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WELCOME TO GREEN FUTURES !
APRIL, 2012

 

 “The development of civilization and industry in general has always shown itself so active in the destruction of forests that everything that has been done for their conservation and production is completely insignificant in comparison.” 
-Karl Marx

 

 

“A politician thinks of the next election. A statesman thinks of the next generation.” 

-James Freeman Clarke

 

 

BIG WALK- Bioreserve ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION

Photo by Liz Garant

Freetown State Forest. North Entrance to the Southeastern Massachusetts Bioreserve

 

Time for the BIG WALK once again. The BIG WALK is being conducted by The Trustees of Reservations (TTOR) and is scheduled for May 5, Saturday, starting at 10 a.m. This year walkers will be stepping off from the Freetown State Forest Headquarters, 110 Slab Bridge Road, Freetown, Massachusetts following a ceremony at 9 a.m. celebrating the 10 year anniversary of the Southeastern Massachusetts Bioreserve (SMB).

The annual BIG WALK is a wonderful educational and advocacy event familiarizing folks with the natural beauty and important historical, biological, cultural and natural resources of the SMB.

We, at Green Futures, held the first BIG WALK nineteen years ago in an attempt to rally support for the Freetown State Forest and advocate for preservation of additional open-space acreage in the area we now know as the Southeastern Massachusetts Bioreserve. Back in 1993, we called the area that was to become the SMB the Copicut Greenbelt in our news releases, advocacy literature and speaking engagements.

Since the 10 year anniversary of the Bioreserve will be taking place just prior to this year’s BIG WALK this presents an opportunity to enter our “wayback machine” and see how past BIG WALKs helped influence the creation of the SMB.           

The impetus for the first BIG WALK, in 1993, was a bold land-grab attempt by the Greater Fall River Development Corporation, aided by their political friends, to expropriate from the Freetown State forest all of the forest acreage in Fall River for industrial use despite the fact area industrial parks had hundreds of vacant, readily available acres.

This was outrageous, but the City had their local legislators ready to file legislation to steal this land from the people.

Isn’t it ironic that the Fall River mayor endorsing this public land taking back then and later responsible for holding the whole Bioreserve creation process hostage, until he got his way, was appointed last year as the Commissioner of the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation?

Yes, in politics, anything is possible.

Here’s an excerpt from a 1993 news article from The Herald News on the first BIG WALK - TO SAVE THE FREETOWN STATE FOREST:

FREETOWN – Nearly 200 people marched through the gates of the Freetown State Forest at noon yesterday to demonstrate their concern for preserving the park from development.

Old and young, men and women, Wampanoags in tribal dress, children, families, singles, professionals and others participated in the walk, which was sponsored by Green Futures, a newly formed local environmental group.

There were members of the Audubon Society and the Sierra Club. There were horseback riders, dog enthusiasts with their canines on leash, berry pickers, photographers, runners, hikers, bikers, fishermen, hunters and dog sled racers.

All of those who walked were making a statement about what they call the importance of preserving the state forest – every last acre of it – from development.

 

The best BIG WALK news article came 6 years later. Instead of just showing up for five minutes and scribbling a few notes as news reporters usually do, this reporter actually came on the walk and the resultant article helped immeasurably in “selling” the large-landscape, unfragmented forest, “bioreserve” concept to state officials and the general public:

Here is the wonderful 1999 article by New Bedford Standard Times Opinion Page Editor Monica Allen:

A BIG WALK IN THE WOODS

Environmentalists lead 18-mile forest trek, from Fall River to New Bedford, to draw attention to area's dwindling green spaces.
By Monica Allen – Standard-Times

When I first heard about the "Big Walk" from Fall River to New Bedford, it appealed to my desire to connect these two SouthCoast cities. But as I investigated, I quickly learned it would be an 18-mile walk. This seemed long. Was I willing to give up my Sunday to make this connection? As Sunday approached, I could feel my anxiety growing. I tried to convince a friend to accompany me. But when this hearty hiker said: "No, are you crazy? It's supposed to be 90 degrees that day", I felt a mixture of resolve - a sort of macho personal challenge - and self-doubt.

The alarm went off at 6:30 AM and I stuffed the ham sandwich I'd made the night before, bug spray, sunscreen, notepad, bottled water and camera into a small knapsack. Then I drove to the headquarters of the Fall River/Freetown State Forest where cars were gathering and people in hiking boots were milling about. The moment I stepped out of my car, a swarm of tiny black flies surrounded my face and began to nip. It's going to be along day, I thought as I smeared on bug dope.

Although I thought we would be hiking from the ranger station off Slab Bridge Road, I quickly learned we would all drive in a long caravan of cars to our actual starting point, the American Legion Hall in Assonet Village on South Main Street. Everett J. Castro, one of the hike organizers and a longtime member of the Green Futures environmental group, said this was the beginning because it was the closest he could get us to the shores of the Taunton River. The idea of the hike is to walk from the Taunton River to the Acushnet Cedar Swamp in New Bedford and retrace some of the woodland paths that Wampanoag Indians once took as they left their river bank summer encampments in the Fall to go into the uplands for winter.

The "Big Walk" began four years ago to protest what environmentalists see as the latest aggression by the current culture, a culture of conquest that has been transforming the New England landscape since the first Englishmen arrived in the 1600s.

The city of Fall River, anxious to increase its space for industry, had requested that the Commonwealth turn over 1,000 acres of the state forest for an expanded industrial park. Promising jobs for a growing population, the city leaders had a great deal of support for their proposal. But a small band of avid hikers decided this was an outrage and they would fight it. Already the forest was surrounded by manmade structures that were threatening what was left of one of the last sizable green spaces in southern New England, one of the few forests big enough for many native plant and animal species to survive. So Mr. Castro, Al Lima, and Tim Bennett, to name only a few, organized the first "Big Walk" to show the public what they were in danger of losing. The walk drew more than 100 people and helped to convince the state to turn down Fall River's expansion plans.

Winning one battle has not lulled this group into complacency. In fact, they know the battle is never really over in a state and region committed more to industry than to forests. Over the next few years, Green Futures, the non-profit environmental group, learned that the portion of the state forest in Fall River was zoned for heavy industry. No other state forest had such a zone. Most communities had zoned these parks for open space and recreation. So, Green Futures worked to get the zone changed, hoping this could give some future protection. But Mr. Castro says even this victory was not enough to allow him and the others to breathe easy. "There are people in the city that are still trying to get 200 acres of the forest for industrial use", he says. “We have to keep ever vigilant".

Back at the American Legion Hall, about 90 hikers are readying for the walk on the morning of May 7. Chief Windsong of the Wampanoag Tribe gathers the hikers in a circle and says a prayer for a safe and healthy ramble through the woods. Then he blesses the hikers with the scented smoke from a bundle of burning sprigs that he fans onto us using a wild turkey feather.

Then we break up into groups. The first group will do an abbreviated walk. The intermediate group will walk the entire 18 miles, stopping often to talk about the forest sites and to sip water. The third group will go straight through. A part of me wants to go with the fast group. My thought is I'd finish an hour or two earlier. But after casually polling a few hikers, I decide the intermediate group makes more sense. Later, I am glad of the decision when we learn one member of the fast group collapses and has to be pulled out of the woods.

It was about 10 minutes to 9 when we strolled briskly up Copicut Road and took a right turn into the state forest. For the next six hours, our group would be in the woods and would not see a single house. I would never have believed this if you had told me in advance that I could hike for six hours in the woods in congested southern New England. The 50 people in the intermediate group soon form a long necklace of walkers on a narrow pine needle trail that wends through tall white pines and down to a rushing waterfall called Rattlesnake Brook. The brook runs entirely in the state forest and is considered one of the cleanest streams in the region because it draws rain and groundwater only from forested land.

Tom Athearn of Fall River leads the intermediate group at a brisk pace. He confides that he usually leads the fast group so he likes to keep a steady clip. Along the early stretch, we hike through an old white pine grove with 100 feet high trees that were a favorite among colonists for ship masts.

The first major site along our hike is Assonet Ledge, an abandoned granite quarry operated by the Fall River Granite Company into the early 1900s. Rock from the quarry was used to build Fort Adams in Newport, R.I., the Taunton State Hospital and the state house in Albany, N.Y. among other buildings. The quarry closed sometime after stone cutters tapped into an artery of groundwater below and the quarry filled with water. We hiked up a rocky path to the ledge that overlooks the pool of water. Over the years, graffiti artists have painted giant hearts and scratched names onto the smooth granite walls. "They haven't reached the age where they understand how beautiful this would be without their words", one hiker says.

By now the temperature has climbed into the high 80s and many of the hikers welcome a chance to flake out on the cool granite and sip from water bottles. Others try to see how close they could get to the edge of the granite before fear drives then back. Mr. Athearn notes that over the years people have pitched trash into the quarry - items as large as cars have been pulled from the waters.
We hike back into the pine and oak trees. Al Lima of Green Futures says this was part of a section of the city wanted to turn into an industrial park. The land is flat and an old stone wall marks places where farmers had long ago kept their livestock. But over the last century, the woods have returned to fill these ghost pastures.

After some steady walking, I begin to detect a sour smell in the air. When I ask about it, Mr. Lima says it must be the Browning-Ferris Industries dump, the largest landfill in the commonwealth. The Fall River area suffers from many of these landmarks. The region is host to the largest and dirtiest coal-fired power plant in New England. It has this dump which accepts construction waste from throughout the state and, until recently, it had the oldest, most polluting trash incinerator in the state, placed snugly in a typical city neighborhood of triple deckers. Protest finally led the city to close the trash incinerator last summer after years of violating state health guidelines and spewing high levels of mercury, cadmium and lead into the air. As we hike closer to the dump, others start noticing the sour smell of garbage. Soon we can see a high earth-covered mountain just beyond the forest. "It's a horrible location", Mr. Lima says. Not only that, an unlined portion of the dump has contaminated Mother's Brook, appropriately named because it was once used by farm mothers to gather water for washing and cooking. Today it would make any mother or child sick because of high levels of toxic metals that have run off the dump into the brook and eventually flow into the Taunton River. On this 90-degree morning, the smell is particularly strong and I think everyone is glad when we get out of wind shot of the dump. As we get farther from the dump, the pine scent returns to fill the warm, muggy air.

The flat land gives way to a gentle hillside and we climb onto the back of Hogs Rock, a smooth granite outcropping that offers a lookout over the treetops. While most of the hikers, who've been walking for more than two hours in the sun and heat, welcome another chance to sit on the rock and sip water, some are anxious to push on. Isabelle Hart of Tiverton, one of the oldest hikers on the trip, has no interest in stopping. "I wish the breaks were shorter and we could keep going", she says, unwilling to sit. Much younger hikers have begun to ask when we will reach the first dirt road where they can get a van ride back to their cars. Green Futures carefully organizes the long walk so that hikers can quit at four evenly spaced spots along the trip. A van waits at these points where the dirt roads cross the forest path. When we reach the first road, more than half the hikers decide a three and a half-hour walk is plenty. But, Scott Hornsby, 31, of Fall River says the walk has convinced him to return to this trail. "I've lived here 31 years and I've never been out here", he says.

A hearty crew of about 20 pushes on through what is perhaps the most difficult section. The path turns to black mud and puddles and the brush closes in on us from both sides. Few large trees provide any shade as we walk in stifling heat for close to a half hour. Everyone is pleased to reach a dry, pine needle forest floor. Soon we leave Fall River/Freetown State Forest and pass into land acquired from the Forbes family in 1996 by the Greater Fall River Land Conservancy. Forbes, like many wealthy publishing families, controlled large holdings of forest to insure a steady supply of pulp for paper.
These woods are open with a mixture of trees that allows for a comfortable, shaded walk. The final wooded stretch of the day takes us into land owned by the Acushnet Saw Mills Company, a firm controlled by the Hawes family. The Hawes land has even more open spaces beneath the trees, a clear sign that it has been logged for many years. Green Futures gets permission each year to take hikers across this private property. "We're hoping eventually that this property will be acquired by the state or the land conservancy," Mr. Castro says.

At another road crossing, a few more hikers decide to take a van ride and now we are down to about nine. I have no desire to quit at this point, especially knowing we are well beyond halfway. By now the conversations are flowing among our small group. Hike leader Athearn urges us on to reach boiling spring, assuring us it's not a boiling hot spring. Curious, we walk on. Just before we reach the spring, we happen across a band of trespassers drinking beer beside a raging fire. These four large men have parked their souped up trucks in a grove and are playing loud rock music. Mr. Athearn is clearly disappointed to find this crew, but decides to say nothing to them and hike past.

The nearby natural spring is surrounded by an old concrete enclosure that allows the clear water to bubble up through fine white quartz sand and form a deep pool. Nanci Lown from Assonet is the first to dip her empty water bottle into the spring. Then she and most of us pull off our socks and shoes to cool our feet in the nearby stream. Tim Bennett of Green Futures explains that a farmer found this spring a long time ago and built his home right next to it. But the land was not suited for farming so he eventually left. The spring fed stream is actually the source of the East Branch of the Westport River. The water bubbles up from deep within the earth, flows to the Copicut Reservoir, then to Lake Noquochoke and finally into the river. We linger for a while at the spring.

The last stretch of forest goes by quickly and we emerge onto Pine Island Road about 3:30 pm. The waiting van takes three people, leaving six to finish the Big Walk. I've been forewarned about the last stretch of 3 or 4 miles. It's supposed to be the hardest. This is a portion where no local land trust, state or federal agency has been able to acquire forest to continue the proposed path. The dream of Green Futures and the Coalition for Buzzards Bay, another environmental group, is to build a walking path over a patchwork of green spaces that would stretch from the Taunton River to Cape Cod Bay in Plymouth. "This is the last opportunity we have for a long trail that would be mostly in the woods", Mr. Castro says, "and with the kind of development going on now, we may not have much time left to create it".

As warned, the last stretch is grueling on the feet. You don't notice how tired your feet are on pine needles, but asphalt has a way of slamming into them no matter how gently you walk. I search for small patches of grass along the roadside as we pass farms on Flag Swamp Road in Freetown and Dartmouth, then pass more recently built houses along Pine Island and High Hill Roads. I notice many no-trespassing signs in driveways. Cars whiz past us as we trudge, and a few children ask what we are doing, this scraggly band of two men and four women. It's fun to see their expressions when we tell them we're walking from Fall River to New Bedford. When we finally reach the New Bedford city line, Nanci Lown and Isabelle Hart hold their arms up in victory. Ahead of us are veteran hikers, Carl Windle and Lucy Farrar of Swansea, and our fearless leader Tom Athearn.

It is just around 5 pm when Turner Pond comes into view. We linger on the gravel beach looking over at the Atlantic white cedars on the distant shore. John Ashcroft of Fall River waits in a blue gray van to take us back to our starting point. The early evening breeze feels delicious on my face as we drive back toward Fall River.

There's something about a long walk through the woods that soothes the soul.

Once the Southeastern Massachusetts Bioreserve became a reality, we decided the BIG WALK had served its purpose and so we ceased holding the annual event. 
Fortunately The Trustees of Reservations, as one of the Bioreserve’s land owning entities, decided to keep the BIG WALK going. Their annual BIG WALK introduces to a new audience the natural, historical and cultural resources of this last, large parcel of public open space land in Bristol County.

Massachusetts is the third most populous state at close to 800 people per square mile and loses an average of 58,000 acres per year to development. We hope that all who have walked the BIG WALK experience the awareness that open space land is not just idle land waiting for development to come along, but it is dynamic land that nurtures wildlife; provides outdoor recreation in an increasingly urban world; protects vital water supplies for neighboring communities; lifts the human spirit; and makes our area a more aesthetically pleasing place to live, work and play.

 

MINING IN THE FOREST – Legal? Maybe, maybe not.

 Destroying McGowan’s Ledge and biodiversity too.

 

As you can see from the photo McGowan’s Ledge and its arkose granite will soon be history.

McGowan’s Ledge unfortunately is located on a privately owned parcel on Bell Rock Road within the Southeastern Massachusetts Bioreserve.

Although open-space funds are available to purchase this property, the owner refuses to sell opting instead to mine the granite and eventually turn the stripped land into house lots. Obviously, the property owner is not a friend of the Lorax!

Mining on the parcel seems contrary to the city’s watershed overlay zoning regulations. Is this legal? Do you think anyone at Fall River’s City Hall cares?

If housing is eventually built on that parcel, the result will be less biodiversity in the neighboring forest. Wildlife that demands solitude and large forested areas will now avoid the area and ground nesting forest birds, ovenbirds, whip-poor-wills, towhees, ruffed grouse, hermit thrush, will vanish.

 

WHAT WOULD METACOM DO?

Now that gaming is legal in Massachusetts the Indians …along with their smarmy lawyers, sycophantic consultants, fawning lobbyists, slavering politicians, oversees financial backers and various and sundry camp followers …are looking for possible sites for their “full resort casinos.”

They’re scrambling around looking at every remaining block of undeveloped land in southeastern Massachusetts eager to level the forest and tear apart Mother Earth …all to sate their casino lust.

Greed is pitting one group against another. Mashpees that follow tribal chairman Cedric Cromwell are battling with Mashpees still loyal to ex-chairman Glenn Marshall.

The Aquinnah (Gay Head) sailed across from their tribal home on Martha’s Vineyard attempting to grab a few gaming headlines and promote their casino interests apparently jealous that the Mashpees were receiving all the attention. And, the non-federally recognized families and clans are all in a dither fearing they’ll miss out on casino riches.

We admire and deeply respect our Wampanoag neighbors that have stayed true to their culture and native beliefs. Their love of the earth and all its varied inhabitants and the protection of the natural environment, that we all share, are all values that we cherish too.

Much more on this issue in the months, maybe years, ahead.

 

BIORESERVE FAUNA OF THE MONTH – American Woodcock (Scolopax minor)

“Peent, Peent, Peent.” What’s that buzzing, nasally sound coming from that corner of the wet meadow? Since the sun has set, that buzz must be coming from a frog or meadow insect. Quick! …Let’s walk over there and see if we can find the source of that strange sound.

Whoa! Up goes a small chunky bird spiraling into the night sky. We have flushed a woodcock, aka timberdoodle, on his singing ground or lek and we’ve solved the mystery of who was making that strange buzzing noise.

American woodcock range across all of eastern North America from southern Canada to the Gulf Coast. They nest from Tennessee north.

Woodcock are migratory and most spend the winter in Louisiana. Woodcock migrate at night leisurely flying at low altitudes making small stops along the way. In southeastern Massachusetts woodcock return in early March and take possession of grassy/mossy openings near brushy forest cover from which they call, strut and perform aerial displays from dusk through dawn seeking to impress a returning woodhen.

Following a series of “peents” and small chuckling calls the male takes off and flies hundreds of feet into the night sky. He circles high above the surrounding countryside and then descends in a circling spiral while making a tinkling, twittering sound.  

Shy woodhens watch these elaborate displays from the safety of nearby thickets. If suitably impressed, a woodhen will fly in and land in the vicinity of the male’s lek. The male will approach the female with tail fanned, strutting and bowing like a miniature turkey gobbler. Mating follows and upon completion the woodhen returns to thick cover and the male resumes his springtime display. A woodcock may mate with several woodhens.

Once mated the woodhen independently chooses a dry nest site on the ground, constructs a shallow nest of leaves and grass, lays four eggs and incubates them for an average of twenty-one days. She is also solely responsible for rearing the adorably downy, yellow and brown, precocial chicks.

Woodcock are nocturnal. Once the eggs hatch the hen broods the chicks until they are dry. If threatened by the approach of a predator the young chicks usually take cover and remain motionless. Once they are two weeks old the chicks will scatter by flying.

During the summer the woodhens with their following woodchicks spend their nights walking through thickets and along forest edges snapping up small insects, probing the earth for earthworms and foraging for seeds and berries.                                                                                              

Woodcock are very attractive birds with subtly camouflaged feathers in various shades of brown, gray, yellow, tan and black all blending in with the dead leaf patterns found on the forest floor. This superbly camouflaged bird is extremely difficult to see when sitting quietly on the forest floor and they will often hold tight and not flush until almost stepped on.

Woodcock have very large eyes located high on their heads. This eye placement is critical to woodcock survival since they allow for a wide field of vision while the woodcock are preoccipied with their head down probing the earth for earthworms and similar goodies.

Woodcock are unfortunately a declining species due to a loss of habitat caused mostly by urban development. Besides the paving over of their forest edge habitat new development also brings people and their commensals …dogs and cats. Ground nesting woodcock don’t stand a chance.

The French call the woodcock “bycasse” and consider it a choice edible. The European woodcock is slightly larger than its North American cousin.

To prepare the woodcock for a fine continental dinner you first pluck the feathers from the bird, but you do not remove the entrails.

Brush the woodcock melted butter and place in a roasting pan. Put roasting pan in an oven pre-heated to 400°F and roast for 8 to 12 minutes.

Remove the woodcock from the oven and split in half. Take out the entrails and chop fine with bits of cooked bacon, olive oil and mustard.

Fry some dried bread croutons in butter until golden brown. Remove the bread and set aside.

Place the roasted woodcock halves in a buttered fry pan and add the entrail mix. Fry for about 3 minutes. Pour some cognac over the woodcock halves and flambé.

Now, place each woodcock half on your previously fried and set aside bread croutons.

In the fry pan you removed the woodcock from add some mustard, drippings from the roasted woodcock and lemon juice. Stir and bring to a simmer. Pour the sauce over the woodcock halves and serve.

Bon appétit?

 Photo by Guizmo_68 Licensed under Creative Commons

 

BIORESERVE FLORA OF THE MONTH – Goldthread (Coptis trifolia)

Goldthread is a perennial evergreen plant found in mature northern forests. It is a member of the Ranunculus family.

It can be found in forests from Alaska to Labrador, south to Maryland and in the Appalachian Mountains to North Carolina and Tennessee, west to the Mississippi River.

Goldthread grows best in acidic soil thick with humus in mossy, damp, conifer forests. In the Southeastern Massachusetts Bioreserve (SMB), that means goldthread will be found growing under stands of large white pines along brooks or under Atlantic white cedar in cedar swamps.

Although it has a wide range, goldthread is absent from many forested areas. It is very sensitive to logging and forest disturbance. Ideal growing conditions are found in old-growth forests. Remove too much canopy and goldthread withers and dies. Run logging skidders or even walk on them with heavy boots and you crush their delicate rhizomes. That we have a few flourishing colonies of goldthread in the much cut-over and abused SMB forest is truly remarkable.

Goldthread leaves are shiny bright green and superficially resemble the leaves of wild strawberry. The leaf stems are 3 to 6 inches tall and rise directly from the rhizome-crown at ground level. A rhizome is a horizontal root-like stem that sends out roots below and leaf shoots above.

Goldthread usually grows in small colonies and new plants spring from the rhizomes as well as spread from seed. The flowers sepals are white and ½ inch across. Within the sepals are 4 to 7 yellowish true petals. Once the flowers are pollinated by small forest insects star-shaped seed capsules form, each filed with tiny black seeds.

The long yellow (gold) underground rhizome gives the plant its name. This portion of the plant was chewed by Indians to heal canker sores, thrush and other fungal infections of the mouth. Early Europeans in northern North America adopted this native remedy and also brewed the roots as tea for treating digestive disorders. An early American name for goldthread was canker-root.

In “Stalking the Healthful Herbs,” available in your local library or for purchase at Amazon.com, author Euell Gibbons relates his experience using goldthread as one ingredient in making homemade root beer.

“When drunk before lunch or dinner, it did not depress my appetite or dull my taste buds as spirituous liquors do. A single glass of it sharpens my appetite and seems to make good food taste even better.” …so says Euell.

Shy and usually overlooked in the deep, dark forest goldthread is a very talented member of our local flora.

Goldthread

 

Goldthread’s gold rhizomes.

 

SPRING IS HERE – Hooray!!!

 

What are you doing indoors? Get out and enjoy, it doesn’t last long.

Click on our Calendar and watch for our “Activity Alerts” for organized things to do.