Facebook: Journal of Resistance

Save the Notch Forest 10.26.24

Thoughts for the end of autumn and the start of standard time: Now that the leaves have fallen there's a clearer view of what is happening with the trees in the Notch forest. There's no one-stop plan for any one forest. Each forest is an individual and unique ecosystem. Imagine the arrogance of people coming into a forest for a few hours then deciding which trees should be cut and why without ever hiking it or spending recreational time in it. Imagine people who think they can improve a forest that has grown back from logging over hundreds of years, survived storms, warming temperatures, droughts, floods, and heavy winds yet be a thriving and sheltering woodland. Yes, during some stressful periods, the forest has more branches lying on the ground than others, or yellowing needles, or dull autumn colors. Those aren't signs the forest is sick and needs to be cut down to *improve* it, they are side effects of the forest healing itself and doing what is best for the overall health of the ecosystem during a particular climate season.The Notch forest is rippled with deep ravines and underground rocky streams. It has young trees pushing up from the undergrowth and decaying branches and leaves. It has oaks, pines, and maples that are hundreds of years old and were planted along stone fences by farmers who once logging everything on the land except for these special trees. It also has rows of Spruce trees planted closely together near the water (on purpose) by the Civilian Conservation Corps in the 1930's to protect the drinking water reservoir from mud and silt. How is it an improvement to bring in heavy trucks, skidders, oil, and herbicides into a forest and cut out the oldest, surviving trees, and the trees that were planted to protect our sole water source?How is it that a couple of outside organizations like Mass Audubon and the MWTP can come along and decide for the forest, the towns people, and tourists, that the forest isn't doing things right, is unhealthy, and therefore not enjoyable for the thousands of hikers and bikers who are attracted to visit it every day of every year so needs to be cut down?And, how do humans become so arrogant that they decide they can improve on a system that existed (more robustly) for millions of years before human beings walked the land? All the words the foresters use to induce panic and induce people into thinking they need to cut their public forests - fire-safety, land-improvement, sustainability, climate-smart cutting, forest and canopy thinning, selective harvesting, cleaning the forest, etc. - are all coded words for logging for profit. The Notch forest has been sustaining itself quite well for hundreds of years. The global climate, wildlife habitat, and human habitat will all be much healthier when humans stop being so arrogant and trust the processes of nature to heal and regenerate. We don't have to fix everything. And nobody should pretend they are fixing a forest when their real intention is to destroy it for cash profit.

10. 22. 24

Here's an important letter to the editor in today's Eagle discussing the problems of logging around a reservoir with steep sloping rocky land like the Notch, with important historical references to landslides on Greylock. Full text below the link:https://www.berkshireeagle.com/.../article_dcb297dc-8bf7... 

Letter: An avalanche of concerns over North Reservoir plan.
To the editor: I am opposed to the logging plan around the Notch Reservoir.The area that is under consideration for logging, a wetland, will be eroded by the weight of brutally heavy machines spewing toxic fumes near the streams, ravines and vernal pools running directly into our reservoir down the steep rocky slopes of Mount Greylock. I also fear that logging will increase the potential for slides of mud and debris coming down the mountain. There is a piece of local history behind my concern.On Aug 20, 1901, a horrific landslide on the eastern side of Mount Greylock caused many tons of wreckage to come crashing down the mountain, burying two farms “almost completely with gravel, stones and debris to a depth of four or five feet” (North Adams Transcript, Aug. 22, 1901).The landslide was just one piece of the catastrophic cloudburst that overwhelmed Adams, parts of North Adams and Williamstown. That avalanche has been attributed to the fact that the slope was “subjected to intense lumbering and forest fires not many years before [and] could not hold the soil and vegetation against the heavy rain” (Adams Historical Timeline: Adams Historical Society, The Landslide).Remarkably, two days later, the Transcript reported that the Notch Reservoir was spared the worst of the flood damage noting the sun "glistened pleasantly on the water as it poured over the Notch Reservoir dam” and continued to provide water to the city. Is it possible that the north side of the mountain, where our reservoir lies, was spared the worst because it hadn’t been ravaged by logging?I am deeply concerned that worsening climate conditions with heavier storms combined with erosion caused by the logging will so weaken the forest that it will not be able to absorb or provide a barrier to heavy rain and wind. What will we do if our reservoir fills with mud and gravel and tree stumps? Who will pay to dredge the water? Or even worse, will dredging even be a possibility? What then

-Deborah Schneer, North Adams