Bob Flaherty | Amherst Bulletin | October 25, 2021
When it’s right in front of you, like the nine decaying cherry trees on Northampton’s Warfield Place that the city of Northampton recently removed in order to rebuild the road and sidewalk, residents lose their minds.
Some likened the tree-cutting “violence” to napalm deforestation during the Vietnam War and “ordained” the trees as Zen Buddhist monks, while others climbed the trees and brought on arrests, clinging to their limbs in protest.
Though the justification for the trees’ destruction may still be up for social media debate, no one would argue that the city’s actions were motivated by greed.
But not too far away, in the fertile farmland of Northfield and in the deep forests of Shutesbury, where massive solar projects are proposed, some say it may not be so hard to make that case. Now, residents are speaking out against these developments.
Statewide rallies took place this summer demanding a moratorium on funding for large-scale solar projects. The moratorium calls on Gov. Charlie Baker and Secretary of Energy and Environmental Affairs Kathleen Theoharides to hit the brakes on the many planned projects that they say clear-cut forests and remove prime farmland from production. The groups leading the rallies, which include Save the Pine Barrens, Save Massachusetts Forests and the Herring Pond Wampanoag Tribe, charge that the state’s solar incentives are driving reckless, unregulated development by big corporations.
The groups, along with Sunrise Amherst, support passage of bills H.1002 and H.912, designed to protect land, trees and habitats while transitioning to green energy.
“Our forests are of increasingly critical importance as we face the dual crises of climate disruption and mass extinction,” said Bill Stubblefield of the Wendell State Forest Alliance, a group that clashed with the state in 2019 after the logging of 100-year-old oak trees in an 80-acre stand. “Destroying forests to produce energy, even solar energy, just doesn’t make sense when we consider their irreplaceable ability to sequester carbon and preserve biodiversity.”
Another bill, HD.3685, introduced by state Rep. Lindsay Sabadosa, D-Northampton, seeks to hold the state accountable for environmental impacts and carbon accounting when it comes to forest management, also referred to as “sustainability measurement,” a process that strives to provide a factual yardstick for carbon-based decision-making. Stubblefield says that’s “the only way we get to a livable planet,” warning of what scientists call an “insect apocalypse,” caused by dwindling habitat and severe weather patterns.
“You will lose the diversity both above and below ground” if forests are cut down to make way for solar projects, he said. “It is painfully short-sighted that we subsidize such activity. Let us first use all the land already dominated by humans — parking lots, roofs, landfills and brownfields. Come talk to me when those sites are fully deployed, not before.”
In most surveys, 90% of Americans support expanding solar power and renewable energy in general. But does “renew” enter into it if you’re destroying hundreds of acres?
“Their (companies pitching big solar projects) business model is an attempt at an end-run around the town’s voter-approved solar bylaws,” said Shutesbury’s Leslie Cerier, who told of stormwater runoff that floods neighbors’ homes due to earlier clear-cutting for solar.
“We are all for small-scale solar. But what we are looking at here is the destruction of forests — part of the solution to the climate crisis — one solar panel at a time. What’s happening in my town, even with bylaws that say they can’t do this, can happen in any town in Massachusetts.”
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