Regarding a June 27, 2016, letter from Peter and Cecilia Tusinski of Leyden —“Plains Devastation” —the Massachusetts Division of Fisheries & Wildlife (MassWildlife) respectfully submits this response. The Tusinkis say that MassWildlife’s objective at the Montague Plains Wildlife Management Area (WMA) is to “restore a high canopy forest.”

On the contrary, MassWildlife’s objective for this site is to restore a globally-rare pitch pine and scrub oak community.

We are doing that through a combination of forest canopy reduction, shrub mowing, and controlled burns, in order to reinvigorate fire-adapted species and communities on the site. This is simultaneously reducing fuel loads to help protect the Village of Lake Pleasant from wildfire.

Our objective has been clearly stated in numerous print and community television media pieces, at public meetings and site walks, in mailings sent to abutters and on informational signage posted at the Montague Plains WMA.

It’s obvious the Tusinskis value the Montague Plains WMA, but they claim that “The flora and fauna that have flourished in this rare environment, the birds, snakes, rabbits, turtles, salamanders — all gone: nothing left but an ugly dead brown desert.”

The Tusinskis are mistaken

Biological monitoring over the years has shown that the multiple state-listed rare species that live in and around the WMA have benefited from more than a decade of work to restore this fire-adapted ecosystem.

The recently completed timber harvest and mowing operation looks barren immediately following these activities, but anyone who has walked through adjacent areas which received similar treatment in 2004, 2007, 2014 and 2015 has witnessed dramatic positive vegetative and wildlife results.

This habitat work has benefited declining wildlife such as the Eastern whip-poor-will, Eastern box turtle, prairie warbler and a suite of globally rare moths and butterflies.

In addition, these habitat management treatments have improved hunting conditions or ruffed grouse, and over time, we expect better hunting opportunities for wild turkey and white-tailed deer.

MassWildlife invites the Tusinskis and other conservation-minded people to visit these previously treated portions of the WMA and to re-visit the recently-completed treatment area next summer before passing judgment on more than a decade of habitat restoration.

If anyone visits previously treated areas in July, I highly recommend bringing blueberry buckets, because habitat management has substantially increased blueberry production!

The Tusinskis ask two questions that MassWildlife is happy to answer.

Their first question is, “Was any attempt made by Fish and Wildlife to catalogue the unique flora and fauna of the area before making a decision to ‘restore’ the area?”

The simple answer is “Yes.”

MassWildlife has supported a long-term vegetation monitoring study, as well as surveys on breeding birds and native pollinators, before, during and after habitat management treatment.

Their second question is, “Why was there no publicity or opportunity for public input regarding this until after the fact, unlike the proposal to place rattlesnakes on an island in the Quabbin?”

The fact is that MassWildlife held public meetings and public site walks in 2003 prior to the beginning of restoration efforts. Since then MassWildlife has hosted more than a dozen public site walks on the property as work has progressed.

Additional information is available at: www.firesciencenorthatlantic.org/events-webinars-source/2016/5/19/webinar-fauna-impacts-of-fuels-reduction-and-habitat-restoration-at-the-montague-plains

John J. Scanlon is a habitat program manager with the MassWildlife Habitat Program.