A project to restore natural woodlands by removing dense white pine plantations in the Manuel F. Correllus State Forest on Martha’s Vineyard is stirring debate among residents, environmentalists, and state officials.
Now, in answer to a demand for more community feedback, the state Department of Conservation and Recreation has agreed to reopen public comment about the plan until March 26.
The state agency’s plan ultimately calls for clearing 175 acres of white pines within the 5,300-acre forest in Edgartown. The goal, conservation officials say, is to enhance biodiversity and improve fire safety by converting monoculture white pine plantations into native oak woodlands and sandplain heathlands — habitats necessary for the survival of several rare species.
Those opposed to the plan as proposed are worried about the scale of the project and questioning its long-term effects on wildlife and the landscape. Many are supporting a change.org petition to halt the project and call for more in-depth community engagement about the forest’s future. As of Wednesday, 1,131 verified signatures had been collected.
State officials reviewed the plans during a session with the Martha’s Vineyard Commission-convened Manuel F. Correllus State Forest Task Force on March 12.
Remnants of a forgotten lumber enterprise
The white pine plantations within the forest were planted starting around 1914, with the most concentrated activity in the 1920s, state Department of Conservation and Recreation management forester Paul Gregory said.
The aim was to create a lumber industry on the island that could contribute to the global demand at the time for timber used in ship building, ships’ masts and manufacturing shipping crates that were used just prior to the development of corrugated cardboard in the 1930s.
Demand for the lumber plummeted during the Great Depression, leaving white pine plantations abandoned, according to Harvard University’s Harvard Forest long-term ecological research website.
In 2009: State clears acres of dead pines in Vineyard state forest due to blight
What are the plans?
The white pine tree-cutting would be phased in and undertaken in the offseason, between November and April.
The project initially focuses on two areas — a 32-acre plantation that is “very dense with white pine” where plans call for clear-cutting four three-acre patches, and a 47-acre plantation where the project would remove white pines while working around oak, blueberries, huckleberries and other native growth.
Costs are estimated at $3,000 to $6,000 per acre.
An effort to restore rare habitat, protect vulnerable species
Over time, white pines in areas of the forest have grown to what state conservationists term “dog hair density,” making it harder for the native sandplains and oak barrens — a globally rare habitat, according to Gregory — to thrive.
The state Department of Conservation and Recreation and MassWildlife want to protect 34 state-listed species, including rare butterflies and moths, and the whip-poor-will, a bird whose population is in decline and listed as a species of special concern under the state Endangered Species Act.
According to MassWildlife senior restoration ecologist Chris Buelow, the area’s highly specialized species, such as scrub oak and pitch pine, rely on these specific habitats and are at risk because of the white pine plantations.
“These plantations, through their seed rain, are starting to spread, infiltrate and degrade the rest of the natural communities on this landscape,” he said.
He emphasized that the project is part of a larger effort to address climate change and restore biodiversity across the state.
