Volume 251, March 4, 2024

Natural rights for Shaftsbury forests, fields, and rivers

The Solar Energy Barons came to Shaftsbury victorious, winning the bidding war against families to buy 182 acres of the farmhouse, fields, and forests saddled between Hale Mountain and Harrington Cobble on Holy Smoke Road. No less than 104 acres will be cleared and scraped to install laydown yards, a heavy-duty vehicle access road, gravel wetlands, and space for solar panels for 20 MW electric generation.


Climate activists cheered. “These big sugar maples must die so other maples may live.” Lost on them was the fact that when more energy is generated, like the addition of more closets to a house, it always gets used.



To the property owners go the spoils. American laws are written so that property owners can do as they please (once environmental regulators are satisfied that actions had good intentions). Only adjacent property owners have legal standing to speak to the extent they are impacted. In a town of less than 4,000 residents, at least two abutting families are speaking out in opposition.


The town, unable to accept or reject the overall project, responded by proposing a screening ordinance that would make the industrial area less visible. The developer said they would leave the forest swath alone along the Northeast property boundary. Besides, those trees would not be casting shade on the solar panels. 


Lost will be some of Vermont’s largest sugar maples, white ash, red oak, birches, black cherry, and ironwood. One maple had a diameter at breast height of 7 feet 11 inches. Slightly smaller were three maple boles growing from one stump, indicating a maple more than 200 years old. Two oak trees fused as one was measured at 11 feet 2 inches, and a white ash at 5 feet 3 inches.  

The surprising size and vigor of these rich northern hardwoods are due to the bedrock geology of the Taconic Mountains. Here are limestone, dolostone, and marble layers, sources of calcium and magnesium protected by shale and slate. The gently rolling topography enhances nutrient-rich soils to stay in place to become deep, moist, and compost-like.


At least 41.8 acres of forest, mostly old-growth forest, will be cut, stumped, and soil scrapped to prepare the way for heavy equipment to build gravel wetlands at the far corners. This forest, with wildlife and water-storing benefits for Vermonters, is pulling down 15,000 tons of carbon dioxide per year to reduce the burden of carbon in the atmosphere.


To turn a profit, at least 104 acres of fields and forests will be removed. The soil will be scraped and stored in berms where carbon will gas out. Soil life dies and becomes lifeless dirt.


Outside the areas of disturbance, there is no management plan for the receiving watersheds to repair or remove sediment. There is a high potential for sediment deposition in wetlands and streams. Their report does not say how long they will operate in the future. The project has been engineered to meet the water quality standards, which provide treatment for one-inch storm events. The standard is based on the history of rainfall in the area. The project does not consider the increasing volume of rain suffered by Vermont in recent years or prepare for what is to come.the seawater tastes salty.

In Williamsburg, Massachusetts, a four-megawatt, 17,000-panel solar energy array was being installed on 18.5 acres when, on January 12, 2018, scattered showers brought 1.95 inches of rain. Mismanaged stormwater altered approximately 97,000 square feet of protected wetlands and more than 41,000 feet of riverfront area and smothered the West Branch of the Mill River. Wildlife habitats and vegetation were destroyed, and the flow of the tributaries into the river changed.


Shaftsbury has the opportunity to give legal rights to its forests, fields, and rivers when challenged at their expense by profiteers. Tamaqua (population 7,000) in the coal region of Pennsylvania was tired of seeing the Little Schuylkill River turn an oily yellow-orange. The last straw was when the state invited companies from out-of-state to dump industrial and wastewater sludge, along with fly ash, in the old mine pits of Tamaqua, and the DEP said it was not harmful.


To not be abused as property, as slaves and women once were, forests and other ecosystems must be recognized as having rights, which is what abolitionists and suffragists accomplished for slaves and women.


Forced by the people of the community, the local government of Tamaqua passed an ordinance that recognized ecosystems as having legally enforceable rights and made it unlawful for corporations to interfere with those rights to exist and flourish. The dumpers sped by Tamaqua and headed to the community of Rush next door. Rush passed their own laws of natural rights to forests, fields, and rivers, and the barons moved on.


On Holy Smoke Road, named for the view, it remains to be seen whether the farm and stands of old-growth hardwood forests will be replaced by an industrial solar energy project to benefit nonlocal investors.  

Rob's Report on the Shaftsbury Solar Project


Recommendations


The old-growth sugar maples, white ash, and other northern hardwood trees on the Shaftsbury Solar Project site are pulling massive amounts, 15,000 tons, of carbon dioxide per year out of the atmosphere and storing carbon in soil and biomass. This extraordinary amount of carbon transfer is unique in Vermont due to the sweet soil of the Taconic Mountains, which is high in calcium and magnesium, and the forest trees bordering the fields receiving more sunlight.


In keeping with Vermont’s Community Resilience and Biodiversity Protection Act, the 41.8 acres of forest should remain standing. The great diversity of tree species found in these stands increases the resilience of the forest. The great genetic diversity, mycorrhizal networks, and healthy vigor may be responsible for the absence of emerald ash borer killing white ash trees. To my knowledge, white ash trees in the rest of New England and New York forests are dying from this parasite.


Leaving the trees standing reduces the three-fold increase in reradiated heat when vegetation is replaced with dirt, cement, steel, and glass. Trees moderate the microclimate with cooling evaporation and warming condensation. Northern hardwoods cool with shade during the hot summer months and warm with bright sunlight from November to April. Trees release bacteria, fungi spores, and pollen that floats in the air. Water vapor will nucleate to form mist and cumulus clouds. Cumulus clouds reflect sunlight away to cool. Cloud formation lowers atmospheric pressure, draws in more moisture, prevents drought conditions, and keeps Vermont green.


These northern hardwoods with deep, moist, nutrient-rich soil will continue to increase in wildlife values as they age. Here are habitats for rare and uncommon plants such as Goldie’s wood-fern, broad beech fern, wood millet, puttyroot, wild ginger, and Hooker’s orchid—wildlife benefits from the mix of field and forest, with many roosts and nesting cavities.


The 104 acres cleared and soil scraped for a solar industrial park will result in bare ground compacted and rutted by heavy machinery that must be driven to all corners of the property to install gravel wetlands, build berms, and construct facilities. Absent from the stormwater management plan is a program to keep the gravel wetlands from clogging with leaves and detritus. Shaftsbury Solar will not manage the receiving watersheds to repair or remove sediment outside their disturbance areas. Engineered to provide water treatment for the 1-inch storm event, there is a high potential for sediment deposition in wetlands and streams. 

 

Read the complete report with images, maps and diagrams.

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Wear your bandana with pride, and thanks for supporting our collaborative efforts to create the Right Whale National Marine Sanctuary to rescue and protect the right whales. 

Publications:


"Natural rights for Shaftsbury forests, fields, and rivers" illuminem, March 4, 2024


“The Kraken and the Erie Canal,” The Lowell Sun, February 15, 2024.


“We’re poking the ‘angry beast’ of climate with sticks.” MassLive, Feb 13, 2024.


Will melting Greenland ice divert the Gulf Stream?” Daily Hampshire Gazette, Feb 7, 2024.

“As I See It: The kraken and the Erie Canal,” Newburyport Daily News, February 5, 2024


"Fallen Forests and Rising Ocean Fury" Seven Seas Media, February 2024


"How We Created the Hottest Global Average Temperature Day and What To Do About It?" One Green Planet, December 5, 2023



"Commentary: What if there was a Right Whale National Marine Sanctuary?" Gloucester Times, December 1, 2023


"What if there was a Right Whale National Marine Sanctuary?" Seven Seas Media Issue 103 - December 2023


"How We Created the Hottest Global Average Temperature Day and What to do about it." The Eden Magazine, September 2023


"Gasping climate change contrarians." Greenfield Recorder, June 6, 2023


"Saving Forests with Carbon Offset Rewards for Not Cutting, Let Forests Grow Old." E The Environmental Magazine, March 14, 2023


"Slowing Water For Greener Neighborhoods." The Environmental Magazine, December 18, 2022


"Speak for the trees: President Biden should protect public forests." Illuminem, December 18, 2022


"Slowing Water for Greener Neighborhoods." Illuminem, December 9, 2022


"Top Gun at COP27. It's not the plane. It's the pilot." The Environmental Magazine, November 29, 2022


"Biden’s game-changing administrative actions for climate at COP27." illuminem Voices, November 19, 2022


"Taking action to improve plight of right whales." Boston Herald, November 9, 2022


"Revival Coffee in Somerville takes up the Natural Lawn Challenge." The Somerville Times, August 27, 2022


"For eco groups, less lawn fertilizer is key to water crisis." By Dustin Luca, Salem News August 12, 2022


More carbon capture, better water retention and greener emerald bracelets for Dedham.” The Dedham Times, August 12, 2022.


“Emerald Bracelets to Solve Three Of The World’s Greatest Environmental Problems.” by Rob Moir, The Environmental Magazine, June 21, 2022


"Of Mousy and Elephantine Cycles, Managing the CLIMATE CRISIS after Glasgow COP26." The Eden, March 2022



“Lincoln resident promotes natural lawn care,” Concord Journal, Aug 3, 2021


Zumi’s host Natural Lawn Care for Healthy Soils Challenge,Ipswich Chronicle Transcript, Aug 10, 2021


Peabody peak capacity generator need not burn fossil fuels,” The Salem News, Aug 5, 2021 


30% preserved or restored by 2030,” The Salem News, Sep 29, 2021


Pogie deaths, a Mystic River mystery,” Boston Herald, Oct 4, 2021


Remember the right whales with a special day,” CommonWealth, Oct 29, 2021


Retreating Arctic Sea Ice, Sea Ice Formation, and the Stronger Flow of the Gulf Stream” Seven Seas November 2021


"Rob Moir, PhD, Science Advocate," Bloomberg Business, April 11, 2022

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