Rare and Endangered Species Impacts
of the Proposed Middlesex Project

This large and unneeded project is harmful to a particularly rich habitat
for rare wildlife.

On Feb. 5, 2002, the first annotated checklist of Estabrook's birds was published, containing data on 159 species that have been seen in Estabrook Woods over the last 35 years. This is a large, varied, and interesting list for a forest. It contains birds of great visual beauty: for example, 32 species of warblers--the jewels of springtime. And great aural beauty: the Winter Wren and six species of thrush, including the Veery and Wood and Hermit Thrushes. And of predatory drama: four species of owl and ten of hawks, including breeding Great Horned Owls and Goshawks. 5 of these species are state-listed by the Natural Heritage Program, and 40 are listed as of conservation priority by Partners in Flight, an organization particularly concerned with risks facing intercontinental migrants both on their breeding and wintering grounds. (Painting is of the Cerulean Warbler, which requires large forest acreage, which was seen on Middlesex's development area.) Attached to the checklist is an appendix of a list of 104 species seen by Middlesex School students and masters in 1904.

Also published in January 2002 was a BIODIVERSITY BIBLIOGRAPHY. This contains references to more than 55 scientific papers and natural history studies on the plants and animals of the Estabrook Woods, a wonderful resource.

In Oct. 5, 2001, Massachusetts declared that the entire Estabrook Woods is CORE HABITAT which should be preserved to save the state's biodiversity. This is an important development. To see the BioMap of Estabrook and environs, plus the Middlesex project annotated, click here or on thumbnail.
 

Rare Species Summary

During the spring of 2001,  rare Blue-spotted Salamanders (Ambystoma laterale) were discovered at the site of Middlesex's proposed 300-foot by 32-foot bridge into Estabrook Woods. This species is officially listed as of "Special Concern."  They were found by the citizen-objectors' consultant, who was conducting rare species studies required by the state's Department of Environmental Protection (DEP). Protection of rare species will be an issue in the fall of 2001 at the DEP appeal of the wetlands permit for the big bridge. Alteration of habitat, stormwater run-off (including salt, sand, and oils), leachate from fertilizers and herbicides, and physical obstruction all would affect survival.

Four other species officially listed as endangered or rare have been also located in or near the project area. The endangered species (a globally-endangered dragonfly) breeds in Bateman's Pond marshes, spends its adult life in upland woods, and has been observed in the Bateman's Pond area as recently as the spring of 2001 (twice). Coincidentally, this dragonfly was first discovered at Bateman's Pond before 1910 by a Middlesex School master, the eminent naturalist Reginald Heber Howe. (Thus, in a sense, it is Middlesex's own officially-endangered species the wetland and upland habitat of which the school is messing with!)

The two other Species of Special Concern in the immediate project area are the Elderberry Long-horned Beetle and the Mystic Valley Amphipod (Crangonyx aberrans). And the Spotted Turtle is been observed within 1000 feet. The project area is also the breeding site of at least three "watch list" species (Spotted Salamander, Northern Leopard Frog, and Northern Goshawk).

The photo to the left is of "Vernal Pool D," a state-certified vernal pool beside the old causeway and immediately downstream of the proposed 300-foot bridge. Photo was taken from old causeway. For another view, click here. Three other certified vernal pools are in the immediate vicinity.

This vernal pool is the breeding habitat of the rare salamander, which spends the rest of its life underground, as far away as 1000 feet or more from the breeding site. Which is why this project hits rare wetland species with a doubly whammy-- the project  first disrupts their breeding wetland and then bulldozes their adult upland habitat. The state wetlands laws give only limited protection against the first whammy and no protection at all against the second whammy.

Furthermore, many wetland species depend on buffer zone and uplands for a portion of their life cycle; these include two state listed, wetland dependent species found in the area--the endangered dragonfly and the Blue spotted Salamander. The proposed project, however, requires extensive clearing on the hillside above the wetland.  The state's endangered species program in its July 17, 1996 opinion letter found this upland to be characteristically suitable habitat for the adult endangered dragonfly. Indeed, the natural heritage program letter acknowledges that the soccer fields have been extended ever deeper into potential adult habitat in Estabrook Woods. These woods, they say, "may play an important role in the continued survival of this species at Bateman's Pond." (The adult endangered dragonfly was located again in 1997; it was only 0.4 miles southeast of the proposed soccer fields.) Cumulative loss of habitat has been identified by natural heritage program has one of the threats to the continued existence of this species, and Middlesex has been dredging and filling its wetlands for decades.

 As the school has already cumulatively cleared all habitat to the west of the pools, this hillside is the remaining habitat. The School has described these impacts as speculative, but for these populations the outcome will be certain.

Other unusual woods species observed on the project's uplands are breeding Northern Goshawks, Veery, Ovenbird, Wood and Hermit Thrush, and Wood Frog. During spring 1997, a male Cerulean Warbler, a rare forest species, was observed by Ken Harte  singing at the Paul Adams barn site within the project. Naturalist J. Walter Brain, in a botanical study for the Concord Natural Resources Commission describes the project area as "the botanical center of the [Estabrook] Woods." Estabrook Woods is a wonderful educational resource, one which naturalist Peter Alden has called "the teaching woods."

Peter Arnold's article "In Thoreau's Woods" tells of rare species

Peter Arnold, a Middlesex School biology teacher, wrote a long article about the rare amphibians and reptiles of the Estabrook Woods: [ click here for his article ].

Deep-Woods Estabrook or Skinny-Woods Estabrook?

The presence of so many woodlands species in the project area illustrates another ecological value that would be damaged by the project--the site's contribution to the deep woods habitat of Estabrook. Estabrook's most valued attribute is its relative isolation in a crowded world. The late C. Richard Taylor, Harvard's Agassiz Professor and long-time director of its MCZ- Concord Field Station, thought that Estabrook Woods, over the centuries, could, like the ancient woods of Oxford and Cambridge Universities, make a real contribution to the science of ecology.

Middlesex's proposal, however, would permit intensive construction more than a third of a mile into Estabrook Woods--development zones A & B thrust a third of the way across the waist of the Woods in a dog-leg configuration, causing high fragmentation and reduction of buffer. Furthermore, the development zones and their edge effect would reduce the maximum width of Estabrook's deep woods from 6000 feet to 3400 feet. Thus, they would turn fat, habitat-deep Estabrook into skinny Estabrook.

Caption: The base map identifies Estabrook as a Biodiversity Site in the SuAsCo Biodiversity Protection and Stewardship Plan (2000). Note how developments narrow the woods.

Forest Legacy Area documents note harm from proposed project

On August 5, 1993, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Mike Espy, in a memo to the Chief of the U.S. Forest Service, designated the entire Estabrook Woods a "Forest Legacy Area" under an Act of Congress. Estabrook Woods was one of only five areas in the state to be so selected, in accord with criteria which included its environmental values, the presence of rare and endangered species, and archeological and historic resources, etc. It was nominated by the state lead agency, the Mass. Department of Environmental Management. The Middlesex project area is within the boundaries of the Forest Legacy Area. The Secretary's "Executive Summary" specifically names the proposed Middlesex project as one "which threaten[s] . . . the integrity of the Woods."

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