MEETING MINUTES
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:
Tom submitted treasurer’s report and all members reviewed current funding and possible future requirements.
Lapp Forest Retention Area Timber Harvest Plan:
The Board voted on January 29, 2021 on the Lapp Forest
Retention Area Timber Harvest Plan dated January 6, 2021. The Board voted 5-0 to approve the plan. Tom will send out notifications to the
appropriate people and agencies.
Update on Big Tree Program:
John reported:
I
was able to mail all 6 permission forms for Cecil County tree re-measurement in
late January. I spoke with two of the
owners by phone to confirm that their trees are still alive. The owner of the basswood reports that
Heartwood Landscaping had recently done some crown work, so that the crown
spread may be reduced. The other owners
are all new, and therefore may not know they have registered Maryland big
trees. I included a data sheet with a
photo in those mailings.
Dori
has agreed to visit Cecil College to see if she can find the three trees on the
nature trail needed re-measurement. They
are a mockernut hickory, yellow poplar and northern red oak. If she finds them alive, she will need some
volunteers to help her re-measure, as it will be a while before I’m able to
hike such a tricky trail.
At
the State-wide level, Joli reports the new website
has been transferred to a new host. Once
the new host accepts the data, the new site will be operational. We will be notified when that happens.
Also at the State level, I have sent
emails and lists of trees needing re-measurement to all 24 FB Secretaries and
Chairs. The response has been
gratifying—22 of 24 have responded in a positive manner. In fact, DNR Forester Scott Daniels has
already re-measured the one tree in Dorchester County, so that county is now
done for 2021.
DNR
Forester Mark Muir has reached out to one owner in St. Mary’s County.
Joli has mailed 8 permission letters to
owners in Anne Arundel (7 have already been returned) and 7 in Montgomery (4
have been returned).
Jim
Sherring has been driving around Harford County
checking on trees needing re-measuring. Sadly he has found two gone.
Jim
Bardsley with Agnes Kedmenecz
measured a newly nominated American beech in Talbot County. Agnes is one of our newer volunteers; she
works for the U. of M. Cooperative Extension Service as a forestry outreach
person; she is based In Talbot.
Geary
Schwemmer continues to investigate big trees from
1999 measured by the now-retired DNR Forest Technician Beth Sanders. Beth measured dozens of big trees in Carroll
County in 1999, but when the data base was transferred to me in 2006, the
owners’ information was wiped clean. Geary
is working with DNR Forester Donna Davis using Donna’s old paper records to try
to locate these trees. He has found one
still alive, and confirmed the death of two more.
New
volunteer Matt Voitheimer has been invited to attend
the upcoming virtual Allegany County FB to report on his measuring efforts
along the C & O Canal towpath, and (hopefully) encourage Board members to
get involved.
Natural Resources Career Conference (NRCC) Update:
We have begun accepting applications. So far I think we have 4. Payments will not be due until later, maybe April. That way if Camp is canceled Dawn won’t need to write refund checks.
This morning I sent a Safety Plan to Dawn, if she doesn’t see any glaring omissions, it will go to the Education Committee. We have a Zoom meeting this Monday. I hope any questions about the plan will be answered before Monday. Once it has been approved it will be sent to Ken Jolly.
Currently, under DNR guidelines, employees can’t work with a group over 10 people. This means our DNR speakers can’t come to Camp. If Ken likes what he sees in the report, he will start a conversation in DNR to see if our speakers can be cleared to appear at Camp.
We have a lot of issues to work through. We haven’t gotten any information from Hickory or Garrett County Board of Education. If they allow programs at Hickory this summer we still have a lot of details to work out.
I would like to have all campers and staff tested a few days before we start. I’d like to give everyone a rapid test upon arrival. (I’m hoping the tests have improved by July).
Mask wearing, hand washing, use of hand sanitizer, and physical distancing will all be standard procedures for the week. Many activities currently taking place in the dining hall and planetarium will need to be moved outside. Most of them involve PowerPoint programs. So that has to be figured out.
The Management Plan presentations the students do in front of families will need to be moved to Northern Middle School where we can physically distance families from each other. Of course, that involves moving all the luggage to Northern.
This is a very brief summary of what is in the Safety Plan, which is not complete since there are still many unknowns at this point.
If anyone is interested in reading it let me know and I’ll send it to you. It’s 6½ pages.
Website Update:
Ron reported that he updated the website as follows:
No Cecil County Champion Tree
changes during the month.
Minutes added for January, 2021.
New agenda installed for February,
2021.
No other changes to the website.
New Business:
Tom reported:
The ENSP harvest is going very slow
because of poor/wet soil conditions.
E & S Plan reviews are slowly coming
in. I am going to try to do my first final review today on a small
one.
There have been 3 E & S Plans
submitted and logged in for Cecil County so far.
Next Meeting: March 3, 2021