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Home My WebLink AboutCAC Minutes - 02_14_23Town of Danby Conservation Advisory Council Minutes Page 1 of 5 Town of Danby Conservation Advisory Council (CAC) Minutes of In-person Meeting in Town Hall Tuesday, February 14, 2023 Danby, New York Council Members present: Margaret Corbit (Acting Chair), Jonathan Zisk, Joel Gagnon, Katharine Hunter, Don Schaufler (via Zoom), Council Members absent: Brittany Lagaly, Renee Owens, Others present: Elizabeth Keokosky (Secretary), Ronda Roaring (Danby resident – via Zoom) Zoom Meeting was officially called to order at 7:19 (again held up by technical difficulties). Privilege of the Floor (PoF): none Deletions or Additions to Agenda: none Approval of January 10, 2022 minutes Gagnon moved to approve  Zisk seconded  Approval unanimous. REPORTS AND UPDATES (from the agenda) 1. New CAC Member Search, Annual Report, and other CAC specific issues - Margaret Corbit New members: It was reported that Marie Monroe wanted to come to one more meeting before deciding to join CAC, and Anne Klingensmith is reported as thinking of joining, but perhaps needs encouragement. Annual report: Corbit needs comments from members to finish her already amended annual report, which then requires approval by the group at the next meeting (March 14) and a motion to send it to the town board. Town of Danby Conservation Advisory Council Minutes Page 2 of 5 Temporary Conservation Easement subcommittee (Zisk, Gagnon, Lagaly, West (Planner)): Discussion of temporary conservation easements and their tax abatements is on hold but committee is going ahead with town-level tax abatements for permanent easements. Committee met and will only vote on whether to approve Town of Danby tax abatement that State has enabled for permanent Danby conservation easements. This abatement is a 90% reduction in taxes paid for the land only (not the buildings) in the easement. (County deduction under discussion is a 50% and still needs approval by County Legislature. School tax deduction negotiations are still on-going). 2. Status of town board approval of Timber Harvesting law – Gagnon The current document is now going from Town Board to follow up on linkages that need to be done to integrate the complexities of this bill within existing state and town law. It was sent to Town Lawyer, Guy Krogh for decision on whether to make it part of zoning regulations or free- standing. It was sent to Town Planner, David West, who thought that integrating it with road-use law could be problematic. He is going to take these questionable parts out before contacting DEC. A conversation has been begun between Planner West and the Highway Department to better understand some of these problems. 3. Status of monitoring letter – Hunter and Zisk Hunter and Zisk are working on an annual monitoring letter to be sent to owners of easement-protected properties, but not much progress has been made since last meeting. Corbit suggested that after new members come onboard for this year that CAC put together a committee to expand this goal into revamping the whole annual monitoring organization and timing, along with a clear letter setting a date for the annual monitoring. The goal is to make monitoring more efficient for CAC members, and make conservation easement property owners understand the limitations of bad weather, hunting season, and tramping through tick infested areas. Also to clarify from the onset that this annual monitoring is a requirement. Town of Danby Conservation Advisory Council Minutes Page 3 of 5 Part of the problem is complications around the transition to the next owner of the property. The necessity of monitoring as part of easement protocol and the requirements of different easement zones may need to be made clear (such as prohibition of harvesting trees in an environmental protection zone). Zisk said that the lawyer who is working on the deed is remiss if he doesn’t make easement obligations clear, but, as various people noted, surprises happen and the preamble of the monitoring letter being worked on should make sure that owners realize monitoring is not an option but an obligation. 4. Any important updates on Easements that need input from other members. Butje Easement: no progress to report. A 3 1/2 acre lot is up for sale on the property – a residence and two other buildings. Property is already in different lots. This sale would not be good and kill the deal for the particular easement being negotiated. 5. A brief discussion of the email from Cait Darfler about this year's NYSACC meeting – Jonathan Zisk Evidently it is Tompkins County’s turn to host the 2023 New York State Association of Conservation Commissions (NYSACC) annual conference, This will occur sometime in the fall. Cait Darfler, Chair ofthe Tompkins County Environmental Management Council (EMC), is coordinating the Conservation Advisory Councils and Boards in Tompkins County to get them involved with the planning and execution. She was also connecting with some NYSACC Board members to find out exactly what "hosting" means. Since the TC CACs and EMC evidently have full control over planning the conference, the EMC would like to hold a joint EMC /CACs meeting at Stewart Park on Thursday, May 11, at 4PM, which is also the EMC’s normal meeting time. She requested that if anyone in the Danby CAC has thoughts about what they would like to see for a Tompkins County NYSACC conference, or how we can support this event, let her know. Just what this means no one is quite sure. Looking at what was done previously was suggested as a good starting place. Town of Danby Conservation Advisory Council Minutes Page 4 of 5 6. Update on Cayuga (Gayogo̱hó꞉nǫʼ of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy) Nation workshop – Corbit Steve Nighthawk was speaker at the workshop Corbit attended. Ben Altman on Comfort Road is offering the use of his land (or their land depending on how you think about it) to the Cayuga/Gayogo̱hó꞉nǫʼfor maple syruping. They will take a Six nation approach that includes all people of Confederacy and make a ceremony out of slashing the trees and the collection of sap. 7. A special session on revisioning of CAC mission and message and how to strategize Danby conservation easement outreach for the CAC web page The goal was to find words that captured the imagination more than the current mission statement of “preserving open space in Danby” - for both CAC members and the public – and to present these on the CAC webpage. The group looked at other conservation websites for examples, like the • Finger Lakes Land Trust, “To conserve forever the lands and waters of the Finger Lakes region, ensuring scenic vistas, local foods, clean water, and wild places for everyone.” • Or, the Audubon website mission statement “to conserve and restore natural ecosystems, focusing on birds, other wildlife, and their habitats for the benefit of humanity and the earth's biological diversity” It uses pictures to help convey the message. The Danby CAC is also trying to preserve the land in ways that preserve habitat, a historical legacy, and other specifics – for people and other species. How can we distinguish ourselves? Do we need a statement and bullets beneath it? Pictures to give emotional power? The end result of this discussion was a request to bring ideas to transfer to yellow stickys at the next meeting in order to organize ideas by moving them around on a white board. So the assignment was to bring words and phrases of two ideas to transfer yellow sticky pages for a brainstorming session around creating a CAC mission statement and a message to illustrate it. Town of Danby Conservation Advisory Council Minutes Page 5 of 5 The inspiration was not just for the environment but also to make people think, or rethink the financial side. One example mentioned: it makes sense to decrease the taxes of a property owner who puts land in a conservation easement since then fellow citizens help share the cost of maintaining the rural view. Lowered taxes allow him or her to afford not replacing open space with developed land. There was no Executive session Next Meeting is on March 14, 2023 at 7p.m. Adjournment at 8:23pm _____________________________________________ Submitted by Elizabeth Keokosky (Secretary)