Sweet Taste of Victory    Robert Leverett
   Sep 21, 2006 12:54 PDT 
ENTS,

   This morning witnessed was one of the great moments of my life. I
attended a meeting hosted by the Dept of Fish and Game and the
Department of Conservation and Recreation at the Jug End Nature Preserve
in the Taconics. The meeting was to announce the establishment of
100,000 acres of medium and large scale forest reserves in
Massachusetts. That is approximately 20% of the total area of our public
forests. Nine reserves were created and one (get ready) includes part of
Mohawk Trail, Savoy Mountain, and Monore State Forests. The reserve sets
aside 7,100 acres as completely protected, and to my amazement, follows
the exact boundaries that Chief Forester Jim DiMaio and I tentatively
established back in June. Basically, Jim handed me the pencil and I
dutifully went to work. The boundaries held. The excitement of having
been privileged to have personally drawn the boundaries of this
wonderful reserve has not yet fully sunk in. I think I'm going to
celebrate tonight. Sweetie Pie has something of a cold, so we won't
paint the town red, but we can at least have a small celebration. I
guess the big one needs to be on Oct 28th, huh?

    Our last major effort to establish forest reserves in Mohawk was in
1996. It failed a slow death due to internal bickering inside then DEM.
Some of us have been pushing for reserves of one form or another since
the late 1980s. So, this is a dream come true. No longer will I have to
work overtime thinking of ways to keep public attention on Mohawk
without compromising its sensitive old growth areas. Mohawk is finally
safe. Yeeehaaa! The big wigs from Boston who attended and presided made
it all official. I also had the opportunity to talk to Commissioner
Steve Burrington on the Robinson State Park Timber sale. He wants to
work out a compromise. How sweet it is. How sweet it is.      

     On the way to the meeting I stopped at Ice Glen and communed with
some old friends. When in the Glen, I always visit a particular white
ash. It is a beauty. This morning it received its formal ENTS name
"Monarch of the Glen". Guess where that name came from? Well, of course
I had to remeasure the Monarch. Its revised statistics are:

     Hgt: 138.4 ft
     Cir: 11.2 ft (conservative)

     This is one great white ash tree, folks. Its 42.8-inch diameter is
very high on the list of ashes with a 100 % forest-grown shape in New
England. There a re a few larger ones, but not many. So three cheers for
the Monarch of the Glen.

      I had time for one other measurement and chose a trailside pine.
The trail's close passing obscures the height of the tree. I eventually
found the top at 148.1 feet above the base. Its 7.8-foot girth is hardly
noticeable in Ice Glen. What a great place!

      I returned to work only about tqo hours ago. Think I'll leave
early today. I need to celebrate.

Bob
Re: Sweet Taste of Victory   LISA BOZZUTO
  Sep 21, 2006 13:17 PDT 
Bob,
   
      That is wonderful news - your years of dedication have been rewarded!. Do you have a map of where the boundary lines are?
   
Lisa
Re: Sweet Taste of Victory   Lee Frelich
  Sep 21, 2006 16:13 PDT 

Bob:

Well that makes two victories in two days. Reinstatement of the Clinton
Roadless Rule yesterday gave Minnesota 62,000 of reserves as well (not to
mention the hundreds of thousands of acres in VA, NC, SC, WV, etc.).
            
 Webmaster Note:

News: The Roadless Rule will be reinstated nationwide under a U.S. District Court Judge ruling today.

In Wilderness Society v U.S. Forest Service, Judge Elizabeth LaPorte of the U.S. District Court Northern District of California ruled that:

"The State Petitions Rule is set aside and the Roadless Rule ... is
reinstated. Defendants are enjoined from taking any further action
contrary to the Roadless Rule without undertaking environmental analysis consistent with this opinion."

In short, Judge Laporte ruled that the Bush Administration violated the National Environmental Policy Act and the Endangered Species Act when it repealed the 2001 Roadless Rule. The court reinstated the 2001 Rule nationwide and enjoined any management activity contrary to the Rule,
except in the Tongass National Forest. The court did not extend the Rule's protections to the Tongass because the Bush Administration had previously exempted the Tongass through a lawsuit settlement with the State of Alaska.

http://www.wilderness.org/NewsRoom/Statement/20060920.cfm


I hope your tornadoes are as delicate and tactful as ours, and they gently
thread their way around the reserves.

Lee
Re: Sweet Taste of Victory   wad-@comcast.net
  Sep 21, 2006 23:03 PDT 
Bob,

Congrats!! That's big news. I am glad to see your hard work paid off with such bounty.

Scott
RE: Sweet Taste of Victory   Will Blozan
  Sep 21, 2006 23:05 PDT 

SWEET! You are the "champion" of the Mass forests. So, Bob, we are all dying
to know, what is the Rucker Index of the "Leverett Forest Preserve".

A big high-five!

Will
RE: Sweet Taste of Victory    Robert Leverett
   Sep 22, 2006 07:41 PDT 

Scott,

   Thanks. The road to victory has been a long one, which has made the
taste all the sweeter. When I retire from my present position with
Sisters of Providence Health Systems, I'm thinking about writing a book
about the modern old growth movement in the East. The movement has many
chapters.

    Eastern old growth research has its origins as far back as 1913. And
along the way, there have been stellar performers like E. Lucy Braun. In
more recent times the scientists from institutions like the University
of Wisconsin paved the way for a deeper understanding of old growth
ecosystems. Lee Frelich emerged from that group. In the Northeast,
Charlie Cogbill up in Vermont made significant contributions to old
growth definitions. The U.S. Forest Service made some highly significant
contributions during a period when the organization seemed to be split
between those advocating a traditional timber focus and a more
foresighted group advocating a broader ecosystem management-based
approach.

    Because of an entrenched timber focus in government forestry
agencies and the schools of forestry, much of the eastern old growth
forest research in the middle years stayed buried in archives. The
prevailing ideas about old growth in the institutions just mentioned was
that of over-mature forests with the timber largely going to waste. I
was in the inside of many debates and well know the mindset. But the
early 1990s witnessed an explosion of interest within the activist part
of the environmental-scientific community in identifying and preserving
what survived as old growth in the East. The impetus was in part the
conflict over old growth in the Pacific Northwest. It was in this period
that the "Wild Earth" Publication came into existence and along with its
associated eastern old growth inventory became an important vehicle for
greater public involvement. Most significantly, in 1993, The Ancient
Eastern Forest Conference Series was born from the developing interest
in eastern old growth and the conference series brought together
separate parties that had an interest or investment in eastern old
growth. From 1993 to 1999, the conference series served as an important
crucible for building academic interest in further old growth research
in the forests of the East.    

   After 1999, the subject appear to have quieted down for several
years in the activist circles. That wasn't really the case. What was
actually happening was that a union of government, academia, forestry,
and environmental groups were acting cooperatively and moving to
incorporate old growth into reserves of one type or another. TNC, the
Natural Heritage Programs, grassroots environmental organizations, and
others were heavily involved. What is now emerging in the way of
protection for old growth results from the results of the morphing of
early movements into more serious scientific ventures aimed at
protecting bio-diversity on a grander scale.

    Several current ENTS members have great involvement in these early
eastern old growth movements. Foremost among the vocal members of this
list are Will Blozan, Lee Frelich, and myself. Other ENTS
members/affiliates include David Stahle, John Okeefe, Charlie Cogbill,
and Don Bertolette. There is a host of newer members who I think are
destined to play extremely important roles. Scientists/naturalists like
Tom Diggins, Tony D'Amato, Dave Orwig, Neil Pederson, Don Bragg, Bob Van
Pelt, Roman Dial, Rick Van de Poll, Dale Luthringer, Ed Frank, and
yourself to name a few. The list is long.

Bob
Sweet Taste of Victory/ more work to do   Lee E. Frelich
  Sep 22, 2006 09:18 PDT 

Bob:

Now that your big victory is reality, its time to start on the next step.

Does MA DCR have policies in place to govern the response to major natural
disturbances? Inevitably another hurricane like 1938, a thunderstorm,
tornado, or forest fire will occur and reinitiate new forest on these
lands. To see how the forests respond to natural disturbance is one of the
most important aspects of large-scale reserves.

Once you have large reserves, issues like salvage of downed timber, salvage
of diseased timber (HWA for example), assessment of fire risk posed by
downed and diseased timber, authorization of use of motorized vehicles and
other equipment in emergencies, minimum tools analyses, safety of
surrounding settlements during and after natural disturbances, become
important, and if you are not prepared, decisions that lead to damage of
the reserves will occur during emergencies. There is the issue of
prescribed burns to restore natural fire regimes in certain forest types,
which is also related to safety of surrounding settlements. NTFPs
(Non-timber forest products) remains a significant issue (harvest of
conifer boughs for wreaths, mushrooms and berries for food, decorative
ferns and clubmosses, deer hunting and management, etc.). We've dealt with
these issues plenty in MN. My advice is to make sure you are ready for all
of them.

Lee
Re: Sweet Taste of Victory   Jess Riddle
  Sep 22, 2006 15:38 PDT 

Bob,

That's spectacular news! Congratulations! Now you've just got to go
around to each tree to tell them they don't have to worry anymore.

Jess
RE: Sweet Taste of Victory   Matthew Hannum
  Sep 22, 2006 15:45 PDT 

Congratulations!

This is a big victory for everyone who loves the woods and who benefit
from them (which ironically includes everyone, even the people who'd
sooner pave the planet and put in malls everywhere because they don't
know better or don't care.)

Your hard work has paid off, and that is a wonderful thing to see!
Re: Sweet Taste of Victory   Fores-@aol.com
  Sep 22, 2006 16:09 PDT 
Bob:

I am truly impressed with the progress you reported today. I think that
such a move could be extremely important to forest management on private
property by taking such a large portion of the Mass. "timber pool" off the table and
one result may be that some of the scientific and environmental issues that
Joe Zorzin has repeatedly brought up relative to timber mining become more
widely recognized and..... more political.

Knowing that so much of my home stomping grounds is going to remain as I
have always enjoyed it heartens me greatly.

Russ
Re: Sweet Taste of Victory/ more work to do   dbhg-@comcast.net
  Sep 23, 2006 13:14 PDT 
Lee,

   Thanks. My involvement to date makes me very much aware that only the outline of policies exist to handle a large scale disturbance event. The smaller things like ATV use have been thought through. No ATVs. Plant harvesting is not permitted. Hunting is. In the case of the reserve for MTSF, SMSF, and MSF, there is very little incursion in this area because of its ruggedness.

Bob
Sweet Taste of Victory/ Starfish Story   Edward Frank
  Sep 24, 2006 20:29 PDT 
Bob,

Congratulations on the victory with the designation of portions of MTSF as part of a MA Large Forest Reserve. That seemed by far to be the strangest omission from the presentation at last years Forest Summit. I am sure you will not rest on your laurels now that this area has received protection, but you a few moment of respite to savor the victory before your next battle. There is a story that has been repeated in many contexts that I though would be appropriate to repeat under these circumstances:

--------------------------------------------------------------
  • The Starfish Story
    adapted from The Star Thrower by Loren Eiseley
    1907 - 1977

    Once upon a time, there was a wise man who used to go to the ocean to do his writing. He had a habit of walking on the beach before he began his work.

    One day, as he was walking along the shore, he looked down the beach and saw a human figure moving like a dancer. He smiled to himself at the thought of someone who would dance to the day, and so, he walked faster to catch up.

    As he got closer, he noticed that the figure was that of a young man, and that what he was doing was not dancing at all. The young man was reaching down to the shore, picking up small objects, and throwing them into the ocean.

    He came closer still and called out "Good morning! May I ask what it is that you are doing?"

    The young man paused, looked up, and replied "Throwing starfish into the ocean."

    "I must ask, then, why are you throwing starfish into the ocean?" asked the somewhat startled wise man.

    To this, the young man replied, "The sun is up and the tide is going out. If I don't throw them in, they'll die."

    Upon hearing this, the wise man commented, "But, young man, do you not realize that there are miles and miles of beach and there are starfish all along every mile? You can't possibly make a difference!"

    At this, the young man bent down, picked up yet another starfish, and threw it into the ocean. As it met the water, he said, "It made a difference for that one."

    This story has appeared all over the web in various forms, usually with no credit given to Mr. Eiseley. Sometimes it is a little girl throwing the starfish into the ocean, sometimes a young man, once even an elderly Indian. In any form it is a beautiful story and one that makes you think.

    Loren Eiseley was a anthropologist who wrote extensively. He was the 'wise man' in the story, and he was walking along a beach after a storm and encountered the fellow throwing the starfish back.

    http://muttcats.com/starfish.htm

    ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Well Bob, it seems you made a difference for this one.

Ed Frank