The State, acting through the fish and game commission, has under consideration the purchase of the 600-acre farm of Antone Andrews, located on the Martha’s Vineyard plain, near Little Pond some th
The Department of Conservation and Recreation will hold a public meeting on Saturday, Sept. 18, in the Manuel F. Correllus State Forest to discuss ways to reduce wildfire risks and other public safety hazards while also restoring plantings of native trees.
The work scheduled to begin this fall is part of a three-year, 237-acre “emergency ecological restoration project” at the forest. The project involves removing the large number of red pines that have died there recently and creating new stands of native pitch pine and scrub oak.
A Cape Cod man was accidentally shot in the neck on the first day of shotgun deer season on Monday in the Manuel F. Correllus State Forest. Dr. Joseph Asiaf, 73, of Centerville, caught a single piece of buckshot in the neck; police believe he was shot by a member of his own hunting party.
His injuries are not life-threatening.
Although the Massachusetts state police continue to investigate, the incident is being called a hunting accident and no criminal charges are expected.
An evolving plan to manage and restore the Manuel F. Correllus State
Forest is set for its first public airing tomorrow, when state
environmental officials will come to the Vineyard to discuss efforts to
alleviate fire danger in the forest and to undertake the largest
ecological restoration project in the history of New England.
Work began on the fire breaks in the Manuel F. Corellus State Forest
this week, with the blessing of the state attorney general but over the
protests of a watchdog group which promises to seek a court injunction
today.
The state's fire control plans for the 5,200-acre Manuel F.
Corellus State Forest have come under attack by the scientific community
and the Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER), a
watchdog organization. The advocacy group threatens possible legal
action to block state forest teams from clearing hundreds of acres of
woodland along strategic fire lines.
The Department of Environmental Management's Division of Forests and Parks won permission Tuesday to move forward with new efforts to manage the 5,200-acre Manuel F. Correllus State Forest.
The high risk of forest fires poses a danger for residents abutting the state property. In June, Bob Durand, secretary of the Executive Office of Environmental Affairs, arrived on the Vineyard with news of an initiative to address that danger.
