Friends of Upton State Forest Newsletter http://www.friendsofuptonstateforest.org [email protected] Like us on Facebook! Volume 6, Number 3 Summer 2011 Landscape Designations Friends of Upton State Forest Special Members Meeting The Department of Conservation and Thursday July 21, 2011 7 PM Recreation (DCR) is accepting public At Upton Fire Station, 20 Church St. comment on new draft landscape This meeting is for members to designations for the properties it discuss their thoughts about the manages. There are three categories, proposed landscape designation for each with its own set of management Upton State Forest. The public comment priorities. They are Reserves, deadline is August 26. The Board of Parklands and Woodlands. Directors will be making comment on Reserves will be large contiguous behalf of FUSF but want your input first. blocks of areas with high value Please try to come and let us know what ecosystems. Commercial timber you are thinking. harvesting would not be allowed in There will be a brief presentation to reserves, and forest management would explain the designations followed by let natural processes take their course. discussion. Parklands are areas where the focus Park in the rear parking lot and use the is on recreation while conserving rear entrance door. The meeting room is cultural and unique natural resources. on the second floor at the top of the Limited vegetation management can be stairs. An elevator is available. done for certain reasons. This could Refreshments are not allowed in the include removing hazards and other meeting room, but you can bring water. defined circumstances. Woodlands would allow commercial Preserve CCC Records timber harvests that follow the best The FUSF Board of Directors has forestry management practices. authorized the Historical Resources Upton State Forest (USF) has been Committee to fundraise for preservation designated Woodland, with a very small of the Upton CCC records discovered at area of Parkland concentrated near the Cochituate State Park. The records CCC Camp and Trailhead parking lot. include original blueprints and plans for Your Board of Directors would like to the CCC Camp, Park Road, picnic areas, know your thoughts, so we have Dean Pond, water holes and other scheduled a business meeting to discuss features. The records have a two-fold this with you. We hope you will make an value. They are of great historical effort to attend since this will determine importance but also provide information how the forest is managed in the future. important to maintaining the resources. In the meantime, you can visit the DCR They are in fragile condition and need to website for more information go to be conserved before they can be handled http://www.mass.gov/dcr/ld/landscapede for use. A letter will be sent with more signations.htm. information in the near future. Page 1 North Barn Update Chestnut Planting The snow has disappeared and there is a security fence around the North Barn. On June 1 the tornado that ripped through Western MA destroyed several CCC buildings at Brimfield State Forest making the loss of our barn all the more poignant and significant. DCR has filed a project notification form with Mass Historical Commission (MHC). They received an adverse reply advising DCR of several stipulations K. Desjardin photo required to mitigate the loss of this FUSF member, Rufin VanBossuyt is important historic structure. At the same shown in the photo above with Bill time, MHC recognized FUSF and the Davis, District Supervisor, and Wayne F. Upton Historical Commission (UHC) as MacCallum, Director of the Division of stakeholders. They invited both MA Fish and Wildlife. This was during a organizations to be cosigners of a tree planting ceremony at the Field Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) that Headquarters on North Drive in will determine what DCR must do for Westborough. An active member of The mitigation. DCR issued a proposal and American Chestnut Foundation (TACF), we have made a counter proposal that Rufin started the seedlings in the spring has the support of UHC. We have of 2010. He used nuts from the TACF offered to meet with DCR staff to farm in Virginia. The five trees that were planted are 15/16th American chestnut, discuss the differences. Demolition of th the barn cannot go forward until all and 1/16 Chinese chestnut. parties have come to agreement and The tree planting is part of the TACF signed the MOA. research program. Statistics say that these seedlings should produce trees with high resistance to chestnut blight. That will not be determined until they have been in the field for a number of years. In the 1950’s Fish and Wildlife planted Chinese chestnut near the CCC Camp and at another location in the forest. In the spring, you can find them by the blossoms and in the fall by the nuts on the ground. If you have questions or are interested in the program contact acf.org or [email protected]. The CCC built this water hole on The walking sticks shown in the Bridge Road as a resource for fighting photo were made by Bill Davis from forest fire. American chestnut sprouts. E. Arnold photo Page 2 Spring Work Party Report Third Grade Visits the CCC Camp Blue and red teams lining up to get their orders R. Trubiana photo for the day. E.Arnold photo. Members of FUSF, Bay State Trail Perfect weather, and Tim Rayworth, Riders Association, and Boy Scout in CCC attire, greeted the Memorial Troop 132 gave a total of 61 hours during School third graders as they arrived at our spring work party on April 30. Part USF to experience a “day in the life of of the group worked with Jeff Cate, park the CCC.” Each class sported different supervisor, doing spring clean up around color tee shirts identifying their team as the CCC Camp. A small crew, led by they set off to enjoy the day. DCR staff Rich Trubiano, of the park staff, restored and FUSF volunteers helped man several an illegal trail reported to Park Watch stations where the students learned about Donations from the Trails Account, the history of the camp and work done Evans, Dungey and McManus families by the Civilian Conservation Corps. paid for lunch. Ellen Arnold, Chris Scott FUSF volunteers included Ellen and Joan Shanahan baked. Pansies were Arnold, Frank Evans, Bill Johnston, planted, also donated by Chris. Tool Mary McManus, Marcella Stasa, Joan racks donated by Lillian Tolstrup and Shanahan and Bill Taylor. DCR staff Mary McManus were installed. included Justin Blanchette, Lois Breault- In a thank you note Jeff Cate, said, Melican, Tim Rayworth and Val “Your efforts, in no small part, Stegemoen. Peter Church, the new contribute mightily to the aesthetic Director of Forestry, visited to observe qualities which are making the State the program and learn about our park. Forest a favorite among many visitors I Thank you to our staff for the great job converse with on a regular basis.” they always do helping get ready for this very worthwhile event. Thank you to Jan Maglione, third grade teacher and FUSF Out of State Visitors member, for coordinating the event. In From March 18 to May 21, random one day, we introduced 125 students, observations recorded license plates about 40 parent chaperones and several from the following states: Colorado, teachers to the CCC Camp and Upton Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Minnesota, State forest. New York, North Carolina, Rhode Island and Washington, DC. Page 3 transferred to Fire control and, in 1997, Meet the DCR Staff was appointed a full time patrolman. He has been a fire warden since 2006. As a Shawn Bush Crew boss for the MA Interagency District 7 Fire Control Wildfire Crew he has traveled all over the US and Quebec since 1994 battling wildfires. Shawn is especially interested in modern fire weather forecasting, prescribed fire and incident management teams. He is also a member of the MA Emergency Management Team with MA Emergency Management Agency (MEMA). Currently, he is Chairman of the Northeast Forest Fire Protection Commission-Fire Science Working Team. He has served as a call firefighter for 21 years and with the Douglas Fire Shawn Bush is the State Fire Department for the last four years. Warden for District 7 Fire Control. The DCR responded to the recent District is responsible for the detection tornadoes in western MA by sending 87 of wildfires using fire towers in West personnel and equipment. Shawn Brookfield, Mendon, Oxford and worked in Wilbraham Wednesday night Charlton. They also assist the cities and and Thursday. Then he went to towns of Southern Worcester County Southbridge from Friday through the with suppression of wildfires and other following Wednesday, June 8, where he all hazard, all risk emergencies such as worked as incident commander running flood, storm damage and search and unified command with the Southbridge rescue. The District staff also provides Fire Chief. fire prevention education to the public Friends of Upton State Forest with Smokey Bear and fire safety appreciate all that Shawn and his team presentations. When fire danger is low, do to protect our forest and its users. We they work to maintain fire roads and especially appreciate the support they ponds throughout the State Forests in provide to our events with Smokey Bear preparation for fire duties. In addition, and the third grade education day. they do prescribed fire and other hazardous fuel mitigation projects. Shawn is a certified instructor for Incident Management and a number of other fire and emergency service courses. He is a search manager for the Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR) search and rescue team, and chairman of the Blackstone Valley Safety Committee.