MEETING MINUTES

Wednesday, December 2, 2020

Meeting Held Through Email Due to Coronavirus Restrictions

Attendees:

Gabrielle Oldham Dori Murphy

Ron Anderson Kathie Jarmon

Michael Morgan Tom Frederick

John Bennett

Treasurer’s Report:

Members discussed funding and future expenditures.

Update on Big Tree Program:

John reported:

--Sadly two county champion trees have been removed. BT-1829, pitch pine was reported by Dori to have died. It was subsequently removed by the owner. Cecil County currently has no county champion. BT-2321, the eastern red cedar at the Arboretum, lost a branch. An inspection revealed interior rot so Shawn decided to remove it. BT-1498 then became the county champion but the owners told me that tree has also been damaged. I am planning to stop by to see the extent of the damage. Kathie, Dori and I are scheduled to visit Rosebank Cemetery on 12/5 to evaluate and measure one or two potential new county champions.

--As reported above, we are scheduled to re-measure the remaining 6 trees for 2020 on 12/5. We all will be driving separately as a precaution against COVID.

--At our January, 2020, Board meeting, we decided to not re-measure 6 trees for various reasons. I can send you the report from January if you want to refresh your memory. Today I moved all 6 from the Active file to the Inactive file. I did so a month early as I may have knee surgery in December.

--Again because of possible knee surgery, I’ve looked at the trees needing re-measurement in 2021. We have 12 on the list—somewhat fewer than last year.

Bigtree2
ID#	E_NAME	L_NAME	O_NAME	O_ADDRESS
BT-2299	Silver maple	Acer saccharinum	Eder Park Association, c/o Mary Sue Slagle	131 Childs Road, Elkton
BT-2320	Virginia pine	Pinus virginiana	Gerritt and Jane Hopman	906 Old Elk Neck Road, Elkton
BT-2322	Mockernut hickory	Carya tomentosa	Cecil College	One Seahawk Drive, North East
BT-2323	Yellow poplar	Liriodendren tulipifera	Cecil College	One Seahawk Drive, North East
BT-2324A	Northern red oak	Quercus rubra	Cecil College	One Seahawk Drive, North East
BT-2241	Eastern cottonwood	Populus deltoides	Town of Elkton, Parks & Recreation Department	P. O. Box 157, Municipal Building, 100 Railroad Avenue
BT-1672	Silver maple	Acer saccharinum	Florence Palmer	884 Barnes Corner Road, Rising Sun
BT-2262	Flowering dogwood	Cornus florida	Carleton and Avis Brown	562 Maryland Avenue, Perryville
BT-2263	Saucer magnolia	Magnolia x soulangiana	Carleton and Avis Brown	562 Maryland Avenue, Perryville
BT-2264	American basswood	Tilia americana	Rick and Julie Waterhouse	1191 Calvert Road, Rising Sun
BT-2265	American holly	Ilex opaca	Katherine E. Wein	P. O. Box 3, 1281 Cedar Corner Road, Perryville
BT-2266	Norway maple	Acer platanoides	Dave and Sandra Wherry	16 Cedar Farm Lane, Rising Sun

It is not clear who owns Eder Park. As you can see, it used to be owned by the Eder Park Association. There is no listing on line that I could find for Eder Park Association. The Town of Elkton web site does not list Eder Park as belonging to them. I would vote for re-measuring the silver maple and not worrying about who owns it.

BT-2320, Virginia Pine – According to MD SDAT, the Hopmans still live on site. The tree easily qualifies. I vote to re-measure.

Cecil College trees – No permission needed. I vote to re-measure. I believe the northern red oak may be dead.

BT-2241, eastern cottonwood – No permission needed. I vote to re-measure.

BT-1672, silver maple – new owners, tree was at 323 points which qualifies. I can see it from the road, so I’ll make a visual inspection before recommending.

BT-2263 &64 – Carleton and Avis are both deceased. Their daughter and son-in-law own the property, which is a rental. They live in Chestertown. I suggest Kathie, Dori and I stop by on 12/5 to make a visual inspection—both can be seen from the road.

BT-2264 – Same owners. We may be able to see the tree from the road—I’ll try.

BT-2265 – New owners. Tree cannot be seen from the road. I vote to mail out a permission form and see what happens.

BT-2266 – Same owners, but they no longer live on site, but are in Cecil County. I assume the farm is now rented out. The tree cannot be seen from the road. I vote to mail a permission form and see what happens.

State-wide, got this email: “Yippee!!!!  

The DNR Facebook post #FromtheTreeTop on November 10th had an unbelievably positive response from the public.  The topic is Big Tree Program and it had 191 likes and 34 shares!!!!!

Folks shared their own big tree stories and some even provided measurements on their big trees.   Very enthusiastic crowd !!   Maybe future volunteers ??

Can someone from the program check out the website as a few of the comments had questions on the Big Tree program?

Thanks Again Congratulations!!!!

Natural Resources Career Conference (NRCC) Update:

No update. Hoping that the COVID vaccines will be available by NRCC week.

Website Update:

Ron reported that he:

Removed the pitch pine and red cedar county champions from the website county champion trees page, and will insert the new Cecil County Champion Red Cedar (BT-1498) when John certifies it is still alive and available.

Updated agenda page for the December meeting, and inserted minutes from the November meeting.

New Business:

The Board voted 4-0 to not order the 2500 White Pine seedlings for next Spring. There were just too many “ifs” because of COVID. If you remember last year, all in person events were cancelled and the County could not give them away in the schools. And we had to pay for the seedlings anyway.

Michael reported that Carol Wolle, wife of longtime boardmember Larry Wolle(deceased), passed away recently. Carol was a very nice person and assisted with some Board activities such as the display at the North East Water Festival.

Tom reported:

The Salvage Harvest at ENSP is progressing intermittently but is going pretty well.  The logger has completed the Mauldin Mtn area which encompasses about 30-35% of the harvest. It was hopefully the most challenging part of the harvest due to some steep slopes and some wet soils in areas. Typical Elk Neck. Even the skidder was stuck a couple times. But the logger is doing a good job of rehabbing the site.   

Frank Lopez from Harford County(my supervisor) will be retiring as of January 1st.

There has been one Sediment & Erosion Control Plan approved since October 1^st on 4 acres. I called the phone number on the Plan expecting to reach the logger, but talked to a timber broker from PA (who was not happy with the new process). He said that the harvest was occurring that Friday or Saturday. I informed him that I would not be able to be there those days, but that I would look at it the following week. Rob Feldt(Central Regional Forester) and I went to the site the next week and the harvest had not been started yet. So when I get a chance I will need to chase that down.

Next Meeting: January 6, 2021