Massport delays plan to clear trees near Hanscom

By Kerry Drohan, Globe Staff, 6/24/2001

BEDFORD - Massport last week postponed its plan to go before the
Massachusetts Aeronautics Commission next month to request that it be named
its agent for the purpose of clearing trees from 44 acres of the 120-acre
Hartwell Town Forest.

The delay was based on a request from Bedford, according to Massport
spokesman Richard Walsh.

''After talking with Bedford's town manager, he felt we should provide the
town counsel with more time to review the state statutes,'' Walsh said.
''Massport seeing the MAC board in June would not be adequate time, so we
called MAC and asked that we not be on the July agenda.''

Walsh said Massport is ''tentatively'' on MAC's August agenda.

The decision did nothing to mollify activists, who vowed to increase
protests of the tree-clearing and the expansion of commercial service at
Hanscom.

''The potential destruction of the Bedford town forest to provide airspace
for bigger jets is shaking up people who were on the fence before,'' said
Lori Eggert, a Bedford resident and member of the activist group ShhAIR.
''If you talk to them, they will tell you that the polite and restrained
protests used in the past accomplish little to nothing. There is a growing
sentiment that more vigorous, alternative actions have to be taken.''

Eggert said activists had told her of instances where they believe civil
disobedience helped, as in the forced adjournment of the May 15 Hanscom
Field Advisory Commission meeting in Bedford, when protesters shouted down
airline representatives proposing to operate at Hanscom.

''Actions like rallies and demonstrations and shouting at airline officials
with bullhorns work, because they get the message out that Hanscom-area
towns are more than discontented,'' Eggert said. ''They are furious.''

Massport had sent the town evidence on June 13 that it claims gives the
agency the right to enter Bedford's land and remove trees. Massport cited a
section of the Special Acts of 1967 that specifically addresses vegetation
management at Hanscom.

Massport says the cutting is necessary to comply with Federal Aeronautics
Administration flight-path regulations.

Selectman Sheldon Moll told residents to remain patient.

''Watching the selectmen on this issue will be like watching trees grow,''
Moll said. ''We are going to review the legal issues, and this is not a
matter that is going to come to fruition very soon.

''There are many aspects of the Special Acts that may or may not hold
water,'' Moll said. ''That's not a legal opinion, but this will be a
controversy. Massport has one issue to deal with first, and that is
vegetation management on their own land. They have to put plans forward to
the conservation commissions of all four towns. That could take six months
or more.''

Massport wants to deal with vegetation at the airport's other three runway
ends this winter, according to Walsh.

At Tuesday night's HFAC meeting in Lincoln, members passed a unanimous
motion requesting that Massport delay its formal notice of intent to perform
the work until at least Aug. 15, so that the communities would not have to
hold public hearings in the summer. HFAC also requested that airlines
operating at Hanscom be limited to 48 total daily flights until an
environmental review is done.

The Bedford issue is galvanizing support for the town from the other three
towns that ring the airport - Lincoln, Lexington, and Concord - and from
state legislators.

''The town has a right to be incensed,'' said state Senator Susan Fargo, a
Lincoln Democrat. ''They are talking about thousands of trees in the town
forest on conservation land, and to me conservation land is sacred. It takes
a two-thirds vote of the Legislature to take land out of conservation use,
and I don't think Massport can come in and do that.''

Political fervor has increased in Bedford since January, when voters
overwhelmingly overrode a decision by selectmen not to join a pending court
appeal that claims the FAA erred when it allowed Shuttle America to fly to
New York's LaGuardia Airport.

The issue inspired some residents to seek elective office, like Bob Fagan, a
ShhAIR member who was elected to the Bedford Planning Board in March.

While stressing the need to pursue the legal options first, Fagan said,
''There was a large exchange of e-mails after the May 15 meeting, and it
amounted to this: The shaping of public policy by elected or appointed
officials, or by citizens not holding public office, needs to include a mix
of restraint, forceful activism, tolerance and patience, and
wheel-squeaking; respectful listening, but occasional grandstanding and even
civil disobedience.

''Going to a public meeting is in many respects like the Boston Tea Party,''
Fagan said. ''It won't come down to militant disobedience, but it's the same
outrage. The communities most affected by Massport do not have an adequate
voice in the process.

''I hope the legal bulwark we think we have will hold,'' he said. ''But if
it comes down to Massport having a legal right, I would be surprised if some
people didn't lie down in front of the bulldozers.''

Or, referring to the environmental activist who spent two years living in a
200-foot tree to protest logging in California:

''If push comes to shove, we can call up Julia Butterfly Hill and see what
her rates are for tree-sitting,'' Fagan said.


This story ran on page 1 of the Boston Globe's NorthWest Weekly section on
6/24/2001.
© Copyright 2001 Globe Newspaper Company.

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