$1.6 million Poland Forest plan will finally be discussed today

POLAND — More than seven months after a consulting firm completed a report on flooding and erosion in the Poland Municipal Forest, the forest board has scheduled its first public meeting at 4 p.m. today to discuss the report's findings.

The Stow-based environmental consulting firm's report, which cost $16,000 and was funded by the Poland Forest Foundation, identifies five spots in the forest that have suffered from flooding and erosion and proposes projects to stabilize those areas.

The firm, EnviroScience, estimates the interventions could cost up to $1.6 million. EnviroScience's initial findings were presented to a group of forest board and forest foundation members at a meeting last year that was not publicly announced.

For years, forest board members have disagreed with village council, Poland residents and each other about how to manage the forest. Discussion of the EnviroScience report at previous forest board meetings have sparked disagreements about the level of intervention that the forest requires.

Ever since the consultant's report was made public last July, Poland village councilwoman Martha Morgan has repeatedly requested a public meeting. She said that she would be unable to attend Thursday's meeting because of the notice given by the forest board.

"I understand that the seven day notice you provided for this meeting is legally sufficient," Morgan said at Tuesday's forest board meeting. "But I do not feel it is adequate to allow members of the public to learn more about what this proposal really is all about."

Morgan said that, due to the high price tag of the project and the fact that public meetings have not been scheduled to discuss the report, the meeting should be announced further in advance.

"That's how you get people to a public meeting if you want people to attend that public meeting," Morgan said.

Poland village councilman Sam Moffie also expressed dismay that EnviroScience's report was not presented to the village council first, which would need to approve spending on projects proposed in the report.

"More people are inclined to attend a regularly scheduled council meeting," said councilman Sam Moffie.

Forest Board president Elinor Zedaker said she hopes that council members will attend today's meeting. But Moffie noted that would create a problem for the council because if four or more members attend the forest board meeting, they'd have a quorum and be accidentally holding an illegal, unannounced meeting.

"Because it has not been properly advertised as a council meeting," said Moffie. "It would be a problem."

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This story was originally published February 27, 2020 at 5:00 AM with the headline "$1.6 million Poland Forest plan will finally be discussed today."