Amid public backlash, North Adams pulls out of a controversial forest management plan at Notch Reservoir

NORTH ADAMS — A controversial forest management plan around the Notch Reservoir has been scrapped.

In a statement issued Thursday night, Mayor Jennifer Macksey said the city has halted the project, which included logging within the Notch Reservoir watershed, due to relentless public backlash. 

“The plan was laid out by our knowledgeable and dedicated partners to address key threats to this property and would have helped the city proactively manage our watershed's forest," the mayor said, indicating the move was made reluctantly. "However, given the public outcry regarding the impact the project could have on the Bellows Pipe Trail, I have decided not to move forward with the plan."

The city had been working on the project with the Woodlands Partnership, which secured grant money to develop a forest stewardship plan, and Mass Audubon, which conducted a climate resiliency and operations plan for the 1,073-acre property.

The plan was meant to address an increase in pests, disease and extreme rainfall. It called for the removal of dying and dead trees, including the ash and a red spruce plantation, then planting more climate-resistant species like sugar maple and oak. While logging would have been a source of revenue for the city, officials said it was not the reason it pursued the project.

Macksey acknowledged concerns about carbon sequestration, protecting the water supply and “aesthetics” she heard while interacting with the public. The Bellows Pipe Trail is on North Adams watershed land; Notch and Mount Williams reservoirs together provide the city’s water.

But she further defended the city’s exploration of the initiative.

"While the folks I met with had differing perspectives on the topic of climate-smart forestry, they still saw the merits of this project and did not feel the project would be detrimental to the City's water supply," she said in the statement. "In fact, they said that best practices were used throughout the plan, while acknowledging that there were ecological and social tradeoffs." 

The statement, which also included comments from Mass Audubon Chief Conservation Officer Jocelyn Forbush, points out that climate-smart forestry, or removing dead and dying trees more likely to be impacted by climate change from forests, is a complex topic.

“We stand by the proven best practices used by reputable organizations doing this vital work,” Forbush said. “We’re heartened to see so many members of the public passionate about the environment and the crucial role forests play in our lives, which dovetails with our 128-year history of protecting the nature of Massachusetts.”

More than 2,000 people signed a petition, put together by Friends of Notch Reservoir and the Bellows Pipe Trailhead, an informal group of locals opposed to any logging, to stop the plan. They protested outside City Hall, and held public meetings, and vigorously criticized an operations plan that called for tree cutting on either side of the Bellows Pipe Trail. Earlier this year, the group was influential in getting herbicide ditched from the plan.

Friends co-founder Lori Bradley thanked the city and its partners in a statement to The Eagle “for listening to the concerns of our citizens over the last six months and paying heed to their heartfelt activism.”


Friends member Devin Raber said, “The owls and chipmunks won’t be waking up to chainsaws.”

At the heart of the disagreement between groups like the friends and the Woodlands Partnership was a scientific dispute on the most effective way to combat carbon sequestration: Is it better for the forest and reservoir to cut unhealthy trees now and plant healthy ones in their place, or to let nature take its course?

North Adams resident Valerie Shields, an active member of the friends group, wrote to City Council President Bryan Sapienza on Thursday to seek clarification on the mayor’s plans for Notch — Macksey had said of late that she was pausing any action until the city learned more. Shields’ view that this project was “a pending unnecessary decade-long watershed timber-harvesting plan for The Notch written by industrial-logging and tree-farming interest groups” is indicative of the perspective of her fellow critics.

“Operations on Notch Reservoir’s landslide-and-runoff-prone steep hills — with unprecedented heavyweight vehicles/equipment that rely on and emit toxins and with unmonitored tree-cutting choices/locations at the discretion of profit-driven loggers — may illogically start before and at the site of our City’s necessary dam-safety-plan repair and improvements at the reservoirs,” she wrote.

Friends co-founder Doone MacKay outlined what she thinks were several mistakes proponents of the plan made.

“The plan pretends that managing for carbon sequestration is a goal, and says that all trees more than 25 [inch] diameter are to be left standing,” MacKay said in a statement to The Eagle. “But on the ground, easily a dozen healthy trees of approximately that sizer or larger are marked for cutting. Did they think we wouldn’t notice?”

Dicken Crane, chair of the Woodlands Partnership of Northwest Massachusetts, said the group understands why the city is not going forward given a lack of public support, but added that the group is “encouraging all our member municipalities to embrace proactive planning for forest stewardship and the ecological health of our communities.”

The city anticipates producing a “climate-informed open space and recreation plan,” which involves gathering public input to examine open space and forest stewardship opportunities locally.

Berkshires landscape architect Walter Cudnohufsky called the now-canceled project “more of an experiment.”

“A true forestry plan that fits the forest and the city is the minimum we should ask for,” he said. “‘Forever Wild’ is what seems appropriate for this healthy, diverse, well-functioning forest. Carbon sequestering is just hitting its stride.”

Glen Ayers, a retired public water supply operator, said, the forest is a "perfect example of land that should be protected so that it will continue to provide safe and clean drinking water to North Adams and adjacent communities.”

The letter concludes by saying the city will have to find another way to address safety issues at Notch, including wildfire risk, falling trees, invasive species and drainage.

"People's attachment to this particular section of the forest made for some passionate advocacy,” Macksey said. “I hope they will stay involved and answer the call for their input when asked in the future.”