Highlights

AUGUST 2019 - Bioreserve Hike

ACTIVITY ALERT - August's Exploring the Southeastern Massachusetts Bioreserve Walk

August's exploratory walk will be August 10, Saturday. We will meet at 8 a.m. at the The Trustees' parking area on Indian Town Road near its intersection with Yellow Hill Road, Fall River.
 
Water and snack always a good idea. Rain cancels walk.
 
On one of our recent walks we had a question from an active local hiker wondering why they seldom see snakes when out in the Bioreserve and when they do see one it is usually only a common garter snake. 
 
One reason for this lack of snakes is that our heavily developed landscape and ophidiophobic human population makes for difficult living conditions if you are a snake. Another reason is that Massachusetts does not have a snake friendly climate. To survive in Massachusetts as a snake one must be extremely hardy. In order to survive our cold and damp winters and hot humid summers our local snakes are compelled to spend most of their year either hibernating or aestivating. That leaves them little time for feeding, finding mates, reproducing ...or simply relaxing in a forest sunbeam. 
 
All of Massachusetts has only 14 snake species. Compare that to sunny and hot Arizona, with 54 snake species, 13 of them venomous. Of the 14 Massachusetts species, two are venomous and both those species have been extirpated from our area and are extremely rare, now only found in the Blue Hills and in wilder portions of western Massachusetts.
 
12 of the 14 Massachusetts species were native to our southeastern section of the state. Of the 12, only 8 species now call the Southeastern Massachusetts Bioreserve home. It would be great to someday to restore the four extirpated species to their Bioreserve home. 
 
Here are a few photos of a few snakes one may catch a glimpse of in the Bioreserve, Snakes are a magnificent part of our natural environment. They are fabulously adapted to their environment and many are colorful and beautifully patterned. They do not chase people or bite if simply observed and left alone. Fear of snakes is irrational. Blame Eve?
 

Northern water snake watching you. Eats mostly fish and frogs. Many people incorrectly call these "moccasins." Water moccasins are venomous and are not found north of Virginia. Our Northern Water Snake is not venomous.

 
Ringneck Snake. A small snake, rarely reach two feet in length. They are probably the most common snake in the Bioreserve. They eat salamanders, 


A  beautiful young milk snake. They eat mice, voles and other small rodents. Unfortunately they are often killed by ignorant folks who mistake them for copperheads. Copperheads are not found in the Bioreserve  and have triangular heads, different patterns and coloring. STOP KILLING SNAKES!

The black racer is the largest snake species presently found in the Biorserve. The can be an impressive seven feet in length. Black racers feed on squirrels and other rodents, birds, eggs, amphibians and on smaller snakes. They flee, "race" off when encountered, although they may look back to see what startled them. The black rat snake is larger than the black racer. Black rat snake is the longest snake in Massachusetts at eight to nine feet. Unfortunately they are another of the Bioreserve's extirpated species. Let's bring them back.


Common garter (not 'garden') snakes are found throughout the area and are probably the second most abundant snake species, after the ringneck snake, in the Bioreserve, They eat insects, worms, toads and frogs.

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ACTIVITY ALERT - August's Walk Exploring the Southeastern Massachusetts Bioreserve

 
This past Saturday was an ideal summer day for a morning walk in the Southeastern Massachusetts Bioreserve. At our 8 a.m. start time the temperature was in the sixties, nice breeze out of the northwest and the humidity was low.

On our hike we explored a new Bioreserve land acquisition that almost ended up lost to unwise development. Now that it is protected it will help in preserving the water quality of Copicut Reservoir. We also trekked over Copicut Hill from its east side, stopped by King Philip's Spring at the headwaters of Blossom Brook, and looked at a pileated woodpecker's handiwork.

Not a fantastic year, but a good year for blueberries in the Bioreserve. I picked some on the way home. Go out and get yourself some. Wild blueberries contain more antioxidants than the commercial ones.

September's Exploring the Southeastern Massachusetts Bioreserve Walk will be September 14, Saturday. Details on that walk will be emailed out at the beginning of September. 


At Indian Town Road. The start of August's exploratory walk


Bioreserve blueberries looking good, tasting better.

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INFO ALERT - Eternal vigilance is needed because the stupid ain't stopping!

 

Read this: https://www.heraldnews.com/news/20190815/gas-station-restaurants-proposed-for-fall-rivers-innovation-way?fbclid=IwAR0kmFKc3Pjyq5XrCam9M_eY5libGPbfomE7G_ghTES59GkKJ7Fo28w91BE

 

That doesn't sound like life science or biotechnology to us.

 

The last, large block of Bristol County Lowland Forest in rapidly urbanizing eastern Massachusetts became the Southeastern Massachusetts Bioreserve (SMB) almost 20 years ago when a group of concerned citizens and state environmental officials stopped a bold land grab attempt by a private Fall River development group and their political lackeys to take over one thousand acres of protected public conservation land for industrial development, although they admitted, they had no industry in mind for the site. Outrageous? Yes! These development interests had certain local politicians ready to file legislation to steal this land from the people.

 

Today, the Southeastern Massachusetts Bioreserve protects and preserves a large area containing multiple eco-systems of statewide importance. As suburban sprawl and continued growth accelerates in the surrounding cities and towns, the SMB will be the last refuge for thousands of species of plants and animals who call this area of southeastern Massachusetts home. The SMB also protects a regional water supply in its Watuppa and Copicut Reservoirs, contains the headwaters of the Westport River, stores vast amounts of carbon to mitigate or slow climate change, and provides outdoor recreational opportunities compatible with its bioreserve mission.

 

To facilitate and begin acquisition of the 16,000 acres for the SMB and placate development interests, a carve-out of 300 acres, of state forest land along Route 24, was sold to Fall River for industrial development. Local promoters and politicians brayed this 300 acres, when developed, would provide 6,000 to 10,000 "good paying" jobs. State officials were more modest projecting 3,500 to 6,000 jobs—numbers still not even remotely realized.

 

These 300 acres are now called the SouthCoast Life Science and Technology Park and it has the ludicrously named Innovation Way providing access directly off Route 24. Originally, the park's centerpiece was to be have a biotech 'incubator" facility which would develop and then spin-off and create new companies that would then locate in the park providing those promised "good paying" jobs.

 

Sounded good to us! A small UMASS medical facility, MassBiologics, was constructed in the "park", but that was it. Instead of waiting for the promised biotech spin-offs and new start-ups, Fall River has filled more than half the park with a huge Amazon receiving and shipping warehouse, a marijuana growing and processing company, and a solar array adjacent to the capped Republic Services dump. With all this "innovation" it won’t be long until the Life Sciences and Technology Park is built-out and Fall River will have thrown away its chances of bringing what it said it would bring when all this started.

 

Easy to see that instead of waiting for those biotech life science start-ups and spin-offs, Fall River has apparently decided to sell acreage to anyone for anything. We already know that once the park's 300 acres is filled to capacity with all those "good paying" jobs provided by donut shops, fast food restaurants, gas stations, etc., some devious development promoters will once again attempt a theft of more public land. Keep watch! 

 

The Bioreserve and environment are too important to our quality of life here in southeastern Massachusetts to be thought of as only vacant land waiting to be squandered.

 

Unfortunately, not MassBiologics, nor anyone else, has yet developed a vaccine against stupid.

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