The Berkshire Natural Resources Council or BNRC is a Lenox, Massachusetts-based land trust responsible for conserving over 26,000 acres in Berkshire County. This winter, the non-profit used state and private funding to add another 66 acres to its holdings through a patch of land in Great Barrington. Located on Blue Hill Road, the new acquisition is adjacent to Thomas and Palmer Brook Reserve, another BNRC property. The newly protected acreage includes local landmarks like Whale Rock, and the council says it can both bolster local biodiversity and offer new hiking routes for the region’s residents. BNRC Director of Conservation Nick Pitel spoke with WAMC.
PITEL: Just before New Year's, we closed on an acquisition of 66 acres in Great Barrington, off of Blue Hill Road. It abuts our Thomas and Palmer Brook reserve, which is a very popular reserve in Great Barrington. And this property boasts resilient forest habitat, connects the Three Mile Hill ridge line to Whale Rock, which is at the corner of BNRC’s current preserve, and we hope to eventually have it be another trailhead connection that can connect to our additional hiking trails on BNRC’s current property.
WAMC: Tell us about this land- What makes it distinct? What are some of its features? Walk us through it.
It's comprised of really diverse habitat. It's recognized by the Nature Conservancy for having significant biodiversity. It's also, on the ridgeline component, mapped as being more resilient to climate change. The forest diversity on the property is pretty significant. There's a lot of mixed oak hardwoods that are more typical of the Central Appalachian chains, which are projected to be more resilient to climate change as things get warmer.
Now, as far as investing in the space and allowing for it to be both used by the public and preserved for long-term, give us a sense of what the BNRC is going to be working on there as it joins the flock, so to speak.
Currently- I mean, it'll technically be open to the public, but we won't have any curated trails on it yet. That'll take some time. But eventually we're hoping- It has a log landing on the property, which seems like it could be a really useful site for an additional parking area. And so, future plans are to hopefully add a small parking area with some trail connectivity on the property, and we're hoping that it can be used as an educational space, for our public programming that can show forest management and different habitat types and how they benefit wildlife in the Berkshires as it connects to our larger Thomas and Palmer Reserve, and eventually we'll have that all under one reserve.
Now, how did the BNRC acquire the property? Tell us about that process.
This property was on the market for the past couple years, and we had been in conversations on and off with the realtor, and finally, towards the end of the summer, we were able to put a deal together that just seemed to work out timing wise with everything, and enabled us to apply for the commonwealth [Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs] grant funding for forest reserve grants. And so, it just really fit well with that timing.
Anything about this that's particularly unique or interesting or sets it apart from other BNRC properties? Or anything about this process that I haven't thought to ask you that you want to make sure folks understand?
I think what's interesting about this property is that it did have some recent forestry activity on it, and so it gives a nice degree of habitat differential between our current preserve that has not had any forestry activity on it, and this more recently logged property that still has mature forest trees, but also younger forests growing up, getting a lot of oak regeneration, American chestnut, poplar regrowth. So, it just provides a really varying habitat type that makes the overall landscape in that portion of Three Mile Hill more resilient to future climate changes.
