The following letter was sent to the Manuel F. Correllus State Forest (MFCSF) Task Force and the Martha’s Vineyard Commission.

I write in regards to Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR) plans to clearcut 32 acres of white pine plantation from the southeast corner of the state forest. This appears to be just the first phase of work to remove up to 175 acres of pine plantation. This work is identified in a 10/6/21 letter from Natural Heritage and Endangered Species Program (NHESP) as mitigation for illegal trail cutting in 2020 by Sheriff’s Meadow Foundation (SMF), and work on the firebreaks project by DCR, as follows: “the permit holder shall remove and restore +-175 acres of dense, live conifer plantations within MCSF to high-quality native sand plain heathland and or pitch pine- scrub oak barren habitat”.

Our (European) tenure here is short and fraught with missteps, misuse and massive alteration and destruction of this landscape. We have developed and altered this Island to within an inch of its life, as evidenced by impaired water quality in our coastal ponds, our freshwater resources and the fact that our answer to ‘managing’ our impact here is to ship all of our trash and septic waste off island, further impacting other landscapes.

It is during our brief tenure that many native species have been extirpated, including the heath hen, which we burned and managed right out of existence in this very state preserve, created to protect it.

I am tired of us.

I took great comfort in 2012 when the state determined that our state forest met the requirements of ‘reserve’ status. A key tenet of reserves is to “provide areas where forest conditions can be influenced solely by natural (versus human-caused) disturbances, where natural disturbance regimes can play out indefinitely, and where visitors will be able to experience these unique conditions first hand. Users of Reserves often value them for spiritual reasons since they may provide elements of a wilderness recreational experience: (MA DCR, Landscape Designation for DCR Parks and Forests: Selection criteria and management guidelines).”

To my mind, reserve designation precepts most closely mimic what is known of traditional Native American land use.

Carbon sequestration is one of the dominant ecosystem service objectives listed under the reserve designation. There is ample data indicating the value of our state forest in sequestering carbon. In weighing biodiversity goals with climate considerations, I suggest that we are in a very different place than we were just 35 years ago, when I first attended meetings of the Island’s sand plain restoration group.

Today, climate considerations — maintaining forest cover — are paramount, particularly when stated biodiversity goals can be achieved elsewhere in our state forest with less climate impact/carbon footprint.

It was clear during the November site visit with DCR staff that there is no long term plan in place for land management once these trees are removed. Nor is there an approved budget for same, or for any unexpected outcomes such as invasive species management or other needed mitigation. Lastly, climate impacts have not been given robust consideration — cutting down 32 acres of trees with all the necessary machinery, feeding them through a whole-tree chipper, then shipping thousands of truckloads of resulting wood chips off-Island, nor has any consideration been given to the carbon that will be released by the removal of the existing forest cover. Questions remain about the increased wildfire risk of the vegetation regime which might replace these trees, and the need of ongoing maintenance of a fire-dependent vegetation regime, in perpetuity.

First, do no more harm. Please hit ‘pause’ on this proposal, and give serious consideration to the real and quantifiable climate impacts, and consider management alternatives to this clearcut that would achieve stated biodiversity goals.

Prudy Burt

West Tisbury