Newsletters
April 2009 - Big Walk
WELCOME TO GREEN FUTURES !
APRIL, 2009
The only thing that saves us from the bureaucracy is its inefficiency.
- Eugene McCarthy
It is error only, and not truth, that shrinks from inquiry.
- Thomas Paine
THE BIG WALK -
As you know, if you read our “Info Alerts,” this year’s BIG WALK is being conducted by The Trustees of Reservations and will be this Saturday, May 2, starting at 9 a.m. and stepping off from the Watuppa Reservation, 2929 Blossom Road, Fall River, Massachusetts.
The BIG WALK is a wonderful educational and advocacy event familiarizing folks with the natural beauty and important historical, biological, cultural and natural resources of the Southeastern Massachusetts Bioreserve.
We, at Green Futures, held the first BIG WALK sixteen years ago in an attempt to rally support for the Freetown State Forest and advocate for additional open-space acreage in the area now officially know as the Southeastern Massachusetts Bioreserve …but back in 1993 we tagged that area as the Copicut Greenbelt in our news releases, advocacy literature and speaking engagements.
The impetus for the first BIG WALK, in 1993, was a bold land-grab attempt by a scurrilous private development corporation in Fall River, helped along by their buds in the city administration. They attempted to have the state turn over 1,000 acres of public open space land in the Freetown State Forest to them …land held in trust for all citizens of the Commonwealth …for industrial development. This was outrageous, but the City had their local legislators ready to file legislation to steal this land from the people.
Here are a few excerpts from a 1993 news article from The Herald News on the first BIG WALK - TO SAVE THE FREETOWN STATE FOREST:
FREETOWN – Nearly 200 people marched through the gates of the Freetown State Forest at noon yesterday to demonstrate their concern for preserving the park from development.
Old and young, men and women, Wampanoags in tribal dress, children, families, singles, professionals and others participated in the walk, which was sponsored by Green Futures, a newly formed local environmental group.
There were members of the Audubon Society and the Sierra Club. There were horseback riders, dog enthusiasts with their canines on leash, berry pickers, photographers, runners, hikers, bikers, fishermen, hunters and dog sled racers.
All of those who walked were making a statement about what they call the importance of preserving the state forest – every last acre of it – from development.
Tim Bennett, president of Green Futures, spoke briefly to the assembled activists before the walk began. He said the event would show appreciation of the land – and allow those present to become the “voice of the forest.”
He urged everyone to contact the necessary state officials to prevent any of the forest from being lost.
The organizers were pleased by the varied and surprisingly large turnout.
“This is better than expected,” said Green Futures spokesman Everett Castro of Fall River. “It just shows how many people are concerned.”
According to Castro, this 4,000-acre state park is the only one of its type in Bristol County. One section of it, composing 1,000 acres, has been sought recently by the Greater Fall River Development Corporation, which wants some of the land to expand the Industrial Park.
It took a few years and a couple of more BIG WALKs to build enough critical mass of concerned citizens, environmental organizations and legislators to halt the ill-conceived development plans of the City and its allies.
Successful at saving the forest, the next BIG WALK was the BIG WALK - TO CELEBRATE THE FOREST. It was held in the fall to coincide with the Friends of the Freetown State Forest’s “Fun Day in the Forest.”
In the spring of 1997 the BIG WALK became an advocacy tool to show the possibility of connecting open space parcels from the state forest in Freetown, east and south through Fall River, all the way to New Bedford’s Acushnet Cedar Swamp State Reservation.
At the time, before this area fortuitously became the Southeaster Massachusetts Bioreserve, we called that broad land preservation vision, the Copicut Greenbelt.
Now billed as the BIG WALK - FROM FALL RIVER TO NEW BEDFORD, it returned to a spring date and attracted over one hundred walkers, many completing the full eighteen miles.
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Here is an article from The Herald News about the 1999 BIG WALK:
Sometimes it takes a large number of big steps to ensure the success of some very big ideas.
Walkers from around the region will mark a familiar path along the proposed Wampanoag Heritage Trail on Sunday as part of Green Futures "Big Walk III" from Fall River to New Bedford. The 15-mile trek traverses some ancient Indian trails and historical sites through the Copicut Greenbelt from Fall River/Freetown State Forest to the Acushnet Cedar Swamp Reservation.
The relaxing, up-close venture featuring a rare preserved portion of the state's awe-inspiring and uninhabited natural landscapes, is held each year to stress public and business advocating for open space acquisition and to point out the proposed area acts as a crucial bio-reserve for countless species. Perhaps, most importantly, Big Walk serves to familiarize area residents and others with the large block of open space in southern New England, showcasing its natural, historical and cultural values.
"We have a small window of opportunity to get something organized," said Green Futures member Everett Castro. "With the commuter rail coming, there is obviously going to be lots of pressure on the remaining land to develop it." Southeastern Massachusetts is among the fastest growing regions in the United States with 200,000 people estimated to move into the region in the next 20 years. Added fellow Green Futures member Al Lima, "Within the next 10 to 20 years, the chance to do this will be lost."
The Coalition for Buzzards Bay has an even bigger plan for the scope of the proposed open space corridor, lobbying to connect the Greenway from Fall River all the way to the Myles Standish State Forest in Plymouth through the heavily forested upper Buzzards Bay watershed. When completed, it would cross 10 town lines and seven major rivers, and will link more than 25,000 protected acres by a nearly 75-mile trail corridor.
With assistance from eight local Buzzards Bay land trusts, and incorporating technical and design expertise from the National Park Service Rivers and Trails Program, and a new Department of Environmental Management Greenways and Trails grant, the Coalition is working to network community groups and citizens in the visionary endeavor through public meetings. "It's part of a unifying theme we're building. It excites people that they're going to enter something with access like this together," said land specialist Michael Labossiere, president of the Greater Fall River Land Conservancy and Buzzards Bay Greenway member. "I think it can be a great attraction. Right now it's one section of the state that doesn't have a good network of trails. Along the Copicut, this will involve land protection, watershed protection and a huge space for endangered habitats."
Lima said proposed area's potentially positive economic impact should not be understated. "Businesses have always been attracted to high-quality of life open areas. Especially with the advent of computers today, people can move anywhere they want. Most want to be near open and natural recreational areas like this." He continued, "It would be a great selling point for Fall River and New Bedford. Not only that, it won't be very expensive. I think this would be unique." Lima said he's heard plights of many suburbanized communities in the state, particularly those surrounding Boston, which have become overrun with "urban sprawl" and lost their identities.
At Big Walk III, the first five miles of the proposed Buzzards Bay Greenway will be dedicated, as well as the unveiling of the project's trail marker. Special promotional Greenway posters will also be distributed. Big Walk III will consist of three walking groups: an expert group to walk the entire trail nonstop; a moderate group which will complete the full trail, but with short stops at areas of historic or natural significance and the leisurely group, which will walk an abridged version of the rail route. Vans will be available at two intermediate locations as well as at the end of the trail to shuttle folks back to their vehicles.
"We encourage everyone from children, to dogs on leashes, to the elderly, to Appalachian Mountain types. Regardless of your walking ability, there's a place for you," said Castro.
Each hiker will receive a copy of the Green Futures trail guide, detailing historical facts and sites along the way. Hiking shoes are required, while sandals are highly discouraged. Walkers will begin the walk at the Fall River/Freetown State Forest headquarters, Slab Bridge Road, Assonet/Freetown, MA at 8 a.m.
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BIG WALK IV brought our most extensive news article and helped immeasurably in “selling” the Bioreserve idea to state officials and the general public:
A BIG WALK IN THE WOODS:
Environmentalists lead 18-mile forest trek, from Fall River to New Bedford, to draw attention to area's dwindling green spaces.
By Monica Allen – Standard-Times
When I first heard about the "Big Walk" from Fall River to New Bedford, it appealed to my desire to connect these two SouthCoast cities. But as I investigated, I quickly learned it would be an 18-mile walk. This seemed long. Was I willing to give up my Sunday to make this connection? As Sunday approached, I could feel my anxiety growing. I tried to convince a friend to accompany me. But when this hearty hiker said: "No, are you crazy? It's supposed to be 90 degrees that day", I felt a mixture of resolve - a sort of macho personal challenge - and self-doubt.
The alarm went off at 6:30 AM and I stuffed the ham sandwich I'd made the night before, bug spray, sunscreen, notepad, bottled water and camera into a small knapsack. Then I drove to the headquarters of the Fall River/Freetown State Forest where cars were gathering and people in hiking boots were milling about. The moment I stepped out of my car, a swarm of tiny black flies surrounded my face and began to nip. It's going to be along day, I thought as I smeared on bug dope.
Although I thought we would be hiking from the ranger station off Slab Bridge Road, I quickly learned we would all drive in a long caravan of cars to our actual starting point, the American Legion Hall in Assonet Village on South Main Street. Everett J. Castro, one of the hike organizers and a longtime member of the Green Futures environmental group, said this was the beginning because it was the closest he could get us to the shores of the Taunton River. The idea of the hike is to walk from the Taunton River to the Acushnet Cedar Swamp in New Bedford and retrace some of the woodland paths that Wampanoag Indians once took as they left their river bank summer encampments in the Fall to go into the uplands for winter.
The "Big Walk" began four years ago to protest what environmentalists see as the latest aggression by the current culture, a culture of conquest that has been transforming the New England landscape since the first Englishmen arrived in the 1600s.
The city of Fall River, anxious to increase it's space for industry, had requested that the Commonwealth turn over 1,000 acres of the state forest for an expanded industrial park. Promising jobs for a growing population, the city leaders had a great deal of support for their proposal. But a small band of avid hikers decided this was an outrage and they would fight it. Already the forest was surrounded by manmade structures that were threatening what was left of one of the last sizable green spaces in southern New England, one of the few forests big enough for many native plant and animal species to survive. So Mr. Castro, Al Lima, and Tim Bennett, to name only a few, organized the first "Big Walk" to show the public what they were in danger of losing. The walk drew more than 100 people and helped to convince the state to turn down Fall River's expansion plans.
Winning one battle has not lulled this group into complacency. In fact, they know the battle is never really over in a state and region committed more to industry than to forests. Over the next few years, Green Futures, the non-profit environmental group, learned that the portion of the state forest in Fall River was zoned for heavy industry. No other state forest had such a zone. Most communities had zoned these parks for open space and recreation. So, Green Futures worked to get the zone changed, hoping this could give some future protection. But Mr. Castro says even this victory was not enough to allow him and the others to breathe easy. "There are people in the city that are still trying to get 200 acres of the forest for industrial use", he says. " We have to keep ever vigilant".
Back at the American Legion Hall, about 90 hikers are readying for the walk on the morning of May 7. Chief Windsong of the Wampanoag Tribe gathers the hikers in a circle and says a prayer for a safe and healthy ramble through the woods. Then he blesses the hikers with the scented smoke from a bundle of burning sprigs that he fans onto us using a wild turkey feather.
Then we break up into groups. The first group will do an abbreviated walk. The intermediate group will walk the entire 18 miles, stopping often to talk about the forest sites and to sip water. The third group will go straight through. A part of me wants to go with the fast group. My thought is I'd finish an hour or two earlier. But after casually polling a few hikers, I decide the intermediate group makes more sense. Later, I am glad of the decision when we learn one member of the fast group collapses and has to be pulled out of the woods.
It was about 10 minutes to 9 when we strolled briskly up Copicut Road and took a right turn into the state forest. For the next six hours, our group would be in the woods and would not see a single house. I would never have believed this if you had told me in advance that I could hike for six hours in the woods in congested southern New England. The 50 people in the intermediate group soon form a long necklace of walkers on a narrow pine needle trail that wends through tall white pines and down to a rushing waterfall called Rattlesnake Brook. The brook runs entirely in the state forest and is considered one of the cleanest streams in the region because it draws rain and groundwater only from forested land.
Tom Athearn of Fall River leads the intermediate group at a brisk pace. He confides that he usually leads the fast group so he likes to keep a steady clip. Along the early stretch, we hike through an old white pine grove with 100 feet high trees that were a favorite among colonists for ship masts.
The first major site along our hike is Assonet Ledge, an abandoned granite quarry operated by the Fall River Granite Company into the early 1900s. Rock from the quarry was used to build Fort Adams in Newport, R.I., the Taunton State Hospital and the state house in Albany, N.Y. among other buildings. The quarry closed sometime after stone cutters tapped into an artery of groundwater below and the quarry filled with water. We hiked up a rocky path to the ledge that overlooks the pool of water. Over the years, graffiti artists have painted giant hearts and scratched names onto the smooth granite walls. "They haven't reached the age where they understand how beautiful this would be without their words", one hiker says.
By now the temperature has climbed into the high 80s and many of the hikers welcome a chance to flake out on the cool granite and sip from water bottles. Others try to see how close they could get to the edge of the granite before fear drives then back. Mr. Athearn notes that over the years people have pitched trash into the quarry - items as large as cars have been pulled from the waters.
We hike back into the pine and oak trees. Al Lima of Green Futures says this was part of a section of the city wanted to turn into an industrial park. The land is flat and an old stone wall marks places where farmers had long ago kept their livestock. But over the last century, the woods have returned to fill these ghost pastures.
After some steady walking, I begin to detect a sour smell in the air. When I ask about it, Mr. Lima says it must be the Browning-Ferris Industries dump, the largest landfill in the commonwealth. The Fall River area suffers from many of these landmarks. The region is host to the largest and dirtiest coal-fired power plant in New England. It has this dump which accepts construction waste from throughout the state and, until recently, it had the oldest, most polluting trash incinerator in the state, placed snugly in a typical city neighborhood of triple deckers. Protest finally led the city to close the trash incinerator last summer after years of violating state health guidelines and spewing high levels of mercury, cadmium and lead into the air. As we hike closer to the dump, others start noticing the sour smell of garbage. Soon we can see a high earth-covered mountain just beyond the forest. "It's a horrible location", Mr. Lima says. Not only that, an unlined portion of the dump has contaminated Mother's Brook, appropriately named because it was once used by farm mothers to gather water for washing and cooking. Today it would make any mother or child sick because of high levels of toxic metals that have run off the dump into the brook and eventually flow into the Taunton River. On this 90-degree morning, the smell is particularly strong and I think everyone is glad when we get out of wind shot of the dump. As we get farther from the dump, the pine scent returns to fill the warm, muggy air.
The flat land gives way to a gentle hillside and we climb onto the back of Hogs Rock, a smooth granite outcropping that offers a lookout over the treetops. While most of the hikers, who've been walking for more than two hours in the sun and heat, welcome another chance to sit on the rock and sip water, some are anxious to push on. Isabelle Hart of Tiverton, one of the oldest hikers on the trip, has no interest in stopping. "I wish the breaks were shorter and we could keep going", she says, unwilling to sit. Much younger hikers have begun to ask when we will reach the first dirt road where they can get a van ride back to their cars. Green Futures carefully organizes the long walk so that hikers can quit at four evenly spaced spots along the trip. A van waits at these points where the dirt roads cross the forest path. When we reach the first road, more than half the hikers decide a three and a half-hour walk is plenty. But, Scott Hornsby, 31, of Fall River says the walk has convinced him to return to this trail. "I've lived here 31 years and I've never been out here", he says.
A hearty crew of about 20 pushes on through what is perhaps the most difficult section. The path turns to black mud and puddles and the brush closes in on us from both sides. Few large trees provide any shade as we walk in stifling heat for close to a half hour. Everyone is pleased to reach a dry, pine needle forest floor. Soon we leave Fall River/Freetown State Forest and pass into land acquired from the Forbes family in 1996 by the Greater Fall River Land Conservancy. Forbes, like many wealthy publishing families, controlled large holdings of forest to insure a steady supply of pulp for paper.
These woods are open with a mixture of trees that allows for a comfortable, shaded walk. The final wooded stretch of the day takes us into land owned by the Acushnet Saw Mills Company, a firm controlled by the Hawes family. The Hawes land has even more open spaces beneath the trees, a clear sign that it has been logged for many years. Green Futures gets permission each year to take hikers across this private property. "We're hoping eventually that this property will be acquired by the state or the land conservancy," Mr. Castro says.
At another road crossing, a few more hikers decide to take a van ride and now we are down to about nine. I have no desire to quit at this point, especially knowing we are well beyond halfway. By now the conversations are flowing among our small group. Hike leader Athearn urges us on to reach boiling spring, assuring us it's not a boiling hot spring. Curious, we walk on. Just before we reach the spring, we happen across a band of trespassers drinking beer beside a raging fire. These four large men have parked their souped up trucks in a grove and are playing loud rock music. Mr. Athearn is clearly disappointed to find this crew, but decides to say nothing to them and hike past.
The nearby natural spring is surrounded by an old concrete enclosure that allows the clear water to bubble up through fine white quartz sand and form a deep pool. Nanci Lown from Assonet is the first to dip her empty water bottle into the spring. Then she and most of us pull off our socks and shoes to cool our feet in the nearby stream. Tim Bennett of Green Futures explains that a farmer found this spring a long time ago and built his home right next to it. But the land was not suited for farming so he eventually left. The spring fed stream is actually the source of the East Branch of the Westport River. The water bubbles up from deep within the earth, flows to the Copicut Reservoir, then to Lake Noquochoke and finally into the river. We linger for a while at the spring
The last stretch of forest goes by quickly and we emerge onto Pine Island Road about 3:30 pm. The waiting van takes three people, leaving six to finish the Big Walk. I've been forewarned about the last stretch of 3 or 4 miles. It's supposed to be the hardest. This is a portion where no local land trust, state or federal agency has been able to acquire forest to continue the proposed path. The dream of Green Futures and the Coalition for Buzzards Bay, another environmental group, is to build a walking path over a patchwork of green spaces that would stretch from the Taunton River to Cape Cod Bay in Plymouth. "This is the last opportunity we have for a long trail that would be mostly in the woods", Mr. Castro says, "and with the kind of development going on now, we may not have much time left to create it".
As warned, the last stretch is grueling on the feet. You don't notice how tired your feet are on pine needles, but asphalt has a way of slamming into them no matter how gently you walk. I search for small patches of grass along the roadside as we pass farms on Flag Swamp Road in Freetown and Dartmouth, then pass more recently built houses along Pine Island and High Hill Roads. I notice many no-trespassing signs in driveways. Cars whiz past us as we trudge, and a few children ask what we are doing, this scraggly band of two men and four women. It's fun to see their expressions when we tell them we're walking from Fall River to New Bedford. When we finally reach the New Bedford city line, Nanci Lown and Isabelle Hart hold their arms up in victory. Ahead of us are veteran hikers, Carl Windle and Lucy Farrar of Swansea, and our fearless leader Tom Athearn.
It is just around 5 pm when Turner Pond comes into view. We linger on the gravel beach looking over at the Atlantic white cedars on the distant shore. John Ashcroft of Fall River waits in a blue gray van to take us back to our starting point. The early evening breeze feels delicious on my face as we drive back toward Fall River.
There's something about a long walk through the woods that soothes the soul.
Once the Southeastern Massachusetts Bioreserve became a reality, we decided the BIG WALK had served its purpose and so we ceased holding the annual event.
Fortunately The Trustees of Reservations, as one of the Bioreserve’s land owning entities, decided to keep the BIG WALK going. Their annual BIG WALK introduces to a new audience the natural, historical and cultural resources of this last, large parcel of public open space land here in Bristol County.
Massachusetts is the third most populous state at close to 800 people per square mile and loses an average of 58,000 acres per year to development. We hope that all who have walked the BIG WALK experience the awareness that open space land is not just idle land waiting for development to come along, but it is dynamic land that nurtures wildlife; provides outdoor recreation in an increasingly urban world; protects vital water supplies for neighboring communities; lifts the human spirit; and makes our area a more aesthetically pleasing place to live, work and play.
Hope to see you on this year’s The Trustees of Reservations’ BIG WALK!
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