April 4 Meeting Notes for Chapter and Board Meeting

April 4 Meeting Notes for Chapter and Board Meeting,

President: Fred Jennings (FJ)

Recording Secretary: Peter Vandermeulen (PV)

Attendees: Fred Boland, Joe Borsetti, Ed Garner, James Goodhart, Fred Jennings, Ben Meade, Greg Murrer, Jack O’Mara, Mike O’Neill, Josh Rownd, Josh Spoonhour, Clarke Thompson, Bob Torkildsen, Peter Vandermeulen, Chett Walsh, David Walsh, Ken Washburn

Business and Board Meeting

President calls the meeting to order at 7:30pm. Recording secretary is Peter Vandermeulen.

The meeting minutes from January 11 and February 1 are distributed and after motion duly made accepted unanimously. (No meeting notes from Mar 7 meeting since that was at Orvis Peabody).

Future meetings were discussed and should be as follows:

May 2 Chart Night.

The chapter made about $10k in income with the banquet and there is an expectation of about $900 more coming in. The safari trip raised $2k after the banquet of which $1k will go to the chapter. FJ will set up an online auction to see if there are others interested in bidding on this.

Treasurer’s report: no update.

Meetings/meals committee: need to start identifying speakers for next year.

Conservation report (Chett Walsh):

Ipswich River Mapping: Ben Meade will take the lead on mapping with IRWA and call meeting to brainstorm this project.

Willowdale Dam: will get an Alaska Fish Passage fishladder on the Foote brother’s side in 2017 (opposite the one we are maintaining). Discussion ensues whether Alaska Fish Passage works for trout. Some think it does not… Ben Gahagan at MA DMF might know. Looking for volunteers this Saturday to put in the boards and clean our fish ladder. Also looking for help from IRWA in regularly checking flow and adjusting if needed.

Gravely Brook in Willowdale Forest: The paths are being upgraded and need new culverts in partnership with the Essex Trails Association. More details to follow.

Jewell Mill Dam: NETU will not be allowed to run a bucket brigade for herring migration. Again we are being told that water quality is bad upstream. Maybe get reporters from Ipswich up there when fish start bunching up at the dam and birds start picking them off.

Middleton Road: Proceeding slowly with plans for a new culvert. Budget of $380k submitted. Big project. FEMA might contribute 75% for the grant but it is competitive. Problem came up that a gasline is in the way, so that needs to be dealt with in the design.

Larkin dam: This dam will hopefully be removed in late 2016. The fish ladder there is not functional except in very high water and no fish passage is possible at other times. This project is being worked on with NOAA. There are questions about a possible risk to the route 95 crossing due to concerns that the bridge foundation may shift once the Larkin Dam is removed.

Potter Brook: no update.

Pipeline: Mass Audubon donated 3800 acres of state forest under article 97 of the Mass constitution. This is a mechanism to donate to a public trust which becomes conservation property forever. Any withdrawal of such conservation status requires a 2/3rd vote of the state legislature. Another pipeline is planned to run through 2o acres of old growth Otis State Forest. FERC has authority and could take land under the Federal preemption clause of the U.S. Constitution. However that raises a question whether a Federal Agency can override a state constitution. TGP has tried to get this through a judge but is getting a lot of opposition.

Other Activities:

Crane Pond paddle? Not planned at the moment.

Indian Hollow is May 20 through 23.

Concord Outfitters sponsors Assabet River stocking and children’s education program. Would we contribute $200 to the education program? After a motion duly made and seconded and no further discussion the motion carried unanimously and was approved.

There will be an IRWA Paddle-a-Thon on June 18 which is IRWAs fundraiser. Would we contribute $500 to that? IRWA obviously lets us use the space and has been highly supportive of NETU. After a motion duly made and seconded, and no further discussion the motion carried unanimously and was approved.

President adjourns the meeting at 9:30pm.

Signed Peter Vandermeulen, Secretary.