This article appeared in the Danbury Free Press' last issue:
(www.madhattersimc.org)

The Town of Kent is not usually where one would expect to find much public controversy. This sleepy bedroom community in the center of semi-rural Putnam County, is a sparsely populated town of rough hills and recreational lakes. Yet it finds itself in the center of a growing movement in NY State to control logging on NYS Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) lands. And, sitting in the middle of this town is 1200 foot tall Mount Nimham, the mountain that has become the center of it all.

Mount Nimham's 1023 acre State Forest is an outdoor recreation mecca for Putnam County and attracts visitors from as far away as NYC and Long Island. The miles of trails; easy accessibility and the 75-mile view from the fire tower make it a popular destination. Once called “Big Hill” and then “Smalley Mountain” it is now named for the last Sachem of the Wappinger and American Revolutionary War fighter Daniel Nimham.

But the NYS DEC is moving forward on a Model Forest logging project the local community feels is unnecessary and will detract from the natural atmosphere of the mountain. The DEC says the plan is essential to the continued health of the forest and therein lies the controversy.

The State plans to bring the Army Corps of Engineers in to "rehabilite" a revolutionary era trail into a wide all-weather road to accommodate logging trucks and tour buses. Once completed, the State will remove 40%-60% of the biomass over 87 of forest acres using thinning, herbicides, fire and a 15 acre clearcut. Studies will then be done and if the project is successful, it will grow to 415 acres.

Local residents say the project, already repeated three times elsewhere in the watershed, will remove valuable open space and recreation lands from their rapidly suburbanizing community and will not improve the health of the forests as the DEC claims. Residents have rallied support from the Kent Town Board, the Putnam County Legislature, both their State Assembly members, NY State Senator Vincent Leibell and words of caution from Riverkeeper, the Highlands Coalition and other well known environmental organizations. The community has generated more than 130 letters to the DEC in opposition to the project. According to a Freedom of Information (FOIL) investigation last January, the DEC has received only 6 letters in support. Those letters came from other government agencies and the President of the SUNY Forestry School in Syracuse, NY.

DEC Forester Jeff Weigert said, "Forest management promotes the growth of the biggest and best trees, and there is removal of wood which isn't as hardy. The focus here is on water quality, and managing the forest properly improves the quality of the watershed."

Croton Watershed Clean Water Coalition (CWCWC) President Dr. Marian Rose claims otherwise. In a December 2003 letter to the DEC she writes: "This proposal defies both commonsense and logic. DEC has not provided the public with any proof whatsoever that clearcutting 15 acres, thinning the forest up to 60% and applying herbicides to clear underbrush will not harm water quality in the nearby reservoir, let alone enhance it. DEC's emphasis is on the "biggest and best trees", i.e., those that provide the biggest return as lumber; it is not on providing protection for the reservoir or habitat for the wildlife."

Parker Gambino, a Ph.D. entomologist from Southeast says, "The DEC, through its management practices of the past years has already caused great damage to the Nimham Mountain unit. The road to the [fire] tower is clearly the avenue for incursion of noxious alien species such as multiflora rose and barberry. Within the last decade, there have also been significant inroads made by garlic mustard and oriental bittersweet. If DEC is serious about forestry, perhaps ecologically sound management of invasive plants would be a good place to start"

And, Leila Goldmark, an attorney writing for the Rivekeeper claims, "In light of the fact that DEP currently has ongoing forestry treatment experiments at three sites in the West Branch watershed, DEC’s proposal to replicate the same treatments on State lands seems superfluous and ill conceived. Given the proximity of Nimham Mountain to the West Branch Reservoir, it is particularly disturbing that DEC proposes extensive clear-cutting treatments when the preponderance of data suggests that such an "experiment" will result in the widespread establishment of invasives rather than the restoration of native vegetation. "

To the community, however, the issue isn't one of science but of fears that the logging operation will have a negative effect on their quality of life. One resident writing in opposition to the project says: "Incursions of mechanized equipment needed for harvesting and logging trucks exiting onto narrow, sloping residential roads, endanger vehicles and children on school buses." Others fear that logging will detract from the natural "experience" of hiking on the mountain while still others claim the forests are doing quite well on their own. "Who wants to hike through a clearcut?" one resident recently said.

Rene Germain, an associate professor of forestry at the State University of New York, expressed some surprise at the opposition the proposal has generated. "I respect their opinion, but everything we're doing is based on science. They're making us out to be the most evil people in the world, but folks who live in urban and suburban areas use wood products, including the people who want to tar and feather us, except they want it to be harvested in British Columbia."

Jeff Green, the community activist who has been leading the fight to save the mountain from logging and has set up a website for the project said, "Our state forests are just now beginning to approach maturity, something they've not achieved in almost 200 years. We’re on the verge of something wonderful: a budding old growth forest and a recovering natural ecosystem." He supports the creation of a protected swath of old growth forest on State lands in the Hudson Highlands. He points out that only the DEC allows logging on their lands while other state agencies and local land trusts do not.

The DEC says they have completed two years of baseline study and research on the mountain at a cost of almost $300,000 in preparation for the beginning of logging operations there and they don't want to see that money go to waste.

But, Mr. Green has suggested the DEC work with the local community to remove the invasive plants that were primarily brought into the forest in 1970 during a DEC run reforestation program and then allow the forests to mature on their own. "The state has spent a great deal of time and money studying what happens when they log a forest," he said, "but virtually nothing on what happens when a forest grows old. They've got the baseline research now, let's use it to study something new and then hand a genuine natural ecosystem to our grandchildren."

He has also asked the DEC to propose a conservation tax plan to put lands into preservation in the watershed where agreements with NY City seek a reduction in logging activities.

Assemblywoman Sandra Galef suggested the project be moved to private lands elsewhere in the watershed at a February meeting with DEC Commissioner Erin Crotty. "I can't say it's never going to happen," Galef said. "My feeling is, it's certainly on the back burner and very much in limbo at this point."

James Tierney, the NYC Watershed Inspector General, said of the project, "They [the DEC] may have a very carefully thought out program, where they haven't gone off in a haphazard way," he said. "But it's easy to question the location, the terrain, and the clear-cutting."

For more information log on to: http://www.planputnam.org/highlands/