Westwoods Trail Committee Meeting
May 17, 2010
Guilford Recreation & Park Center: Faulkner Room

Chair: Paul Proulx
Meeting Began: 7:30 pm
Attendance: 11 members and 2 visitors attended. Mary Richerson, George Goss, Phil Bacon, Michael Barton-Sweeney, John Novak, Peter Johnson, Rob Pascale, Ted Mankovich, Paul Proulx, Rob Valley, Joe Kaufman and visitors Rick and Patrick Conrad.

Approval of Minutes: The April minutes were approved.
Resignations: New Members/Member News: Mary Richerson announced that she will be moving to Iowa this summer.

Information/Instructions from the GLCT:
-The Connecticut Forest and Park Association annual meeting is coming up.
-Paul Proulx passed around newsletters from Shoreline Greenway and GLCT. He also passed around a brochure for Trails Day.
-The GLCT annual meeting being held on June 13th at 4 pm will have Stephen Gephardt from the state Department of Environmental Protection as guest speaker. Jerry Turk will be the new secretary and Mary Culver will handle membership. The winning artwork of a children’s art contest as well as other artwork entries are posted on the new GLCT website.
-Paul Proulx received a call from a friend that is associated with a Guilford organization. They want to have a hike in Westwoods the last Saturday in June. Paul suggested the Nature Trail.
-Guests, 17 year old Patrick Conrad and his father Rick talked with the committee about Patrick’s plans to build 2 kiosks as an Eagle Scout project. The kiosks will be similar to the design of the recently built kiosk at East River Woodlands. Ted Mankovich will meet with Patrick and provide building plans for the kiosks. The new kiosks will be placed at Dudley Farm and Jared Eliot.

Trails Reports:

Westwoods: We need to get out one last time before it gets too hot and buggy.
Blazing at Cox: Some Cox School children painted Green Triangles (at their height) on the newly established trail. There were a lot of Lady’s Slippers in bloom. Ted used some poison on the field to get rid of the poison ivy. The kids investigated the chimney from the old Boy Scout cabin. Ted suggests that we clean up the Boy Scout area.
Nutplains: Things look good there. There is a need for a kiosk and map.
Kampmeyer: Joe Kaufman finished the bridges. There were a lot of Hemlock blow downs that he cleared out. Many wild azaleas are in bloom right now and people are using the trail.
Paul Trail: A walk is scheduled there.
Eastwoods: George Goss did some cutting there.
Spencer Creek: The Yacht Club Work Party starts at 9 am on Saturday, May 22nd. They may reroute the trail with all the open space.
Hoadley Creek Preserve: There are a lot of blow downs. A bridge floated down stream on the Branford border. We need to secure the bridge by bolting it in place. We should consider relocating the bridge so it isn’t so slippery from spray.
East River Woodlands: No report
Jared Eliot: A bridge was replaced.
Big Maple Trail: No report.

Work Parties completed:
Hoadley Creek: Rerouted a trail. The GPS data for the map is done. The blazing will be redone after the new map comes out.
Westwoods Loop #12: The violet trail was reblazed by Paul.
Jared Eliot: The bridge was replaced.

Need for work parties:
Portions of Yellow Square trail and Yellow Circle need to be reblazed.
Mapping:
-All the GPS data has been collected for the trails. It turns out the usual Westwoods description of 39 miles of hiking trails is not accurate. There actually are 32.15 miles of trails east of Moose Hill Road and 14.4 miles of trails west of Moose Hill Road.
-Paul sent the GPS data to Louisa and Ken. Louisa would like some input regarding the new map. We need to show the parking entrances and perhaps include/change some of the points of interest listed on the map. We could include the Westwoods symbol of the split rock and tree as well as the Boy Scout cabin as new points of interest. We may want to leave out the large Hemlock on the Nature Trail since it is no longer standing.
-We are even more appreciative of Fred Richard’s Westwoods map as we attempt to duplicate the simplicity and clarity yet completeness of his original map.
New Website:
-Transitioning to the new website continues. The old Westwoods website will lead people to the Westwoods portion of the new website.
Work Parties Scheduled:
Saturday, May 22, 2010: Meet at 9 am at Spencer Creek for field clearing.
Saturday, May 29, 2010: Meet at 10 am at Moose Hill Road (Blue Rectangle entrance) to blaze the Yellow Trail.
Sunday, May 30, 1010: Meet at the end of Quarry Road (off of 146 in Branford) to fix bridge and take care of blow downs at Hoadley Creek,
June 5, 2010: Meet at 1 pm at Spencer Creek to place large stones for a new bench.
June 6, 2010: Meet at 2 pm at Tanner Marsh Property. This is to clear a field.
New Business: A potluck picnic meeting is planned at Chaffinch Island beginning at 6:30 pm on June 21st.

Meeting Adjourned: 8:30 pm
Recording Secretary: Mary Richerson
Next Meeting: A potluck picnic will be held at 6:30 pm at Chaffinch Island on June 21, 2010.

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