Featured Letters to the Editor

•Letter: I don't like Notch Reservoir forestry plan

Dec 11, 2024

Berkshire Eagle We have in our diverse, healthy, Notch Reservoir forest the best possible intact, resilient, tested and fully functional water filtration and runoff slowing system to keep our drinking water clean and healthy.

I believe that every single act of the proposed heavy logging and aggressive forest management by Mass Audubon currently being contemplated would erode our intact system and its capacity to slowly and continuously deliver purified water to the reservoir.

The logging plans note that they will observe the unenforceable and nonregulatory “best management logging practices.” They aim to limit, if possible, the extremes of inevitable logging damage but not to improve the water quality or that of the forest’s unique capacity to purify water.

Logging will not, and cannot in any manner, better the near perfect functioning natural water management system. That damage and diminishment is a given, on a property where the dam is already deficient for managing anticipated storm events. On a property with shallow, often wet soils, and with steep to excessively steep slopes, the logging plans only aggravate this risk.

We must remember that forest-managed slow release ensures both perpetual water in the reservoir, as with this summer’s extended dry period, and less damage to the dam in extreme storm events.

This near perfectly functioning forest will not be more diverse, carbon storage will be enormously reduced in the near term, thus negatively impacting the climate. I believe the cherished and nationally acknowledged aesthetics of the forest and Bellows Pipe Trail will be gravely maimed. 

The city will not receive any remuneration but, in my opinion, inherit a considerable debt as well as increased encroachment of invasive species, road repair necessity and premature Reservoir dredging. The risk is enormous and the reward only riding away on logging trucks to Quebec and out to corporate pockets.

We can legitimately ask: What is the opportunity cost of doing nothing, except repairing the dam and perhaps dredging the reservoir and thinking about this in a true public forum? The evident answer is there is no opportunity cost risk, since this plan is discretionary and untouched natural water protecting forest future is already assured, if left intact. The wise mind sees Notch Reservoir as a forever wild forest permanently protected from opportunistic commercial logging interests and their nonprofit associates such as Mass Audubon, The Woodlands Partnership and the New England Forestry Foundation.

Walter Cudnohufsky, Ashfield

•Letter: Save Notch Forest Birds

Tuesday, December 3, 2024

iBerkshires: I'm writing in regards to the Save Notch Forest signs that I have seen.

As a proud Masshole native from North Adams, that has transplanted to Southwest Vermont, I was curious as to what the signs were about.

I am grateful that I checked out the site on the sign to learn of the extensive and heinous logging plans of the Mass Audubon society near the North Adams reservoir.

As someone who travels back down to Mass sometimes daily and ventures to the reservoir 95 percent of that time for just the peace and beauty of being able to just sit there in awe.

Each time I go, I am guaranteed to see the bald eagle that perches on the pine or birch on the eastern end of the reservoir. I've had quite a few joyfully, awesome experiences with watching it. Be when it was just chilling peacefully or swooping at the geese getting them all flustered but I loved hearing it's call after the beautiful Loons floating in the reservoir.

There was this time I could hear it calling and crying, but unable to see it. I then look up to see a hawk gliding back and forth along the reservoir, doing it's best to taunt and harass the Eagle. From the direction of the cries, I figured the bald eagle's nest must be somewhere behind that tree it usually sits on on the water's edge.

I just do not understand how Mass Audubon Society can intentionally destroy the bald eagle's habitat ... let alone the loons ... let alone all of the other heinous logging aspects that come with its proposal near the North Adams water supply. Way up mountainous terrain on already strained roads that are slowly sliding off the mountainside and near public habitation.

There are a million other places on Greylock, North Adams or Massachusetts in general, what about the other side in South Williamstown/New Ashford? More space, more direct, less people, no water supply or endangered species habitat to destroy for the fun of it.

Why does it have to be Greylock and North Adams you experiment with? Why experiment at all?

I'm grateful I stumbled upon the mighty little forest army fighting for what's good and right, let alone common sense. I am also eternally grateful for the abundant awe inspiring magic of Greylock and all she bestows.

Felicia Packard
Bennington, Vt.

•Letter: How does the Notch Reservoir climate forestry plan respect the purposes of environmental justice?

November 15, 2024

For residents of lower Reservoir Road, suggestions that so-called climate-smart logging will be good for us smacks of the urban-renewal language used to usurp land and neighborhoods in the 1960s and '70s. 

Berkshire Edge:

What does environmental justice mean? North Adams has been designated an environmental justice district. This designation is designed to give traditionally marginalized populations a voice in the political games that impact the well-being of their neighborhoods. When a recent editorial by Berkshire Eagle columnist Lauren Stevens suggested that anti-logging protests in North Adams “had an edge to them,” many residents were annoyed that anyone would expect otherwise.

Drive up Reservoir Road from Route 8 and around the North Reservoir to Notch Road. Reservoir Road, below the reservoir, is rutted, full of potholes, and has been decaying for years and is susceptible to mud flows and flooding that occur during heavy rains. Until recently, plenty of illegal dumping took place in the parking lot below West Mountain Road. People there deal with all this but value the rural, forested character of their neighborhood.

For residents of lower Reservoir Road, suggestions that so-called climate-smart logging will be good for us smacks of the urban-renewal language used to usurp land and neighborhoods in the 1960s and ’70s. This is a narrative in which zealous political pundits prescribe trendy, grant-funded programs that disrupt the character of neighborhoods forever, then move on to new projects while residents are left struggling to recover.

Bart Bouricius, a forestry expert from Monague, Mass., recently walked the Bellows Pipe with members of the Friends of the Notch Forest Coalition. He reported seeing a healthy mixed-age forest with many large oaks and sugar maples marked for logging because they are most profitable in terms of lumber. He also reported seeing many young trees and very few true invasives—a fear-inducing word that is used to promote logging. He didn’t see any need to log the forest to improve climate or the health of our reservoir. But it doesn’t take an expert to observe the delicacy of this rocky, stream-filled landscape and imagine how heavy lumber-hauling trucks and skidders would cause this land to crumble and slide into an already distressed reservoir and road directly below. The thick spruce plantations on the shore of the reservoir were planted by the Civilian Conservation Corps in the 1930s to protect the reservoir from this mud and silt flowing downhill. These are now slated for removal. How does this climate forestry plan respect the purposes of environmental justice?

Lori Bradley
North Adams and New Bedford

Our Petition to Stop the Logging Plan for the Notch Forest, Reservoir, and Bellows Pipe Trail in North Adams, MA in 2024

The Issue:

Save the Notch Reservoir Forest and Bellows Pipe Trail from Logging:

A Petition to officials of the Town of North Adams, the new England Forestry Foundation, the Mohawk Trail Woodlands Partnership and Mass Audubon.org. We, the undersigned, want to preserve the Notch Reservoir Town Forest and immediately and fully STOP the proposed logging project referred to as "the forest stewardship plan.” 

Why this petition matters

This beautiful and historic forest in North Adams, Massachusetts in under threat of destruction by logging. Instead of quiet, peaceful stands of trees leading to a reservoir that feels like a pristine northern lake inhabited by beaver, deer and bear, it will be turned into a muddy field bisected by logging roads and skid trails and will never fully heal from this degradation. The proposed project will destroy the peaceful nature of the famous Bellows Pipe Trailhead for decades.

The area proposed for "selection harvest" is currently a healthy forest of mixed species and age, with the successional generations uniformly of native species. The trees marked for harvest are widely distributed, on a steep slope. All slopes in the forest lead directly into the only public water supply for the town. Heavy logging equipment access throughout that area will inevitably damage the trees intended to be saved, of all ages, as well as destroy the understory vegetation including tree seedlings and younger growth.

This 1067-acre forest is of environmental and cultural importance to the residents of North Adams and to the thousands of visitors to the Greylock State Reservation and hikers, cross-county skiers, and bicyclers of the Bellows Pipe Trail, and the people who enjoy and value the quiet natural beauty of this historic area, the current abundance of wildlife, and the quality of the Notch Reservoir water supply. 

Logging Spin and Propaganda

Townspeople have been misled by timber industry propaganda presented representatives of the Mohawk Trail Woodlands Partnership, Mass Audubon.org, and the New England Forestry Foundation who state these changes are necessary for “climate resiliency” and “early seccessional habitat.” In fact, there is no current climate emergency that requires destruction of this pristine forest. Logging will only exacerbate any future forest issues associated with climate change:

“The Committee generally agreed that passive management would confer greater increases in carbon stocks compared with active management.” – Report of the Healey Administration, Climate Forestry Commission

"There is no conservation reason for creating early successional habitat. There is much more of it nowadays than there ever was in pre-Colonial times. It's a bogus argument, ginned up as an excuse for more logging. But their argument could work with a gullible public,” -John Terborgh, Worldwide Leading Conservation Biologist

“Cutting forests serves human desires for wood and money, but except for rare and specific cases, logging is not ‘needed’ to ‘help’ the forest as is often claimed by those who stand to benefit by cutting it,” - https://www.maforests.org/Timberspeak.pdf - Logging Spin and Propaganda

Lack of transparency

Town officials did not make a fair and viable communication of their intentions for this forest with abutting residents and townspeople, or with any group which regularly hikes the Bellows Pipe Trail. Because of the lack of public relations efforts by the town, time is now of the essence and the logging plan is scheduled to be implemented in December 2024. 

Negative impacts on recreation
 

The Notch Reservoir Forest contains the beginning of the Bellows Pipe Trail that leads directly through the abutting historic Mount Greylock Reserve and to the historic Bellows Pipe lean-to. The world-renowned Appalachian Trail runs only one-half mile away and directly parallel to the Notch Reservoir Forest. Any logging activity in this sensitive area will create large open mud slicks that run into the reservoir and will change the current peaceful forest experience for generations of visitors. The popular Bellows Pipe Trail will be closed for months or years and will never reopen as a viable hiking trail.

Forest fragmentation

Proposed selective cutting of older trees and small clear-cuts will result in forest fragmentation and worsen the condition of the forest and weaken its ability to withstand climate change. This project will destroy the integrity of a currently dense forest for decades and destroy the habitats of the bear, deer, turkeys, migrating and resident birds, beaver, salamanders and so many other animals that currently make this forest their home. And it will significantly and negatively change the recreational experience of this forest for generations.

Soil Erosion 

Most of the Notch Reservoir Forests is on land that slopes directly down to the reservoir that serves as the Town of North Adams ONLY drinking water supply. The area is replete with underground streams and is very rocky. Removing undergrowth, the existing deep forest floor, and roots of vegetation will create a slick, uncontrollable mud and silt flow into their reservoir and down into the Notch Brook that leads down into the popular Cascades hiking trail. The increased dirt in the already stressed old outflow culverts at the corners of the Reservoir will lead to forest and trail area being continuously wet and muddy while polluting the town’s water supply:

"Soil erosion in an undisturbed forest is extremely low, generally under 1 mg ha−1 yr−1 (0.5 ton/acre/year). Disturbances, however, can dramatically increase soil erosion to levels exceeding 100 mg ha−1 yr−1 (50 tons/acre/year). These disturbances include natural events such as wildfires and mass movements and human-induced disturbances such as road construction and timber harvesting. Soil erosion, combined with other impacts from forest disturbance, such as soil compaction, can reduce forest sustainability and soil productivity." (USDA Forest Service RMRS - Moscow, Idaho)

Increased ATV and snowmobile activity

For decades, the Bellows Pipe Trail and Notch Reservoir Forest has provided a peaceful, pristine hiking area for residents and visitors to the area. The trail leads into state forests that surround the historic Greylock Mountain and Appalachian Trail cross-over trails. It is inappropriate to turn this pristine forest and Bellows Pipe Trail into a logging “demonstration forest” as proposed. A demonstration forest means continued logging activity and will permanently destroy the peaceful nature of this treasured public recreation resource. New logging roads and skid trails will open the area to ATVs and snowmobiles which will further erode the soil and disrupt the surrounding neighborhoods. 

Further degradation of Reservoir Road

Reservoir Road is very narrow and currently pocked with frost heaves, potholes, and gravel-fills. It is already difficult to navigate for motor vehicles and bicycles. Increased use of the road by logging vehicles will further degrade the road and make it increasingly impassable for residents living on Reservoir Road, snow-clearing vehicles, and visitors driving up to the North Adams entrance to Mount Greylock.

We urge the Town of North Adams create a naturally wild recreational reserve at the Notch Reservoir Forest and Bellows Pipe Trailhead.

Preserving the Notch Reservoir Town Forest should be part of a larger, positive movement to permanently protect scenic and historic Massachusetts state and town-owned lands as reserves for recreation, relaxation and wildlife habitat:

https://www.restore.org/ Protect the North Woods, Restore.org.

https://www.maforests.org/ Massachusetts Forest Watch

https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61563991071793 Friends of the Notch Reservoir Forest and Bellows Pipe Trailhead