Conservation Commission – July 8, 2025

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DRAFT
Wendell Conservation Commission minutes
June 10, 2025 at 6 p.m. on Zoom
Attendance: Ward Smith, chair; Trevor Kearns, Vice Chair; Rowan Gay, commissioner;
Samantha Parsons, DCR; Dan Leahy, Open Space chair; Mary Thomas, Conservation Agent.
Ward opens the meeting at 6:01 p.m.
Cronquist Conservation Restriction monitoring: Samantha Parsons, a Forest Legacy Program
Assistant with DCR will monitor the CR on Thursday, June 12 starting at 9 a.m. She invites Con
Com members to join her but no one is available. She will send us the report. It wasn’t monitored
in 2024. She’ll note that DCR should assume responsibility for monitoring. A commissioner saw
erosion along streams. Mt. Grace owns the property; the Con Com holds the CR and is named as
the monitoring entity, but Parsons will have to verify if the Con Com has to be involved.
Potential mitigation site at 40 Gate Lane: Dan Leahy reports on his June 3rd site visit to 40
Gate Lane with SWCA and Eversource. This is related to the Commission’s request that the
Open Space Committee recommend a mitigation site for Eversource’s planned widening of the
transmission line ROW (WT-11 TRRP) in northeast Wendell.
Present were Becky Weisman of SWCA (which bought New England Environmental, the firm
behind the solar project at 107 Wendell Depot Road); Jonathan Roberge of Eversource; and an
unidentified wetland specialist. As a result of the visit, 40 Gate Lane is now a possible mitigation
site for impacts on the ROW on the Facey’s and Keller’s properties in northeast Wendell. 40 Gate
Lane belongs to the town. It’s mostly upland forest. An unsafe boarded up building, a fallen
down shed and an old outhouse that may be on the property line will have to be razed and glass
and other debris removed. It abuts Dave Richards’s property to the west. There’s a potential
vernal pool, probably on Richards’s property. A spring flows into Sibley brook, which flows into
Sibley Swamp and on to the west branch of Swift River. The wetlands there are appropriate for
the need to mitigate wetland impacts on the ROW. Eversource likes that the potential mitigation
site is in the same town as the ROW impacts. Other plusses are that it’s adjacent to protected land
and protects water quality in the Quabbin Reservoir. They would pay for demolition and clean
up. This fall or winter they would draft a MOU between Eversource and Wendell. Wendell would
find a contractor. The best CR holder might be Franklin Land Trust because they hold CRs on
Dave Richards’s and other nearby properties. It requires Selectboard approval and a town
meeting vote.
Wendell had it up for auction but withdrew it because it’s on an unmaintained road and fire
trucks couldn’t access it easily.
Dan will check with Berkshire Natural Resources Council about their experience with
Eversource as a CR partner.
The Commission prefers this site for mitigation over invasive control at Fiske. The only negative
is it would be taken off the tax base.
The Open Space Committee wanted it to be preserved, the Selectboard is supportive and it is
clear of equity. The Town has been paying insurance and can’t afford the cleanup. Dan will
report to the Selectboard once there is a written statement of intent from Eversource and SWCA.
Bodmer-Turner Conservation Restriction (proposed): Liam Cregan, Land Conservation
Specialist with Franklin Land Trust has requested time on the Commission’s July 8 meeting to
discuss placing a CR on the property at the intersection of Jennison and Wendell roads. Cregan
provided 3 files.
Dan Leahy reports that the Open Space Committee worked with Al Avril of American Farmland
Trust last fall. Avril asked for the OSC’s, Con Com’s and/or AgCom’s support in identifying
Wendell farmland of local import. A CR on this property would be consistent with the Open
Space and Recreation Plan and will protect the Quabbin watershed. It too connects with several
other protected open spaces. Approximately $500K has already been invested in that area by
DCR’s Division of Water Supply Protection and MassAudubon.
Dan leaves at 6:44.
Fiske Pond: The Commission approves placing a notice in the Town newsletter that volunteers
are needed for FPAC and future Fiske workdays, that dogs at Fiske must be leashed, and that
motorized vehicles are not allowed. 4-wheelers have been seen there. More prominent signage is
needed.
A Commission member volunteers to ask an administrator whom he knows at Lake Wyola to tell
employees not to send people to Fiske.
A Commissioner volunteers to ask the Leverett Police to give warning tickets to illegally parked
vehicles at Fiske. He will also suggest to Kathy Becker that Fiske be a beneficiary of the Full
Moon Coffee House, perhaps to help pay for invasives removal.
Submissions to the town newsletter are due June 15.
Report on the site visit to the Wendell Depot Substation: the substation is in the Riverfront
area, but the expansion may be into a pre-disturbed hardpan area. An approximately 3000 SF
expansion would require 6000 SF of mitigation.
Army Corps of Engineers’ response to Bowen’s Pond: the ACE writes that everything is fine.
Zoning Board of Appeals hearing: concerning an application to the ZBA by Ashley Perkins to
remove and replace a pre-existing non-conforming structure (a house trailer) at 19 Davis Road
(Plan Map 404, Lot 21). Lyons Brook runs through the property. The Agent will determine the
distance of the structure from the brook and whether the work would consist of more than towing
the trailers in and out.
Minutes and Mail—the May 13, 2025 minutes are approved unanimously. There is no mail.
Date and time of next Commission meeting: July 8, 2025 at 6 p.m. on Zoom.
The meeting adjourns at 7:03 p.m.
Draft submitted by Conservation Agent Mary Thomas.