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 reported on available funds.
Update on Big Tree Program:
John reported:
For
Cecil, after talking to the owner twice by phone, I recommended and the Board
agreed to move an active tree to the “Inactive” file where it can be retrieved
if the owner requests it at a later time.
Also I stopped by the property where the State
Champion Norway maple grew when last seen in 2011. The new owners did not respond to the
permission mailing so I suspected the tree was dead—it was. So we have two
county co-champions, BT- 1690 at 246 points and BT-2181 at 243 points. I’m attaching the data sheets for Ron’s
benefit for posting. Finally
Dori and I are scheduled to re-measure trees tomorrow in Cecil.
On
April 10th Dori and I drove to the Kennedyville area
of Kent County on the Sassafras River and measured 6 new trees on an
estate. Five of the six became either
Kent County Champions or co-champions.
The original nomination came from the former Sassafras Riverkeeper—glad
to have them involved.
Regarding
State-wide news, the Montgomery County folks nominated and measured an Ohio
buckeye last October which now has become the new State Champion. Jim Bardsley
requested the registration be held until spring so he could view photos of the
flowers as they are an important ID key.
This species is not native to Maryland; we previously have registered 3
Ohio buckeyes; all of which have been planted, as we assume this has as
well. The trunk is covered in English
ivy which made bark ID useless.
The
MBTP has a new active volunteer who is exploring the C & O Canal National
Historical Park area in Allegany County.
So far he has identified, measured,
photographed and submitted 17 new trees; all over 300 points and over 55” in dbh. Fourteen have
been sycamores, 2 silver maples and one yellow poplar.
The
Baltimore City Forestry Board folks (finally) got permission from Loyola
College to explore their campus. They
discovered, measured, photographed and submitted 10 new trees, including three
new State champions. They are a European
beech (not a copper or purple, but a beech with green leaves), and two Port orford cedars (AKA Lawson cedars). Loyola College published an article which was
picked up by various media outlets in Baltimore/Washington area, resulting in
some good publicity for the program.
Kathie
reported that going back to her alma mater (Loyola) 20 years after she started
at Loyola, and remembering how much the trees on campus had grown.
On
April 13th, Gerry Schwemmer (Carroll
County), Marc Lipnick (Baltimore County) and I met at
the Hammonds Ferry Park and Ride and carpooled down to Waldorf, Charles County,
to measure a newly nominated yellow poplar (433 points – see photo). We then zigzagged
back north, re-measuring trees in Anne Arundel County. We were able to get 5 trees re-measured—a
long day!
Natural Resources Career Conference (NRCC) Update:
No Update.
Website Update:
Ron reported that he updated the website as follows:
Entered new measurements for BT-2322 (Mockernut Hickory) as Cecil County Champion.
Added CFCDB Meeting Minutes from April 7, 2021.
Added Meeting Agenda for scheduled on-line meeting of May 5, 2021.
New Business:
Tom reported:
Dan Lewis has been named the new Harford/Cecil Project Manager replacing Frank Lopez. Dan will need to continue working in the Howard/Montgomery project, as they are trying to fill a previous vacancy in that project. So he will be spending a day or two a week in Harford/Cecil.
50 Backyard Buffer seedling packets were given away in Cecil County.
Next Meeting: June 2, 2021