Weston Woods carpet bombed
Recently I posted about a hike in Weston Woods off of Tispaquin Street in Middleboro. Comments advised that the section accessible off of Purchase Street was even better. I took off last Thursday and brought the family over for another hike to check out the Purchase Street side.
I have to tell you, it looked like a bomb went off in there. Whatever trails existed have been mostly obliterated by heavy equiptment (caterpillar) tracks and hundreds of trees were uprooted, chopped up and strewn around. The heavy equipment left a swath of destruction through the forest making it look more like a construction site than a nature area.
I’m assuming that the devastation was related to the infestation of winter moths for the last couple of years. I don’t understand why the trees had to be left uprooted and strewn around. The place is truly ugly. Maybe there is more work and cleanup to be done. If not, nature will erase these scars though it will take many years. It remains to be seen if the trail system recovers.
Update
Themocracy
I’ll have to check that out Bumpkin. I’d just suggest across the street into the Rocky Gutter area.
This could be an interesting Eagle Scout project.
Hmmm. This is not good. I will have to check that out. Who would be responsible? The town?
A rewiew of the BOS meeting minutes on the PTWS, that incidentally are not sortable, should reveal that the Weston Forest Committee approached the BOS about removing dead oak trees that had suffered the fate of several years of defoliation, courtesy of caterpillars.
The Forester who was handling the cutting is the one who has prepared my forestry plan for many years and supervised thinning, pruning and planting. He carefully selects people who have proven to be responsible to follow the appropriate practices and I have the utmost respect for his professional abilities. And I must praise his abilities to protect and retain those trees with careful consideration to the health of the forest.
It might make sense to contact the Weston Committee to ensure that they are aware of the condition, and should they determine that the project merits questioning, they surely would be able to contact the Forester to set the matter right.
Sometimes, in the process of cutting, the mess that is created appears to be ‘carpet bombing,’ but the finished product amends that appearance.
Although I haven’t walked the Weston lands, the peculiarity about cutting the dead oak trees is that it enables the white pine and other species to re-forest the areas as the forest ‘matures.’
It sounds as if you are viewing an ‘unfinished product.’
Maybe I’m just not accustomed to this sort of maintenance. The place is rough looking.
It sounds to me that it is not finished. I will check it out this weekend. But a good logger/forester should go in there leaving a minimal aesthetic impact. I hope this is the case. Sorry to hear you dragged your family there and had to witness that.
jofalc – we still had a nice walk. Being outside together as a family is always a good time.
I’ll be very interested in your assessment. I don’t mean to pull the fire alarm, but the place looked devastated to me.
I’m willing to consider that the land is in a transitional state due to needed maintenance.
That was a disaster. It looks like a call to the Weston Committee needs to take place. It is certainly not finished. It has been raped. The forester DID NOT focus on the dead oak, he took thousands of aged White Pine at reckless abandon. The white pine undercanopy was once so lush, not anymore. A disgrace, I was speechless and it took my breath away. It’s terrible. Forest management is ofcourse sometimes needed, but this was not clean practice.
Middleboro Review: Your assertion that this project was about clearing out dead oak is, unfortunately, laughable. Who is the forester? If the objective was to remove dead oak, then this was a complete failure. Careful consideration? Are you serious? No way. I am not going to sugar coat it, if you trust this forester’s judgment that is not a good thing. Saying the project merits questioning is an understatement. It was a hack job. Thinning is one thing, near carpet bomb is another. It’s very, very close to carpet bomb. It used to be amazing, now it is not even recognizable. 90 percent of the trees taken were strong healthy, aged White Pines! There is NO excuse for that. Travel to Plymouth, Curlew Pond in Myles Standish, they just cleared 400 acreas…that is how it needs to be done. Over logging a forest of healthy, aged, self sustaining forest has nothing to do with caterpillers. I even question the motives of the loggers. On top of it, stumps and debri still litter the landscape. This needs to be addressed immediately. This forester should not be managing our forests. Sadly, his damage has already been done.
Oh, boy, well Bellicose, it turns out you did explore the nicer part of the Park, the Tispaquin Street side. It is still beautiful with rolling trails. Once upon a time, the Purchase Street side was much nicer and with more mystique. Not anymore. Time heals I guess, but that doesn’t change the fact it looks, feels, and smells like a carpet bomb. It may very well be.
90 percent of the trees taken were strong healthy, aged White Pines!Question:
Would trees like this have appreciable market value?
Here is the link to the BOS meeting that authorized this.
Not a huge value, but for local loggers, it’s their bread and butter.
That was a disaster. It looks like a call to the Weston Committee needs to take place.
I placed a call to Bob Lessard and updated the article with the gist of the conversation. Short version – everything was done according to plan and the results are what was expected.
I do not know much about the logging industry either. And I certainly did not want to sound too harsh. However, There is way too many uprooted stumps that should be cleared away and debri should be scattered back onto the logging roads. It is not finished. It still looks to be poor practice and does not even compare to the State supervised logging done in the Curlew Pond area of Plymouth. There is no comparison. It would be good to know when Mr. Lessard plans on removing all the uprooted stumps? Till then, carpet bomb.
I would advise talking to Mr. Lessard directly as I did or maybe the conservation agent.
He sounded quite sure that everything was done properly and reviewed by the right people. I don’t have any expertise to argue otherwise.
[...] MA. One about the section off of Tispaquin Street and the other about the section accessible from Purchase Street. The Purchase Street section looked horrible due to some logging to remove dead trees. I spoke to [...]