Quabbin cut in 2007: Petersham

These are photos taken December 1, 2007, of a timber cut done in Petersham, near the road to Grave's Landing, in January 2007. Three people walked around the area in January, 2007, and saw the conditions. Some areas had been cut; others were being cut. There was no advance regeneration at the time of the cut. Unfortunately, I did not take many photographs at the time.

Almost a year later, there is very little evidence of regeneration since the cut. There are some stump sprouts. There is evidence of moose browse on those stump sprouts. I plan to check this area again during the growing season in 2008.

Moose browse

(closeups in the lower row)

scenes of the cut

The cuts are clearcuts of an acre or two. In some areas there are dying trees outside the cut area (such as hemlocks infected with the hemlock woolly adelgid) that were left, but perfectly healthy, vigorous trees inside the cut area were cut. In other areas, there are vigorously growing young white pines nearby, but they were not released by removing some of the overstory trees; instead a nearby area was completely cut over.

In theory, the forest should regenerate. But will it do so with so many browsing animals resident?

The road used by the equipment is heavily impacted, but it's hard to see that in the snow, and very hard to photograph.

In a different area we came across two new moose exclosures. We wondered why the authorities hadn't built the exclosures in the large areas which had already been cut, instead of cutting new areas.

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December 4, 2007