NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — Officials say the forest management plan for the Notch Reservoir watershed will improve the forest's resiliency.

 

But residents continue to be concerned about erosion, water quality and logging, and the effects on wildlife and the popular Bellows Pipe Trail. 

 

The plan includes selective and salvage harvests because of infestations of the emerald ash borer, patch cuts on the red pine plantations, and enrichment plantings of resilient species. The project aims to reinvest income into the forest and watershed, with a focus on best management practices in collaboration with Mass Audubon and the state and federal forestry services.

 

The initiative is part of Mass Audubon's Forest Climate Resilience Program in conjunction with the Woodlands Partnership of Northwest Massachusetts, of which the city is a member. Two demonstration forests in the partnership are eligible for three-year U.S. Forestry Service grants. 

 

It will focus on 70 acres of the more than 1,000-acre woodland to the west and north of the reservoir off Pattison Road. The management plan has been approved by the state Department of Conservation and Recreation but further permitting will be required from the Conservation Commission, for the cutting operation and for endangered species clearance. 

 

"It's an opportunity to harvest trees, open up the understory and replace them with resilient species, part of the climate change initiative here," said Gary Gouldrup, vice president of New England Forestry Consultants.

 

"So the whole purpose is to go above and beyond the typical forest management practices that have been done in the past."

 

What won't be included is the use of chemicals to eradicate invasive plant species. The Conservation Commission was strongly opposed to their use so near the reservoir and Mayor Jennifer Macksey and Andrew Randazzo, a forest ecologist for Mass Audubon, confirmed on Thursday that chemicals are off the table. 

 

Mechanical means — pulling the invasives out by their roots — will be used instead. Randazzo said this will take longer, cost more and lengthen the project's timeline. 

 

More than three dozen people attended the public session on Thursday night to ask questions about the 10-year management plan adopted in 2022. They quizzed the consultants over seasonal use, water protections, cleaning of equipment, types of equipment, stream crossings and physical impacts. 

 

Gouldrup said many of the factors they raised could be part of the bid prospectus for the harvesting. 

 

Deborah Raber of Notch Road said previous logging on private property near her home has created erosion issues, turning her road "into a river every time it rains." Commissioner of Public Services Timonthy Lescarbeau acknowledged the problems with runoff and blocked culverts.

 

"I can agree with you 100 percent on that. That is because of the private landowner that stripped the whole property up there," he said. "This is what I'm trying to avoid when we started this plan. We want to do it right."

 

Randazzo said a hydrological study hasn't been done and that Gouldrup is on the project because of his experience. 

 

"This harvest will be done well ... the key to ensuring that impact is mitigated is the timing of the harvest, and that will, as Gary mentioned, be within the bid prospectus for this job," he said. 

 

But Gouldrup's experience in commercial forestry didn't sit well with some. 

 

"I also really don't know if I can trust him when it comes to working for what's best for the citizens and the residents of North Adams," said Michaela LaPointe, part of a  group of residents who have formed Friends of the Notch Reservoir and Bellows Pipe Trailhead. "This is a project that should have been made more transparent with the residents, and it was not. There was only one meeting in 2022 to address this, and if I had known about it, then I would have been there. We pay taxes, and we should actually have gotten a say about something that is happening near our water source."

 

The friends group presented the mayor with a petition to stop the logging plan signed by more than 1,300 people, most of whom are North Adams or area residents. LaPointe also pressed Macksey on why she had not responded to numerous emails to the mayor's office over the past weeks. 

 

The mayor said she wanted to get through the public session meeting first and would be taking everyone's comments into consideration.

 

LaPointe said one of the things they had requested was the city meet with William Moomaw, the well-known professor of environmental policy at Tufts University. She said Moomaw had told them he was for protecting the watershed at all costs; Randazzo that Moomaw recently said some forests should be protected but others managed to make them less vulnerable to disruption. 

 

Residents also questioned how much the city expected to gain from forestry. Gouldrup put the amount at about $40,000 but added it that would depend on the bids. Macksey said the revenue had been higher up in priority on the fact sheet but that has changed. 

 

"My priority is to preserve our watershed and the forest," she said. "Any income that is made we're hoping to reinvest back into this project, or the forest, or into the watershed."

 

Randazzo said it was likely to be neutral since the costs for chemical application was estimated at $20,000 and using mechanical means will likely be more. There will also be grant funding anticipated for other aspects, such as replantings and seedings, and the installation of culverts that were long part of the plan. 

 

"The recommendation was to do what we're going to call a patch cut with reserves, harvesting the red pine, the spruce, leaving whatever hardwood we can hickory, in particular, sugar maple and the red oak would be retained as a seed source within those stands, we have also made recommendations for enrichment plantings," said Gouldrup. "We're looking at planting oak, hickory in particular, they're going to require some fencing protect them from deer browsing, etc. ...

 

"But that's part of the transition of these forests that are in decline is that we're replacing them with a species that is going to be very resilient over time and into the future."

 

He said he couldn't say how the area would look when the project was done but pointed out other municipalities are doing active forest management, such as the around the Quabbin Reservoir, to protect that resource and promote diversity. 

 

"I'm going to look at it and say, that looks good. I love it. I love what's happened here. And others are going to look at it and say, This is a change that I don't like. I don't like the look of it," Gouldrup said. 

 

Dickon Crane of Dalton, chair of the Woodlands Partnership, said the results might not look good to humans but there is wildlife that will love it. 

 

Jennifer Albertine of the Mount Grace Land Conservation Trust, in response to comments about Quabbin, said the selective tree harvesting there has been beneficial.

 

"It was red pine that was dying, and it looked awful. There was no biodiversity. There was no undergrowth. And since the harvest occurred, there is wonderful biodiversity coming back, including trees, understory, medicinal plants, all kinds of things. The wildlife loves it," she said. 

 

Albertine said she'd come to speak about "the illusion of preservation." Most everyone lives in a wooden house but wood has to come from somewhere, she said, and about 80 percent of the wood used in southern New England is coming from Maine. 

 

"We have an ethical and moral responsibility in the face of climate change to produce our own wood here on site," she said. "And so yes, sometimes it looks awful when we harvest the wood a woodlot, but you know, what comes back is diversity and beautiful, and we are contributing to having a better impact on the climate and all of our lives."

 

Andre Strongbearheart Gaines Jr., a member of No Loose Braids, a Nipmuc-led conservation and cultural organization, who said he was speaking on his own behalf for the land, asked if they had considered what the land had looked like hundreds of years ago. He asked if there had been an inventory or acknowledgement of the cultural, medicinal, wildlife and water, because the land wasn't just the trees. 

 

"You say you want to stand and fight for these trees that are here right now. But these weren't the trees that were here when my ancestors walked," he said. "It seems to me that these people here are trying to move forward in a healthier way, not the way that conservation has happened here for just the past couple 100 years."

 

Gaines said Mass Audubon had brought indigenous peoples into discussions on land stewardship (No Loose Braids is a partner of the Woodlands Partnership) and wondered why the Stockbridge-Munsee Band had not been asked for input on their ancestral lands. 

 

"There's a lot of ways that land stewardship, through an indigenous viewpoint, is going to help you realize that there's a whole different mindset in what beautiful looks like," he said. "I see people really upset and really turned up. But I think that this is what's happening here right now. I think that there's already being a place and a stage set for people to voice these things, but it needs to be in a good way. There's no way that fighting with each other is going to be the answer for health in the future."