MINUTES of Meeting 24 October 2007
Members present: Bob Cook, Frank Dobek, Dave Read, Glenn Collins, Sue Haley
Members absent: Sue Horton
Staff: Rachel Hutchinson, Henry Lind
Steve Gulrich attended and showed interest in becoming a member of the committee. There is at least one vacancy.
A motion to approve the minutes from 8/29/07 was made by Mr. Collins and seconded by Mr. Read. Approved by all.
The “history of Wiley Park” wayside has been installed. Ms. Hutchinson may consider requesting help from Americorps to install the rest.
The Fire Management Plan was approved by the county and is currently being reviewed by Ms. Vanderhoef. Ms. Hutchinson asked David Crary, Fire Management Officer for Cape Cod National Seashore, to do a walk around Wiley and Nickerson and provide some advice on vegetation removal. The purchase of a wood chipper is going out to bid. This will allow for onsite cleanup of most of the tree debris. Large debris will have to be taken to the town tub grinder in North Eastham.
Mr. Lind met with the Wiley Park bridge contractor and walked around the site. Work is expected to start within the month and the major work is expected to take less than a month. The staging area for equipment will be the pull-off at the herring run. Very minimal trimming will take place along the path to get equipment to the work site. Joe Beyankie, the bridge designer, was at the meeting as well and indicated he will be onsite regularly to provide some oversight.
Ms. Hutchinson surveyed all park sites and presented a priority work plan for each. Per item on increasing benches at various sites on trails, Ms. Haley brought up a point made at previous discussions at 1651 Advisory Committee meetings about donor benches and the need to have a plan in place for them. Some work was done on this and Ms. Haley will track down that guidance. Mr. Cook asked for clarification on the item for cleaning up dead and downed debris, and emphasized the need to maintain natural appearance rather than to open up the understory. Clarification was that it was not a general practice to clean up debris, but that this effort was backlog work from the December 2005 storm, and a result of Fire Management Plan guidance. Dave Crary’s advice on “ladder fuels” will help determine the extent of some of the
clearing.
Many social trails lead off of main trails and need to be addressed. The committee looked at maps that show all trails (formal and social), and agree that efforts toward minimizing these social trails need to take place. Mr. Cook noted that any path through habitat represents a disturbance to wildlife. Ms. Haley suggested some onsite meetings at trails. It was decided that members would take preliminary walks on their own before next meeting. There is increasing disturbance of shoreline at Wiley and Bridge ponds. It’s assumed that it is fisherman and swimmers looking for more remote sites and entering from the herring run pull off. This needs to be addressed as well. These last two items were added to the work list. Clearing the view shed at Cottontail Acres as dictated by the covenant was added to the list as well.
Mr. Lind also reminded the committee that the Walter’s property, which the town purchased a few years ago, will need to get on the work plan for next year to discuss how it should be managed.
Next meeting was set for November 28th 2007 at 7:00pm at Town Hall. A motion was made to adjourn the meeting by Ms. Haley and seconded by Mr. Read. All approved.
Respectfully submitted by:
Sue Haley
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