The Bedford Minuteman
Thursday, June 20, 2002

Resident sees a victory for Massport

To the editor:

Next time you see the abbreviation VMP don’t think "vegetation management plan," think "victory for Massport." Here’s why:

Massport is proposing to cut thousands and thousands of trees at the end of its shorter runway at Hanscom Field. It says this will improve the safety of this runway, and indeed, it is correct: It will make the runway safer for larger planes — larger planes, lower-flying planes, noisier planes, more polluting planes, and just plain more planes. How do we know this? Because the FAA will not let planes land on an unsafe runway; the runway is safe right now, just as it is, for smaller planes flying at higher altitudes over our communities, the Minute Man National Historical Park, and many national historical treasures.

Massport is also planning to transform the ecology of the four towns of Lexington, Bedford, Concord and Lincoln. It will change some woodlands into reconstructed fields, creating what it refers to as "new forms of habitat." It is doing this under the auspices of a limited, totally insufficient, Massport-controlled environmental review. As usual, citizens are effectively being shut out by the process.

What is happening here is part of a national strategy to develop small airports, hundred of which exist in fully developed communities like our own, into commercial passenger facilities. The so-called "safety improvement plan" reflects a newly popular tactic in the air transportation industry’s national strategy to increase air traffic, and Hanscom is one of the 100 smaller airports that are targeted for expansion. Despite recent dips in air traffic, the industry’s plans for future expansion continue in force. Not only will Massport continue to expand scheduled commercial traffic at Hanscom as the economy allows, it is targeting expansion of Hanscom as a hub for time-sharing private jets, the trendy new form of commercial traffic.

Meanwhile, the development of (varied) transportation plans and systems is languishing as the federal government waffles on funding the national rail system that Americans want and need. Huge amounts are spent on planes and highways, while a pittance goes to trains.

What should we do now? The Conservation Committees of the four towns should reject Massport’s limited review because this is not a limited project. And if the Conservation Committees should approve the VMP, citizens should appeal their decisions. In the meantime, citizens should attend the meetings of their commissions to let their voices be heard.

Jim Hutchinson
Lincoln

(Hutchinson is a board member of Safeguarding the Historic Hanscom Area’s Irreplaceable Resources (ShhAir)

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