Kent rejects model forest plan

By MICHAEL RISINIT
THE JOURNAL NEWS
(Original publication: December 10, 2003)

KENT — The trees blanketing the slopes of Mount Nimham should be left alone, town officials and residents told the state this week, and plans to clear cut a portion for a model forest should be abandoned.

"It's an aging forest," Supervisor Annmarie Baisley said yesterday. "(Residents) want it to be able to grow to its full potential."

That was the message passed on this week to state foresters, who visited the area again to explain why a state-owned swath of land around the Kent mountain will be developed into a model working forest. Representatives from the state Department of Environmental Conservation outlined their plan at Monday's meeting of the Town Board, which unanimously passed a resolution opposing the project.

What Monday's meeting and the resolution means for the project is unclear. Roughly 80 people attended, and the majority of speakers criticized the project. Neither DEC spokeswoman Wendy Rosenbach or agency forester Jeff Wiegert returned telephone messages yesterday. The gathering was a follow-up meeting to one in October, where residents faulted the state for failing to notify the town in a timely manner, lamented the possible loss of century-old trees and leveled other criticisms.

The 415-acre model forest is a collaborative effort led by the DEC and involves the New York City Department of Environmental Protection, the nonprofit Watershed Agricultural Council and the State University of New York's College of Environmental Science and Forestry in Syracuse. Its goals, such as water quality protection, are based in science, supporters maintain.

Three other model forests already exist in the Catskills and are a means to promote forestry as an economic plan for private lands surrounding New York City's reservoirs. Well-managed forests, rather than development, are the city's preferred land use for protecting water quality. Mount Nimham sits near the city's West Branch Reservoir.

The proposed project involves cutting down up to 60 percent of the trees in some areas and the possible use of fire and herbicides to control the underbrush.

One resident, who has promoted the grass-roots opposition effort through a Web site he runs, www.planputnam.org, said the public response wasn't antilogging but propreservation. Formerly farmland and pasture, the proposed model forest property is a haven for hunters, hikers and mountain bikers and is "the closest recreational opportunity for many outside of ball fields," Jeff Green said.

"People have come to value forests," Green said. "There are so few around. It's not like upstate, where this would be a very different situation. We wouldn't be having these meetings."

Michael Saviola, program manager for the Watershed Agricultural Council in Westchester and Putnam counties, said the group would hold public forums in late winter and early spring to explain the aims of the forestry project. Work is scheduled to start in May, including installing erosion control devices and two temporary bridges. Various sections will then see some trees cut and brush removed in anticipation of years-long research projects.

"Basically, we're waiting for the state to clear the path there (in Kent)," Saviola said.

State Assemblywoman Sandra Galef, D-Ossining, who represents Kent, attended Monday's meeting. She said she planned to contact Gov. George Pataki and DEC Commissioner Erin M. Crotty to pass on residents' outrage. The work, she said, shouldn't be done on the mountain.

"The more I heard from everyone, the more it seems the people of Kent are not interested in this project at all," Galef said. "Maybe what we should do is be looking for a private landowner whose interested in logging. We want private landowners to do this anyway."

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