CT AMC Conservation Committee
Attendance:
John Crist, Andrew May, Adriana Gabarron, Dr. Charlotte Pyle (special
guest), Keith Santeler, Aimee Santeler, Russ Charest, Bob Andrews, Jamie Lee,
Birge Dayton
· 6:30
– 7:30
Special
Guest Speaker on Invasive Plants in CT - Dr.Charlotte Pyle, Landscape Ecologist with the
USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service in Tolland & a working member of
the Connecticut Invasive Plant Working Group. Dr. Pyle will speak on the scope of the invasive plant
problem in Connecticut. How to identify Invasive Species? How to help eradicate
them?
˙
Excellent speech from Dr. Pyle… very informative and
interesting:
Key Points:
1.
The relationship issues that invasive plants cause with
native plants and species
2.
Eco System effects caused by the invasive plants
3.
Growing concern of the mile-a-minute plant
4.
Visit www.ipane.org to
find out more about the invasive plants in your town
5.
Build a Invasive Plant Reference Library for Bluff Point
a.
Update:
I sent an e-mail to Dr. Pyle and am targeting dates in July as August
availability for Dr. Pyle is extremely limited.
Tentatively looking at Sunday 7/15, Saturday 7/21 or Sunday 7/22.
Once we finalize the date I will send an e-mail out to see who all can
participate. More to come…
·
7:30
– 7:40
Welcome & Recent Successes (Excellent work everyone – take a bow, or pat yourself on the back
for all your work)
1.
We held a fun filled Conservation Picnic in Hubbard Park where we raised
$110 for the Maine Woods Initiative. We
had games, activities, hikes and great food!
2.
Committee Leaders attended and tabled at the Railway Museum and Naugatuck
Green Earth Day Festivals where more money was raised for the Maine Woods.
3.
Committee Leaders provided trail work on Give a Day to Trails Day and the
Annual EMS Still River Cleanup
4.
On Trails Day the Conservation Committee participated in a hike with 5th
District U.S. Congressman Chris
Murphy to thank him on behalf of the CT-AMC.
We also participated in the Trails Day picnic in Hubbard Park.
5.
Numerous important notices have gone out in e-mail, both within the
committee and to our external distributions, sharing important information
issues and legislation (i.e. bottle bill)
6.
At our May and June events we continued to distribute Compact Florescent
Light Bulbs, bringing our yearly total up over 130.
7.
We kicked off a committee challenge to raise $1000 to save 1 Acre of
Maine Woods. In one month we’ve passed the 1/2 way point of our goal by
raising $522. Once we hit $1000 we will issue a challenge to the rest of
the 13 AMC Chapters to equal our feat.
·
7:40
– 7:50
Plan Farmington River Clean up for August 4, 2007
˙
Still need to workout the
details of where
˙
So far those who can
participate (Andrew, Bob, Adriana and Jamie (x3)
·
7:50
– 8:00
Updates:
Clean Energy Campaign, Maine Woods Initiative, Legislative Updates (Quick
updates provided by Andrew – need to look into organizing a mailing)
·
8:00
– 8:15
Conservation Committee Backpack Trip to the ADKs
Jamie to send out an e-mail with some
dates – based on the Bluff Point Excursion we will look at targeting the
following dates with a possible location change to Pharaoh Lake which might be
an easier trip for our first timers J
1.
7/28-29
2.
8/25-26
3.
9/1-2 (this is labor day weekend)
·
8:15
– 8:20
Upcoming Events
1.
July 4th Morning Conservation Hike.
Count of how may would attend? Go/No
Go Decision
a.
Go Decision – John to
Lead and Adriana to Co-Lead (Yeah Adriana getting her co-lead on)
2.
August Farmington River Clean Up
3.
October 3rd Guest Speaker – Need to Identify
a.
Need writ up by 8/10 for
advertising – maybe a pizza social?
4.
October AT Day & Bulls Bridge Clean Up
5.
December Guest Speaker
a.
Green Investment
· 8:25
– 8:40
Invasive Species Invitations – Vote on if we’re interested and if we
have a volunteer to lead contact
From:
Elizabeth Schrang [mailto:schrange@dickinson.edu]
To:
conservation@ct-amc.org
Cc:
education@ct-amc.org; excursions@ct-amc.org; nwcamp@ct-amc.org; outdoorseditor@ct-amc.org
Subject:
Invasive Plant Species Alert
Dear
Appalachian Mountain Club of Connecticut,
The
Mad Gardeners of New Milford in partnership with the Housatonic Valley
Association have been working to control the spread of an aggressive invasive
plant species called mile-a-minute. The
plant was first introduced to this country through a shipment of plant material
to Pennsylvania in the 1930s. Since then it has spread to New York and most
recently to Connecticut. The known populations in Connecticut are in Greenwich,
New Milford and Roxbury. Sometimes called the, "Kudzu of the North"
mile-a-minute out competes native vegetation by growing over it and blocking the
sunlight. This decreases the biodiversity of our forests.
Luckily,
this annual vine is weak and easy to pull. Pulling the plant before it goes to
seed in Mid-July is a very effective control method in forested areas. We are
looking for volunteers to help out during the “pulling parties” that we will
be scheduling throughout the summer. We contacted the Appalachian Mountain Club
of Connecticut in the hopes of finding more individuals who share a passion for
protecting Connecticut's forest ecosystems. If this pressing issue interests
your organization please contact any one of the people listed below for more
information on how to get involved.
Additionally,
we are spreading awareness of the plant's appearance through posters and
pamphlets. We would greatly
appreciate your help in the publicity aspect as well.
If you know of specific trailheads that are high traffic, or other good
locations we would welcome those suggestions as well.
Thanks
from the Mad Gardener Interns
Elizabeth
Schrang, Amanda Weise, and Claire Wescott
Contacts
Betsy
Corrigan: e.corrigan@yahoo.com
Kathleen Nelson: knelson151@sbcglobal.net
Elizabeth Schrang: schrange@dickinson.edu
Amanda Weise: Amanda_weise@sbcglobal.net
Claire
Wescott: e-clair@earthlink.net
·
8:40
– 8:50
New Business/Round table
1.
Andrew will investigate
hosting a Maine Woods Initiative Pancake Breakfast
§
Jamie will check
availability dates in September for CFPA building and coordinate with Andrew
§
Need to communicate by
7/10 if we want to make the publication/advertisement (Jamie will coordinate
with Andrew and John)