CLCT Annual Membership Meeting Pratt Place

6/8/2025

We held our Annual Meeting on June 8 at the Pratt Preserve, and had a wonderful time recounting the past year's progress while enjoying a barbeque potluck dinner. Below are the minutes from the meeting. We hope you share in our joy at revisiting what was a very active year for the Land Trust.

Annual Meeting of the Membership
Sunday, June 8, 2025 4:00pm at the Pratt Preserve/Cabin

Prior to the meeting:

  • Trails Day: A 1:00pm hike was led at the Pratt Preserve by Nate Cantwell
  • Trails Day: A 2:00pm bird walk at the Sun, Wind, and Woodlands Preserve was led by Jay Kaplan and Sarah Faulkner

Board members in attendance: Theresa Barger, Karen Berger, Nate Cantwell, Alex Clarke, Anne Duncan, Sarah Faulkner, Zbigniew Grabowski, Jay Kaplan, Peter Keyo, Mary Ann Mahony, Karen Manternach, Jennifer Mason, Harold Mullins, John Pech, Phil Philbrick, Bill Porri, Jay Weintraub, Christian Winkler.

President’s Report
President Phil Philbrick reviewed our many accomplishments in the past year.

Trails and Property Stewardship

  • We have a new property, a 4 ½ acre parcel located on Dry Bridge Road. (This was completed at year-end 2023, so should have been mentioned at last year’s meeting.)
  • Continued activity on properties and trails of the approximately 100 volunteers under the leadership of Bob Evenski
  • Additional work at Mary Conklin House
  • Carried out the demolition on the Capen cabin after extensive review of options for saving it
  • Completed the gravel portion of the parking area at Pratt preserve
  • Extensive tree removal work completed;
    • the large pine trees on the Charlotte Craig property
    • trees on the Pratt property
    • ash trees on Swan property
  • Planting new trees and caring for existing ones, at the Smith Tree Farm
  • New trail, Bunny Cut, on the Sun, Wind and Woodland intended primarily for cross-country skiers, but available for hikers
  • New bridge on the Fred Feibel trail, a collaboration between Nate Cantwell and Canton High School
  • New bridge on Arthur and Eunice Sweeton trail. Mason Buckley, class of 2025, completed his Mastery Project by building out a whole bridge, which volunteers carried into the woods

Community Support

  • Donated $2,500 to a scholarship for Canton high school students made possible by the Feibel endowment

Membership and Fund Raising Efforts

  • Flatbread dinner fundraiser
  • Published two newsletters under leadership of Theresa Barger, Holly Hambleton, and Jeanne Day
  • Annual Christmas tree sale on December 7
  • Membership renewal and new member drive, using signs and QR codes at our preserves
  • Improvements to our membership database (Thanks to Michele Evans and Jeanne Day)

Strategic and Succession Planning

  • The board recognizes the need for succession planning, which first requires a strategic plan
  • A task force met twice to start the process, then ½ day meeting with an outside consultant, Connie Manes, to build a strategic plan
  • Created the position of emeritus director

Other Initiatives

  • Hired a videographer to create videos of trails - the pilot initiative was at the Swibold Preserve, the current project is on the Sun, Wind and Woodland preserve
  • Several Board members attended the CT Land Conservation Coalition conference
  • Phil Philbrick presented the history of CLCT to the North Canton Community United Methodist Church on May 16
  • Supported an initiative to allow the Pratt preserve to be used as a location for the classroom entitled Forest Academy, which teaches young people about the outdoors
  • Adopted a policy to help us evaluate usage of CLCT properties by other organizations
  • Adopted a policy to cover the use of CLCT properties for geocaching
  • Created a new office (a long-time goal of Anne Duncan), located at the North Canton Community United Church, with the help of many, and especially Judy Cantwell
  • The land trust held its monthly meeting in person at the church to give board members a chance to visit the new office
  • In collaboration with the town’s conservation commission, added extensive information about invasives on our website
  • Under the leadership of Karen Berger, Theresa Barger, and Holly Hambleton, we began a series of invasive removal work parties in collaboration with the Lion’s Club at Mills Pond, and with Shoprite at Pratt Preserve
  • Although we had to cancel this year’s moonlight hike due to weather, we have reached a license agreement with the Smith family for future hikes on the property

Hikes and Activities on CLCT Properties
We had a robust set of hikes and activities on our properties in the past year, including bird walks and invasive plant removal. Many thanks to the broad group of leaders who made all these events possible.

  • Saturday, November 16: Mary Ellen Mullins led Tai Chi hike at Swan
  • Saturday, December 7: Christmas tree sale at Smith Tree Farm
  • Saturday, February 8: Karen Manternach organized our moonlight hike, which was canceled due to weather
  • Sunday, February 16: Harold Mullins organized the cross-country ski/hike, which was canceled due to weather
  • Saturday, March 25: Co-sponsored “Bring Back the Pollinators” program at the Canton Library with the Xerces Society
  • Saturday, March 29: Vernal Pool hike led by Terri Kucia, Tom Noonan, and Sarah Faulkner
  • Saturday, April 19: Tree Planting, Smith Farm, coordinated by Bob Evenski
  • Saturday, May 3: Invasive plant removal with the Canton High School Honor Society and Lions Club at Mills Pond led by Theresa Barger
  • Saturday, May 3: Invasive plant removal at Pratt Preserve with Shoprite employees and CLCT volunteers
  • Sunday, May 4: Spring songbird hike with Jay Kaplan at Sun, Wind and Woodland
  • Saturday, May 7: Invasive plant removal at Pratt Preserve
  • Tuesday, May 13: Jay Kaplan led bird walk to count nesting and migrating species at CPT
  • Monday, May 19: 5th Grade CPT habitat walk and exploration
  • June 8: National Trails Day hike at Pratt Preserve with Nate Cantwell
  • June 8: National Trails Day Bird walk at Sun, Wind and Woodland with Jay Kaplan and Sarah Faulkner

Election of Board Members
Karen Berger, speaking for the Nominating Committee, introduced Nate Cantwell, who described the many years of service given by outgoing Board member Betty Stanley. Nate enumerated some of her actions, contributions, and guidance given over decades on the Board and nominated her to be our first Emeritus Director. The motion was approved unanimously.

Anne Duncan presented our first Canton Land Conservation Trust Volunteer of the Year award to Judy Cantwell for all her hours sifting and organizing the records of the CLCT. These records were found in boxes from many different homes. She set up the records in our new office at the Canton Methodist Church. This was an enormous task and very much appreciated.

Karen gave effusive thanks to retiring Director Anne Duncan for her many years of service. She will be greatly missed. Karen then presented the slate of proposed Directors, all of whom are renewing their positions for a three-year term ending in 2028.

  • Bob Evenski
  • Peter Keyo
  • Jennifer Mason
  • Harold Mullins
  • Bill Porri
  • Christian Winkler

Annual Financial Report
Christian Winkler, Treasurer, distributed a financial status sheet for the CLCT’s past year, describing the robust fiscal health of the organization.

Adjournment
A motion to adjourn the Annual Meeting was made by at 4:33pm by Jay Kaplan, seconded by Harold Mullins, and approved unanimously.

Respectfully submitted, Sarah Faulkner, Secretary

 

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