Logging set to ruin trail system at Batchelor Street area of Skinner Range State

[GW]

:o For any of you who have ridden or plan to ride at Skinner State Park-Batchelor Street area , we've got a major issue that needs to be addressed ASAP. The state's Forestry division is planning a logging operation there that will subsequently destroy many years and countless hours of volunteer work we've done there. For those of you who haven't yet ridden the Batchelor Street area of this state park, it is widely know as one of the premiere trail systems in the state. I'm asking each of you fellow riders to send an email to Massachusetts Department of Recreation And Conservation Bureau Chief Gary Briere, email address gary.briere@state.ma.us voicing opposition to the impending logging operation that is to take place there.
I've spoken to Gary and plan to meet with him and Div. of Forestry officials on Friday, April 9th at the Batchelor Street area to voice our concern.
Thanks in advance for getting involved.
gw-PVNEMBA Chapter President

PK: I editted this to correct Gary Briere's email address

[knucklebuste]

Is this the Granby trail system. Roller Coaster, Serpant, etc? If so that sucks. I was planning to ride out there this season. Who owns the land?

Knuckle

[sizlinseagulsoup]

Yeah that's the area that going to be logged. The state owns it.

[knucklebuste]

Why the hell is the state going to log it? To make money selling the trees? Jerks. Leme guess they're gonna strip it, sell it to builders and the whole thing will be done and there's not a damn thing we can do about it right? Email? What's that gonna do? What do you think? Think they can be stopped?
Knuckle

[GW]

Hey knuck- just shut up and send the email-I'm not going to take this logging action lying down. Every little bit helps. Thanks for caring.
gw

[Gleece]

I don't know anything about the logging job or what trails it will impact. Many of the trails in that area were built unofficially or on a build-first-then-ask-permission basis by mountain bikers and would not be known at all by the forestry (timber sale planner) people. Other trails were planned by the forest supervisor and built by AmeriCorps crew several years ago. Of course, the wider trails in there have functioned as logging roads for a long time. Regardless, there is definitely a history of the forestry people in DEM/DCR planning timber sales without any consideration of its impacts on trail recreation, or at least without consulting anyone in the recreation bureau at DEM (see Foxboro, Leominster, etc.)

Gary was my supervisor at DEM, he is certainly sensitive to recreation interests, but has very little say over when and where logging happens (due to the aforementioned lack of communication between bureaus in the same agency). He should be made aware of this issue, but is not really the bad guy.

Bill Rivers is (or was when I was there) the head of "Management Forestry" and is ultimately responsible for timber planning. In my experience, he had very little patience for recreation, and considered timber management to be the highest and best use of state forests, despite the fact that the public lands forest products market in Mass. is inconsequentially small. He should hear the complaints, but has heard them before and doesn't seem to care.

The important people to hear about this would be the new (~1 year) Commissioner of DCR, Kathy Abbott, or the just appointed (within the last week or maybe not even announced yet) Director of State Parks, Priscilla Geigis (I don't know how to spell her name). This is exactly the kind of short-sighted managment and bureacratic crap that the whole re-organization and specific efforts like the new EOEA forest managment initiative (http://www.state.ma.us/envir/forest/default.htm) is supposed to address.

[johnbryanpeters]

Interesting issue. A bunch of land up here is held by lumber operations, and they're real tetchy about giving permission for riding on their land just because they wish to avoid getting in this sort of fray...

Any way the parties can help each other instead of initiating warfare?

J

[knucklebuste]

Somebody say warfare? Then, war it is ;D
Just kidding email sent. Damn that would suck so much. I was so psyched when I went there once. Of course it was raining, caus it was a Saturday and my wife got miserable quick, but from what I saw that place rulz and I'd hate to see it go. I had planned on spending a good ammount of time out there with some buds this Summer (if there is a Summer)


Knuckle