They expect to have
a kiosk development at Game Farm Road and Monkey Run. The design committee for the trail is looking
at creating information panels and updating maps. Knickerbocker bed frames has volunteered to donate
whatever land the town needs for the trail.
Deer Management (T Woods)
The Village of Freeville voted to change their ordinance so crossbows and bows can be fired
against the deer within the village. J Cuykendal gave the hunt team permission to access deer control
harvest sites on Ron Szymanski’s private property. Dan Wakeman is the coordinator for the deer control
harvests within the village of Dryden. Dan consulted with Joey Guernsey, owner of the archery shop, and
Joey claims he just needs to go to DEC for approval to have hunts on his property. Dan has a lot of deer
damage on his property so they may want to do a control harvest there. George Junior denied access to
their property. Until they can get to the George Junior board to discuss pros and cons, they are at a
standstill with them.
Bio-sequestration
T Woods is requesting the groups who have already been briefed to sign the resolution to show
the support for trying to implement this. He is asking the Conservation Board to look at the resolution to
see if this is something they are willing to sign.
Rail Trail
T Woods brought up several concerns that he has regarding the safety of the rail trail and the
lack of public knowledge of these safety issues. This has been discussed in the past and B Beck already
knows about them. B Beck said that many of his concerns are being exaggerated way beyond reality. T
Woods is going to email around the pictures he has to let the board decide for themselves.
Soil Maps-Comprehensive Plan
N Munkenbeck started to map out all the ag lands in Ellis Hollow that they were not showing on
the maps in the comprehensive plan. The Planning Board has decided they don’t want to look at actively
farmed land in terms of preserving farmland. Instead they want to focus on preserving lands that are
classed as good ag lands. What they show on the map does not do that. She wants to get the folks
working on this to let John Nagy come and explain what the soils are and what a good soil map is and
what lands actually are good ag lands. C Schutt, N Munkenbeck & T Woods are going to work together
to come up with a proposal and maps that represent correct information.
Ditching
The Freeville village DPW was under the impression that as long as no beavers were harmed,
they can ditch and take out any dams they need to. J Grace said that is not true. She put together a
letter that will be sent to the Village of Freeville and eventually to other municipalities on best
management practices.
Agenda items for 2022
1/25/2022
Stormwater- The board would like to figure out why the Town’s Stormwater Regulations aren’t
being enforced and help them. Simon thinks that the Planning Board and Conservation Board should get
together with the town board to start a discussion about this.
Stream protection and buffers ordinances- G Dodici doesn’t believe there is a need for buffer
ordinances in Dryden but believes ditch management has a huge effect on streams and water quality.
This is more of a water quality issue and less stream protection.
Ditching- This topic has been kicked down the road several times last year. The board would like
to get with Town Highway to work with them to implement best management practices.
Easements- They are working with the Planning Department which is maintaining a list of
easements and some members of the board on their own time go out and monitor those sites. This
hasn’t been done since before covid, but S Bissen is going to get with Ray Burger to get this started
again.
Crypto Currency
G Dodici understands that one of the requirements for these crypto mines is to have a power
plant or something in the town that’s decommissioned that these companies buy to generate power to
run these computers to do these calculations. There are not any power plants in the Town of Dryden so
it shouldn’t affect us.
There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 8:54 PM.
Respectfully submitted,
Emily Banwell