The Hudson Conservation Commission welcomed a new alternate member at its May 11 meeting as Patricia Keller volunteered to join the board.
“I recently retired from the Fed, took a small job at BJ’s, and Carl came in. We had a small discussion, and he asked, ‘Why don’t you join?’ So, I did, and here I am,” Keller said. “I’m at my gardens all the time, I have land up north, and I firmly believe in conserving. We have beautiful land here in Hudson, and if I can do anything to protect it, I’m going to.”
Conservation Chair Carl Murphy thanked Keller for stepping forward, as did the rest of the Commission.
“It’s always good to try and fill the board positions, we like a complete board,” said Vice-Chair Ken Dickinson. “We’re all here to help you, and it should be a good experience.”
Commissioners encouraged Keller to attend the next Trail Work Day, scheduled for Saturday, May 30, at 8 a.m., where volunteers will work on a recently acquired parcel added to the Rangers Town Forest.
“There’s the newly acquired land that we have,” Murphy said. “I don’t know if we want to go out and check out the additional 15 acres to see if we want to put a trail through it or whatever the case may be. We could plan for a kiosk on that property, because I don’t think there’s a kiosk there.”
Dickinson added that many trails in the Rangers Town Forest lack names, formal markings, or signs, something he hopes to address.
The Commission also discussed its role in the return of state owned land originally acquired for the now abandoned Circumferential Highway project.
“We send a letter of intent for the Board of Selectmen to look at,” Murphy said.
Selectman Liaison Dillon Dumont cautioned that the application process through the New Hampshire Land and Community Heritage Investment Program (LCHIP) would take time.
“The order of operations would be for this board to make a formal recommendation, for that recommendation to go to staff, and the staff would go to the Board of Selectmen, and that would kick the process off,” Dumont explained. “I think you have a good application. The largest tract of land is at 121R Wason Rd., I think it’s about 75 acres.”
Secretary Chris Cameron described the LCHIP letter of intent as a preliminary screening step.
“It seems that the letter is a screening tool to say, ‘This is a potential project that the town has, are we eligible?’” Cameron said. “If we are, they will then send us an invitation to actually put the application together. June 17 is the hard deadline for the application.”
Dickinson noted that the Musquash Conservation Area originated from an LCHIP grant and suggested reviewing past records for guidance. “It was a while ago, but that’d be something to look back on in the files,” he said.
The Conservation Commission formally voted to recommend pursuing an LCHIP grant for the Wason Road property.