by Alex Brooks
The possibility of including a timber harvest in the management plan for a 1200 acre parcel of land in Mattison Hollow has some local folks up in arms. [private]The Taconic Hiking Club and the Adirondack Mountain Club are partnering to protect the forest around the Mattison Hollow trail from potential damage from logging operations.
DEC’s Chief of the Bureau of Forest Resource Management Rob Messenger said no decision has been made yet to harvest timber on that lot. A “Unit Management Plan” is being prepared now for the entire “Taconic Highlands” unit, which includes about 15,000 acres of state land in Rensselaer and Columbia counties.
DEC acquired the Mattison Hollow parcel in 1999 from the Trust For Public Lands. No timber harvesting has been done since that time. A “forest inventory” was done on the property in 2005, which noted the number, size, and species of all of the potentially harvestable timber on it. It was this forest inventory that led them to take another look at the property as part of the work on the current unit management plan. Toward that end, Regional Forester Bill Schongar did a field visit a couple of months ago to assess the feasibility of harvesting timber on the parcel, and apparently thought it could be worth harvesting.
Taconic Hiking Club’s web site has a page which makes the case against timber harvesting. It says the Mattison Hollow trail is an exceptionally beautiful trail of growing popularity. It is one of the few places within an hour’s drive of Albany that offers “a wilderness hiking experience.” It cites the crystal clear Kronk Brook which runs beside the trail as “the only significant water source for hikers on the Taconic Crest trail. The water quality of the brook is maintained by the mature forest that surrounds it, and the hiking club is concerned that logging operations might irreparably damage the brook through erosion and silting.
Forest Resources Bureau Chief Messenger came out to the site to meet with a group of people from Taconic Hiking Club and Adirondack Mountain Club in early August. They stated their objections to the timber harvest and he explained the DEC’s methods and objectives, so that each could better understand the other’s point of view. As a result of that meeting, DEC agreed not to move forward with the timber sale in any way until the Unit Management Plan for the Taconic Highlands is completed.
If a timber harvest was undertaken, an old logging road near the brook that goes from Mattison Hollow Road to a landing area about a quarter mile up the trail would have to be improved to accommodate large trucks. This would require some excavation, digging into the bank there to make the road “wider and safer.” Taconic Hiking Club feels this would be very destructive to the local ecosystem, but Messenger said measures can be taken to minimize the impact of the work, and that it would in the long run be a major improvement to the hiking trail because the landing area would become a parking area for hikers after the timber harvest is competed. The trail currently has no parking area at the trailhead.
Forester Schongar said if the timber sale progresses to the point of seeking bids from loggers (which may or may not happen), erosion control is a base component of any contract DEC would offer to a logger. The contracts specify in great detail what measures must be taken to prevent erosion and runoff, and when logging operations begin, forest rangers keep a close eye on how the harvest is done. DEC can halt logging operations at any time if they think proper methods are not being used, and they require a “performance bond” to ensure the logger follows its contractual obligations. Schongar said if trees are harvested, they would not be clearcutting – he said they probably would take less than 1/3 of the trees in the area being harvested, and would leave a generous buffer zone between the brook and the area being harvested.
DEC is currently working on the Unit Management Plan (UMP), which will make recommendations about whether or not to harvest in the Mattison Hollow parcel. The draft UMP would be presented to the public for comments when it is ready to be released. DEC is not sure when it will be completed. It may be done by this winter. A timber sale and logging operations could not happen until late next summer at the earliest.[/private]