I attended last night’s meeting of the Conservation Commission and found the discussion enlightening, though more so in revealing Commission members’ positions than in sharing facts and arriving at common goals for the Woods. Since as a member of the audience I was given no opportunity to speak I’m going to share my thoughts with you here. In no particular order, here goes:
· Willards Woods is not pristine wilderness – it was a working farm for at least 140 years and was bequeathed to the town for recreational use. The pond is entirely man-made. I love the Woods and agree that it’s important not to love it to death, but when Commission members talk of “restoring” Willards I don’t know what they mean. Restoring to farming condition? Restoring to pre-settlement condition? Or restoring to when it was little used by anyone except neighbors and the occasional birder? What is the ideal state and use of Willards?
· Commission members expressed concern about trail damage by dogs. Dogs generally weigh less than people either on foot or on bikes, and I estimate there are considerably more human users of the Woods (think of the town’s school cross-country teams alone) than dogs – so I’m thinking the issue is traffic intensity rather than type of traffic.
· Commission members bemoaned the disappearance of wildlife as a result of the dog presence. I’m only one person, but in the past few years alone I’ve encountered a red fox, coyotes, hawks, owls, ducks, rabbits, voles, chipmunks, snakes, and many, many songbirds. My dog’s not interested in any of these, but I have a feeling that the dog presence has a chilling effect on the coyote population. (Did you read the recent Globe article about eastern coyotes being bigger and badder than western coyotes? Researchers have found our eastern coyotes are actually coyote-wolf hybrids. Way to go, Mother Nature! Wait – maybe these newcomers need to be nurtured along with the rest of the endangered wildlife in the Woods….)
· No one in the Commission mentioned a real threat to the Woods – the great increase in invasive plant species. Chinese Bittersweet and Multiflora Rose are both well-established and choking out native plants. How about some attention to these unwanted Woods denizens?
· One last thought: it seems to me that the Commission is ignoring an important resource. The Friends of Willard Woods had almost 200 people at that meeting, people who care about the Woods and want to share it with their dogs and the friends they meet there. Why doesn’t the Commission call on us to help?
