2018-05 May meeting minutes

Frederick County

Forest Conservancy District Board

May 14, 2018 Meeting Minutes

Those Present: Dawne Howard, Tom Anderson, Steve Thrasher, Claude Eans, Dave Barrow, Keith Schoonover, Mike Kay

Most members met at the Gambrill Park Office at 6:00 pm to interview 3 students for NRCC camp, Owen Smith, Carson DeLauter, and Abby Feltham. (And, yes, we did have pizza.)

1. Keith called the meeting to order.

2. Treasurer’s Report: Claude indicated that we received $.33 interest last month. Claude mentioned that there was a lot of activity last month. Claude submitted $900 for NRCC tuition for Catherine and Eradani. We paid $225 for the tree giveaway and for the Trees Alex Smith planted at Walkersville Watershed for his Eagle Scout project. A $1,350 check was sent to Emmitsburg as per the MUCFC grant they obtained and Claude submitted a $50 check to Embroider Me for the design work for the Frederick County Forestry Board patch. Claude wanted to relay that $500 of our Treasury is committed to a MUFC grant for Mount Airy. Claude wants to mention that presently we have a potential commitment of $1,525 for NRCC. Given our yearly $625 stipend from Frederick County our Treasury will dwindle unless we identify ways to increase funding. Please think of ways we can increase funding for a discussion at a future meeting.

3. Logging site exams: Mike received two plans that he distributed. The Forester who submitted the plan for the Bassford Road site would like to meet with the inspectors on site, as such, Mike made plans to meet him there at 9:00 am on Tuesday, May 22, 2018. (Claude will meet Mike on 5-22-18 to look at these sites.)

4. NRCC Interviews: Everybody thought that all three students did an excellent job during their interviews and determined that they would make excellent NRCC participants. The Frederick Board mentioned to all students that they will reimburse their $125 Activity fee if they prepare a short write up about their time at camp. Given that the Board has already spent $900 for tuition and that they will most likely spend another $625 for Activity fees a motion was made to: Approve to send all three students to camp and inquire with Dawn if there is additional funding to pay the tuition for Owen, Carson and Abby. The motion was seconded and passed by those present. Mike will check in with Dawn and report back to the Board.

5. Scout training program: The program went on as scheduled on Saturday, May 12, 2018 at the Walkersville Watershed. The weather was “comfortably” warm, the scouts were enthusiastic, and everybody had a good time. We had 114 scouts present for this training. Claude was free to roam around and take photos and listen to the programs. Claude thought everybody did an excellent job and he was very grateful for Jon Kays and Sean Weaver for helping out. Claude was very impressed with Sean’s program especially how much information he presented during the 45 minutes he had for each group. The Scouts were very appreciative of our efforts and they mentioned developing an ongoing program to run the Forestry Merit Badge program every 3 years. Claude put together a write up that he sent to Dave to put on the web page. Many thought we should submit this as a Nature Notes article as well.

6. Green Fest: Dave was on hand throughout the day to staff a table at the event which was held Saturday, May 12, 2018. Dave mentioned that he was able to distribute 170 out of the 300 trees he had. Many participants had a smaller lot size and did not want to plant oak trees. Dave suggested opting for smaller growing trees like redbud, dogwood, crabapple, hazelnut etc. should we do this again. Dave mentioned that nearly 100 people signed up to receive the electronic version of Nature Notes on a weekly basis. Dave also indicated that he spoke to numerous people who were unaware that the Forestry Board existed and this program helped increase the Board overall awareness in the community. Dave put together a simple brochure on seedling planting instructions that had some basic information on the Forestry Board. Dawne mentioned that we should try to get a supply of Forestry Board brochures for distribution, if they exist. Dave was very thankful to Tom who showed up after the Scout event to give him a break for a while and help him load the materials in his car.

7. Uniforms: Dave, with help from other Board members was able to work with Embroider Me to design a logo for use on Forestry Board uniforms. Using this design members purchased some button down and polo shirts that they wore to the Scout Event and Green Fest. There was some discussion about producing some “Print” copy tee shirts, baseball caps etc. Dave volunteered to obtain quantity and pricing for the various clothing parts and submit this information via email so interested Board members can order additional Forestry Board apparel.

8. Web Site: After taking over the Webmaster duties and beginning to design an updated website Dave has identified some issues and posed some questions to obtain input from membership. Most of these questions involve how to streamline information on the webpage. Dave posed some of these questions but as it was getting late many members suggested that we table some of the discussion for the next meeting. Some of the items that were discussed included Nature Notes articles. (Most thought we should delete redundant articles.) Big Tree records, we should list Frederick County’s National Champions, State Champions, and County Champions and have a link to the State Website that has more information such as the top 10 white oaks in Frederick County etc. In addition, individual articles should be archived and if these articles are old we should consider deleting them. Dave registered the domain as www.fcfcdb.org as the Board’s address. This forwards the old google address over to the new site. Dave is paying the $12.00 per year fee to maintain this site. Dave can now receive emails at webmaster@fcfcdb.org and info@fcfcdb.org to make it look more professional versus a Gmail address. Dave is working to send emails from this address as well.

9. Sustainability Commission: Tom mentioned that Frederick County planted 150 acres through its ReLeaf program and there seems to be funding to run the program in 2019 and beyond.

10. Nature Notes: Keith mentioned that Lori had an accident on the farm where she bit through her lip. We all are sorry to hear that and wish Lori a speedy recovery.

11. New Business: Dave briefly mentioned that having a Facebook Page might increase our reach in the younger demographic. Members thought that this could be a good thing and gave Dave permission to research this further.

12. New Forester: Mike mentioned that Dakota Durcho was recently selected to fill the Monocacy Forester position vacated by Hailu’s retirement. Dakota has been working in a staff position out of Annapolis for a few years. Dakota assisted with the plantings we did in Thurmont so you may have met him already. Dakota will begin work on Wednesday, May 23, 2018. Mike will ask Dakota to attend an upcoming meeting.