Those present: Keith Schoonover, Tom Anderson, Lynne Marquess, Ginny Brace, Jim Arnold, Tyson Rose, Mike Kay

1. Call to order: Keith called the meeting to order. Both the October and November Minutes were approved as written.

2. Treasurer’s Report: We spent $137.50 on the recent gypsy moth informational meeting on office supplies and refreshments. We accrued $149.00 in interest during 2008 in our new account.

3. Timber Harvest Reviews: Mike has no plans for review.

4. Gypsy Moth Informational Meeting. Nearly 60 landowners showed up for the gypsy moth informational meeting held at the Frederick City library. Tom Lupp presented a Power Point on gypsy moth touching base on identification, what kind of forests were susceptible to defoliation, and what the MDA’s program was all about. Tom also had large scale maps that displayed defoliation following the 2008 season and what areas were at risk during 2009. Mike Kay and Bill Bond spoke briefly on the 2009 Private Supplemental program. Finally Tom, Bill, Alison Hegamyer, and Mike made up a panel and fielded questions from the audience. Special thanks go out to Larry Sharpe, Lynne Marquess, Ginny Brace, and Tyson Rose for showing up early to help with set up and to assist with tidying up after the meeting.

5. Nature Notes: Ginny mentioned that the newspaper has reduced the size of Nature Notes, we are now limited to 500 words with a photo, so she anticipates using 2 articles for every edition as apposed to three. Lynne wondered why the paper could not identify Ginny as being part of the in her byline and Ginny mentioned that she asked for this to be included but was turned down. Ginny may broach the subject again in the future. Finally Ginny mentioned that she is receiving regular articles from Cathy from the US Fish and Wildlife to supplement the articles she is receiving from other sources. Ginny has enough material to provide two months of articles.

6. Web Site: Tyson said that the site should be up to date and he is always looking for new content.

7. Small Woodlot management: Mike was supposed to meet in December with Terry Poole, Bryan Seipp, and Jonathan Kays to discuss a possible spring workshop but this meeting was postponed until January. As such, Mike has nothing to report.

8. Possible Outreach Activities: We spent some time brainstorming some ideas about possible outreach activities we could conduct in 2009 here are some of the ideas we came up with:

   • A Forest Management short Course in tree ID, Forest Ecology and Forest Management Practices.

   • An Urban Forestry short course in Baker Park where we would conduct tree ID, Discuss the Greenways Project, Talk about arboriculture, invasive species control etc.

   • A small woodlot management course held at selected small woodlots which would cover tree identification, invasive species control, tree planting etc.

   • A firewise program similar to the program we did as part of Forestry 101.

9. Tree Signage: Ginny distributed samples of various signage packages that are available for tree planting. We discussed the pros and cons of expensive signs vs. less costly options. Ginny is still awaiting some price quotes and she will have more concrete information at the next meeting.

10. Community Foundation: Lynne mentioned that the grant application she submitted for NRCC was declined but was encouraged to resubmit for next year.

11. Legislative Breakfast: Lynne detailed the fine work John Bennett of the Cecil County Board was doing in administering the Big Tree Program. John would like to attend the upcoming Legislative Breakfast and bring a display on Maryland’s Big Tree Program. Lynne asked the Board to help sponsor John by donating $75 to the $175 cost of this program. After some discussion a motion was made to provide this funding which was passed by those present. Tom gave Lynne the check made out to the Cecil County Forestry Board.

12. Information Exchange Meeting: Both Lynne and Tyson will be attending an Information Exchange meeting sponsored by the Potomac Conservancy with Lynne giving a short talk on the Forestry Board. Lynne obtained the remainder of the Forestry Board pamphlets that we had. After much discussion we decided to investigate the reprinting of a new brochure that we could more closely personalize to Frederick County.