Those present: Dawne Howard, Tom Anderson, Vince Perrotta, Dave Barrow, Dave Hunter, Keith Schoonover, Lori Schoonover, Drake Russell, Sonia Demiray, Bethany Dell’ Agnello, Mike Kay

Prior to the meeting we interviewed Baby Cornish for NRCC. Everybody was really impressed with Baby’s application and interview. Baby seems like a very well-rounded student and individual and we think she will represent Frederick County well at NRCC.

1. Call to Order: Keith called the meeting to order.

2. Treasurer’s Report: Dave indicated that we received $.12 in interest. The DAR made a $35 contribution in appreciation of Bethany’s guided tour of Hood College’s Tree Walk. Dave paid $12.00 for our annual website name payment. Our ending balance is $5, 708.73.

3. Logging Site Exams: Mike distributed the two plans that we received prior to the meeting. Mike suggested that we choose a day next week to conduct these inspections so that we might be able to include Bruce and it might include other plans that we receive. Members agreed and Mike will coordinate the inspections via email.

4. NRCC: Everybody agreed to send Baby to NRCC. Mike will contact her to advise she has been accepted. Dave will send a check to Dawn Balinski for her tuition. We will reimburse the activity fee if Baby keeps a journal of her time at camp which we can post on the website. Mike will set up the interview with our out of state applicant. In regards to paying this individuals tuition, after some discussion a motion was made to ask the applicant to pay the tuition and activity fee but the Forestry Board will reimburse the activity fee if the student provides us with a journal of the week’s activities. This motion was seconded and passed by Board members. The Board hopes we can recruit and send one more student from Frederick County to NRCC this year.

5. Climate Change Committee: There has been some changes on the Forestry Group of the Committee and Paul Walker has resigned as the Chair; and, as Vice Chair Tom has taken over. Plans are underway to put together draft Recommendations by July which will be massaged into a final report by September. Various board members told Tom that they will help with this if necessary.

6. Big Tree Measuring: Bethany mentioned that she is happy with the Tree Walks as they now exist but some small tweaks still need to be made. Bethany thought we should wait until June to continue measuring Big Trees. Everybody agreed with her. Dawne mentioned that Worman’s Mill was interested in establishing a Tree Walk in their community and wondered if they could meet with Bethany to discuss. Bethany said she would be happy to do so once her schedule loosens up a bit. Dawne and Bethany will schedule this meeting at a later date.

7. PR Activities: Sonia mentioned that she and Dave Barrow have developed a Series of three articles about Tree Farming and some of the activities that Dave has conducted on his property. These articles will correspond with the tenants found on the Tree Farm sign: Wood, Water, Wildlife, and Recreation. Sonia has created a Twitter Account and is working on an Instagram Account for the Forestry Board. Sonia mentioned that the Frederick News Post is refining the types of articles that will be run in the Nature Notes column. Now, they only want to run articles that are targeted to Frederick County as opposed to more esoteric articles and articles about famous personalities. Sonia and Dawne will be present at the Wolfsville Tree Planting on May 25 to take photos and interview students/teachers for an article. Dawne and Sonia also intend to visit NRCC to learn more about camp and develop a press release. Dave mentioned the following: The video we produced has now been watch 1,755 times. I helped Mark Spurrier to train volunteers to plant seedlings at Gambrill Park on Saturday. It was raining when we started however that ended by 9:30 and we worked until 11:30 and were able to get 100 white oak seedlings planted and 35 various other seedlings planted. About 15 people participated.

8. Nature Notes: Lori mentioned that we have a really good backlog of articles. Dave mentioned that we have 26 nature notes pending publications at the FNP. We have 18 awaiting review. Per email from Sonia and working with Sue Guynn there have been several nature notes the FNP won’t be running. The nature notes have been removed from the list as well, but do exist on our website. They want us to focus on nature and in particular nature in Frederick County. Sonia will field the other articles to different sections in the FNP and alternate media.

9. Web Site: Dave mentioned that he has revised the site somewhat to link articles by subject.

10. New Business: Mike mentioned that Forestry Boards are still supposed to continue with virtual meetings. We hope this will be relaxed by June.