A 'Win' for Open Space
Agreement would create "bioreserve" of more than 14,000 acres
by Sean Flynn-Herald News:6/22/2000
Parties to one of the biggest land deals in the city's history are just a day or two away from signing a memorandum of understanding which would give the state and city the green light to move ahead.
State Secretary of Environmental Affairs Robert Durand and Mayor Edward M. Lambert Jr. said Wednesday they have agreed to terms under which the state will obtain a "conservation restriction" on the 4,300 acres of land owned by the city in the Watuppa Reservation. The state will be able to gradually open all that land up to passive recreation such as hiking, birding, hunting, and fishing. The city, in turn, will pay the state $2.6 million for 300 acres of the Fall River-Freetown State Forest, just north of the new Fall River Commerce Park. The city will open up this property for industrial expansion. MassHighway will commit to building new highway ramps from Route 24 to improve access to this land.
The state will use the city's payment toward the purchase of an additional 3,800 acres of land in eastern Fall River that is owned by Acushnet Saw Mills, which is owned by the Hawes family. The state will pay $9.5 million toward the purchase of that property, and the nonprofit environmental group, Trustees of Reservations, will raise about $2 million, for a total of $14.1 million for the Hawes family property. Some additional money may be raised for planning. The state hopes to sign a purchase-and-sales agreement with the Hawes family late this week or early next week, said Durand.
Altogether, the state will be able to open up 8,100 additional acres of open space to the public, and conserve it "in perpetuity" if all the details can be worked out in the coming one and on-half years. Added to the 6,000 acres of Fall River-Freetown State Forest, a "bioreserve" of more than 14,000 acres will be created. With a few more open space acquisitions, Durand will have the critical mass of 15,000 acres he believes are needed for a wide variety of animal and plant species to survive. "This is the last great urban wilderness part of New England, and it will be protected as a functional landscape," Durand said during an interview at The Herald News. This is an opportunity for Fall River to become an ecotourism destination in this part of the state. This functional ecosystem will not be fragmented."
Acquiring the Acushnet Saw Mills property for open space preservation has been a dream of local environmentalists for more than 20 years, ever since EG&G proposed building a huge coal gasification plant on the property in the late 1970s. The heirs of the Acushnet Saw Mills property - Mary Ellen Hawes Lees, Peter Hawes and Cynthia Hawes Ritter - have offered the land to the state in the past. Except for two piecemeal purchases of 300 acres about 10 years ago, the initiative never got off the ground. "The Hawes family deserve a great deal of praise," said Durand. "There has been pressure to develop the land."
This land deal came together quickly through a series of personal contacts. Durand said Al Lima, a Fall River resident and the city planner for Marlboro, discussed the possibility of a large land deal with Arthur Bergeron, who was then second-in-charge at EOEA under Durand, who is in Marlboro. Tim Bennett and Everett Castro, members of Green Futures, later gave tours of the land to Bergeron and Durand, and convinced then of the merits of a land purchase. Lima, Bennett and Castro accompanied Durand and Lambert during Wednesday's announcement. Bergeron, who Lima called "a dynamo," handled the negotiations and remained committed to the project, even after he left EOEA.
A two-thirds vote of approval from the sate legislature will be necessary to sell the state land to the city, so then area legislators were brought into the process. State Senator Joan Menard and state representatives David Sullivan and Michael Rodrigues have cleared the way on this front. Meanwhile, Durand and other environmentalists worked to win the support of the state's Audubon Society, Nature Conservancy Trust and the sportsman's councils. These groups in the past have fought bitterly against giving up protected state land. But Durand told them by giving up 300 acres abutting Route 24, they would be preserving more than 8,000 acres of open space and creating a bioreserve. He called it a "23-to-1 win for open space."
Under the plan, the Trustees of the Reservation - the the oldest land trust in the country according to Durand - would establish an Environmental Education Center in the midst of this vast reserve, and programs would be run for youth. "Kids in the city will have a vast forest land open to them for environmental education," said Durand. He said the state would take steps to increase the variety and amount of animal and plant species in all this land east of North Watuppa Pond.
Durand and Lambert served together in the House of Representatives and both said their personal friendship and trust for each other helped move this deal along.The city and state must work out the details of the land management of the Watuppa Reservation. As owners of the property, the city will have a say in how the property is opened to the public. The implementation of this land deal will take several years, and both sides have taken action to protect their interests. Durand said he has discussed the city's need for highway ramps with MassHighway Commissioner Matt Amorello, and Amorello is supportive. Under the memorandum, Lambert said the city will not pay the $2,6 million in cash until January 2002, when the highway ramps must be designed and permitted. The conservation restriction would be transferred to the state at that time. However, if the highway ramps are not built within 5 years after approval, and the city cannot use the land, the city would sell the land back to the state and the conservation restriction would expire.
Durand said the purchase of the Acushnet Saw Mill property will take place in two phases. The state has $6.6 million for the purchase of open space that must be expended before June 30. The remaining purchase price will come from an appropriation in a coming fiscal year. Lambert said the city will purchase the 300 acres through the city's Redevelopment Authority, which would borrow through a bond. He said a buffer zone will be created to the state forest and nearby Rattlesnake Brook, so about 250 acres will be developable, enough to create about 3 million square feet of space in Freetown, nearby, just west of Route 24. These purchases will serve the region's economic development needs in years to come.
Lima, Bennett and Castro all praised Durand for making a bold move, since about 15 other possible open space acquisitions were competing for funding. "It took a lot of courage for Bob Durand to move on this so quickly, on a leap of faith," said Lima.
Combined with Freetown State Forest, the acquisition of the Acushnet Saw Mills property and the conservation restriction on the Watuppa Reservation would create the largest tract of publicly owned coastal floodplain land on the Eastern seaboard. The Acushnet Saw Mills property includes the Copicut River, Shingle Island River, Long Pond and Cedar Swamp watershed areas. Water from the two rivers eventually flows into the East Branch of the Westport River, which has been called the "most significant estuary in the state for shellfishing and fishing resources," by state environmental officials. The Acushnet Saw Mills land is about 70% high-quality upland area, 30% wetland area and a virtual preserve of countless species, including the white-tailed deer, fox, quail, pheeasants. song birds and even rare species such as the box turtle, four-toed salamander, marbled salamander, and the snowshoe hares in the white cedar swamp.