Newsletters

FEBRUARY, 2012

 

 

“Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passions, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence.”
-John Adams

 

“You ain’t gonna learn what you don’t wanna know.”

-Bob Weir/John Perry Barlow, Grateful Dead (Black Throated Wind)

 

 

  

NO PEACE FOR PEACE HAVEN – Ten thousand years of continuous habitation by Homo sapiens living in a stunningly beautiful landscape unappreciated by today’s Homo …ignoramuses?

 

Ignoramuses or ignorami? It doesn’t matter, because we have more than enough of them in southeastern Massachusetts to cover both plural forms!

 

BREAKING NEWS – From The Herald News – 2/14/12 http://www.heraldnews.com/news/x1882856935/Meditech-backs-out-of-proposal-to-build-65M-project-in-Freetown?utm=c

 

This is an interesting turn of events. Is this good or bad? We don’t know yet, but intend to continue our advocacy for the preservation of Peace haven and its 10,000 years of cultural history.

 

Not once, during this entire debacle, have we heard or read anything in the local news …except from one extremely brave radio talk show host …on the importance of Peace Haven.

 

If you read our newsletters you’re no doubt thoroughly familiar with Peace Haven. If new to the issue, here’s the true Peace Haven that the news media and development scoundrels don’t want you to know about.

 

THE IMPORTANCE OF PEACE HAVEN
  (Over 10,000 years of human habitation)

Known since Colonial times as Peace Haven, the land lying along the Taunton River from Barnaby's Cove north to the confluence of the Assonet and Taunton Rivers has been continuously inhabited by man for over 10,000 years ago. It is unique in that archaeological excavations, extending over 70 years, by Roy Athearn and his associates resulted in the discovery of Paleo-Indian settlements at Peace Haven dating from just after the receding of the glaciers at the end of the last ice age.

Peace Haven is one of the few locations in New England with such a long unbroken human record. Peace Haven's proximity to major shellfish beds, anadromous fish runs, extensive system of inter-connecting waterways for easy travel, fertile slopes oriented to the southwest and sheltered position in the Taunton River valley provided ideal habitat for human settlement. Whether during the Paleolithic, Archaic, Historic or Industrial eras, Peace Haven has always been able to provide its inhabitants with more than just the basic necessities of life.

Peace Haven is considered one of the most thoroughly documented archeological sites in the Commonwealth and one of the most significant. The site has been the subject of many articles in the Journal of the Massachusetts Archeological Society and other publications on archeology. Some of the many artifacts unearthed at the site are on display at the Somerset Historical Society and recorded with the Massachusetts Historical Commission.

Peace Haven also includes one of the most significant geological features in the area remaining from the past Ice Age, a large intact esker.

Eskers are elongated serpentine ridges, many reaching over thirty feet in height. They were formed when fissures and crevasses in glacial ice allowed melt water through forming streams beneath the glacier that over thousands of years deposited layers of sand and gravel and boulders.

When the glacier eventually melts way, esker formations are reveled. Since locally occurring eskers have been exploited for their gravel deposits over the last hundred years, most have been stripped of their gravel, turned into gravel pits and thus destroyed.

Peace Haven was also the site of one of the key incidents that resulted in the start of King Philip's War. On July 19, 1675, following opening hostilities between Wampanoags and the English settlers in Swansea, King Philip and Weetamoe fought the English in the battle of the Great Pocasset Cedar Swamp. Many English casualties resulted, allowing the Wampanoag warriors to escape by traveling along the east side of Watuppa Pond and then down an old Indian trail that the English settlers called Mowry path. Mowry Path terminated at Winslow's Point at Peace Haven, where an Indian operated ferry was located. Philip, Weetamoe and their warriors were ferried across the Taunton River which allowed their advance toward central Massachusetts where they joined with some Nipmuc and thus began what is known today as King Philip's War.

The escape from Winslow's Point was the last opportunity for the English to avoid war. Had King Philip and Weetamoe been intercepted at Winslow's Point, the Indian uprising would have been ended and the course of New England history changed dramatically.

On August 3, 1676, Weetamoe, who had remained loyal to Philip throughout the war, drowned in the lower Taunton River, somewhere south of Peace Haven, while trying to escape the Taunton Militia. She was found dead on the Somerset shore.

Peace Haven is also rich in natural history. The biological diversity of Peace Haven, as we've already noted, is the reason for the continuing presence of humans for the past 12,000 years. Some of the bounty …oysters, soft shell clams, quahogs, blue crabs, eels, striped bass and white perch are still found there today. Ospreys still patrol the river and wintering bald eagles are becoming more than an occasional visitor. The federally endangered Atlantic sturgeon prowls the deeper holes in the river and two Massachusetts “species of special concern” …the diamondback terrapin is returning to the salt marshes of Barnaby’s and Hathaway's Coves.

The salt marshes and uplands at Barnaby's Cove are well vegetated and contain many indigenous species. There are some exemplary stands of sassafras and white oak along the peninsula.

Commercial, industrial and residential growth is at an all time high in southeastern Massachusetts. As a result not only wildlife habitats and open space recreational lands are being put in jeopardy, but historical sites are increasingly being threatened and destroyed.

Many parcels may be suited for continued development. However, every so often, certain properties are slated for development that are exceptional in their biological and historical scope and value. Peace Haven is one of these sites.

The Stop and Shop warehouse facility and other future Churchill & Banks development projects could result in the total loss of the Peace Haven site, destroying its historical and ecological treasure forever.

We recognize the imperative for development, but also realize Peace Haven is unique and that it has qualities that belong to all of us. Surely, development can occur, but the most environmentally unique and historically significant pieces can be saved.

Churchill & Banks seems to understand that. In a letter to the Massachusetts Executive Office of Environmental Affairs, Churchill & Banks states their support for open space preservation of environmentally sensitive land at Peace Haven. They also endorse an ecopassage corridor, for wildlife crossing, under Route 24 that will link the Peace Haven site, on their property, to the Southeastern Massachusetts Bioreserve.

The Massachusetts Highway Department recently constructed this crossing as part of the Route 24 Interchange 8B project.

The Southeastern Massachusetts Bioreserve is a large area of open space land of exceptional environmental value. It lies just east of the Peace Haven site and would benefit from the Peace Haven acquisition. Peace Haven and the Taunton River are integral habitat units presently lacking representation in the Bioreserve. Their inclusion makes more complete the full range of coastal forest and shore ecosystem preservation inherent in the intent that resulted in the creation of the Southeastern Massachusetts Bioreserve.

As you may be aware, the Southeastern Massachusetts Bioreserve protects, restores and enhances the biological diversity and ecological integrity of a large-scale ecosystem with diverse natural communities representative of the region. The Bioreserve permanently protects public water supplies and cultural resources and offers opportunities for interpretive and educational programs communicating the value and significance of complete ecosystem preservation. It also provides opportunities for appropriate public use and enjoyment of our natural environment.

The Peace Haven green link to the Bioreserve and the accompanying ecopassage not only adds a new ecosystem to the Bioreserve but assures wildlife migration opportunities, provides access for walkers and also allows the imagination to relive over 10,000 years of human history and such notable events as the flight of King Philip and Weetamoe on that fateful day in 1675.

Peace Haven's location on the shores of the Taunton River also gives it extraordinary scenic beauty and is important to eco-tourism initiatives especially now that the Taunton River has received Wild and Scenic River designation.

When complete, this important project will serve as a model of how to advance economic development while protecting open space, historic resources, wildlife routes and unique ecosystems.

What a wonderful gift to future generations.

“In the end, our society will be defined not only by what we create, but by what we refuse to destroy.”
- John Sawhill

 

 

 

 

 

BIORESERVE FAUNA OF THE MONTH – Snow Flea aka Springtail (Hypogastrura nivicola)

 

Snow fleas are active all year long, but easily overlooked among the fallen leaves on the forest floor. They are usually only noticed when seen on late winter snow patches as thousands of tiny dark blue dots moving about and springing into the air.

 

Snow fleas are very small arthropods related to insects. They are taxonomically Collembola. There are over 6,000 species in the world, living on every continent and in the Arctic and Antarctic. Some species live in salt water tidal pools, others deep in caves.

 

They all lack wings, but can cover amazing distances in a hurry. Located on their abdomen is a forked organ called a furcula that lies close to the body. When the snow flea feels threatened or just wants to cover ground in a hurry, it can release its furcula and catapult itself into the air.

 

Like many other cold-blooded species, snow fleas and winter active insects produce a natural glycine protein that prevents their bodies from freezing.

 

Snow fleas do not bite people and they do not infest animals. Scurrying and hopping about they feed on decaying organic matter in the leaf litter and snow. They help turn woody organic matter into rich forest soil.

 

Snow flea predators include various ground beetles, some forest ant species, spiders and centipedes.

 

Mating takes place in early spring and the females lay their eggs in the forest soil beneath thick leaf litter. The eggs soon hatch and the tiny larval snow flea nymphs feed and grow throughout the summer reaching maturity by late fall.

 

 

 

Snow fleas as seen by the naked eye.

 

 

 Snow fleas up close.

 

 

 

BIORESERVE FLORA OF THE MONTH – Pussy Willow (Salix discolor)

 

The pussy willow is a native deciduous shrub ranging from southern Canada south to Maryland and West Virginia, west and then north to eastern Missouri, Nebraska, South Dakota and North Dakota.

 

Pussy Willows are found along wetland edges and in open swampy areas. They need full sun and do poorly in even partial shade. You will not find them in the forest in the Southeastern Massachusetts Bioreserve (SMB), but will find them along the forest’s edges where wetlands occur.

 

Reaching as high as thirty feet pussy willow shrubs have many perennial stems composed of soft wood. They grow rapidly at the rate of two to four feet during the spring and summer. The leaves are oval and toothed beyond the middle of the leaf; leaves are 3 to 5 inches long and green above and whitish beneath.

 

The flowers are soft, silky catkins, borne in early spring before the new leaves appear.

A catkin is a dense, cylindrical, cluster of single sex flowers found in willows and a few other shrub and tree species. Like the holly tree (our December’s SMB Flora of the Month) the pussy willow is dioecious; male and female catkins on different shrubs.

 

The male pussy willow catkins produce copious yellow pollen. Both male and female catkins produce abundant nectar. The female catkins are both wind and insect pollinated and develop into a small dry seed capsule filled with tiny brown seeds.

 

Pussy willow is a winter food for whitetail deer and cottontail rabbits, snowshoe hares, meadow voles, muskrats and beavers will eat the twigs and bark. Ruffed grouse relish the large winter buds.

 

Pussy willow bark contains salicylic acid. Until the invention of aspirin, which contains acetylsalicylic acid, willow bark brews were used to treat a variety of ailments such as headaches, fevers, colds, menstrual pains, muscle aches and rheumatism.

Before the pussy willow catkins fully develop they are covered in a soft, grayish fur, resembling the fine, fluffy coat of a pussycat …hence the name, “pussy” willow. The catkins appear in late winter, before the leaves sprout, and are one of the earliest signs of spring.

 

Many people decorate their homes with pussy willow shoots or weave pussy willow stems into decorative wreaths each spring. The flowering shoots of pussy willow are often used in spring religious decorations on Palm Sunday and at Easter instead of …or combined with …palm branches.  

 

Go out and hunt for some pussy willows this March and if you’re successful in your quest, bring them indoors and recite to them this little children’s poem from the late nineteenth century:

 

Windy March is blowing with all its might.
Brooks are overflowing with all their might.
Though it's cold as winter, snowy, blowy,
Little pussy willow came to town last night.

Pussy wore her mittens of light gray fur.
Downy as a kitten's they surely were.
Though it's cold as winter, snowy, blowy,
Little pussy willow came to town last night.

Feels like spring, doesn’t it?

 

 

 

 

February’s Exploring the Bioreserve Walk – Breakneck Hill Hike

 

A small group of weather resistant hikers turned out on Saturday to walk around Breakneck Hill. Despite the slushy conditions no one broke their neck …or any other bones …and all seemed to have a good time.

 

Not only did we get to view the hill on a stormy winter day, but we walked by ancient stone walls, a foundation from a homestead long gone, clear-cut forest areas and thick forest of white and pitch pine, American holly and yellow birch.

 

Our next Exploring the Bioreserve Walk will be March 10, Saturday, 10 a.m. - Walk from Profile Rock to Howland Swamp and back via the former Stony Acres Nudist Colony

 

Specific info on where to meet will be announced one week prior to the walk. Mark your calendars.

 

Click on our Calendar for other stuff to do.