Letters and Comments 2014

Letters and Comments

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On Oct 27, 2014, at 10:47 PM, richard stafursky <rhstafursky@yahoo.com> wrote:

Sharl,

Thanks for the note. We are at Friends of Buckland State Forest, MA (US).

Fungi at nearby Flagg Mountain ghost subdivision state land.

We probably will not come to the FN Conference Dec. 6, 2014. For the last year we have been visiting Buckland State Forest from several vantage points. Currently our purpose is to find out the extent of human impact from hunting, snowmobiles and future logging. We probably won't have a plan to get these things banned soon. These are entrenched practices that will be hard to kill, so to speak. That is unfortunate, because they do harm the species' forest of Buckland State Forest. Right next door are Flagg Mountain, the Species List Forest and lands of NEFF. All are open to the public and all can be accesses by walking.

The ghost subdivision of Flagg Mountain is rife with invasive plants. If the nightmare of logging (selective or clearcut) happens those invasives would spread via logging roads to the sun-lit logged areas. The Species List Forest to the east has just about eliminated most of the invasive plants caused by a State illegal logging plan some 21 years ago. That was eight years prior to the Species List Forest being donated. If Buckland State Forest was logged we fear it would also give invasives more than twenty years to invade the area.

Next year we plan to check out reports that there are non-native Norway pine and European larch in BSF. None of us are botanists so it may take a while to confirm this. If there are significant number of non-native trees we will have to devise a plan for their removal and a plan to prevent non-native saplings from growing again. We do not know the extent of the early 20th century tree plantation and we can't even begin to guess on how to eliminate it and return the full canopy of a species' forest in perpetuity. There are several options to choose.

At this time we have only two members of Friends of Buckland State Forest. We have informed the Buckland Town Administrator of our and concerns. She has provided us with some helpful information. We have posted at least one event, but only one person has gone with us. There is a lot of competition from other forests open to the public in the area. In order to get the community involved in defending Buckland State Forest it will take some planning. Our goal is to return the forest complete. A returned species' forest is the healthiest forest. It is best for the climate and the human community. The MSJC has made it perfectly clear that simply by being conservation land all such lands benefit the community. We believe that Buckland State Forest can and should be such a place and it should join with the existing Species' List Forest in northern Conway as a model species' forest. A species forest is of, by and for all the other native plants, animals, fungi and soil microbes that occupy or have occupied that place.

Two years ago Susan and I participated in a FN Conference in Worcester. There was no opportunity for local groups to speak. We had expected that all of the FN Conference would be for friends participation. Instead we were an audience only. In 2015 perhaps this will be different. If so, I would be glad for Susan or me to make a presentation.

Our web site is not well viewed. We are working on this, too.

Best wishes,


Friends of Buckland State Forest
Richard Stafursky
155 Belmont Avenue
Brattleboro, VT 05301
rhstafursky@yahoo.com
802 258 7845 cell


On Monday, October 27, 2014 7:06 PM, Sharl Heller <slheller@comcast.net> wrote:


Hello Richard,

How've you been? Do you have a website or facebook page that we can link to from the Friends Network newsletter and website? Hope to see you at the FN Conference Dec. 6!

Thanks,

Sharl Heller, Facilitator
The Massachusetts Forest and Park Friends Network
http://www.networkingfriends.net

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Richard,

Thank you for the update and the link. 

We listened to the suggestions of friends groups and give more time now for groups to share what they are doing with the other groups.

You have a big job on your hands with little support. Keep up the good work.

Best,

Sharl

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Buckland State Forest Friends, Buckland, MA (US) Fall 2014 Report

Buckland State Forest Friends, Buckland, MA (US)

Fall 2014 Report

It is almost October 2014 and the Buckland State species' forest will soon be in harm's way by people going there to kill native species. About this time we have seen people carrying in shooting blinds to be installed in trees. During this "season" people will go into the State Forest to kill the local native mega-fauna. Obviously, this will discourage other people from walking in this State species' forest.

The few marked foot trails here are fairly neglected. Most of them are actually old coach roads with stone walls on each side of the ways. Just after Flagg Mountain was purchased by Mass Fish & Game one of these ways was used as access by vehicle to get to the Flagg Mountain boundaries deep in the woods. This way also was used in the recent past by the owner of Flagg Mountain to mark his twenty-four unit ill-fated subdivision plan for Flagg Mountain. Unfortunately, now that Flagg Mountain and Buckland State Forest are State controlled people seeking to kill mega-fauna will no doubt access both species' forests by this one way.

People walking in the woods in the Fall should wear day-glow yellow. Blue and orange are also part of wild turkey colors and might actually put you in gun sights.

Unlike the now dedicated State Flagg Mountain with its invasive infested ghost subdivision the Buckland State Forest has fewer invasive plants. We hope that next year we will walk this species' forest to see the extent of the old tree plantation containing non-native trees. We probably will need help in identifying the non-natives. We have learned that non-native trees can self re-populate especially after trees are cut. We have spoken to State foresters and they have said that the State does not normally kill non-native tree saplings after a forest cut. Reversing the plantation damage will be difficult. If the State removes mature non-native tree species the Buckland State Forest Friends and the State can brain storm to find a way to kill the plantation foolishness of the past.

To be continued . . .

Adjacent to Buckland State Forest, Buckland, Massachusetts (US) is Flagg Mountain recently acquired by the State. The species' forests are vey similar. All Commonwealth lands needs total protection from the extraction of resources.

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The natural recovery of a species' forest begins.

Flagg Mountain ghost subdivision in Conway, Massachusetts (US) is now owned by State Fish an Game. The developer put a lot of effort into creating very hard-packed gravel roads into Flagg Mountain. What you see here is not a lawn. It is a road now gone wild. Fortunately for the mountain no houses were built and his dream of a 25-house subdivision was not fulfilled. The developer sold and he now lives in Florida, but the scarred natural landscape remains. State Fish an Game told me that the natural landscape would be allowed to return with only very minor habitat maintenance. No vehicles can access this road. Good!

Abandoned hard gravel roadbed 

Dick Stafursky, originator of the Species List Forest, Conway, MA (US)

Welcome - Friends of Buckland State Forest