Guest column: DCR should scrap Shutesbury cutting plans

A recent DCR Division of Water Supply Protection forest management harvest site near Gate 49 in the Quabbin Watershed in Ware. CONTRIBUTED
Published: 01-16-2025 3:06 PM
Modified: 01-16-2025 5:47 PM |
The letter state Sen. Joe Comerford and state Rep. Aaron Saunders submitted on behalf of their constituents critiques state Department of Conservation and Recreation plans in Shutesbury, but doesn’t go far enough [“Lawmakers object to DCR cutting plans,” Dec. 26].
The Project Summary for this timber harvest shows that the DCR’s appetite for logging continues to outweigh climate or water quality concerns. Logging will do the opposite of the stated goals for forest cutting — to increase diversity and carbon storage, prevent hurricane damage and promote regeneration.
The Forest Management Proposal for Lot NS-25-02 describes a 77-acre hilltop and surrounding slopes. The white pine, hemlock, red oak, white oak, black birch, and red maple destined for intensive logging are the largest trees, and provide critically important habitat for insects, birds, and other species. In other words, they represent an already well-developed source of biodiversity that would take years to replace. But because they are large trees, they are the most valuable for timber.
According to DCR’s justification for cutting, these mature trees are vulnerable to blowdown from hurricane winds or severe winter weather. Yet they have survived for decades in spite of the hilltop location. Clustered together, they protect each other from gusts. Still, individual blowdowns are inevitable. When left to decay in place, sunlight penetrates such areas and creates a natural habitat that supports age and species diversity.
Harvesting these trees may have a short-term economic benefit, whether to individual loggers or DCR’s ongoing harvesting programs. But the true cost will be felt in forest degradation: heavy logging equipment compacts soils making them less able to absorb water, exposes steep slopes to greater erosion, and breaks down the critical mycorrhizal network under the soil, releasing the carbon it has been storing.
There are additional disturbing elements of the plan. While the plan states “all attempts will be made to avoid crossings” of wetlands, the plan also states that crossing them may be necessary. Areas of the harvest zone are in Natural Heritage Priority Habitat, but we are told not to worry, as they will ask Natural Heritage Program staff which areas to avoid. The “Climate Change Considerations” sections of the plan are cut-and-paste phrases found in every proposal and not tailored at all to individual projects. The proposed logging will increase atmospheric carbon, reduce soil carbon, and decrease biodiversity.
Gov. Maura Healey has recognized the value of forests as natural solutions for climate change mitigation, biodiversity preservation, clean water, clean air, and human recreation. In January 2023, she issued a moratorium on state-sponsored logging to study its true impact. The “Forests as Climate Solutions Initiative” was created, which included recommendations from experts on the Climate Forestry Committee.
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This committee concluded that “disturbing the forests of Massachusetts as little as possible and allowing forests to grow and age through passive management is generally the best approach for maximizing carbon, ecological integrity, and soil health” (page 4). They signaled the significance of protecting forest areas in western Massachusetts, creating a large uninterrupted corridor extending from Pennsylvania to Canada (page 47).
In contrast to preserving forests, the logging plan in Shutesbury is typical for many timber sales sponsored by state agencies — which are ignoring their charge to protect public lands.
Mature and old growth forests, such as those found in the Quabbin, Ware, and Wachusett watershed areas, are the most valuable for carbon sequestration and storage, promote wildlife corridors and biodiversity, regulate water cycles and climate, and maintain the complex soil systems that are essential for sustaining a clean water supply.
For these reasons, MA Sierra Club opposes the logging project known by the state as Lot NS-25-02 in Shutesbury. We support preserving all forested lands in the Quabbin, Ware and Wachusett watersheds as wildlands free from all commercial logging.
Lynne Man, Nancy Polan and Dale LaBonte wrote this on on behalf of the Sierra Club Massachusetts Forest Protection team.