Robinson State Park, MA   Gary A. Beluzo
  Nov 29, 2006 07:45 PST 
Fellow ENTS:

Yesterday Ray Weber and I explored the "Valley of the Tulips" area of
Robinson State Park, the Massachusetts state park that MA DCR is considering
for timber harvest, pending a 1 year study of the site's natural resources.
This small cove is located off James Street in Agawam (rimmed with houses!)
and drains directly into the Westfield River. We counted over 80 mature
tulip poplar trees in this one small area, certainly enough to keep Bob
Leverett busy this Sunday! This stand is significant in that it may
represent the best developed tulip poplar stand that we have near the
northeast terminus of Liriodendron tulipifera distribution.

Girths were measured to the nearest 0.01 inch with a Forestry Suppliers
tape; measurements were taken with the Nikon Prostaff Laser 440/Suunto
clinometer to calculate the total tree height with the ENTS Sine + Sine
method to the nearest 0.1 foot.

Girth (feet)   Height (feet)

9.50            117.2
9.31            116.5
10.08          123.6
9.40            100.5
11.71          119.5
12.40          131.3
8.51            119.2
8.60            120.1
8.40            118.0
9.41            118.3

Gary Beluzo
RE: Robinson State Park   Robert Leverett
  Nov 29, 2006 09:57 PST 

Gary,

Good show. Can't wait until Sunday. The 12.4-foot girth tulip is the
largest forest-growth specimen I know of in Massachusetts.
The largest ENTS-certified ones we have in Mass with a circumference of
12 feet or more are listed below:

Location    Girth    Height

Hadley       16.7     100.1
Florence     16.1     120.6
Hadley       15.6     106.1
Chicopee     15.0     121.2
Sheffield    14.3     119.4
Amherst      14.0     107.8
Amherst      13.9     109.4
Florence     13.7     118.7
Northampton 13.4     133.1 (Can't repeat this)
Robinson     12.4     131.3
Holyoke      12.3     111.3
Northampton 12.1     122.9 (Recently cut)
Northampton 12.1     130.2
Northampton 12.1     107.5

Of course there is the height champ at (140.0, 10.5). I'm sure eastern
Mass has some large planted ones, perhaps larger that the Hadley tree.

Bob                
RE: Robinson State Park - Zoar Valley   John Eichholz
  Nov 30, 2006 09:54 PST 

Bob,

I can make the trip to Robinson on Sunday. This is getting to sound
interesting. Any chance you want to carpool? Can you send me a list of
what you've found so far?


Does:
http://www.topozone.com/map.asp?lat=42.08614&lon=-72.65766&datum=nad27&layer=DRG

put a bulls eye on the new cove, or is it elsewhere?

John
RE: Robinson State Park - Zoar Valley   Robert Leverett
  Dec 01, 2006 05:38 PST 

Gary,

   I've agonized over this issue and solutions are slow in the coming.
By legislative statute and executive policy and regulation, DCR is
mandated to exist in two worlds (active management and preservation) and
sometimes these very different missions conflict.   

   With respect to what can be managed and what should be protected, as
you know, for almost two decades, I've been searching for the common
ground with DEM/DCR and trying to build on it. There definitely is
common ground. For example, there are few if any of the Bureau of
Forestry personnel who don't support preserving the Massachusetts old
growth. DCR foresters all know that there are very few acres of real old
growth remaining. So, preservation versus economics is not an issue. But
beyond preserving the old growth, views vary significantly among
department personnel. Some of the management foresters support the
reserves concept and some don't. I saw that in our efforts to establish
the major reserves.

   One reason that I have been unwaiveringly supportive of Chief
Forester James DiMaio is that he spearheaded the reserves effort for DCR
and coaxed his management foresters into line. I was personal witness to
his leadership. We owe the large scale reserve in Mohawk Trail State
Forest, Savoy Mountain State Forest, and Monroe State Forest to his
leadership - and no thanks to TNC, with their noses up in the air and
their attitudinal indifference to other sources of forest expertise.
Yes, overall TNC is a great organization, but their attitude and spirit
of cooperation toward other conservation organizations leaves much to be
desired.   

   So here we are with the challenge of Robinson SP. It is a park and
one would think that should be sufficient to protect it from an active
timber management program, but DCR, as its forerunner DEM, has chosen
not to make a sufficient distinction between a state park, a state
forest, and a state reservation with respect to timber harvesting and
they've got away with it. But that isn't DiMaio's fault. He inherited
the sins of DEM past and while I am not totally sure of how he looks at
parks, I have heard him say on multiple occasions that he does not see
them as prime timber producers. He does see them as being in a separate
category, but that doen't exclude them from some timber management - and
there in lies the source of the current conflict.
      
    There is no doubt that Robinson SP is a special property that grows
more special the more we look at it. We agree that Robinson needs a high
degree of protection. We now need to carefully define protection from
what. I suspect that all of us who come down on the side of firm
protections expect Robinson to be free from active, timber-driven
management. But that doesn't necessarily eliminate ecologically-driven
actions. For example, there could be limited actions taken to promote
special forest types that thrive on distrbance such as the tuliptee
habitats. That is what science should determine. And what about the
threat of devastating insect pests like the adelgid? How do we address
that imminent threat? Will the State pay for treatment? Will the local
citizens anti up? We have a lot of work to do, a long way yet to go.

   I hope we can find sufficient common ground with DCR to forge a
partnership that defines the boundaries of what can be allowed to occur
in Robinson and what cannot. We also need to agree on definite roles for
the parties and try to stick to them, but that won't happen in an
atmosphere of mistrust. DCR took some actions precipitously and had to
back off, but there is still a mountain of mistrust. We need to get all
the devisive issues out on the table and dispose of them one at a time.
The Dec 8th meeting may be a doozy. I'm glad you will be there with me.
       

Bob
RE: Robinson State Park - Zoar Valley   rayof-@ndws.com
  Dec 01, 2006 06:49 PST 

I pretty much agree Bob. However, DCR's methods are
clearly slanted toward harvest. For example, the hemlock stands at
Mount Holyoke at Robinson. The solution to the adelgid: Cut them
all down BEFORE they are infected, while they have some value.
Why not treat them? Perhaps that is a budget issue however.

The tulips appear healthy and attempting to regenerate if the
saplings don't get crushed or cut, so there appears to be
sufficient natural disturbance taking place to promote that.
What do reserves allow to that end? The problem here is
that if DCR is given an opportunity to work in a manner that
cuts, they have thus far taken it above and beyond what is
necessary and needed. They told the abutters initially early
this year that they were simply treating diseased pine stands.
Suddenly later on "thinning adjacent stands" shows up. Now
a cutting plan is filed with the Pines in the far minority. Do
the citizens need the education here? In this case clearly
they know too much.

Ray