Stop the
See Update Below
Quabbin
Reservoir, Drinking Water Supply Area for Boston and 2.2 million Residents
Gate
21A, April 2010
Schoolhouse
Road near
UPDATE: July 21,
2010
While the state’s recent placement of a temporary moratorium on
logging state forests and watersheds is a step
in the right direction, permanent and comprehensive protection is
needed for state public forests and watersheds.
Currently, logging is prohibited on 200,000 acres of the 550,000
acres of DCR parks, forests and watersheds
which means 64% of state public forests are still open to
commercial logging and that only 4% of
land area and 6% its 3,200,000 acres of forests are protected from
logging in state parks and reserves.
Also, the state’s recent
directive prohibiting renewable energy credits from going to electric wood-burning
biomass plants is a welcome sign that
energy. However, the state
needs to put a moratorium on issuing any wood burning biomass permits as well
as
issuing renewable credits to CHP plants until the carbon, public health
and forest impacts of this technology are
further investigated. It
is quite likely that this technology is also worse than fossil fuels and could
lead to a
“death by a thousand cuts” and should also not receive public “clean”
energy subsidies.
MASSACHUSETTS FORESTS STILL AT A CROSSROADS
·
64% of State public forests are still open to
commercial logging with only 34% set aside in parks and reserves.
·
Extraction of wood to fuel biomass plants needs
to be prohibited from state public forests and watersheds.
·
The Quabbin reservation and other watershed
areas need full protection. Click
Here For Photos
·
Clearcuts up to 5 acres ( ~5 football fields)
may still be allowed allegedly for “compelling biodiversity/habitat”
needs. This potentially
large loophole for clearcutting is not based on sound science and should be
removed.
·
The timber program costs outweigh its
revenue. Taxpayers are still paying
to cut down their own forests.
·
A multitude of CHP wood burning biomass plants
which emit more CO2 than fossil fuels are in the pipeline
·
The state agencies managing forests are still using
propaganda to sell commercial logging to citizens.
·
Taxpayers are still wasting money to “greenwash”
cutting their forests with FSC “green” certified logging.
To protect
(1) Enact strong protective legislation and prohibit commercial
logging on State public forests and watersheds.
(2) Enact a moratorium on new wood biomass power plants and exclude
CHP plants from eligibility for subsidies.
TAKE ACTION, Click Here
To view the Quabbin Watershed Logging (15MB),
Click Here
To view and download the “Biomess” Powerpoint
(20 MB),
Click Here
To Sign up for E-Mail Alerts to Help
Save Massachusetts’ Forests, Click
Here
To Watch a Channel 5 investigative
Report of the Logging, Click Here
For More Links and Media Reports, Click Here
SEE MANY MORE PHOTOS BELOW
All Photos are FSC "Green” Certified
Logging on
***********************************
IT’S
OUR CHOICE…..
This?
Or
This….
McNeil Biomass Plant, The
Biggest Air Pollution Source in Vermont
And This….
SEE MANY MORE PHOTOS BELOW
“
Or climb up Spruce Hill on
the Busby Trail for breathtaking views, especially during fall foliage and hawk
migration.”
DCR Website
“
with wooded edges and hills
rising in the distance, offer tranquil places to fish, picnic and swim.” DCR Website
We shall require a
substantially new manner of thinking if mankind is to survive. ~Albert Einstein
Busy monster eats dark
holes in the spirit world... where wild things have to go to disappear
forever"
~Bruce Cockburn
When the
soil disappears, the soul disappears. ~Ymber Delecto
Rules Are For Other People…..
Quabbin Reservoir, Aerial View,
Hiking is Illegal to Protect the Watershed for Boston’s Drinking
Water Supply
Quabbin Reservoir, Aerial View,
Boston’s Drinking Water Supply Area, White Blotches are Clearcut
Areas
Quabbin Reservoir, Aerial View, Gate 40 Area, 2010
Boston’s Drinking Water Supply Area, White Blotches are Clearcut
Areas
Quabbin Reservoir, Ground View, Gate 40 Area, December 2009
Reservoir Visible Behind Trees
Quabbin Reservation,
Gate 40, Reservoir Visible Behind Trees, December 2009
Quabbin Reservation, Boston’s Drinking Water Supply Watershed,
Gate 40, 2009
Quabbin Reservation,
Quabbin Reservation,
Our modern industrial economy
takes a mountain covered with trees, lakes, running streams
and transforms it into a
mountain of junk, garbage, slime pits, and debris. ~Edward Abbey
Quabbin Reservation,
Quabbin Reservation, Boston’s Drinking Water Supply Watershed,
Gate 35, 2007
Quabbin Reservation, Boston’s Drinking Water Supply Watershed, RT
202, 2007
Thank God men cannot fly, and
lay waste the sky as well as the earth. ~Henry David Thoreau
Quabbin Reservation, Boston’s Drinking Water Supply Watershed,
Gate 31, 2007
Quabbin Reservation Watershed Area, RT 202, 2007
“At 16,500 acres,
Here visitors can camp, hike and enjoy the outdoors while they
visit nearby
Tanglewood and other
We abuse land because we
regard it as a commodity belonging to us.
When we see land as
a community to which we
belong, we may begin to use it with love and respect. ~Aldo Leopold
Every creature is better
alive than dead, men and moose and pine trees, and he who
understands it aright will
rather preserve its life than destroy it. ~Henry David Thoreau
Man has been endowed with
reason, with the power to create, so that he can add to what he's been
given. But up to now he
hasn't been a creator, only a destroyer. Forests keep disappearing, rivers dry
up, wild life's become
extinct, the climate's ruined and the land grows poorer and uglier every day.
~Anton Chekhov
Let us a little permit Nature
to take her own way; she better understands her own affairs than we.
~Michel de Montaigne
“Beartown State Forest
offers visitors a chance to glimpse deer, bear, bobcat, fisher and other
wildlife, including the park's namesake,
the Black Bear. Brooks,
beaver ponds, rich deciduous forest, flowering shrubs and wildflowers and fall
foliage are plentiful.
The
There is a sufficiency in the
world for man's need but not for man's greed.
~Mohandas K. Gandhi
Poland
Brook Wildlife Management Area, Illegal Clearcutting, 2008
When a man says to me,
"I have the intensest love of nature," at once I know that he has
none.
~Ralph Waldo Emerson
Federation
of Women’s
…..try the H. Newman Marsh
Memorial Trail featuring a challenging, but rewarding, climb to the
top of Observation Hill, with views spanning
up and down the wild and scenic
About 2005, a large clear-cut
on a steep slope was illegally cut right up to the edge of a long established
beaver pond in
into to the
“BEFORE CLEARCUT”, Aerial View, 2001 “AFTER CLEARCUT”, Aerial View, 2005
“After Clearcut to
edge of Beaver Pond, Before Dam Breach”, May 2008
“After Clearcut to edge of Beaver Pond, Before Dam Breach”,
May 2008
“After Clearcut to
edge of Beaver Pond, Before Dam Breach”, May 2008
“After Clearcut and After
Dam Breach”, Nov, 2008
“The
conservation - including restoration, protection and management –
of fish
and wildlife resources for the benefit and enjoyment of the
public. DFW Website
Google Earth “Before” photo of large, un-fragmented, interior forest
Fox Den Wildlife Management Area, 2005
Aerial View “After” Photo Of Illegal Clear-Cuts In The Same
Location
Fox Den Wildlife Mgmt Area,
We do not inherit the earth from
our ancestors, we borrow it from our children.
~Native
American Proverb
Below is a recent logging job on
On May 11, 2009. The large trees were cut for sawtimber and the
others were chipped for biomass with a
large on-site chipper. The contractor stated that most of
the chips went to the
plant, 125 miles away, with a smaller portion going to the
Pine-tree biomass plant in
The state received $3,000 for the wood and $2,520 worth of road
repairs.
Governor Patrick’s office of Energy and Environment is not respecting
our public lands…
….nor are they respecting our past, present or future citizens.
See below
The picture below shows an early spring
aerial photo of the area before clearcutting.
The stand is very alive Norway Spruce
mixed with some hardwoods with an
1800’s era cemetery located between 2
areas slated for clearcutting.
Below is the “after” photo showing the
FSC sanctioned clearcuts right up to the
cemetery. March 2008.
See following photos for ground views photos 1 and 2
Below is “Photo 2” view identified in
the previous picture, a ground view of an
FSC sanctioned clearcut to the edge of
cemetery area, soon after the clearcut, May 2008.
Edge trees left around the cemetery demonstrate
that the stand was alive and healthy.
Below is the “Photo 1” ground view of
FSC sanctioned clearcut to edge of cemetery
area a year later, March 2009. Remaining edge trees have died from exposure
and some have blown down into the cemetery.
A view looking out from within the
cemetery, March 2009
“SCS investigated the sites of concern
raised by
manner that conforms with FSC-mandated
audit protocols. This investigation included site
inspections of most of the sites in question.
SCS felt confident that the DCR lands in
question were in conformance with the
FSC standards.”
There is no good reason for
commercial logging of State public forests, watersheds and parks.
• State public forests, watersheds and parks
comprise only 11% of
our best chance to
preserve and protect wilderness areas, fish and wildlife habitat, clean water,
clean air, tourism income, carbon
sequestration,
scenic beauty and recreational opportunities in this 3rd most densely populated
state of 6,000,000 residents.
·
The $14 billion
tourist industry depends heavily upon protected public forests.
·
Proposed biomass fuel demands are enormous and
seriously threaten public forests and we need a failsafe mechanism
to ensure our public forests don’t go up in
smoke to provide tiny amounts of dirty power we do not even need.
·
According to the
FSC peer reviewer comments, the public “overwhelmingly” prefers no commercial
logging on public lands.
·
Most of the wood
cut on state forests is sent out of state to
·
The timber program
loses money, taxpayers are paying to cut down their own forests.
•
claims of hypocrisy
when we admonish third world countries to protect 25-50% of their forests from
logging
Public Lands Belong To The Public
It’s
Our Choice…..This?
Non-threatening Norway Spruce,
And
This?
Mixed Forest,
Or
This?
Quabbin Reservation,
STUMPS DON’T LIE
Only when the last tree has died and
the last river been poisoned and the last fish been
caught will we realize we cannot
eat money
413-341-3878
TAKE
ACTION, Click Here
To
view the Quabbin Watershed Logging (15MB), Click
Here
To view and download the “Biomess”
Powerpoint (20 MB), Click
Here
To Sign up for E-Mail Alerts to Help
Save Massachusetts’ Forests, Click
Here
To Watch a Channel 5 investigative
Report of the Logging, Click Here
For More Links and Media Reports, Click Here
PLEASE PASS THIS WEBSITE ON
OUR PUBLIC FORESTS AT THE
CROSSROADS
Speak Up For the Trees!
TAKE
ACTION, Click Here