Stop the
Schoolhouse
Road near
Our State parks are a vital
treasure for the Commonwealth. By the end of my administration,
I hope each and every park
is something that we can all be proud of”
~ Governor Deval Patrick
SEE MANY MORE PHOTOS BELOW
PATRICK ADMINISTRATION ENERGY AND ENVIRONMENTAL POLICIES
ARE DEVASTATING OUR
To view and Download the Full Report, Click Here
REPORT
SUMMARY
The Fate
of
Taxpayer
subsidized policies and proposals enacted and promoted by Governor Patrick’s office
of Energy & Environment
are threatening
the health, integrity and peaceful existence of
including wilderness protection, fish
and wildlife habitat, recreation opportunities, clean water, clean air, tourism,
carbon
sequestration and scenic beauty are under threat from proposals to
aggressively log parks and forests as outlined below:
·
About 80% of State forests and parks are slated
for logging with only 20% set aside in reserves.
·
Aggressive logging of State forests and parks
has already started and new plans call for a 400% increase in logging rates.
·
The timber program costs outweigh its
revenue. Taxpayers are paying to cut down
their own forests.
·
The State is subsidizing the development of 5 large
wood burning biomass power plants. These
plants would add pollution,
increase power plant CO2 emissions by 10%, more than triple the
logging rate, and yet provide only 1% more power.
·
Biomass power plants emit 50% more C02 per
megawatt hour of energy than coal, and 150% more than natural gas.
·
The state agencies managing forests are using
propaganda to sell the clear-cutting and aggressive logging to citizens.
·
Taxpayers are spending millions to “greenwash” the
clearcutting of their forests. All photos
are of FSC “green” certified logging.
·
Five “green” groups “caved” and signed on to the
new plans calling for a 400% logging increase in our State forests and parks.
·
The State agencies are not adhering to existing forestry
laws by allowing widespread illegal logging on State lands.
To protect
(1) Enact strong protective legislation and prohibit commercial
logging on State public forests, parks and watersheds.
(2) Stop permitting new wood biomass power plants and exclude them
from eligibility for “clean” energy subsidies.
TAKE ACTION, Click Here
To view the
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
any 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 fully 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 30-50% of their forests from
logging
Public lands do not belong to the timber
or biomass industries, they
do not belong to the state agencies……they
belong to the public and
the public will benefit most by fully
protecting our forests now.
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
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!