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Concord Journal, Page One
Thursday, August 3, 2000

 

Sierra Club criticizes Middlesex School plan

By GREG TURNER , Staff Writer

Reiterating the stance it aired more than five years ago when plans were reviewed locally, the Sierra Club this week voiced strong opposition to Middlesex School's planned expansion into Estabrook Woods.

The executive committee of the national environmental group's Massachusetts chapter approved a statement Sunday urging the private high school to withdraw its proposal to build a bridge over wetlands and develop athletic fields and tennis courts on a 45-acre parcel adjacent to its Lowell Road campus.

[For full text of statement, click here.]

The committee called the plans "an intolerable intrusion into and assault upon" the ecological integrity of Estabrook Woods, a portion of Concord the Sierra Club has designated an "area of critical environmental concern."

"Once they've got their foot in the door, they can probably develop the whole property there without much [oversight]," said Gil Wooley, the committee's political chairman.

He and other environmental activists fear the project, if it survives a court challenge, will lead to further development. A group of citizens is appealing the state Department of Environmental Protection's decision to allow the project to proceed. The DEP order, issued last year, overturned a 1995 decision by the town's Natural Resources Commission to deny the school a wetlands crossing.

Although they had heard from the Sierra Club before, Middlesex School officials were taken aback by this week's statement.

"I'm surprised that the Sierra Club would come out with public opposition without contacting the school," said James Saltonstall, the school's business manager.

Woolley said the Sierra Club chapter will send its statement to the school, as well as to town officials.

The Sierra Club last spoke out against the project in the mid-1990s, when the NRC was reviewing the school's plan. This occurred before a settlement was reached between the school and the town, an agreement that includes a commitment by the school to place some of its land into conservation and permission to develop the 45-acre parcel as soon as permits are in place.

"It seems to me a fair amount of progress has been made through the mediated settlement," Saltonstall said, "But of course people can object to that."

Despite the school's effort to place one-third of its 330 acres into permanent conservation, Sierra Club members say more should be done.

"Today we are facing a threat to the protection of Estabrook Woods. A core parcel of the woods is privately owned and is not permanently protected," the chapter said in the statement. "Thus, the fate of Estabrook Woods is dependent upon impending decisions by its owner."

The Sierra Club noted that the state and federal governments deem Estabrook Woods a "forest legacy area," and that $2.5 million in tax dollars have been spent to protect it. Harvard University uses its protected portion of the woods for the study of ecology.

"At a time when we finally realize the value of biodiversity and are actively teaching its value at all levels in ours schools, it would be ironic if decisions by this respected educational institution were to degrade this irreplaceable natural and educational resource."

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