A plan to cut about 175 acres of white pine trees in the Manuel F. Correllus State Forest that is backed by Vineyard ecologists and firefighters was met with stiff resistance from Islanders this week.

Officials with the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation, which owns the 5,300-acre forest in the center of the Island, have proposed initially cutting trees over two parcels in the southeast corner of the forest, totaling about 79 acres. There is no time table yet for subsequent work on the additional acreage.

The plan comes at the behest of the Natural Heritage and Endangered Species Program, and is being done to clear out the non-native white pines in order to make way for oaks and the globally rare grassland sandplain grassland habitat.

Despite the endorsement of the Island firefighters, biologists and conservationists, many Islanders pushed back on the plan at a public meeting Wednesday, asking questions on everything from the fire risk to funding.

Several people at the nearly three-hour meeting hosted by the Martha’s Vineyard Commission-led state forest task force requested the state to slow down the process to give the public more time to comment.

“You have thousands of people out there that are now interested in this process... extend this and involve some of the community so that many of the questions can be answered,” said Vineyard resident and photographer Michael Blanchard.

State officials held a meeting Wednesday for the community to give feedback. — Ray Ewing

The project was initially floated in 2022, and came to the fore again in November. At Wednesday’s meeting, state forester Paul Gregory laid out the plan, saying it was a requirement under a 2001 permit that allowed DCR to expand its fire breaks.

Because habitat was disturbed for that previous expansion, DCR was required to return some of the habitat back to its state prior to the pine trees.

The first cuttings would be done in two parcels, one 32-acre area of dense white pine and then another 47-acre area that does have some scrub oak, blueberry bushes and other shrubs. Starting in the 32-acre area, workers would cut four three-acre parcels down, to see how the initial cuttings take.

“This approach will help educate DCR and the task force to determine cost estimates for the larger plantations as a whole, and provide adaptive management practices for future phases,” said Mr. Gregory.

Cuttings could cost anywhere from $3,000 to $6,000 per acre, depending on the strategy and the market.

DCR officials maintained that these pine trees weren’t native to the forest, having been planted in the early 1900s in an attempt to start an Island lumber industry. That effort petered out by the end of the century, and the trees have taken over, choking out other plants and habitat.

The spread of the white pine plantation has made it harder for the sandplain grassland to thrive, a concern because the Vineyard is one of the last stronghold’s globally of the habitat type.

“These plantations, through their seed rain, are starting to spread, infiltrate and degrade the rest of the natural communities on this landscape,” said Chris Buelow, a senior restoration ecologist at the state MassWildlife program.

Several officials pointed out that the pines were planted in the forest for the explicit purpose of being removed, and many of the trees are in poor shape. The forest superintendent Conor Laffey said the thickets of pine have been hit by pine weevils and have grown far too overcrowded, making them good candidates to be removed.

“This pine was planted with the intention of harvesting,” Mr. Laffey said.

About 20 people attended the meeting in-person and there were more than 40 people over Zoom.

Island farmer Andrew Woodruff said he supported a lot of the concepts in the plan, but also had many concerns. He believed the white pines should be removed, but wondered if DCR should attempt to weed out the pines that had started popping up in other parts of the state reserve outside of the thickets.

“I think it needs to be phased out over time in a really wise way that’s also looking at the whole entire ecosystem of the forest,” Mr. Woodruff said.

Others questioned the decision to move towards the sandplain grassland, a type of habitat that is more flammable. Both state and local firefighters said that while the oaks and shrubs do catch fire more easily, it is a type of fire that Island crews know how to handle.

In contrast, fire officials said if the crowns of the pine trees caught fire the embers could spread as far as a half mile, potentially leading to several fires all at once.

The effects of removing the trees on carbon sequestration was also raised. In this regard, getting rid of pines in the forest seemed counterintuitive to some attendees.

Peter Norris, a Chilmark resident, lamented a potential future without pine trees.

“Mother Nature has taken care of the red pines in the forest. DCR is proposing to take care of the white pines in the forest, and the southern pine beetle is going to take care of the pitch pines,” he said. “So is DCR basically asking the community to accept a forest that has no conifer?”

DCR is working to finalize its plans, which will be submitted to the state forester and the Massachusetts Natural Heritage endangered species program for review. The plan will also be distributed to Island select boards and conservation commissions for comment.

If approved by the state, DCR would then go out to bid for the work. The agency is eyeing cutting from November to April. Whole trees would be harvested and DCR would work to supply sawmill owners with sawlogs.

DCR pledged Wednesday to extend a public comment period on the project for another two weeks, putting the deadline at March 26.

Bob Woodruff, an Island wildlife biologist and member of the state forest task force, was pleased with the plan and the emphasis on preserving biological diversity through habitat restoration. He offered that the idea of restoring the sandplain might need a bit of a new mindset for Islanders.

“Some of us wish the forest had been named the heath hen reservation permanently or the Martha’s Vineyard sandplain reservation, which would imply it’s not a forest, but an open fire-dependent community,” he said. “Maybe that will happen some day.”