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SuAsCo Biodiversity Protection and Stewardship Plan Explanation of Biodiversity Goal
The purpose of this project is to empower the 36 communities of the three river basins - the Sudbury, Assabet and Concord Rivers (SuAsCo) - to conserve and restore natural biodiversity in the watershed. This report highlights Biodiversity Sites and Focal Species that are significant on the watershed scale so that together municipalities, non-profit organizations, state agencies, and community leaders can coordinate the protection and stewardship of regionally significant plant communities, wildlife habitat, and corridors. The plan outlines a strategy--the specific actions needed--to help achieve the protection and stewardship goals.
This plan is a product of a cooperative effort by the SuAsCo Watershed Community Council and the SuAso Watershed Team of the Massachusetts Watershed Initiative of the Executive Office of Environmental Affairs. The purpose of the SuAsCo Watershed Community Council (SWCC) is to build a community-based alliance that promotes the sustainable economic and environmental well-being of the SuAsCo Watershed. SWCC brings businesses, industries, municipal officials, state, and federal government entities, academia, environmental groups, nonprofit organizations, and the general public together to take action collectively on watershed issues. The role of the SuAsCo Watershed Team is to plan for watershed-wide water quality/quantity, land use, habitat, and recreational assessments for use by the SWCC, Stream Teams, local/regional planning agencies, and state and federal agencies in watershed planning. The SuAsCo Watershed Team consists of individuals from federal agencies and state agencies, a regional planning agency, a water supply agency, and non-profit organizations.
In April 1998, SWCC organized the first SuAsCo Rivers Vision Forum. At that meeting, attended by over 180 people, the SuAsCo Community Council formed a Habitat Task Force to complement the work of the water quality and quantity protection, open space, recreation, and outreach task forces. The Habitat Task Force focused specifically on habitat values for wildlife and plants, in other words on protecting biodiversity. To achieve its goals of protecting biodiversity in the watershed, the Habitat Task Force applied to the state’s Watershed Initiative program, proposing this project, which was funded in April 2000. An Advisory Committee of 14 people, from a number of towns and professions, oversaw the progress of the SuAsCo Biodiversity Protection and Stewardship Plan (referred to hereafter as the Plan), which was completed in August 2000.
The SuAsCo Biodiversity Protection and Stewardship Plan complements open space and greenways plans by emphasizing biodiversity - native plants and animals, their habitats, and their ongoing interactions - in the watershed (see box). The Plan looks at what species need in order to survive in the watershed given the constraints of development. The Plan focuses on regionally significant vs. state-wide or locally significant species and habitats, thereby differentiating the Plan from municipal open space plans and the Commonwealth’s Natural Heritage and Endangered Species Program’s (NHESP) Atlas and BioMap project. However, these other sources were particularly helpful in determining the priorities of this report.
The SuAsCo Biodiversity Protection and Stewardship Plan complements other biodiversity inventories and protection plans. Of special note is Sudbury Valley Trustee’s (SVT’s) Greenways Plan that identifies focus areas and recreational and conservation greenways for SuAsCo. Many of the Biodiveristy Sites in this plan are nested within SVT’s focus areas. The SuAsCo Biodiversity Plan will help identify natural resources for SVT’s regional “Regional Greenprint for Growth” which is in progress. The “Regional Greenprint for Growth” will promote the integration of open space conservation strategies with growth-shaping measures. Also, many of the selection criteria for Biodiversity Sites mirror, at least in part, the state-wide land protection goals of the Department of Environmental Management and The Trustees of Reservations such as consolidating large tracts, representing natural community types, and providing wildlife corridors, particularly along streams.
This Plan is one of several projects in the Commonwealth determining biologically significant sites. Other projects in progress include the Nashua River Watershed Habitat Inventory and Assessment, the Natural Resource Inventory and Plan for Southeastern Massachusetts, the Strategic Biodiversity Conservation Plan in the Housatonic Watershed, and the Natural Heritage and Endangered Species Program BioMap. Together these plans will present a tremendous challenge to those concerned with preserving the rich natural heritage in Massachusetts. Together they will indicate what sites should be priorities for protection. The plans will provide guidelines for what can be done. It is up to all those reading them to determine in fact what it will be done.
This project has the generous support of the EOEA’s Massachusetts Watershed Initiative, which enabled the research and writing of this report. Sweet Water Trust, a non-profit foundation dedicated to the conservation of wild nature, has sponsored the research for the stewardship chapter and the presentation of public outreach programs in the months to follow the release of the Plan. Even with this generous monetary support, the project would not have been possible without hundreds of hours contributed by the Advisory Committee members, naturalists, local conservation commissioners, and two volunteer assistants.
The following report is written for a variety of key audiences: • Local officials including conservation commissioners, town planners, select persons, mayors, city council members, and town meeting representatives. • The seventeen local land trusts that operate in the watershed. • The many regional conservation organizations, such as Sudbury Valley Trustees (SVT), Organization for the Assabet River (OAR), Hop Brook Protection Association, Framingham Advocates for the Sudbury River, and SuAsCo Watershed Association. • The numerous regional planning groups, including the SuAsCo Watershed Community Council, Metropolitan Area Planning Council (MAPC), Montachusett Regional Planning Commission, Central Massachusetts Regional Planning Commission , Northern Middlesex Council of Governments. • Above all, the citizens who believe that protecting biodiversity in the SuAsCo watershed is critical to the quality of life. It is only with their support and influence that the goals of the strategy will be achieved.
It is hoped that the SuAsCo Biodiversity Plan also will be useful to state and federal agencies which hold and manage land in the SuAsCo Watershed and the to legislators who have a key responsibility in preserving the natural resources of their communities.
A regional biodiversity plan is essential for protecting biodiversity in the Sudbury, Assabet, and Concord River Watershed. Scientific evidence has demonstrated that biodiversity drops significantly in areas smaller than 1000 acres, even for the small creatures, such as turtles and salamanders. Preserving biodiversity requires a variety of habitat types or natural communities to protect the range of life. Natural communities are found in different places, such as lowlands in the eastern part of the watershed, and the extensive, rocky ridgeline of the Shrewsbury Ridge in the western part. It is also clear that healthy ecosystems depend on healthy streams, rivers, and riparian areas. Water quality and quantity is as essential to plants and animals as it is to humans. The SuAsCo Watershed is defined by the interlinking stream systems that connect all 36 towns. Finally, the large protected upland areas in one part of the watershed need to be connected to other areas so that over the long term populations of wild animals can intermingle, finding mates and exchanging genetic material. Animals will naturally move to new territories and they need to do so safely.
Saving biodiversity in the SuAsCo Watershed is a challenging and complex task that requires municipalities, conservation organizations, and state agencies to combine their resources around common goals.
Fortunately, much of the job is done. The reason why there is so much biodiversity in the SuAsCo Watershed is that leaders before us recognized the unique natural resources in the watershed and worked hard to preserve them. Of the 48,000 acres contained in SuAsCo Biodiversity Sites, almost 45% or 21,500 acres has been permanently protected. Great Meadows National Wildlife Refuge is a nationally significant resource. Its extensive floodplain forests and marshes are critical habitat for many rare birds, such as bitterns, as well as the locally more common birds like great blue herons, wood ducks, and marsh wrens. Great Meadows National Wildlife Refuge (GMNWR) protects habitat for the rare Blanding’s turtle and Britton’s violet. The extensive forests of Estabrook Woods in Concord and Carlisle provide seclusion for interior-forest birds, such as hermit thrush and Louisiana waterthrush. Unusual bogs with carnivorous plants are found in Walden Woods. Cedar Swamp in Westborough has rare Atlantic white cedar groves and many associated state-listed rare species. These habitats are not necessarily wilderness or pristine, but they are large and have a variety of representative plant communities and important animals secured within them.
The job is not done. For instance, the western part of the watershed has few large areas set aside for habitat protection, yet, it has resources unique to the watershed, such as extensive dry oak forests with seeps, coldwater trout streams, vernal pool clusters, nesting goshawks, marbled salamanders, and bobcats. There are large field complexes with bobolinks, meadowlarks, and kestrels. Towns and land trusts throughout the watershed need to support the towns along the Shrewsbury Ridge if the full range of biodiversity is to be saved from the effects of development.
Once key biodiversity sites are protected, they must be managed for biodiversity. Conservation scientists and local land managers list several threats to preserved habitats. Invasion by exotic species is a primary concern. Purple loosestrife, water chestnut, phragmites, Japanese knotweed, European buckthorn, and multiflora rose overwhelm our marshes, waterways, wetlands, fields, and forests, changing the very nature of the natural communities. Certain community types require management to sustain habitats, such as mowing to attract grassland birds and prescribed burns for pitch-pine forests. Many of our large preserves are used by the public for recreational purposes that may be in conflict with biodiversity goals. The disturbances caused by off-road vehicles and jet skis are obvious; however, mountain bikes, dog walking, and canoeing can be problematic as well.
The areas buffering and connecting protected areas are important aspects of a comprehensive biodiversity strategy. Nearby development can alter the hydrology of sensitive bogs and fens. Loss of upland buffers to swamps and marshes can reduce values for wildlife dependent on the wetlands. Neighborhood cats prey on birds and small mammals. Exotic species often invade from nearby gardens. It is clear from looking at the map of Biodiversity Sites that dense developments and large roads block the passage of animals. Animals cannot move safely through many parts of the SuAsCo Watershed. Biodiversity = the diversity of native species (from lichens and millipedes, fungi, and butterflies,to wildflowers, birds, and mammals), their habitats, and natural communities in a particular area. Biodiversity is not just species diversity. Quality is more important than quantity. Replacing a native forest with an arboretum is not saving natural biodiversity. Biodiversity includes the biological integrity of natural ecosystems, i.e., the natural interactions among species, such as flower pollination, and the natural ecological processes, such as flooding and fire. Habitat = the living space an organism needs to survive. Plant habitat includes water, soils, nutrients, air movement, temperature, and available sunlight. For plants all these requirements must be found in one place. Animal habitat includes food, shelter, breeding, loafing and over wintering sites. Not all these needs are found in one place. Indeed, many animals will move long distances to find what they need over the course of a year and lifetime. Natural community = a grouping of plants and animals interacting among themselves within a particular environment. A natural community is essentially the living components of an ecosystem. Natural communities are described in Section II. Ecosystem = a discrete unit that consists of living and non-living parts, interacting to form a stable system. It includes the soils, water, sunlight, as well as the animals and plants. Ecosystems can be at all scales, from vernal pools and bogs to whole oceans. Natural Processes = nutrient cycling of leaves, inflow and outflow of water; disturbance factors such as flooding, windstorms, and fire; and plant community succession. Fragmentation = large habitats being divided up into small pieces by roads, dense development, and other human uses. Not only is there less area of a given habitat, but what remains is often degraded by the effects of the conditions around the edge, such as invasion by exotic plants, cowbirds, and cats, and increased sun and drying winds. These “edge” effects can penetrate up to 1000 feet so, for example, the good quality habitat of a 100 acre parcel is reduced to only 64 acres. Many organisms, large and small, have difficulty moving from one habitat fragment to another because the territory in between is often hazardous to cross and the fragments are far and few. The remaining natural habitats are like islands in a sea of development.
The SuAsCo Biodiversity Protection and Stewardship Plan offers guidance to those interested in saving biodiversity. It describes two inter-related components used to determine the Biodiversity Sites: Natural Communities and Focal Species. These sections inform the reader of the values of the individual species, natural communities, and Biodiversity Sites in the SuAsCo Watershed and the necessity for linkages and buffers. The Plan also describes the need for stewardship, not only of Biodiversity Sites, but also of other protected conservation land, corridors, and the areas in between if wildlife is to survive. The intent of the Strategy is to provide a clear goal and objectives, and to set forth specific tasks that can be accomplished. The Strategy also offers a means for measuring success by continuing to inventory the condition of Biodiversity Sites and presence of the Focal Species over the long term. Each of the report sections is summarized below.
Section I. Focal Species: Focal species are used to indicate which animals and plants are important to protect in our watershed. The occurrence of these regionally important and representative species can help determine sites for protection and stewardship actions to sustain and improve populations. Focal Species also serve as ambassadors to connect citizens to what lives in the SuAsCo Biodiversity Sites and other habitats throughout the watershed. On-going surveys of these species can help measure success by determing whether or not the species are still present in the years to come. This section explains how regional naturalists chose the Focal Species using their best professional judgment and describes the species’ special characteristics and where they are found.
Section II. Natural Communities: The intention of the SuAsCo Biodiversity Plan is to include good examples of all the natural community types found in the SuAsCo Watershed within Biodiversity Sites or other protected conservation land. In this way, the whole range of biodiversity, including micro-organisms, lichens, fungi, plants, and animals, is protected in functioning ecosystems. This section describes the natural communities found in the SuAsCo Watershed and which sites include the best representative examples. The intention is to help people know what lives in the different communities and to encourage additional surveys. This section also describes some of the threats and stewardship needs of particular community types, which is important in developing the overall protection strategy.
Section III. Biodiversity Sites: The purpose of designating SuAsCo Biodiversity Sites is to identify which areas are important on a regional scale to protect and manage for biodiversity. They serve as focal points for cooperative conservation efforts by municipalities, land trusts, and state agencies, so that each can use their limited resources for the best effect. The selection criteria and process for determining biodiversity sites are described. Each Site is outlined on USGS maps. Table 2 lists the values of each Site and related stewardship issues.
Section IV. Stewardship: This section will be completed at a later date under the Sweet Water Trust grant. It will highlight the point that once the land is protected, the land will still need to be managed. Also, land that is not protected, such as private holdings, can be managed to protect habitat. This section will emphasize the most important management issues and recommend some solutions based on interviews with land owners and managers throughout the SuAsCo Watershed.
Section V. Biodiversity Sites by Town: This section includes maps which serve to highlight the responsibility that each individual town has in protecting Biodiversity Sites. Organized in alphabetical order, municipal maps show where the Biodiversity Sites are located and the amount of land already protected within them. One must look to Section III: Biodiversity Sites for details. This is a deliberate arrangement to encourage readers to look beyond their borders and to focus on a regional perspective.
Section VI. SuAsCo Biodiversity Site Protection and Stewardship Strategy: This chapter provides a practical goal, objectives, and actions to inspire and involve municipalities, land trusts, other conservation organizations, state agencies, and concerned citizens in achieving the mission. The Strategy is outlined below. Goal: To conserve and restore natural biodiversity in the watershed by protecting and managing natural communities and focal species habitat and by motivating and involving land trusts, conservation commissions, conservation organizations, and concerned citizens in accomplishing this goal.
Objectives: 1. Focus community leaders, town boards, state agencies, and concerned citizens on the goal of protecting Biodiversity Sites on a regional scale. 2. Complete inventory of Biodiversity Sites to determine in more detail the types, quality, and locations of natural communities and Focal Species’ habitats, to connect more people with the Sites and Focal Species, and to gauge the long-term success in protection of biodiversity. 3. Protect Biodiversity Sites and NHESP Priority Habitats using all available tools. 4. Buffer Biodiversity Sites where appropriate and feasible. 5. Link Biodiversity Sites by determining, augmenting, and managing corridors. 6. Manage Biodiversity Sites and other protected lands to preserve and enhance biodiversity values over time. 7. Promote the restoration of water quality and flow for biodiversity as well as for human needs. 8. Increase safety of wildlife living and moving throughout the watershed, not just within Biodiversity Sites or corridors. In particular, improve passage under or across highways, along streams and wetlands, and through neighborhoods. 9. Increase public awareness of the importance of biodiversity and the need for activism in local and state politics. Explanation of Biodiversity Goal
Simply put, the goal is to “Conserve and restore the natural biodiversity in the SuAsCo Watershed.” While the SuAsCo Biodiversity Plan incorporates goals, principals, and practices common to other conservation plans, it has been adapted to meet the conditions of the SuAsCo Watershed. The Sudbury, Assabet, and Concord River Watershed has a population of almost 365,000 people. Its 377 square miles has been continually settled for over 350 years and now features the urban centers of Lowell, Framingham, Marlborough, and Hudson, as well as rural communities, such as Berlin, Boylston, and Bolton. In between are the growing suburban communities, such as Sudbury, Southborough, Westborough, Northborough, and Hopkinton. The natural areas and rural landscapes are fragmented by dense development and cut off by highways. Consequently, there are few intact, connected natural areas of any size. The SuAsCo Watershed is not a pristine or wild part of the country.
Other conservation plans for large natural areas, such as those done by The Nature Conservancy, strive to preserve viable populations of species (populations which are healthy, reproduce, and survive over time) and functioning natural ecosystems. The goal for the SuAsCo Watershed is necessarily less ambitious. It is to provide safe and productive habitat for those species that regularly occur in the SuAsCo Watershed so as to contribute toward healthy, productive populations in Massachusetts and elsewhere. At a minimum, animals, including mammals and birds, should be able to pass through safely. At best, animals should be able to reproduce and contribute to viable populations within the watershed. As stationary life forms, plants, which include wildflowers, ferns, shrubs, and trees, should be able to continue to grow in natural associations with each other, their pollinators, seed dispersers, and other dependent organisms in their natural settings. Intact natural communities should be able to continue their basic functions of nutrient recycling and succession. The goal also includes protection of certain unnatural communities, such as hayfields, successional fields, and wildlife impoundments, as they contribute to native species diversity overall. Finally, nature is not static and species will come and go in different combinations over time. However, the goal is to retain representative natural communities over the longterm by applying, when necessary, careful stewardship practices. |