Those Present: Dawne Howard, Tom Anderson, Dave Barrow, Claude Eans, Tyson Rose, Dave Hunter, Keith Schoonover, Lori Schoonover, Vince Perrotta, Mike Kay

1. Keith called the meeting to order.

2. Membership: Keith presented Dave Barrow with his Certificate of Membership to the Board. Congratulations Dave! Lori submitted her application for membership. Mike and Keith signed and the application will be sent to the Regional Forester for his approval.

3. Treasurer’s Report: Claude mentioned that he received $2,500 from MUCFC for two ongoing projects (Thurmont, Emmitsburg) and he submitted a check for $1170 to the City of Thurmont to cover the expense of trees used in the Saturday, November 4, 2017 planting. Claude also sent a $330 check back to MUCFC for funds that were not spent during the 2016 planting in Thurmont. We received $.31 interest last month.

4. Logging site exams: Three plans were received during the month. Board members noticed that the plan submitted by Walter Weaber Company had no landowner signature. We determined that we would not visit this site until we received a landowner signed copy of the plan. (Mike will inform the Weaber Forester.) Plans were made to conduct the reviews on Wednesday, November 22, 2017. Dave Barrow plans to meet Mike at Gambrill at 8:00 am.

5. Landowner Easement Educational program: We submitted an application for $2,210 to the Harry R. Hughes Center for Agro Ecology for the Landowner Easement program we are planning to conduct next spring. The initial screening of applications will be Monday, November 20, 2017. If our request survives the first screening we may have to go before a panel for final review sometime between January 3 – January 25th.

6. Thurmont Tree Planting: Steve, Dave, Dave, Tom, and Keith assisted with this tree planting on Saturday, November 4, 2017. We had a good crowd on hand, the weather was ideal, and we were able to plant 40 trees within a 2 hour time frame despite the rocky ground. (Some digging of rocks was required.) Most of us repaired to Mountain Gate for brunch following the planting. Plenty of pie to go around!

7. Sustainability Commission: Tom mentioned that nominations for Sustainability awards are being sought. There are many categories to choose from. Nominations are open until December 31, 2017. Please visit the web site for more information. https://www.frederickcountymd.gov/5713/Sustainability-Awards

8. National FFA Training/Competition: The Middletown Team placed 20th out of 40 teams that had registered. The team from Georgia won by a wide margin. Team Coach Mark Spurrier thinks that Team Middletown has a very good chance of returning to the Finals and placing much higher now that he has one year’s experience with the program under his belt, and that most team members will be returning. It is likely that Stronghold, Inc. will host the State Finals competition once again in 2018.

9. Nature Notes: Lori mentioned that she still has a pretty good backlog of articles and she sent Sue Guynn two time sensitive articles by Dawne and Mike. Dawne’s November Plant Tips column ran last Sunday.

10. Web Site: Tyson mentioned that the Web Site is up to date. Lori took photos of Dave Barrow and Dawne to send to Tyson to be acknowledged as new members on the web page.

11. New Business:

• Dave Barrow mentioned that the Stream Link - Education group is looking for used shelters and stakes for ongoing tree plantings. Please notify Dave if you have any to donate. Dave mentioned that the group planted 2,400 trees this fall. This group plants trees and educates the public on the importance of establishing riparian forest buffers.

• Mike asked Board members to consider holding a Dinner Meeting for the December Meeting. After some discussion Tom volunteered to visit Golden Corral to see if we could utilize the meeting room for this meeting. Most thought that we should plan to arrive for the meeting at 6:30 pm.