Patlifinders Minutes of March 15,2001


Meeting called to order by Vice--Chairperson, Art Rosky at 8:05PM. in the employee lounge at Town Hall.

Roll call: Art Rosky, Tom Stevens, Sarah Ralston, Dawn Rakow, John Doyle,

Jim Doyle, Josh Reilly, Janet Seizam, Steven Nash, John Adams,

Uriah Albrink, Karen Riley, Debbie Mazurek, Joseph Trimble,

Dan Green, Karen Walzer, Joy Cole, Lynn Hamer, Jim Wendolek

Also in attendance was Cyndy Book who spoke to us about endangered species and threatened wildlife. She brought in a tape so we could listen to the different sounds, and she said if we heard any of these sounds to try to tape them and contact her. Since Cyndy does not have a computer, we can contact her at 1-609-758-8824. Cyndy also distributed Natural Heritage Rare Species Reporting Foms to the members. This form is used to report a personal field sighting of a rare species tracked by the Natural Heritage Database. It may also be used to summarize locational information from a published or unpublished report. Species tracked include those appearing on the Special Plants of New Jersey List and the Special Animals of New Jersey List. The Office of Natural Lands Management can provide copies of the lists upon request. Note: for anadromous fish species, only reports of spawning areas are requested. For most bird species, only breeding reports are requested. Consult the Endangered and Nongame Species Program to determine if a non-breeding report of a bird species is desired.

Committee reports:

Membership:Dawn Rakow is now the membership committee chairperson. Dawn e-mailed the meeting reminder and has made up a press release for new members and helpers. She sent it to the Tri-Town News and the Jackson Times.

Education: Atlas Training Seminar, March 24, 2001, at the Lord Stirling Park Envionmental Education Center at Bernards Twp., Somerset County, NJ from 10:00AM to 1PM. Also, a seminar Saturday, April _21st at Millstone DEP. The Pathfinders made reservations for three members to go. Art, Tom and there is room for one more to go.

Insurance: Karen Layton absent no report

Trail Blazing: Need a chairperson

Grants: Joy Cole . Frank Applegate Road progress-letter from Larry Miller about property not deed restricted. Francis Mills grant application progress.. .being evaluated by Mr. Miller. CME replied to Mr. Miller's questions about Jackson ownership. Letter/memo (Bob Ryley) about grant seminar March 31 at the TR Library. Karen Borga can go and video this. Joy Cole spoke with Larry Miller of natural lands trust re: Frank Applegate bridge designate for boardwalk continuation; one bridge needed. The township must have clear possession of property for NLT to release funds. The American Hiking Associate Grant was not funded.

Land Acquisition: Karen Borga. Eighty-five acres at Bismarck Road was approved by the township committee, resolution of support for purchase by the Trust for Public Land Group.

Pathfinders Web Pages: Madeleine Nist The Pathfinders site is:

www.twp.iackson.ni.us/pathfinders/index.htm New pages are up.. .Jan. minutes up. Dec. minutes were taken down. Should we ask for a link to Pathfinders from Jackson's home page?

Bowman Road/Forestry Liason Karen Walzer.Report on Forest Resource Education Center/Bowman Road. Update on clean up of tires at FREC: The Jackson Public Works Dept. will remove and dispose of the tires sometime after March 19, when a special Ocean County tire clean up program begins. I'll follow up on this after the 19th Joe Polizzi, Director of Public Works, said that any time a group such as ours knows there will be a quantity of tires collected from a trail clean up project, we should notify him beforehand and he will provide a dumpster at the site.

Conservation Volunteer Day: Saturday, March 31 from 9AM to 1PM We need Volunteers for an information/membership sign-up table. Also, Terry O'Leary asked if the Pathfinders could supervise Scout groups and other volunteers at a trail work station near Don Connor Blvd.

Frank Appplegate Road Nature Trail: Madeleine Nist & Dawn Rakow. Dawn reported that this is a two mile trail. There will be a pruning party this Sunday, March _18th from 10:00AM — 3:00PM. The pruning party scheduled for February 25th was rained out.

Biking: Uriah Albrink. Uriah reported that not too much is happening right now.

Hiking: James Doyle Allaire State Park hike on March _3rd was attended by Tom Stevens and family and James Doyle's nephew. It was a nice day and a very scenic hike. We made contact at the Nature Center, Lorraine McCay who agreed to display the Pathfmders brochures. Karen Borga will sent a dozen. She asked for a recent Jackson Times and Tri-Town News papers which we supplied. She wants to advertise state park events in the Jackson area and was delighted to receive them. However, I noticed we have outdated contact info in our Jackson Times advertisement which Karen Borga updated. Tom GPS ed the trail and offered the file to Lorraine. We might be working with Lorraine to GPS other trails. Time depending. Lorraine said there is a biking club that has a lot of the Southern section of the park mapped out. Their email is:http://home.att.net/'atug for our biking committee.

Next months planned activities: Lebannon State Forest Hike: Saturday, April _21st 9AM. Rain date is 4/28/01. Details and directions to follow via email and a web posting.

Other news: Joining the NY/NJ trail conference. In contact with Claire Bertollo email claireb@nynjtc.org. She is sending cost information to me. I will have it for the net meeting..

Johnson Park: Sam Wimmer Blocks and lots on resolution of the 220 acre acquisition that are wrong are being looked into by Dick Megill on the new deed before we move ahead with the trail plan. March _5th meeting was postponed to March _12th

Pathfinder Events: We need a chairperson

Scrapbook: Debi VanCleave has resigned. Lauren and Alyson Stevens have volunteered to do our scrapbook.

Publicity: Art Rosky We need to get more people to join the Pathfinders. Tell your friends, and they in turn would tell another.

Corresponding Secretary: Sarah Ralston No letters were written. We did receive a letter from Lynn Hamer, Committee Chairman, She stated that their organization strongly supports extending the trail planned for Johnson Park to connect to the existing trails around the bogs. They have 80 members and also belong to the Garden State Carriage Club. It would be beneficial for us to support each others' organizations.

Discussions: Prospertown Road. Tom Stevens made a motion to write a letter to the Township Committee to preserve Prospertown Road. Second by Jim Wendolek.

Adjourment: Meeting was adjourned at 10:20PM

Respectfully submitted:

Brenda Gregory

Recording Secretary