Saved from bulldozers, but not from Mother Nature

Three feet of gravel atop the Stevens Glen bridge

Karen Ross and a whole lot of ice.

At BNRC we understand how to protect natural resources from man; less clear is how to protect natural resources from natural forces.

In a weather-less vacuum, we’re doing well with resource management: we’re building our trail network, we’ve successfully improved wildlife habitat, and we have provided hundreds of acres of arable land and agricultural forests for use in the local economy. But when the weather turns inclement (welcome to New England!) our best-laid plans can go awry.

Last December the Berkshires were hit by a storm that wrapped the forests in ice. Combined with wind and clinging snow, the ice cracked limbs, snapped trunks, and tipped up trees. All of our forests sustained at least some damage. At the Fletcher Farm in Lanesboro, the sugarbush suffered broken crowns and some spectacular tip-ups. Long stretches of trail at Basin Pond and Bob’s Way were rendered impassable by tangles of saplings and felled trees. A friend of ours, a globe-trotting outdoor adventurer, walked Bob’s Way the day after the storm. Amid the sound of snapping, cracking and falling wood, he’d never been more afraid for his life. To this mess, enter Jon Elliott.

Elliot, an Otis resident and fulltime teacher, spent his weekends carving through blow-downs, tip-ups, and bent-overs left in the wake of the ice storm. Using his own gear and fuel, Jon cut the trail wide enough to allow hikers through. When the snow melted he came back with more volunteers, including a crew from The Trustees of Reservations, to do the final clean-up.

At the Fletcher Farm, where a sugarmaker collects maple sap from several hundred taps, the ice storm dropped limbs and crowns on the tubing used to collect sap. Despite the labor required to repair the tubing and the considerable inconvenience of stumbling over broken crowns and branches to work the sugarbush, the stand escaped mortal injury.

Winter is tough, but summer can be just as damaging. In late July a very local, very heavy thunderstorm sat over Yokun Ridge and let go – by some reports as much as five inches of rain fell in an hour. All of BNRC’s Yokun Ridge trails suffered damage as water flowed down or ripped across trails, but the storm’s piece de resistance came at Stevens Glen. There, a small tributary to Lenox Brook turned into a wild torrent. In what must have been an awesome display, the stream buried a footbridge in three feet of gravel. Testament to the strength of a Peter Jensen-built bridge, the structure stayed in place and now holds an estimated 2 - 3 tons of rock, sediment and woody debris. Plans are not yet final, but it appears the bridge and gravel deposit may remain as we found them, a testament to the amazing and indifferent power of nature.

BNRC Home

Home