Those Present: Vince Perrotta, Dave Hunter, Dave Barrow, Bruce Phillips, Tom Anderson, Bethany Dell'agnello Sonia Demiray, Mike Kay

It should be noted that Dawne, Lori, Keith, and Drake tried to access this remote meeting but were unable to do so. Mike will try to see what is necessary for inclusion at subsequent meetings.

1. Call to order: Vince called the meeting to order. We received a letter from Claude saying he decided to resign from the Board but he still wished to receive minutes and stay in the loop in case he can assist with miscellaneous projects. Thanks for all that you have done from the Board Claude!

2. Treasurer’s Report: Dave mentioned that we received $.11interest in November; our ending balance was $5,574.31. No payments were made by the Board in November.

3. Logging site exams: Mike received 3 plans from Brian Blickenstaff that he sent in a digital format to members prior to the meeting. Mike will coordinate with Bruce and Dave Hunter to look at these sites sometime in the near future. We discussed how we should be evaluating these plans in the future and an idea that was brought up was to discuss some of these points while we are inspecting the upcoming plans.

4. Bruce mentioned that he has not received anything new from Eric Dodson regarding changes to how Frederick County would be administering their logging permit program. Bruce and Dave discussed ways of including Bruce’s flow chart on the website.

5. Tree walk/Big Tree Measuring: Bethany described her taped interview at Hood College. Bethany tried to address topics such as The Big Tree Program and MD’s Big Tree website, The Frederick Tree Walk, benefits of trees, and principles of forest ecology. This interview was distributed and received a lot of praise from those that saw it. (Not everyone was able to access the interview.) For the most part this interview reached a large audience. Bethany also mentioned that she has chosen all of the trees for the Hood College Tree walk and the information and photos were sent to Dave for inclusion on the Frederick Forestry Board website. (Bethany thanked Dave for all the work that he did given that this was a rush order.) Bethany mentioned that she has ordered new tree tags. Bethany also mentioned that the weeping Beech was removed in Baker Park but a newly planted Horse Chestnut was added. Now there are essentially 2 Tree Walks one that concentrates on Frederick City proper and Baker Park and another that is located on the campus of Hood College. Dave added that he has converted all of the photos to Flickr to reduce an expected expense and enhance the viewing experience. Dave mentioned that we can avail ourselves to an enhanced version of Flickr at $60 per year which would provide unlimited storage of photos and would get rid of the pop up ads that accompany the free version. After some discussion Dave made a motion to allow the $60 expenditure for Flickr enhanced. This motion was seconded and passed by those present. Dave will purchase the enhanced service at $60 per year. Dave also mentioned that he will place Bethany’s interview on the webpage.

6. PR Activities: Sonia mentioned that she finished the Big Tree article and sent it to various outlets. (Leading to Bethany’s interview.) We brainstormed ideas for new stories. Some of the ideas that were offered included an article on winter Tree Identification, a story on the Western Fires told by a MD Forest Service firefighters perspective, a story on how to develop wintertime cover and food for wildlife. Sonia asked members to send her their ideas.

7. Nature Notes: Dave mentioned that as of today we have 9 Nature Notes pending publication at the Frederick News Post and we have 26 awaiting review.

8. Web site: After consulting with both Mike and Bethany, Dave redesigned the free image library to display pictures taken in and around Frederick County only. This eliminates any possibility of incorrectly advertising free images that may have copyright restrictions. The library currently has 350 photos, primarily trees, all stored in our Flickr library. Flickr offers great features that allow photos to be stored in multiple albums, while still being a tree structure. The library has been created to follow the scientific naming structure down to the family level. This provides an easier method to get to the photos of interests. It also allows identify photos to in specific albums like the two tree walk series and a scenic photos. All the photos for the Baker Park and Hood College tree walk have been added to the Flickr library. The original web based library has been eliminated and a new redesigned page has been created to make it easier for users to find the specific information they are searching for. This also resolved the storage limitation issues Dave reported last month. Dave also reported he has uploaded all photos provided by Bethany. Dave is expecting more photos from Bethany, Sonia and he too will provide more for our library. The Flickr page provides better resolution of the photos than any other tool Dave has used.

9. New Business: Tom mentioned that Paul Walker intends to join us at the January meeting to discuss Frederick County’s climate change initiative.

Merry Christmas & Happy 2021!