To the editor: I am opposed to the logging plan around the Notch Reservoir.
The area that is under consideration for logging, a wetland, will be eroded by the weight of brutally heavy machines spewing toxic fumes near the streams, ravines and vernal pools running directly into our reservoir down the steep rocky slopes of Mount Greylock. I also fear that logging will increase the potential for slides of mud and debris coming down the mountain. There is a piece of local history behind my concern.
On Aug 20, 1901, a horrific landslide on the eastern side of Mount Greylock caused many tons of wreckage to come crashing down the mountain, burying two farms “almost completely with gravel, stones and debris to a depth of four or five feet” (North Adams Transcript, Aug. 22, 1901).
The landslide was just one piece of the catastrophic cloudburst that overwhelmed Adams, parts of North Adams and Williamstown. That avalanche has been attributed to the fact that the slope was “subjected to intense lumbering and forest fires not many years before [and] could not hold the soil and vegetation against the heavy rain” (Adams Historical Timeline: Adams Historical Society, The Landslide).
Remarkably, two days later, the Transcript reported that the Notch Reservoir was spared the worst of the flood damage noting the sun "glistened pleasantly on the water as it poured over the Notch Reservoir dam” and continued to provide water to the city. Is it possible that the north side of the mountain, where our reservoir lies, was spared the worst because it hadn’t been ravaged by logging?
I am deeply concerned that worsening climate conditions with heavier storms combined with erosion caused by the logging will so weaken the forest that it will not be able to absorb or provide a barrier to heavy rain and wind. What will we do if our reservoir fills with mud and gravel and tree stumps? Who will pay to dredge the water? Or even worse, will dredging even be a possibility? What then?
Deborah Schneer, North Adams
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