Newsletters
January 2012 - Peace Haven, Woodchucks, Atlantic White Cedar
WELCOME TO GREEN FUTURES !
JANUARY, 2012
“No statement should be believed because it is made by an authority.”
-Hans Reichenbach
“Liar, liar pants on fire …your nose is longer than a telephone wire.”
-Castaways (Jim Donna)
BREAKING NEWS: Fall River changes city motto from -
"We'll Try" to "We'll Lie."
As we predicted servile Fall River elected officials, scurrilous development promoters and a few of the unfortunately unemployed brought their dog and pony show to the Joint Committee on State Administration and Regulatory Oversight's 1/24 public hearing on Senate Bill 2053.
Of course, company founder and CEO Pappalardo was not at the hearing nor was anyone from Meditech. It is obvious no one else at Meditech is allowed to speak. We guess all those "good-paying" jobs come with a gag order?
Meditech's mercenaries spewed forth the same tripe that we've been hearing for almost half a year now, ...basically, that a promise of "jobs, jobs, jobs" is all that's required to destroy whatever is in the way of a proposed development.
HOT OFF THE INTERNET - "No matter how it is spun, the reality is that Meditech only wants the best property, at the best location, under their conditions." http://ojornal.com/portuguese-brazilian-news/2012/01/truth-about-peacehaven-meditech-those-who-would-bury-it/
Thanks to all of you that have emailed, written and called your legislators. Thanks also to those that have sent us support emails. It is always nice to know our efforts are appreciated.
Please keep calling and emailing and urge your friends and neighbors to call the legislators, below.
Review of where we are now and who to target, again, with emails, phone calls and letters -
An amendment (Clerk #4 attached to the Senate's Supplemental Budget Bill S.2108) was filed by Sen. Rodrigues and was adopted by the Senate Thursday, 1/19/12. It gets no hearing, no public comment.
The next step is that it will go to the House for the House to adopt or concur or not concur (also done without a hearing) in the House's version of the Supplemental Budget (H.3887). The House typically “concurs.”
This amendment, attached without any public hearing, exempts Meditech from Massachusetts Historical Commission (MHC) review, including the MHC's responsibilities under the state’s unmarked burial law. If any Native American burials are discovered during construction, they would not be protected under the State Archaeologist's law regarding unmarked burials.
The amendment allows construction to proceed and destroy the Peace Haven archaeological site without any archaeological mitigation.
This sets a dangerous precedent for using the state budget process to file an Outside Section to exempt any other controversial project anywhere in the state to exempt it from MHC's or any other state environmental review.
Contact the Speaker of the House and your Representatives, asking them not to adopt Clerk #4 of Senate 2108 into the House version of the Supplemental Budget.
To find your senators and representatives and their contact information go here: http://www.malegislature.gov/ …or go to www.greenfutures.org and click on “Take Action.”
Speaker of the House Representative Robert A. Deleo
State House
Room 356
Boston, MA 02133
Phone: 617-722-2500
Email: Robert.DeLeo@mahouse.gov
Governor Devil Patrick
Office of the Governor
Room 280
Boston, MA 02133
Phone: 617-725-4005
Email: Constituent.services@state.ma.us
House Members of the Joint Committee on State Administration and Regulatory Oversight
Representative Peter V. Kocot
Chair, Joint Committee on State Administration and Regulatory Oversight
State House
Room 22
Boston, MA 02133
Phone: 617-722-2140
Email: Peter.Kocot@mahouse.gov
Representative James M. Murphy
Vice Chair, Joint Committee on State Administration and Regulatory Oversight
State House
Room 489
Boston, MA 02133
Phone: 627-722-2140
Email: James.Murphy@mahouse.gov
House Committee Members:
Representative David M. Nangle
State House
Room 146
Boston, MA 02133
Phone: 617-722-2575
Email: David.Nangle@mahouse.gov
Representative Kevin Aguiar
State House
Room 36
Boston, MA 02133
Phone: 617-722-2320
Email: Kevin.Aguiar@mahouse.gov
Representative Michael D. Brady
State House
Room 167
Boston, MA 02133
Phone: 617-722-2230
Email: Michael.Brady@mahouse.gov
Representative Kate Hogan
State House
Room 544
Boston, MA 02133
Phone: 617-722-2637
Email: Kate.Hogan@mahouse.gov
Representative Jason M. Lewis
State House
Room 466
Boston, MA 02133
Phone: 617-722-2017
Email: Jason.Lewis@mahouse.gov
Representative Edward F. Coppinger
State House
Room 26
Boston, MA 02133
Phone: 617-722-2080
Email: Edward.Coppinger@mahouse.gov
Representative Keiko M. Orrall
State House
Room 236
Boston, MA 02133
Phone: 617-722-2430
Email: Keiko.Orrall@mahouse.gov
Representative Ann-Margaret Ferrante
State House
Room 473F
Boston, MA 02133
Phone: 617-722-2210
Email: Ann-Margaret Ferrante@mahouse.gov
Representative Steven L. Levy
State House
Room 33
Boston, MA 02133
Phone: 617-722-2060
Email: Steven.Levy@mahouse.gov
BIORESERVE FAUNA OF THE MONTH – WOODCHUCK aka GROUNDHOG (Marmota monax)
The woodchuck, also known as groundhog, is a marmot. Marmots are large members of the squirrel family. There are 14 species of marmots in the world, the woodchuck being the only marmot found in eastern North America.
No, the woodchuck does not chuck wood. “Woodchuck” is an anglicized rendering of the native woodland Indian name for the critter, variously spelled as …ootchek, wuchak, woocheck or something similar.
The woodchuck is best known, under its groundhog pseudonym, as the weather prognosticator …par excellence! Legend has it that the groundhog comes out of its burrow, where it’s been hibernating all winter, on February 2 to determine if spring will be coming early or late.
If the groundhog emerges and sees his shadow he immediately returns to his burrow for six more weeks of winter. If it is cloudy and the groundhog does not see his shadow winter is at an end and spring is near.
Groundhog Day began in the United States with the arrival of German settlers in Pennsylvania in the mid-eighteenth century. Those early German farmers, dependent on knowing when spring would arrive and planting could begin, continued their old world tradition by substituting the native woodchuck for their original prognosticating European marmot.
Today, Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania keeps the woodchuck in the news with the annual prognostications of their resident groundhog Phil. Punxsutawney has made an industry out of the old German tradition
Punxsutawney Phil's fame is now worldwide thanks to the movie “Groundhog Day,” starring Bill Murray and Andie MacDowell. That movie and national television coverage brings thousands of Phil fans and groundhog enthusiasts to Punxsutawney every February 2.
As Bill Murray’s jaded weatherman character in the movie remarks on seeing the large crowds, “A thousand people freezing their butts off, waiting to worship a rat.” Not quite correct Bill, not a rat, but …Phil is a rodent!
Beavers are our largest native rodent. Woodchucks come in second weighing from 5 to 15 pounds. They are at their heaviest, fat and roly-poly, just prior to hibernation.
Woodchucks avoid dense woods. They prefer woods edges, brushy areas, fields and pasture land. In the Southeastern Massachusetts Bioreserve (SMB) it is rare to encounter a woodchuck in the oak and pine forest. The grassy power line corridors, old pasture land along Copicut Road and the Doctor Durfee’s Mill Pond area are SMB woodchuck habitat locations.
As most know who attempt growing vegetable and flower gardens in woodchuck country, woodchucks will eat almost any vegetation. They are herbivores eating wild grasses, forbes, fruits, berries, nuts and domestic agricultural produce.
Woodchucks live in extensive burrows. Their burrows contain separate chambers for sleeping, raising their young, toilet needs, hibernating. Only during the short spring mating season will you find both sexes occupying the same burrow.
Woodchuck burrows usually are constructed on high ground with the main entrance quite obvious with a mound of excavated earth surrounding it. Each burrow has one or more hidden escape hatches allowing the occupant a quick getaway should an enemy enter the main den entrance.
Our local woodchucks are still hibernating, curled up in their bed of dried grass and leaves, on February 2. Woodchucks in the SMB are usually up and about in early March.
Males awaken first and head out immediately to check surrounding burrows for a receptive female. Mating season runs from March through April and a compatible pair will remain in the female’s den until the birth of the three to six kits in late spring. Once the young arrive the male leaves and returns to his former burrow.
By mid-July the kits are half the size of their mother and ready to leave the natal burrow and dig one of their own.
Woodchucks are constantly on the alert. When feeding the frequently freeze and stand erect to survey the landscape for their many predators. If a predator is detected the woodchuck often gives a loud whistle in warning and runs to hide in its burrow.
Predators in our neck of the woods include man, dogs, coyotes, red and grey foxes, mink, fishers, large hawks, bald eagles and great horned owls. Young kits are also in danger from burrow entering black racers and long tailed weasels.
Woodchucks, abundant and a relatively easy animal to snare, trap or catch with a dog, fed many a pioneering family. Tastes just like chicken.
Here are some lyrics from and old Appalachian folk song paying homage to the hunt for …and the esculent and utilitarian qualities of …the woodchuck.
Groundhog
Grab your gun and whistle up your dog
Grab your gun and whistle up your dog
We’re off to the woods for to catch a groundhog
Old groundhog
Stand back boys and let’s be wise
Stand back boys and let’s be wise
I think I see his beady eyes
Old groundhog
Here comes Sam with a ten foot pole
Here comes Sam with a ten foot pole
Twist that whistle pig outta his hole
Old groundhog
Eat up the meat and save the hide
Eat up the meat and save the hide
Best dang shoelace ever was tied
Old Groundhog
Here comes Sal with a snigger and a grin
Here comes Sal with a snigger and a grin
Groundhog gravy all over her chin
Old groundhog
Meat's in the cupboard and butter's in the churn
Meat's in the cupboard and butter's in the churn
If that ain't groundhog, I'll be durned
Old groundhog
A little piece of cornbread laying on the shelf
A little piece of cornbread laying on the shelf
If you want anymore, you can sing it yourself
Old groundhog
As you can see, our woodchuck is multi-talented. Famous as a weather predictor, agricultural nuisance, frontier food source, and inspiration for musicians and poets.
Here’s a woodchuck poem by Robert Frost:
Drumlin Woodchuck
One thing has a shelving bank,
Another a rotting plank,
To give it cozier skies
And make up for its lack of size.
My own strategic retreat
Is where two rocks almost meet,
And still more secure and snug,
A two-door burrow I dug.
With those in mind at my back
I can sit forth exposed to attack
As one who shrewdly pretends
That he and the world are friends.
All we who prefer to live
Have a little whistle we give,
And flash, at the least alarm
We dive down under the farm.
We allow some time for guile
And don't come out for a while
Either to eat or drink.
We take occasion to think.
And if after the hunt goes past
And the double-barreled blast
(Like war and pestilence
And the loss of common sense),
If I can with confidence say
That still for another day,
Or even another year,
I will be there for you, my dear,
It will be because, though small
As measured against the All,
I have been so instinctively thorough
About my crevice and burrow.
HAPPY GROUNDHOG DAY!!!
BIORESERVE FLORA OF THE MONTH – ATLANTIC WHITE CEDAR (Chamaecyparis thyoides)
The Atlantic white cedar is one of the rarer tree species in the Southeastern Massachusetts Bioreserve (SMB). Although it bears the name “cedar” it is botanically a cypress.
Atlantic white cedars range from southern Main to northern Florida and then west along the Florida panhandle to Mississippi. As this tree’s first name indicates, its principal range hugs the Atlantic coast
Atlantic white cedars grow tall and straight with a small crown of feathery scale-like evergreen leaves. They are rarely bothered by insects or disease.
The largest specimens reach 100 feet in height. Since all of our Atlantic white cedar stands have been cut numerous times, over the past 300 years for posts and shingles, most Atlantic white cedars that we see today are thirty to fifty feet in height. The wood is naturally resistant to insect damage, fungal rot and decay.
Atlantic white cedar grows best in acidic swamps and peat bogs that are underlain with sand and gravel. Few tree species thrive in this environment; however should the Atlantic white cedar be selectively cut aggressive red maple out competes the white cedar and quickly fills the void. Detrimental Atlantic white cedar lumbering has turned many cedar bogs and swamps into deciduous red maple swamps.
Atlantic white cedar only does well in full sun and their tiny seeds, contained in small fleshy cones, germinate quickly following catastrophic disturbance such as hurricane or fire which leave behind large clearings open to the sun.
Another reason for the rarity of the Atlantic white cedar is that many of the bogs they were once found in were cleared by early Massachusetts coastal farmers for cranberry agriculture. Just about every commercial cranberry bog was once wild and supported an Atlantic white cedar stand.
Young, dense stands of Atlantic white cedar shelter deer during storms and the foliage is a preferred winter whitetail deer food. Snowshoe hares also browse on the leaves and twigs of Atlantic white cedar and seek shelter in cedar thickets.
Hessel’s hairstreak (Callophrys hesseli) is a small colorful butterfly that is dependent on Atlantic white cedar. It is a “species of species concern” in Massachusetts. The Hessel’s hairstreak caterpillars feed solely on Atlantic white cedar leaves. The adults, reddish brown with white spotting and a bright green overall frosting, are on the wing from mid-April thru mid-May.
The Trustees of Reservations is restoring the remnant Atlantic white cedar stand in Shockley’s Swamp within the SMB. It is an exciting forest restoration project. If you’d like to get involved, or are simply looking for more information on the project, call the phone number listed on the sign in the photo below.
Atlantic White Cedar in Shockley's Swamp
WINTER IS WANING – Not much of a winter this year …the Wooly Bear was right!
Winter has been a pussycat this year. We hardy New Englanders are used to “wicked” cold and snow. Normally pale and wan at this time of the year, most of us are still sporting our summertime tans.
Now that we’ve said that maybe we’ll get a snowy February?
For February …and later …things to see and do outdoors …click on our Calendar.
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