The Conservation Commission met on October 7 in the Marion Police Station conference room and discussed how to address an unknown brush cutter working within the wetlands buffer zone around Seaside Lane and Holly Lane.
Conservation Agent Doug Guey-Lee received a complaint last month about someone encroaching on their private property with a brush cutter and working within a wetlands buffer zone.
After a meeting last month, Conservation Commissioners decided to conduct a site visit at 9 Seaside Lane and talked to one property owner. However, the commissioners and Guey-Lee received conflicting information.
Commissioners unanimously voted to send a letter to two property owners — one whose property was cut without permission and the property where they believe the landscaping work originated.
Commissioners were told an outside landscaper was doing the work, but Guey-Lee, who also conducted a visit, was not told a private contractor was involved. To complicate the issue, one property is owned by a private trust.
“One of the challenges with this is we don’t have firsthand knowledge of who did it,” Walsh said.
Commissioners directed Guey-Lee to write a letter instructing property owners that there is debris that should be cleaned up and the area in question is within a buffer zone. Any landscaping or brush clearing needs clearance from the Conservation Commission, according to the board.
Commissioners said they do not believe any restorative plantings should be conducted within the wetlands resource area.
“It’s [brush] cutting that Mother Nature will likely restore itself,” Commission Chairman Shaun Walsh said.
Also at the meeting, the Conservation Commission determined that there is no need for a request for applicability for a project on town property used for walking trails. The application proposed replacing an existing 25-foot-long by 39-inch-wide wooden bridge that stretches over a bog at Hales Brook.
The Conservation Commission approved the project but will send a letter to John Rockwell and other Open Space Acquisition members asking them to remove and properly dispose of the old bridge.
Rockwell is the listed applicant of the project.
Walsh and fellow commissioners said the old pedestrian bridge at that site poses a safety threat, and they encourage replacing similar trail bridges on town-owned property.
Marion Conservation Commission
By Jeffrey Wagner