A last stand in the treetops

Tree-sitting protesters hang on as loggers cut down forest around them

By Peter DeMarco, Globe Correspondent, 9/16/2003

A pair of protesters who have lived atop trees on Wachusett Mountain for six weeks watched helplessly yesterday as loggers began cutting down nearly 2,000 northern red oaks around them to make way for two court-approved ski trails that they have been fighting.

By the end of today, Wachusett Mountain Ski Area officials expect crews to have chopped down nearly 8 acres of trees, leaving only the six oaks inhabited by the Earth First! protesters. Yesterday, loggers cut trees within 40 feet of the protesters, the protesters said.

Though workers made no effort to remove the tree sitters yesterday, the tree clearing is exactly what the protesters had hoped to prevent through what is believed to be the first major tree-sitting protest in New England history.

"I'm feeling sad that money has triumphed over what is right in this case," said one tree sitter, who gave her name as Dandi Lyon, in a cellphone interview while cutting crews worked their way up the mountain yesterday. "A lot of lives are being lost right now in this forest."

Wachusett Mountain Associates, operators of the Princeton ski area, first proposed the new trails a decade ago, but ran into stiff opposition in 1995 after a local environmentalist discovered a rare, old-growth forest on the proposed site atop Mount Wachusett with trees that were 300 to 400 years old.

Members of the Crowley family, who have leased the 450 acre ski area from the state for the past 20 years, said they have met every state environmental regulation pertaining to the project and taken extra steps to protect the old-growth trees.

"I think that the [environmentalists are] really picking on the wrong ski area," said David Crowley, general manager.

His brother Jeffrey, another co-owner, pointed out that many of the trees they are cutting are saplings. Ultimately, the Crowleys hope to leave only the trees occupied by the sitters, so that they can prepare the long-awaited ski slope for the upcoming season.

David Crowley confirmed that a Wachusett employee climbed one of the trees yesterday morning and cut down some protesters' signs, as well as food bags hanging from one of the two, platforms they have been living about 80 feet above the forest floor.

"We view this as a poster child for the wanton and woeful abuse of our public lands," lamented James McCaffrey, director of the Massachusetts Sierra Club which opposes the ski area expansion.

Though there are no state laws protecting old trees, Wachusett's operators several years ago offered to scale back the size of the two proposed, 1,500-foot ski trails so that they would not touch the old-growth forest. The ski operators also promised to create a 600-foot buffer zone between the new ski trails and the old-growth woods.

Environmentalists from the Sierra Club and the local grass-roots group Watchdogs for an Environmentally Safe Town said the old-growth forests needed a far greater buffer zone to survive. They also strongly opposed the idea that a private company had the right to chop down trees on publicly owned Wachusett Mountain State Reservation.

After numerous lower court decisions both for and against the environmentalists, the state Supreme Judicial Court rejected their final appeal earlier this month.

Ski operators have said they would not forcibly remove the protesters. Yesterday, however, David Crowley said he feared for the protesters' safety should Hurricane Isabel strike on Friday, bringing with it wind gusts that could exceed 45 miles per hour, according to the National Weather Service.

The tree sitters said cutting crews were felling trees within 40 feet of their perches, ignoring their pleas to refrain from cutting. The protesters say that if one of the trees connected to their ropes is felled, or the ropes are yanked down by a falling tree, they could be seriously hurt. "I'm scared for our safety, as well as the safety of everything in the forest," said Lyon.

The ski operators, as allowed by their lease with the state, have closed off trails to the cutting area, preventing other protestors from witnessing the cuttings or resupplying the tree sitters. They have hired off-duty State Police troopers to guard the area.

David Crowley said his family hopes to open the trails by the start of the ski season in late November, regardless of whether the protesters remain aloft.

Under an agreement with the state Department of Conservation and Recreation, they must stop all ski slope preparation by Sept. 30.