Meeting Minutes

Wednesday September 7, 2022

6PM @ Black Hill Ranger Station

 

Attendees:

Gabrielle Oldham             Michael Morgan                               Katie Kranich

John Bennett                     Ron Anderson                                   Kathie Jarmon

Matt Spiroff                        Tom Frederick                                   Calvin Bonenberger

 

Gabrielle brought the meeting to order at 6:10PM.   

The July minutes were reviewed and approved.

There were no minutes from August to review.

Treasurer’s report

1)      The Cecil County Forestry Board voted to approve the transfer of authorizing signatures from Rob Feldt to Matt Spiroff.

2)      John reported no other activity.

Big Tree Program Update:

John gave the county report, and details are provided below:

No trees were measured or re-measured in Cecil County.  Statewide only 3 trees were measured in July—2 in Montgomery County and one in Baltimore City. The new eastern hophornbeam in Montgomery became the new county champion.

 

August got busy again with 26 trees either re-measured or measured. 13 new trees were measured at the Clyburn Arboretum in Baltimore City by Fred Chalfant and Amanda Cunningham. Fred is now working for the Baltimore City Division of Forestry and is in charge of the big tree program for the City. He and Amanda are updating the inventory at Clyburn, which is now part of the Division of Forestry. Five of the 13 are new State Champions: Scots pine, Smooth sumac, Western redcedar, Japanese black pine, Port-orford cedar. The latter is believed to be the largest example on the East Coast, surpassing the well-known example at the Morton Arboretum.

 

Joli McCathran and Joe Howard of Montgomery County re-measured the registered trees at the mansion previously owned by David Fairchild, the famous botanist and plant collector from the 1920’s and 30’s. These include the Nikko maple, Oriental (cork) oak, and a Chinese fringetree (State Champions), a Yoshino cherry and a black oak. Joli and Geary Schwemmer from Carroll County went on a working camping trip to Worcester County at Pocomoke State Park in late August. They were able to re-measure 4 trees that had we had been unable to re-measure in 2021. They were 2 yellow poplars, a southern red oak, and a willow oak. They also measured a newly nominated pecan. They also took a canoe trip to try to find a previously measured Atlantic whitecedar but were unsuccessful. They did get some leads for some new trees from the Park manager to be explored next spring. Rounding out the trees in August was a new dawn redwood in Charles County, a Norway spruce in Garrett, and a southern red oak in Montgomery—all privately owned.

 

Sadly we received word that the State co- champion American sycamore came down. It was so hollow that 5 children could fit inside the trunk. It was the second tree, after the Wye Oak, to reach in excess of 30’ in circumference in Maryland’s Big Tree history. It was privately owned, in Harford County (see photo left).

 

Figure 1, From left to right Norway spruce, American sycamore.

NRCC Update: Gabrielle gave the NRCC camp update:

·         They had a successful week at camp.

·         A storm had passed through the facility the week before camp, which damaged the fire alarm system. The camp staff had to conduct regular fire watch walks to ensure there was no fire and allow the camp activities to continue.

·         There were no Covid-19 related issues at camp, however 1 camper had a minor medical problem.

·         She read various student feedback and comments about camp and discussed camp activities and other happenings from the week.

Website Update:

Ron gave the update:

·         Ron reported that there were no minutes to publish or trees to update in August as the DNR secretary was out of state on a wildfire assignment. Also, the July meeting minutes were approved for posting to the website in September.

·         There was discussion about posting pictures and student quotes from NRCC reviews on the website.

Old Business:

·         No old business was discussed.

 New Business:

·         The board discussed the seedling giveaway. Rob Feldt had previously discussed the board giving away White oak in place of white pine seedlings. Rob has some funding available for this year’s giveaway to provide white oak seedlings.

·         The White Oak Initiative would like acorns collected from the same tree that the board had previously collected. The board discussed collecting acorns from the Calvert tree this fall. Gabrielle, Katie, and Kathie may be available to help collect.

·         St. Mary Anne’s church in North East, MD has invited Matt to a tree planting at the church this fall. The exact date and time will be forthcoming. Matt extended that invitation to the board.

·         Matt provided DNR critical area timber harvest comments to Jeff Stover of Young Forestry, LLC. The harvest plan will likely be completed prior to the next board meeting. If received prior to the meeting the board will review at the October meeting.

The meeting was adjourned approximately 9:00 PM.

The next meeting will be held on October 5th at 6PM.