The controversy centers around a forest management strategy for the more than 1,000-acre Notch Reservoir property submitted by New England Forestry Consultants to the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation.
Representatives of a group behind a petition with over 1,300 signatures to stop the decade-long plan appeared at Tuesday’s city council meeting.
“I'm here with the Friends of the Notch Reservoir and Bellows Pipe Trailhead, and until we see a final plan that in writing does not include glyphosate, this is still very much of a concern to us," said Deborah Schneer, who told the council that the companies who produce the toxic herbicide have been the subject of thousands of lawsuits that found it to be the cause of disease and death. “In January of this year, a Pennsylvania jury handed down a $2.25 billion verdict against Monsanto and its parent company, Bayer, after determining its Roundup herbicide caused cancer. Please check out the recent New York Time magazine article of August 14th, where, in the region of New Brunswick, Canada, the blood of individuals with mysterious brain diseases like Parkinson's was tested, and the results showed that 90% had elevated amounts of glyphosate, and in one case, 15,000 times the test's lowest detectable concentration.”
Stewart Burns said his issues with the plan go beyond the use of dangerous chemicals, and questioned the rationale behind it.
“The city of North Adams plans to conduct a logging operation that will clear cut and selectively harvest this 1,100-acre old and middle growth forest," he told the council. "Claims that this logging will promote climate sustainability are false, according to climate scientists, including the Nobel Prize winning Professor William Moomaw, logging reduces climate sustainability and resilience. Professor Moomaw will speak at our North Adams community forum on Friday, September 27th. And Mass Audubon, one of the city's partners in logging, has been criticized in MIT Technology Review for logging practices that quote, fuel climate change. Clear cutting could begin as early as November. Hundreds of trees in the Notch Reservoir forest have already been marked for cutting. They are all healthy, middle-aged oaks, maples and pines, trees that shelter wildlife and balance our microclimate. There are also trees that bring substantial profits in the wood industry.”
Kate Abbott of neighboring Williamstown also spoke out against the plan, arguing that clear cutting would not successfully solve the problem of invasive species.
“If you walk along the bike path along the musk river, or kayak along the Hoosic River, you can see ample evidence of areas that have been much less disturbed in which the forest floor is completely, the understory has been completely overtaken by invasive species, and removing trees to that extent will disrupt ecosystems, disrupt trails and disrupt wildlife in an area that is deeply important for our water sources and deeply important for all of us who have been hiking Mount Greylock for more than 20 years," she said.
Mayor Jennifer Macksey said her administration is open to changing the plan and is eager for public feedback.
At a subsequent community meeting Thursday to answer questions about the project, a Mass Audubon representative confirmed that herbicides had been removed from the forest management plan following the public outcry. It has yet to be approved by North Adams’ conservation commission. The city is accepting feedback on the plan through its Public Services Department until the end of September.
