Town of Old Lyme Open Space Committee Special Meeting
Old Lyme Town Hall
Minutes: May 7, 2010
Chairman Diana Atwood Johnson opened the special meeting at 09:35 am with OSC members Bruce Baratz, Peter Cable, Bill Dunbar, Ted Kiritsis and OLCT liaison Christina Clayton in attendance. Also in attendance were Jane Cable, Zoning Commission Chairman, and Connecticut Audubon Society officials Milan Bull, Senior Director of Science and Conservation, and Dr. Twan Leenders, Conservation Biologist, to discuss the Audubon Society classification and surveys of bird habitats, and its relationship with open space and its potential impact on open space designation.
Habitat Inventory discussion with Connecticut Audubon Society representatives
Diana began the meeting by reviewing OSC activities and summarizing current open space in the Town and the agenda for adding to existing open space.
In terms of designation of open space land from the perspective of bird habitat, Milan Bull and Twan Leenders described the importance of bird surveys to establish prioritization of areas protected for wildlife. They discussed the need for a methodology for specifying land in specific habitat categories. Diana mentioned and described potential large area tracts of Town interest, such as the Geer property, the Kus property and the Four Ponds development land, and inquired about the value of smaller parcels. Milan Bull answered that large parcels are generally more valuable, but spoke of exceptions where smaller parcels constitute special microhabitats.
Milan Bull discussed the general uses of open space, and promoted the idea of designating important habitat areas as wildlife sanctuaries, to protect them from the unintended deleterious (to wildlife) consequence of “low impact” use by people and their pets. This suggestion to establish Biological Conservation Units (BCU) was discussed positively by the Committee as a potential new designation category for open space in Old Lyme.
Milan Bull and Twan Leenders described bird surveys that the Audubon Society has conducted a number of times for the State and for the Corp of Engineers. These services could be useful for the Town, and would consist of two types of survey: (1) surveys of land owned by the Town; and (2) surveys of all land in the Town to establish an overview of habitat for prioritization of land preservation strategy. They noted that obvious key areas for Old Lyme are its salt marshes, nut noted also the importance of inland wetland areas, as well. It was agreed that a two pronged approach, incorporating, first, an Audubon-type habitat classification of Town land, followed by an Audubon survey of species sightings in areas of prime interest would be an effective strategy.
In response to a question by Christina, it was noted that a typical complete Audubon survey is conducted during breeding season, and involves 10-minute stops on a 200-meter grid, with each survey repeated 3 times during the breeding season. The cost is essentially man-hours expended in the survey.
An overall approach was discussed that would involve OSC and OLCT making assessments of open space properties, and then calling in the Audubon Society for specific survey assistance. Finally, establish BCUs as wildlife conservation areas on certain selected lands.
At 1055, there being no additional business, the meeting was adjourned.
Respectfully submitted,
Peter Cable
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