hello we we are starting the Conservation Commission subcommittee on Land Management meeting regularly scheduled and announced and we're going to continue our discussion about our agricultural policy led by Bruce Deadman we also have uh Michelle lob with us and Aaron jock staff of the town of amorist and we're expecting Dave Zac uh to join pretty soon but we're going to start right now on where we left off because Bruce has one half hour with us we'll try and plug along go ahead Bruce okay so the places this is draft 14 the sections in yellow are the new things that either we didn't get a chance to talk to before or that I've added and as you see at the top of the header it's says May 27th BJs so that's the last time I did editing and engagement um with it so um yeah that's helpful Aon thank you so can you make it slightly bigger there okay so I believe that um Michelle added this idea as an objective in the past uh scrolling down I just want to show you the places where there's things to to work on on so um with regard to the Hammer residents uh Dave was going to talk to the town attorney the town attorney was out for several weeks for some reason so it's gonna take a little more time to address that particular one um Bruce yeah uh he actually addressed that and the town attorney said of course amoris residents would have a preference because they pay for the land well I'm sorry I didn't see it so verbal oh okay Dave's with us but no need to repeat that's what he said okay so this is okay by the the town attorney okay um the up above it shows a yellow potential for tribal and subsistance use Michelle said asked for that um Alex sent some materials for us to look at if if you've had a chance to read them and you want to talk about it after I've left then please do that because I have not had a chance to look at it um with regard to nonlethal um I said well what do we do if this fails Alex noted that it creates a cone of Opp of what is a depression if you take some animals out then other ones come in so I'm not sure what to do with that uh scrolling down there aren't too many we're not it's not going to take very long just so um I think that what Alex said makes sense in number d letter d that we might um remove this uh sentence licenses may also be renewed because it doesn't it puts the Commission in an awkward position and at some level we have that right anyway can I just jump in here I think um this was supposed to be um rev not renew um it was just a typo I think we've gone I think we've gone over this no I'm sorry I I believe that I caught everything so obviously I haven't okay yeah because I remember eron making that same comment you want to keep the sentence as it is with the word revoked yes okay for good cause yeah okay um so and Davis proposed that an e it be kept um as it is that separate accounts um are not really possible and the language I'm sorry an f and then e this was the language that eron gave me based on her discussion I think with the town attorney um we actually on F we made a request um and we talked about this we made a request to Dave to um see if we couldn't have an amendment there is already a special account for something I forgotten what it was and um there was a request made to Dave to see if we couldn't broaden that special account for uh all things conservation land um maybe it was in L fees for which there was a special account I don't know I asked Dave but there was a request to broaden that so that agricultural fees and whatnot could be put into it so that that those monies are available to be spent on conservation land and Dave was going to yeah let me let me resend that it's budget season but I think the worst has passed here in terms of budget prep and it may have gotten a little lost in the in the email Abyss with the with the the accounting folks but I'll send that to our accounting folks again they have just been up to their eyeballs in preparing the budget and defending the budget so let me resend that and see if there's a way for there to be a separate fee that would include that would include fees for uh licenses as well as community garden um fees and inlo fees if the if the account is already set up for inl fees and that's important because we tell people inl Fe will be spent on immediate yeah that that account is already set up um inl I think is a little bit different category for it is quite a different category for the accounting folks but let me let me ding them again and see okay so while you're doing that maybe we can move on because Bruce only has a well I just want to point out at the bottom of all these things where it says Bruce Dean and then it says DZ in my conversation with Dave I believe Dave I got it correct you said that a sliding scale is possible and that that that might be a factor in all of this somehow uh sliding scale for the idea was that there the Community Gardens have one fee and maybe the licenses have a different fee and in some towns if they're doing just great uh hay it's one thing and if they're doing vegetables it's a different thing I mean you the commission can set that the commission can set those fees so I just I just worry a little bit about every different thing is a conversation a different change a different email you know understand standardization would be great all right um I think it would help us if if Dave and Aaron could make a proposal about the fees and say this is what would work best for the town and our budget and and just get us to find tune an a proposition Michelle um I see I'm I guess I'm moving on to the community garden fees so I'm I'm reading Alex your comment can we just say fees for the community garden are described in the community garden information page so that there's it doesn't need to be updated every time the other one's updated and we just refer to that since it's sort of a standalone program anyway yeah yeah I think we tried to rip Community Gardens out of here except to refer to them as a separate policy manner okay I'll put that in uh Erin can you scroll down all right so I've reached out to UMass Agricultural Extension I've talked to two different people so far still haven't found the exact person that will be the most helpful but the objective is to get them to help me um with definitional things when in the glossery about what constitutes best management practices for things like no kill and other stuff like that so I'm working on that I'm sorry it's taking so long but they're not calling me back very quickly so there's an extension guy in the I forgot in the you know the Wildlife Resources department they have a different name now but and I can't remember his name but he's very helpful maybe I could just okay if yeah if you can send you his name that'd be helpful Aaron thank you moving on so at the very bottom of page four it just notes that there is a glossery and we're going to put things that are too detailed for this document in there um the equipment left overnight it came from the building inspector I believe no it came from me okay well whoever it's new it's just new language yeah I think we're okay not new we're okay it's it is I will take the yellow out um moving on what is Q I'm sorry what are we trying to achieve in Q no equipment shall be stored on per equipment left overnight while in use is not considered storage yeah if a guy's plowing his field and it's time to go home but he's not done leave the thing there and pick up tomorrow he doesn't have to bring it home yeah no I I I see the practicality of it um yeah the the challenge for the town will be um vandalism so is that a challenge for the town or the owner little both we'll we'll have to see yeah it's a great question um I know like for land use applications we require the the um insurance policy so I'm presumably the the Lessie will have an insurance policy so if their equipment was damaged then they it should be covered by their insurance yeah we may just want to make that clear in the insurance because the insurance typically is for liability like personal injury and things like that but it probably should include um you know uh uh property their property so you know they leave a $60,000 tractor and somebody does something to it the town doesn't want to be liable for that yeah okay so that's handled under insurance but you equipment left over I mean it's obvious I think Q is up to the whoever owns the equipment I mean he you know not our business yeah I don't know from an insurance standpoint yeah you could add equipment left overnight equipment left overnight while in use is not considered storage and is that the whatever risk of the owner exactly yeah just to have it in there yeah it's who's got power of the pin here okay with regard to the um enforcement says uh issues should be reported to conservation staff it's on the top of page five um my idea was to try to have a set of steps that people could go through should go through um I haven't ever ended up talking with Gro Lord food Northampton um I could keep trying to get around to that but I guess the question is how much detail is this particular issue how much is involved in having it in this document I mean there could be a whole conflict resolution process but we don't necessarily need it here first we need a LEC right so I mean I'm I'm at the point where I'm pretty ready to wrap this up by the next meeting and allow the larger commission to re to read it in the context of everything else or by itself because they're going to say well what about this and what about that and there's going to be additional um time and re research that may be needed so I'm yeah I mean I think we're getting a little Deep In The Weeds on this and I I sort of feel like we'll it we'll cross the bridge when we come to it like if it gets reported to us the the staff can try to work with the well that would be my preference yeah yeah that makes sense all right uh section U I just showed the cross out because you had agreed to Crossing it out previously um just wanted to make sure I should take it out for for real now okay the probably the most now so the I'm going to work on the appendices and the glossery separate I think we could let the commission read the the document without having those completely done but I do want to review this waiver of modif uh modification um Dave and I talked about it for a while and felt that it should be removed um I remember this it was agreed sorry I remember this discussion I think we've gone all through this before okay I'm just double checking before we take it out I'll wait to hear confirmation from Dave and Michelle has her hand up go ahead Michelle it's it's not about this so if you want to finish this discussion hearing no disagreement I'm going to take it out okay um my I just want to comment on Z the glyphosate based herbicide shall not be applied to conservation land we already described that the farming practices should be in compliance with um organic standards and I think that statement is kind of broader to the land man agement of conservation lands but also I don't think that we should preclude glyphosate because it's a pretty standard restoration tool and it's that I don't know it's just a very specific statement um that's not necessary like a farmer is not going to use glyphosate if they can't based on their um organic standards I just I think we should remove it and keep what's prior to it which already precludes it yeah so round up is a glycate yeah but glyphosate based herbicides also have many different um there there's a lot of different versions of them and some of them are Wetland safe and and they're they're basically the most uh useful tool for like removing invasive infestations from wetlands and I mean that that is the tool that restoration ecologists use so if the I mean they probably already did it in the Fort River um that buffer strip it was probably a glyphosate project I don't know Dave maybe but I just don't think we need to remove it and if it if policy changes around it then it won't be Antiquated Antiquated Antiquated well I agree with Michelle in the sense that it's applying to all the conservation land which maybe it's too hid if if it should be used at all it should be in a more generalized place and not on buried in this agricultural document well it doesn't it doesn't harm things to to be repetitive um not as a habit but this is a big topic and if a farmer was going to look at this he's not going to look around at other parts of the policy if it's well that's fair but the management plan's going to specify the herbicides and pesticides used so that would be included and I mean everything proceeding in that I'm disallows the the use of glyphosate so if they were using glyphosate there would have been already some approval of it in the management plan that they provide and it would already have been um not allowed by Z prior to that statement and I also just don't think that we should not allow glyphosate on conservation land like it very much limits restoration efforts to say no glyphosate based herbicides Rodeo is the Wetland safe herbicide they use all the time and it's glyphosate based and I'm not saying I like glyphosate I'm just saying that's a really broad statement and I just don't think it needs to be there I think it's going to trip us up I'm the one who suggested it'd be in there I'm I'm not going to get in the way take it out okay all right I'm done with my part for today and except the going back to the top Aon we have Michelle your hand still up you got another question no so uh I think Michelle offered the objective number four and if there is any discussion about that as an objective yeah I discovered that I have made some comments around the April 1 draft which I never sent to Bruce and I'm going to send him to to them today okay um and they they centered around the opening with goals objectives policies and all I did was come at it from a planner standpoint where a goal is is a stated desired condition and then objectives are things we you do to achieve it but that's kind of fine stuff okay Bruce are you saying sorry you're saying I I suggested that that was my memory of it but maybe somebody else did it doesn't sound like something I'd say so okay well somebody did and the question is do we want to keep it or not I don't quite know I don't I don't quite know what it means um I I think it means that that the the larger Community um needs to accept and engage in the question of agriculture on conservation land how would we do that I don't know let's take it out if it's if it's too ambiguous I think it It could wind up being a burden to staff who's already got lots of things to do what are we gonna we're gonna have open meetings pound meetings I don't know how do we do that and I don't know let's take it out eron um and then the other one is the broader discussion about you scroll down somewhere there um other factors the commission sou consider in assessing the eligibility of a conservation parcel and one of them is the potential for tribal or subsistence use that was added I believe Michelle added that and then I believe Alex sent some documents for us to review which I have not been able to do voted Alex did you sent additional documents I sent a um broad statement modeled after the university that all this is on unseated land okay but that's not to do with the agricultural policy yeah um I I had provided and you know at some point when we want to discuss it further I have notes on how that might work but I think Bruce this is sufficiently general that it it leaves open opportunity without requiring anything so okay then I will clean this up I gotta go but I'll clean this up and send it out back out to you as draft maybe draft 15 um draft final or almost there or whatever whatever the thing is and when we're at a point where we want the commission to read it I'll leave it to you to decide whether it's this by itself or now it waits for the bigger thing um to put it into the bigger thing I I Vote for This by itself just so people can you know not take off a little bit at a time but with that I'm ready for everyone to get it I don't know what else needs to be done yeah I agree okay I'll clean it up I'll send it to all of you and then Erin and our chair can decide how to present it to the larger group good Bruce Bruce before you can you just tell us how the fish migration is going is it the Shad of largely the shadow of largely stopped they've gone over the dam y there were about 20 or 30,000 more this year than last year at this time um the stripers seem it depends on which angle you talk to the stripers have either gone home by going back down the river or they're hanging around in selected secret spots where only certain Anglers know where they are depends on who you ask um the unfortunate part is that the Herring have gone in gone to almost nothing and that as I understand it Alice can correct me is a function of by catch in the mackerel fishery at the mouth and the North Atlantic fisheries management council is considering amendment 10 which would move the boundary of Avail you know the the buffer out much further from the mouth and the commercial Fisheries people are objecting to this amendment so that's what I know thank you thank you Alex me those detailed charts that's it's interesting to show people out in the field they I appreciate that yes the things that Ken sprinkle sends out yeah it just shows lots of interesting smaller details further Upstream that kind of stuff Y and I believe sorry go ahead do we need this on the agenda for the next meeting or do can we go directly to uh the Conservation Commission you wanted to come back to this committee no I I I I would say let me clean it up then let's just use it even if there's one or two points that aren't done great uh I've been told that lamp Ray um spawning and migrating swirling around um is is based on day length not on temperature or any other things and so Brian Yellen says show up at gra Park about two-thirds of the way up the trail on June 1st and you will see lots of swirling about of lamp R um reproducing we saw them at the fishway yesterday how did you get into the fishway the inter Turners that's open to the oh I was the Ho one is closed but anyway I have to go you so you went to Turner Falls yes yeah on fish migration day they had a thing at manhan Dam I think that's eastampton okay so um we have some time I would I'm delighted that we're going to have something to come to the commission uh and I'm happy to bring one item it's a big one but we also have forestry and there's a handful of other things I need to figure out what to do with Community Gardens because we actually don't have closure on that we have what we wrote we have what they put up on on the web and I'm happy to just adopt what they have on the web it seems easier um but we don't have and I never did get any comments from Stephany so I have the markups from our meeting I just haven't had a chance to like go in and um do the sort of track changes to the document you sent Alex but I'll I will do that and it's very simple I mean like two very minor modifications but other than that I think it was just like inserting a link and then the only other thing was um I think and it was kind of a back and forth on the fees but they're handling it as a donation because I guess it became a really tough thing to call it a fee um some people could couldn't pay it um some people sent checks and they bounced and like it turned into like a kind of a major administrative hassle for and Dave Dave also said there's different sets of rules for for the two each Garden has a different set of rules which right makes it even more complicated right it would be it would be nice if there was one set of rules and and a place to post them there is a place at amethyst Brook is now also a ke at um at the other place so at Fort River so there's a place to post them so we got a little bit of work to do to just pull that together and I I would prefer to have one set of rules I have no idea what the differences are between name with this Brook and uh Fort River yeah I think it's I think it'll be more clear once um I mark up your document but it's it's pretty straightforward I think it's just all the rules apply for amethyst that are sort of in our standard rules and then at Fort River Farm they have sort of a a very unique um system that they use there and so it's just a link linking them to that so that people understand yep more and um Dave is working on the water problem in the in the U parking area so that's a that's a whole separate thing which doesn't have anything to do with our policy it's just a a problem that he's working on so I I'm happy to go forward with the agriculture but at the same time I want to line up what comes next once they grapple with that and give it back to us then we can hand them another set and um and move this along I our anniversary isn't that far away I thought we'd be done in October you can laugh and say yeah but I've been down this road before so um I'm happy to give time back I don't have anything else except uh when we meet next um Dave Bruce has I think there's a time when he's totally available again and I don't have that on the top of my head but um I think we have some dates for next time next couple of meetings and I don't have them in my calendar correctly or at least I'm not sure I have them correct Aaron's the one who took what Bruce had available and did something maybe if she doesn't have it now she could just send it out to us to confirm yeah so the there was some dates that you had forwarded to me Alex um that worked for yeah they were part of my email yeah so if you want to catch up on that after the call that's great yeah I have it but there was I was on at 11:30 because that's what I had in my calendar Bruce wasn't quite sure when this meeting started today um oh I see that was an error on my part I just kicked it to the next meeting and you guys wanted to bump it up to an earlier start I couldn't have done it earlier anyways but um yeah so we' got the 11th 18th 25th um yeah those those sound fine to me yeah they they fall um the the um a couple of those are the day before concom meetings which um well I think I think we fairly quickly get out of that awkward situation it's back to the way you wanted it oh every other week um so that's every week then for if we did that June 11th 18th and 25th we'd be meeting once a week instead of twice a month is that what was that just throwing out a bunch of dates for potential or do we want to meet once a week for those three weeks to try to make nice to get caught up if people could do it but um uh with this agriculture thing going to the commission maybe we can move along on some of the other ones and get back to a more normal schedule and would those all be 11:30 to 12:30 um on those days uh I don't know quite when Bruce is done with his fish survey I think uh that's in his email he says after such and such a date I'm free I think it just said jly we get our schedule back on track after July 1 okay yeah okay and uh he's made a request before on whether or not we can lengthen this meeting so we can get more done and most of that hinges on Michelle's lunch not exactly my lunch but more my job um um I mean if we did that I'd like to have sort of a a special um focus that you know like we are going to get through this today and talk about it um just so and I can't do it every week but if if if it's warranted that we're going to you know get deep into a discussion on a particular policy and then yeah I'm up for that deeper than we get or well like once we have something that you know we have edits from several people and we're going to Hash it out that kind of thing you know not um yeah I can't I can't commit to an hour and a half every week every meeting but um in some circumstances it might be warranted so if we have like an upcoming you know whatever we want to cover this and we think it's going to be an hour and a half we could put that out and say hey June 15th we think we need you for an hour and a half and you could kind of give us a thumbs up or or down yeah okay that would sounds good Alex can kind of have have a beat on that so you don't take two hour lunches every day Michelle not quite lucky to get lunch okay um I'm not quite sure how we proceed do we so I hear you know an hour and a half every once in a while on announcement or schedule an hour and a half and eliminate one when we don't have uh enough meat to chew on could could I make a suggestion could we um look at the charge really quickly and look at the if we're going to do three dates in June 11th 18th and 25th maybe we could try to say on xday we'll talk about this on xday we'll talk about that and then that might dictate how long the meeting would need to be on that date yeah I don't think we've got something as complex as agriculture the other policies that I think I'm hoping are a lot easier and Bruce has done a terrific job but it's taken us close to what three months to get through it yeah it's yeah there's a lot there um so we've got agriculture um sort of crossed off which is number three I know we had some climate resiliency recommendations and then the mowing schedule regime for early successional habitat I've been doing some stuff behind the scenes on this um so I have some land use maps which show um there's there's some sets of maps that show um the existing land use and also sort of biomap and HP layers that potentially could be taken into consideration and then also I did a analysis to determine what are major l and use categories are so like deciduous forest um uh um evergreen forest you know open field Etc so we'd have some sort of like larger statistical numbers to look at when we have that conversation so those are a couple pieces of information that I've prepped for those two items um I know we did talk about conservation rules and regulations already I think we made a pass or two through that and we may have gotten hung up on a few things I think forestry was done wasn't it y um so forestry is done um invasive species management I think this one was the one that we got hung up on that we need to come back to which is a larger discussion we never started it we put it off oh we did okay well we we need to tackle it but um yeah it's maybe maybe number seven is a is a long is a long meeting once we've done a little yeah well each one of those could probably be a meeting I don't know about camping maybe camping's easy but dogs is a is a pretty good size [Music] issue I think DAV has commented on that are you sure you want to open that can of worms well we're we're just opening it here with us right now and maybe we open it and then close it quickly again and say no well the other the other piece of information that would be really useful for the dog discussion is that we just got our all of the results back on our open space and Recreation plan survey which kind of quantifies in um like uh with you know graphs of what the respondent said about idea you particular uses and I know dogs there was specific questions about dogs on a couple of those so that might be a place that we could also you know a piece of information we could utilize um to make decisions or you know at least have conversations they have written up some stuff on beavers Michelle sent out a fact sheet on dogs um I don't I don't think we have anything we've had a discussion about camping it used to be allowed then it wasn't um we've began a discussion about hunting we keep bumping into signage as an issue but uh anyways there's on those issues we could probably fill an hour and a half can we couch seven and eight perhaps I don't what else is compatible Recreation uses does it so this was a um another sort of can of worms discussion which we've never even really come back to but um you know part of what stemmed this whole discussion was um a a camp a which was a um a after school Camp which started at amethyst Brook um and it you know preco it was like an after school type program where kids came for an hour or two to use amethyst Brook for this after school camp program during covid it sort of morphed into a full day program and that was um unbeknownst to the conservation commissioner of the town at the time um and uh it was just a larger discussion about sort of um I guess other potential like besides agriculture there are other potential passive uses of the land which may come up in the future and that we may want to have a conversation about those in advance because if they do then we'll have the policy to lean on so if like somebody came to us and there was another situation where um uh a a private wanted to charge a fee to to lead groups like on Sweet Alice for example and charge a nominal fee and um yeah can I jump in Aon I I think yeah no that could be an interesting conversation um you know in my mind the question is you know do we come up with policy for everything under the sun I can think of you know rubber duck races weddings um you know um what do you call them cross country races all these things that have come up through the years or do we handle those um one one by one when they come through the um you know the the application for use of conservation land and and again you know I'm open to having that conversation but I I agree with you there's a lot of things that could come through that door if we if and they do they they come to us and say hey can we do this or can we do that um um on number seven I would also say camping could be a shorter conversation I I don't know I don't see that as being as long as say beavers dogs and hunting and frankly I think beavers could be a short conversation if we get some agreement around you know kind of what are the threats to Public Safety and and trails so anyway I don't mean to get into the details now but well what I put together for beavers has more to do with the bases under the law and delegation under that law and I don't get into what you just mentioned Dave so can I just request that um as far as how the order that we do this um one two and six to me could be sort of a continuous convers because they'll have lots of overlap so that when we do discuss them maybe we could discuss them in sequence could I suggest that we do one two and six and have an hour and a half session on the 18th and then potentially do seven and eight and have an hour and a half session if needed on the 25th if that works for Michelle um you with regard to number two I don't think we are going to come up with a schedule we would be looking to um the town you folks to come up with a schedule and Bruce has this in his email that he just sent out as one of the questions I think that's why in my mind one and two are related because I maybe number two wasn't worded exactly right but it's pretty easy to come up with a schedule based on on Grassland bird migration and Butterfly you know activity and and and blooming of various you know plants and and and flowers and whatnot but one and two in my mind are related to kind of how how much why are we mowing these areas why are we keeping them in early successional habitat and based on the maps that Aaron has put together we should look at those more closely because I think a lot of them are just historical uh U you know they're they're just the history of these being Farm fields and they're kept open for a pastoral setting or whatever but you know is is that small field is that 3 and a half ACR field off a strong Street really that important for early successional habitat I don't know I think it's a good question yeah I was thinking just what everybody said not necessarily the schedule but maybe identifying the sites that are priority for the Mowing and ones that are not you know that has practical practicalities with um the land managers but also yeah what Dave said like what where's the habitat quality habitat being provided that should be maintained absolutely and some that maybe don't need to be because Mowing and you know that's a lot of emissions just to mow with those big mowers and that can tie into the climate change so um just anyway that's how I was thinking about it no I agree and I think the work that Erin has done will really shed some light for all of us on you know biomap and and you know all of the natural heritage layers and kind of say oh why you know should we be mowing um you know Atkins flats or or Haskins Meadow or wherever you know yeah I mean I sort of had envisioned too that we might consider like time of year restrictions for mowing on certain properties particularly like if there's a a specific endangered species that we're aware of that might be active during a given season um that we would say this specific property because of this specific reason maybe no mowing between the state and this state um typ yeah Erin before we have this meeting are do you think you'd be ready to distribute that map to us just so yeah I have them I have them ready now I have everything ready to share I just didn't want to like be too pushy um when we're on other sections and not ready to go to it yet great thanks for putting that together um I'm not sure I can do an hour and a half on the 25th but I can on the what was the 18th okay sure but you guys can go for it but I can be there for an hour should I post it for an hour and a half and then we'll just if we finish early we'll finish early okay sure okay yeah I would do that then it was on people's calendars okay and then Michelle put together some mapping type stuff a table and if if we're going to be looking at aon's Maps maybe we see if what Michelle provided is useful it's exciting to actually look at that list I hadn't looked at that list for a long time and say okay we completed this section we completed we're close on this section you know and we're check them off tick tick tick and we'll get there we've made a ton of progress It's just like we get hung up on stuff you know for a lot of lot of meetings get cancelled but I would love to be done before anniversary what's that what's our anniversary yeah call it end of July oh um June 31st 2024 think that's a worthy goal June 30th 2024 but if we needed to extend if we can't you know if we if we end up feeling like we're this is too tight of a timetable we can always extend the subcommittee for a period of time to wrap up sections sure yeah just don't give us too much extra time we'll use it or we'll take it all right good is that all we have for today Alex I think so yeah and then so for the meeting on the 11th what would you like to cover at that meeting specifically Alex just because I've got the agenda for the 18th and the 25th if we go on this discussion you can you bring up sure so I have number one two and six to be discussed on the 18th seven and8 to be discussed on the 25th um so that would leave four that would leave four so the uh rule um conservation land rules and regulations I think is the only other remaining one yeah so what we could do is is bring up the stuff we worked on uh what do we do there with four we we've already marked things that are complete yeah yes um so we look at the other parts of the document is that what that would amount to um I think we started marking it up and we just need to revisit where we let pick up where we left off on that so we would be looking at everything except Agriculture and except forestry and except Community [Music] Gardens okay but invasive management that's that's a topic all these are topics in the plan um BR Bruce brought up some that aren't really on this list that I think we could discuss at least for a portion of the meeting yeah I think it would it would be you know Bruce's comments or questions weren't specific to anyone's subject they were General and um like assessing when do we visit conservation land he had one on there yeah so maybe we could put that his questions also on the agenda for next time okay so we're prompt in addressing them and try and be try and be succinct okay I can do that all right well it sounds like we got a plan and I'll um I'll go through the document and try and get a sense of what we've done and what we need to do and that kind of stuff um and and you're tell me what date we were going to deal with beavers and other subjects um that would be the 25th of June okay so that's beavers dogs and whatever the other mission statement is and then what was the 11th um the 11th will be the conservation land and rules and regulations and then discussion of Bruce's questions yeah I'm going to send I'm going to spend the entire week prior to that that'll be next week in Canada and my time my focus will be on other things so I may not have time to prepare as well as I might for that and I'm I'm pretty busy this week preparing for next week so um we'll do what we can unless we can slip something in there that's easier but doesn't require uh as much preparation let me spend some time on it this week and I'll talk to Aaron sounds good I will be able to attend the Conservation Commission meeting next week from Canada thanks Alex are you working on H Dam other Dam projects up there Alex we are holding an indigenous ceremony to celebrate the healing of the river the daylighting of a set of Falls which is like a glass do rid where they gather to to fish in the spring prior to contact and um let's see celebrate the healing of the river recovery of Salmon Falls oh and to welcome home the fish and we'll have drumming and dancing prayers and a thing called the water ceremony which we're going to only have it for a half hour a water ceremony can go on for a whole day wow we've got and which which river is this again St Croy River St Croy it is the border between Maine and New Brunswick up around callus sounds great so it has the largest potential in North America for raising Herring it should be up around somewhere between 40 and 80 million spawners so when we talk about you know hering not doing well at on the Connecticut River the water's still cold enough up there we have the potential for that and there's a whole bay associated with the S Cy is like a food spet like a water spet only it's a food spet so trillions of juvenile Herring will come out of that River to feed the Fisheries in the bay right now the food supply for those ground Fisheries is to prop so a lot of economies will benefit and um there's a lot of indigenous people that fish they are they are the past mades that live there are a fish community and um so restoring the river fits with my agency's mission that's that's sort of getting the animous fish back up into the river but also the giving back some of their culture by opening up the river that was all damned up in the 1800s seriously polluted it was so polluted a salmon fry couldn't live in the water and now it's the Clean Water Act has done a lot to clean it up but now we freed up nine miles of river to the next Dam and we're putting in a lot of money a lot of um um infrastructure dollars from Congress are going in it was Maine's number one place to spend infrastructure dollars was to improve the fish passage on that River so and Noah is one of the major funders sounds like a sounds like a very cool project oh it's a very cool project puts a bounce in my stuff yeah I mean it's not the puffer spawn Dam don't get me wrong but it's it's big yeah it is big and so it has biological benefits it has indigenous benefits it's it's um it's it's um it's doesn't happen every place it's really wonderful yeah no that sounds like a once in a-lifetime project that sounds we had a discussion with them on whether or not they wanted the ceremony to be what I called big or small and they wanted it small meaning for us so there's a few people from outside their Community who are invited that help make it all happen but they didn't go to US senators and congressman and governors and agency heads and all that kind of stuff they it's for them it sounds better actually instead of all the proclamations and suits and you know all that stuff yeah yeah so I put together the agenda I'll be mcing the event and um it'll be fun they're going to they're going to serve lobster roles and and so they're buying the lobster from indigenous lobstermen and their whole staff is going to spend Monday chucking the lobsters and preparing the lobster salad to go in the rolls great they did they wanted to do it themselves instead of hiring a caterer well if my wife knew about this she would be there because my wife Maria is all about lobster rolls I am not a lobster guy but she loves it so well lobsters are going their own way Rhode Island has pretty much lob lost its Lobster industry um and that area up around Bay aundi P MCA Bay is down about a third so they are being hit by the warming of the ocean and the lion fish and blue crab yeah good well thanks for the update that sounds exciting and enjoy the fruits of your and many other people's labors that's that's a pretty pretty cool project yeah so hopefully it's the beginning of one thing and the end of another and for me it's the end of I think I retired five seven years ago so I've pretty much worked on that project for during my retirement without pay and uh my workload will lessen once this event is over I've still got some things to do but uh time to free up some some of my time to do other things sounds good well I've got a run um hope everybody hope everybody has a great week and we'll see you all soon I need to ask if there's any public on oh right I forgot about that no public okay so we're going to close this meeting at 1258 if that's okay with Michelle yep sounds good okay Dave and eron okay thank you all all right with you bye bye bye bye now