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Promoting awareness, policies and programs
to preserve and enhance the ecological and historical
landscape of the Middlesex Fells forest Reservation.
Four leading Massachusetts environmental groups have called upon the Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR) to suspend its current Middlesex Fells Trails Planning process and to fast-track a full Resource Management Plan (RMP) for the Fells Reservation.
In a May 28, 2010 letter to DCR Commissioner Richard K. Sullivan, the Massachusetts Sierra Club, the Mass Audubon Society, the Environmental League of Massachusetts, and Environment Massachusetts declared that, “If any property calls for a complete Resource Management Plan (RMP) to inform both recreation planning and natural resources management, it is the Fells. With over 100 miles of trails already existing on 2,500 acres containing unusual botanical diversity and over 100 vernal pools, recreational planning at the Fells needs to be fully integrated with resource stewardship as called for in MGL Ch. 21 S. 2F.”
The stakes couldn’t be higher. The features of a rare natural oasis – which for over a century has provided generations of visitors with respite from the noise and confusion of urban life – will be threatened without a full assessment of impacts from changes being proposed for use of the Fells Reservation.
Mike Ryan is learning to use Homested.
Under Massachusetts’ law, to protect natural resources the DCR is required to implement a Resource Management Plan for each of its parks and forests.
A Fells RMP requires that trail and resource planning involve all stakeholders who value the Reservation and are involved in a wide variety of uses, ranging from hiking, bird watching, scouting, aesthetic enjoyment, water resource protection, etc. The DCR’s current Fells Trails Planning process, in sharp contrast, has left Fells many visitors and groups completely unaware of the process.
The environmental groups’ letter emphasizes that the first priority for DCR must be to stem Fells resource damage being caused by lack of enforcement,
Alert: Environmental groups call on state to protect Fells Reservation resources
A Fells RMP requires that trail and resource planning involve all stakeholders who value the Reservation and are involved in a wide variety of uses, ranging from hiking, bird watching, scouting, aesthetic enjoyment, water resource protection, etc. The DCR’s current Fells Trails Planning process, in sharp contrast, has left Fells many visitors and groups completely unaware of the process.
The environmental groups’ letter emphasizes that the first priority for DCR must be to stem Fells resource damage being caused by lack of enforcement,
“…given the anecdotal knowledge and evidence on the ground of widespread illegal use and the absence of DCR enforcement, it is difficult to justify opening or constructing new trails without a demonstration that DCR has the ability to enforce recreation policies and rules at the Fells. The first priority should be closing of unapproved and illegal trails, improved signage and education, and enforcement of the existing rules.”
The letter cites more than two decades of Fells regulations not being enforced, leading to “…long and widely recognized history of user conflict, renegade activities by an array of user types, and little management presence at a property that is also generally recognized to have significant natural resources.”
NEWS OF THE FELLS
HIKES and EVENTS CALENDAR here
DISCOVER
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