Those present: Ginny Brace, Heather Montgomery, Keith Schoonover, Jim Arnold, Cecile Arnold, Steve Thrasher, Claude Eans, Tyson Rose, Tom Anderson, Vince Perrotta, Mike Kay

1. Keith called the meeting to order: Both September and October’s minutes were approved as written.Membership: We appreciate that Vince has been coming to our meetings and is showing interest in becoming a member of the Forestry Board. Mike will send Vince an application. Mike will also send Cecilia an application if she decides that she wants to become a member.

2. Treasury: Tom mentioned that he received $1,818.75 from Neighborhood Green for the purpose of purchasing trees for spring planting. We received $1.06 in interest last month.

3. Logging site exams: Mike brought two plans to the Board’s attention. One plan was for Alan Lowe while the other was for a salvage harvest at Cunningham Falls. Mike will email his availability to the board members. Claude indicated that he will join Mike on Monday.

4. Neighborhood Green: Heather gave a run down on Neighborhood Green activities. Heather mentioned that nearly 50 site visits were made in Frederick and Carroll Counties for those attending the workshop or showing interest in the program. Of those visits, 14 sites were selected for plantings next spring on 14 acres. Heather mentioned that a turn key approach was developed for the contractual services and that Conservation Services got the hand planting contracts while Parkton Woodland Services were awarded the machine planting properties. These contractors are able to perform all phases of the planting process and complete specific maintenance items as well. Heather noted that the Neighborhood Green committee recently met to discuss outreach and training and we decided to target properties larger than 10 acres as long as the plantings fit our criteria and made plans to streamline the training program so that it would end around lunchtime instead of being an all day event.

5. Frederick County’s funding of the Forestry Board: Heather was asked to glean some information about the Forestry Board’s services to Frederick County, many of which were stated in Tom’s letter to the County. Heather asked who would relayed his recollections of the negotiations of what lead to the Board doing these reviews. Way back when Frederick County asked Mike to evaluate the logging job on College Mountain. Mike requested some guidance from the Forest Service and DNR who stated that the county can not mandate a Forester employed by the State but they said that if the county asked the Forestry Board to review the plans, by its charter, the Board should review these plans. Long story short if the Board is unable to do the reviews then Frederick County would have to provide staff to perform these reviews or hire a Consultant Forester to do so. Heather also asked Board members to try to assess in monetary terms how much they contribute to the County by their activities. Board members cited many examples how they contribute to the county and Heather indicated that she will present her findings after getting some additional information about certain items. Finally Heather mentioned that she will submit her findings by November 19, 2012.

6. Educational Programs: Jim and Ginny met and drafted a list of numerous potential educational programs that the Board can undertake in 2013. They then had us spit into 2 groups to discuss each item, have each individual rate the relevancy of each program, and say whether or not you would be interested in helping design, plan, or conduct the program. Ginny collected the forms and said she would tabulate the responses so that they could be discussed at the December meeting.

7. Nature Notes: Ginny mentioned that the backlog of articles is dwindling somewhat and we need more to tide us over the winter.

8. Web site: Tyson mentioned that everything is up to date and that Keith should be submitting his profile and photo…any day now.