MONTAGUE — The town anticipates that Eversource will file with the Conservation Commission next spring to begin the local permitting process for its 278-acre clear-cutting project across 11 communities, with 16.1 acres of tree clearing expected in Montague.
According to a memo to the Selectboard from Montague Planning Director Maureen Pollock, the tree clearing is part of Eversource’s contested Transmission Right-of-Way Reliability Program, WT-11. This vegetation management would clear 11.2 acres of trees in the Montague State Forest, 4.3 acres in Montague water supply land and 0.6 acres in the Montague Wildlife Management Area known as the Montague Plains.
The memo explains that approximately 3.7 miles of the 29-mile transmission corridor run through town. In Franklin County, the other impacted towns include Shutesbury, Erving, Wendell, Leverett and Northfield.
In those towns, Eversource has a powerline corridor that is between 125 and 335 feet wide, with plans to widen this to 252 to 576 feet wide. The plan would remove all species of trees and shrubs with mature heights greater than 30 feet.
“By reducing tree fall-in risks and managing vegetation as early successional habitat (grasses, forbs, small trees and shrubs), the vegetation management program supports improvements to the reliability of the regional electric grid, reducing outage risks — especially during severe weather — and improving safety and continuity of essential services,” Eversource’s website explains.
During the Selectboard’s discussion of the project on Monday, Pollock explained that in addition to these three properties in the easternmost part of Montague, the project also “crosses a number of wetlands, streams and public roads,” which requires a submission to the Conservation Commission for a wetlands delineation survey and a mitigation plan to offset the impact to wetlands. These filings require approval by the Conservation Commission and public hearings will be part of the process.
“It’s about 300 feet of maintained clear-cutting through a lot of environmentally sensitive areas, through Montague specifically,” Pollock said, “and so it’ll be interesting to see what more information comes about through that Environmental Impact Report, and what opportunities the Selectboard can take for taking in new information or seeing if a comment would be submitted to the state.”
Between the Montague State Forest, the water supply area and the Montague Plains, half an acre of trees within wetlands will be cleared, while 855 feet of streambank tree removal will occur within the state forest and water supply area, according to Pollock’s memo. Additional clearing of trees along trails and along riverfronts will also take place in the Montague State Forest.
Town Administrator Walter Ramsey said that when the Final Environmental Impact Report is available at the end of this year, that’ll be the opportunity for the Selectboard, if so inclined, to “consider engaging in that process to provide comments, or ask clarifying questions, or make … Montague’s concerns known.”
Already, non-Montague residents have sent comments to the Selectboard regarding this project, according to Pollock’s memo. This includes a letter to Pollock and the Conservation Commission from Michael DeChiara of Shutesbury, representing the resident-led group Western Mass Towns for a Responsible Grid. A letter to Gov. Maura Healey from this group urges her to stop the project, which the letter argues is a profit-driven decision and not one that would secure grid reliability.
A petition from Western Mass Towns for a Responsible Grid to urge the state to stop Eversource’s project had reached more than 2,300 signatures on change.org as of Tuesday.
Jeff Weston of the Shutesbury Planning Board also sent Ramsey a comment regarding this project, with a letter directed to the Selectboard, Planning Board and Conservation Commission. The letter asks for their attention to this Eversource project and seeks support for a “complete and independent technical review of whether the proposed WT-11 expansion is necessary, and that it represents the least environmentally damaging practicable means of achieving Eversource’s reliability objectives.”
In addition to concerned residents, state officials are also urging caution, including the Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs, which shares “the concerns raised by the communities surrounding the WT-11 project,” and urges Eversource to “make every effort to minimize tree clearing and impacts to the environment as much as possible.”
A copy of the Draft Environmental Impact Report from August 2025 is available at tinyurl.com/3u4dwryt.
