The Natural Resources Conservation Service has contacted Marion Open Space Acquisition Commission Chairman John Rockwell, offering an opportunity to apply for grant money to assist in phragmite removal at the Grassi Bog property as part of the Grassi Bog Restoration Grant.

Rockwell said on January 5 that the NRCS would provide a grant to fully fund a phragmite control contract at the conservation property managed by MOSAC.

Rockwell brought the matter up to fellow MOSAC members, who encouraged Rockwell to pursue the grant funds.

“Hey, it’s free money,” said Rockwell. He estimated that there is roughly a 3,000 to 4,000 square-foot area of phragmites at Grassi Bog.

“It’s getting bigger every year,” said MOSAC member Alan Harris.

The NRCS will pay for the contract, which would entail the manual application of pesticides to each individual phragmite, once a year for three years. The best part about the nature of this particular grant, said Rockwell, is that once the commission selects a contractor, the NRCS can be billed directly.

“We (MOSAC) wouldn’t even have to pass through any money,” Rockwell said.

Rockwell said in a follow-up email on January 6 that the invasive problem at Grassi Bog “isn’t that bad, as of yet,” but the Town would not have to match any of the funding should it be officially granted to the town.

No specified amount has yet been stated.

The next meeting of the Marion Open Space Acquisition Commission is scheduled for January 19 at 7:00 pm at the Marion Recreation building at 13 Atlantis Drive.

By Jean Perry

On January 9, Brandon Faneuf of Ecosystem Solutions, representing Daniel and Lisa Craig, 4 Seabreeze Lane, once again sat down with the Mattapoisett Conservation Commission trying to reach a compromise – a little give and a little take on jurisdictional lands that had been encroached by the Craigs.

For months, the Craigs have been seeking permission to maintain an immense swath of wetlands and bordering vegetated buffer zones they altered, landscaped areas that the Conservation Commission has contended were ‘no touch zones.’

The Craigs sought to keep over 20,000 square feet of groomed lawn and other landscaped features in violation of the sub-divisions permits. They also sought relief from Superior Court. The court’s decision had been to uphold the commission’s enforcement order.

Again the Craigs attempted to receive grace in the form of an Order of Conditions on a new filing that would make the court’s decision null and void while also appealing their ruling.

During a marathon December 12 hearing, Faneuf and the Town’s independent environmental expert John Rockwell hammered away at possible remediation and restoration plans, trying to reach a compromise that would satisfy not only the Town and the property owners, but also the Buzzards Bay Coalition.

An informal polling of the commissioners at that hearing found the majority in favor of granting the Craigs an Order of Conditions on their Notice of Intent filing, in spite of the court ruling. That hearing was continued to give Faneuf, along with Rockwell and the Town’s Conservation Agent Elizabeth Leidhold, sufficient time to draft a new Order of Conditions – one that would grant compromises to the original Enforcement Order.

As the January 9 hearing drew to a close, opposition to a compromise was raised.

Mike Huguenin, president of the Mattapoisett Land Trust, said, “I don’t know why somebody can take a resource area and then give us back only half.”

Korrine Petersen, senior attorney with the Buzzards Bay Coalition, read from a letter indicating that their position was not to compromise with the Craigs, but to enforce the commission’s orders and to put some areas under a conservation restriction to ensure their preservation into perpetuity.

Chairman Bob Rogers, who has firmly been in favor of keeping the Enforcement Order in place, said, “A big part of me just wants to take that Enforcement Order and let that be our Order of Conditions – in so many ways that’s the right thing to do in my mind.”

Commissioner Mike Dubuc said, “I’m in favor of the Enforcement Order.”

Commissioner Chapman Dickerson concurred, commenting that the other residents had complied, so the Craigs should also, in order to “be fair.”

Disagreeing with his fellow commissioners, Mike King said, “It’s best to negotiate a reasonable solution.”

Commissioner Trevor Francis agreed with King at first, but not for long. When the vote was cast, compromise was off the table.

All commissioners except King voted for the Enforcement Conditions. The Craigs’ appeal to the Superior Court ruling will now move forward.

In a follow-up, Petersen, speaking on behalf of the Buzzards Bay Coalition, whose role in the matter has been the protection of resource areas abutting Eel Pond, said, “I am immensely pleased.”

In other business, Negative 3 determinations were handed out to Thomas Kane, 21 Meadowbrook Lane, for the installation of a new septic system; Dry Well Realty Trust, for 6 Cedar Street, for a new septic system where a new home is planned; the Mattapoisett Land Trust on their RDA filing for the removal of invasive species at the Dunseith Gardens property; and DG Service, 23 County Road, represented by Robert Field of Field Engineering for an RDA filing to construct a 2,200 square-foot addition to an existing commercial structure.

New sidewalks planned by the Massachusetts Department of Transportation along Route 6 from the boundary of Fairhaven to the intersection of Main Street also received a Negative 3 determination on their RDA filing.

A NOI filing by Samuel Waterston, 13 Shipyard Lane, represented by Susan Nilson of CLE Engineering, for improvements to an existing groin and the addition of a floating dock was continued until January 23 to give the commissioners additional time to process comments from the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers, EPA, Division of Marine Fisheries, Coastal Zone Management, and other agencies.

The next meeting of the Mattapoisett Conservation Commission is scheduled for January 23 at 6:30 pm in the town hall conference room.

By Marilou Newell