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Minutes to Meeting for Taunton River Wild & Scenic Committee
on Wednesday, January 9th 2002 at SRPEDD office.

1 Attendees: Kitty Doherty; Tricia Cassady; Frank Bibbins, Bruce Dyer, Bridgewater; Burke Fountain, Ray Brierly, Jim Ross, Steve Cote, Raynham; Bill Taylor, Middleboro; Aria Brisette, Maryan Nowak, Jasmine Tanguay, Taunton; Bob Davis, TRWA; Scott MacFaden, Wildlands Trust; Joan Kimball, DFWELE Riverways; Pat Rogers, EOEA; Maisy McDarby, Bill Napolitano, SRPEDD; Jamie Fosburgh, National Park Service

2 Meeting was called to order at 7:10 p.m. by Bill Napolitano on behalf of the committee. Subcommittee minutes from December 4, 2001 were approved unanimously. Because there were no volunteers to assume positions of Chair, Vice-Chair and Secretary, a Nominating Committee was appointed (Bill Napolitano and Kitty Doherty volunteered). The Nominating Committee will be contacting Wild & Scenic Committee members during January.

3 Jamie Fosburgh, NPS, gave an update of NPS activities and an overview of some issues to be resolved by the Upper Taunton River Committee; Jamie reported to the committee members that he will be without e-mail until further notice per Dept. of Interior. As for focus issues to be resolved for the Upper Taunton Study, the following were brought up:

• definitive boundary for the study area;
• how are we going to treat our tributaries;
• significance of the anadromous fish runs;
• which tributaries are in our scope (in terms of "outstanding resource values" to present to Congress);
• low head dams are eligible for inclusion and consideration in Wild & Scenic nominations

4 It was decided that representatives from each municipality should talk/meet over the next month to put together a list of what they believe are the outstanding resources values of the Taunton River in their respective communities.

5  Joan Kimball gave an update on the Taunton Heritage River Program; six grants totaling over $61,000 were given to organizations in Fall River, Freetown, Taunton, Raynham, Middleboro and Bridgewater for projects that highlight some cultural, historical, recreational or natural feature of the river. These projects will be highlighted in a brochure (to be designed) and marked by signs containing a Taunton Heritage River logo (to be designed).

6 Maisy McDarby gave an update on the GIS and website activities to date (handouts were given); Maisy has developed a chat room, capacity for viewing and amending minutes on-line, an interactive calendar and several other features; the site should be fully operational sometime this Spring. Jamie stated that this was the only Wild & Scenic website in Massachusetts and perhaps the only interactive site in the country (!)

7  Bill Napolitano gave the work plan updates regarding revision of existing documents; including the Natural Resources Assessment, Recreational Opportunities Assessment and Landowners Inventory; SRPEDD has also digitized the Bristol County, North Soils Maps for the Wild & Scenic corridor.

8 The Wild & Scenic Committee voted to follow the previous map boundaries provided by EOEA, with the possibility of revising to include tributaries. The Wild & Scenic Committee voted to include all of the Bridgewater Correctional property in the corridor mapping as a priority conservation site.

9 The first Wild & Scenic outreach meeting and speaker event was moved to February 13, 2002 at 7:00 p.m., Middleboro Town Hall. The featured speaker will be Bill Taylor and the topic will be Archaeology and Cultural Resources of the Upper Taunton (or, What I've Found in the Last 60 Years!).

10 Additional sub-committees were formed, as follows:

• Conservation/Recreation: Ray Brierly, Aria Brisette, Scott MacFaden, Jasmine Tanguay, Bill Napolitano,
  and Jamie Fosburgh
• Natural Resources: Tricia Cassady, Jim Ross, Frank Bibbins, Bob Davis, Bill Napolitano, and
  Jamie Fosburgh
• Landowner Outreach: Bruce Dyer, Kitty Doherty, Scott MacFaden, Bill Napolitano, and Jamie Fosburgh The Wild & Scenic Committee voted to send a letter of support to Jan Ham who is working with local teachers and Middle School aged students on river related design projects. Jan is applying for an NEA grant to supplement these activities.

11 The Wild & Scenic committee also voted to support the Taunton Heritage River design workshop this spring with a $300 contribution to cover lunch.

12 Next Meeting: February 13, 2002, 7:00 p.m., Middleboro Town Hall; subcommittees will be contacted and information on the February 13 meeting will be sent to all Town Halls.

The meeting adjourned at 9:15 p.m.