Louisville/Jefferson County Environmental Trust

MINUTES
January 23,2009

Members in Attendance
Frannie Aprile (advisory board)
Lisa Hite
Kurt Mason
Noel Rueff
Dudley Saunders
Richard Jett
Phyllis Croce
 
Staff in Attendance
Lee Wells
Theresa Senninger
Carl Suk

The meeting was called to order at 1:00pm.

Minutes
Minutes from the December 12th meeting were distributed for review. A motion was made by Richard Jett and seconded by Noel Rueff to approve the minutes. Minor additions or corrections were noted. The minutes were approved with corrections by unanimous vote. Theresa Senninger stated that she would follow up on the status of the November minutes so that action could be taken on them in February.

Lee Wells stated that he could start posting our adopted minutes on the Planning and Design website for public consumption. Ms. Senninger volunteered to send adopted and corrected minutes to those Trust members who could not attend the previous month's meeting.

"Green Guide" 
Noel Rueff explained that there is a local author working on a "green guide" to Louisville, which includes contact information for environmentally conscious businesses and organizations. She volunteered to have LJCET listed in the guide.

Land Conservation Activity

Dogwood Hill
Lee Wells, Carl Suk, Curtis Carman (student volunteer), Dudley Saunders, and Noel Rueff performed a site visit to finalize the baseline documentation for the property in December. A number of interesting discoveries were made, including a water meter and an overflow pipe at the bottom of the slope by the creek, and some dead deer in a pumpkin patch behind the garage. Mr. Saunders saw eight wild turkeys when he arrived at the property, some of which were perched on a fence. Carl Suk stated that a white oak and two oriental spruces are present by the house. Carl has never seen oriental spruce outside Bernheim Forest in this area of the country. It is difficult to see native flora at this time of year, but Mr. Suk stated that the rock outcroppings down the gentle slope and the creek area are likely locations for native species. The field in front of the house has been sown with mustard. A new-looking deer stand is present on the property, but it appears to be visible from the house and likely was set up by the property owner. Mr. Suk suggested that there should be several additional seasonal monitoring visits to the site over the next year to create a comprehensive list of plant species present on the property. This visit completes the baseline documentation for the site.

Renaissance Zone Update
Kurt Mason received an annual monitoring report on the Renaissance Zone from Redwing Ecological Services, the environmental consultant working on the wetlands restoration project at the Renaissance Zone conservation easement.

Mattingly Update
Over the holidays, Noel Rueff met a science teacher at Lassiter Middle School, which is adjacent to the Mattingly conservation easement. She stated that this person would be a good contact for planning future educational activities at the Mattingly property. Carl stated that he is working to develop a native plant propagation program with the ecology teacher at Lassiter, and was thinking about using seeds from the easement as part of the project.

Lee Wells sent photos showing that the new fence installed around the easement has been cut. It also appears that the gap between the fence and the brick wall (which was left to allow pedestrian access to Wal-Mart) is wide enough to allow ATV's to pass into the easement. Mr. Wells saw several stacks of wood and debris, as well as a Christmas tree in the easement. There may also be a shopping cart in the easement area. Theresa Senninger volunteered to contact Deborah Bilitski, who represents Fletcher-Bright Company, about the breach in the fence and to discuss what additional protections could be provided to prevent future trespass.

Lisa Hite stated that though the fence will minimize the dumping, it is not likely that the ATV traffic will cease even if the fence is repaired. 

Land Trust Coalition Report
Lisa Hite stated that Meme Runyon (RiverFields), Mackenzie Royce (Bluegrass Conservancy) and Don Dott were contacted individually and as a group before the KLTC meeting in Frankfort. Each said that they were glad to have LJCET as affiliate members of the group, but not as voting members. Finally, after much discussion, Meme Runyon stated that a steering committee could be formed to study the issue.

At the KLTC meeting, Kurt Mason made a presentation on including quasi-governmental organizations as full members, but in the end, the bylaws were adopted to exclude these groups as full members of the umbrella organization. It appeared that though the mission statement was written to promote all kinds of preservation and conservation organizations, the purpose of the group is to promote private organizations that engage in land preservation and conservation. Only five organizations in the state are currently eligible to be voting members of KLTC. No action has been taken to organize the steering committee. Phyllis Croce asked whether it would be worthwhile to write a letter to Chuck Roe outlining LJCET's position on membership in KLTC. Frannie Aprile asked whether there are others at LTA who should be aware of this situation. Lisa Hite vollunteered to have a conversation with Chuck Roe about this issue.

A meeting of KLTC has been set for May, and the steering committee will meet before that date. Additional attempts will be made to obtain full membership in the organization, and updates will be provided as they become available.

Outreach/Education
Lisa Hite suggested that LJCET sponsor a half-day workshop in late April on baseline documentation and monitoring and invite those organizations that are on the KLTC mailing list as well as practitioners. The workshop could be held on an easement (perhaps the Aprile easement) with a lecture and presentation to follow at the King house.  Theresa Senninger volunteered to set up a time for those who are interested in presenting to meet to discuss planning before next month's meeting.

Officers Election
There are three officers whose terms have expired. Lisa Hite made a motion to re-elect Kurt Mason as Chair, Noel Rueff as Vice-Chair and Richard Jett as Secretary/Treasurer. Dudley Saunders seconded the motion. The motion carried unanimously. Additional corrections were made to the Trust contact list to update MSD's representatives, Trust staff, and the advisory board membership.

Brochure Update/Annual Report
The LJCET brochure has not been updated in some time. Richard Jett will work on the annual report the brochure with the assistance of Lisa Hite. Efforts will be made to develop the brochure to avoid "dating" the document.

Accreditation-Conflict of Interest Policy
Theresa Senninger and Lisa Hite will draft a conflict of interest policy to present to the Trust in February.

Other Matters

Duncan
Dudley Saunders stated that the retaining wall at the Duncan property was deteriorating and the sinkhole was still full of debris at the last monitoring visit. At the next site visit, it should be determined whether these issues have been addressed.

LTA Saving Land
Lee Wells printed out all issues of the LTA publication Saving Land and put them in a binder. Lisa Hite stated that the magazine can be read on the LTA website, which also has a large amount of other information about land conservation.