Charlestown Township Environmental Advisory Committee (EAC) Meeting Minutes Monday, April 11, 2022

Meeting was held at Vedy Maany’s house. Armstrong opened the meeting at 7:22 Thanks Veda!!!

March 2022 minutes were approved.

NEW BUSINESS

1. A motion was made and seconded to propose Stephanie Yokum as alternate member of the EAC. All members in favor, motion passed. Proposal to be sent to the BoS for approval.
2. Ordinances - Kate Clark from the CC planning Commission gave us an update on Chester County tree and woodland ordinances. Here are the major points from her presentation and ensuing discussion.
   1. Strengthening SALDO provisions is a good start. Charlestown Township (CT) should try to incrementally, in small chunks, strengthen SALDO.
   2. Most important recommendation – max disturbance limit of how many trees (woodlands) or percentage of trees or canopy can be removed on a property should be at least 50%.
      About 40 of 73 municipalities have a max disturbance limit with no challenges from residents. Most are in the zoning laws.
   3. PA municipalities use of timber harvesting - every municipality and district who has this has included in zoning ordinances. There are no timbering harvest ordinances in PA other than PSU Extension. Go back to Model Ordinance Standards. Tom Comitta can help CT draft a new ordinance. PSU and Brandywine currently working on these.
   4. Water Resources Authority (WRA) has new riparian buffer standard of 100 ft. Currently, only 50. Kate didn’t know WRA process for rolling out recommendation to increase CT riparian buffer standard. Still sitting with DEP’s issuance of 100 ft riparian buffer standard and would need to be adopted by municipalities. Need to know what BoS thinks about what the 40% protection means for water runoff etc.
   5. Kate recommends we make sure everything in our ordinances is clearly defined and measurable, otherwise the ordinances can’t be enforced. She also suggested looking at the Protected Open Space tracking post on CC website.
3. EAC Minutes format – Solomon will experiment with changes. No discussion necessary.
4. Earth Day – people who want to help are encouraged to check with Csete.
5. Greene-Marks Subdivision off Howell Road – Jill Green attended regarding a property behind her home on Howell Rd. Owner (Saymar) was going to put a spec house on the property because he couldn’t sell the property for 10 years. Feasibility study did not approve 2 houses on property. Owner harvested whole nine acres. He was supposed to have a logging permit. 450 trees were removed. Logs went to Harrisburg. He had no plan for water runoff or stormwater management. It’s been a year. Green called township/county who confirmed that the owner was allowed to do this. Green explained all of this to BoS. They did a whole mitigation plan for Green’s property, specifically the horse course. It was settling over the winter, but the runoff has destroyed everything on the property. The owner sold the property. New owners proposing to build 3 houses. The BoS thought that a berm of wood chips would stop the erosion. Green and others disagree that this could solve the problem. When property was subdivided there was no deed before it was sold to Greenmarks. John Guraffelo subdivided it. There was a plan for an easement from that property to Horse Shoe trail.

   Need permitting and no one wants more permits and there are questions about where responsibility lies. EAC discussed the need for a tracking mechanism of woodland cutting in the township.

6. Pollinator.org – For next newsletter. Richardson will write up and send to Csete.
7. Thank you to Carol from Sharon – Carol gave 2 presentations at GCFP (Garden Club Federation of PA)- one on Earth Stewardship and other plastic pollution.
   Environmental school at Stroud

OLD BUSINESS, ON GOING

1. Tree ID final preparations- invite will be sent.
2. Do we want EAC at primary day? May 17^th - EAC not interested.
3. Posting of need for EAC members - we will hopefully have a new associate member. No further discussion of recruitment actions.
4. Nine people attended Weed Warrior Program. Pix to be sent to Csete for newsletter. Worked on multiflora rose. June 4 is next work session from 10-12. Focus on garlic mustard and narrow leaf bittercress on Pickering trail.
5. Interpretive sign for riparian buffers needs to be installed. - will do after tree walk (2:00).
6. Can Esther be available to plant her tree after the tree walk and before the sign work? Carol will contact her and ask if 4/30 works for her.
7. Protective Tree Ordinances - see discussion in New Business.
8. Using pre-registration system for future educational events - no discussion.
9. Birdtown - Pete will lead a subcommittee including Stephanie Yocum and Andy Motel to work on Charlestown’s Birdtown application. Will need approval by BoS.
10. Newsletter - Pete, Carol, and Sharon are submitting articles for the summer edition. In addition to Sharon’s on pollinators and pesticides, Pete will submit one on Native Trees, and Carol will submit one with Linda Csete on plastic pollution.

Meeting ended at 9:15