Tree removal is planned at Hanscom

By Davis Bushnell, Globe Correspondent, 12/30/2001

BEDFORD - Cutting down trees to make way for development can be gnarly enough, town officials concede. But when it involves Hanscom Field and the conservation commissions of four towns, it's bound to generate comment.

The Massachusetts Port Authority, owner-operator of Hanscom, is making revisions to environmental plans for the airport, with hearings to be scheduled in February or March by officials in Bedford, Concord, Lexington, and Lincoln.

Massport rolled out similar plans in the late 1990s for clearing underbrush and trees surrounding the airfield and setting environmental limits for flights. But the new proposals are more controversial because they are more extensive, according to local officials like Sheldon Moll, a Bedford selectman and chairman of the Hanscom Field Advisory Commission.

''There is much more public interest in what's being proposed, despite the complexities of the proposals, because of the Hanscom issues in general,'' Moll said.

Most of those issues center on Shuttle America, the regional carrier that is expected to resume service between Hanscom and New York's LaGuardia Airport on Jan. 15. Corporate and charter jet service is also expected to increase.

Activist organizations such as Save Our Heritage, a historic preservation group based in Concord, contend that commercial and corporate aviation activities threaten historic landmarks in the area, notably Minute Man National Park and Walden Pond. Meanwhile, Massport will issue notices of intent for the plan, known as vegetation management, in late January or early February, with public hearings scheduled thereafter by the four conservation commissions, said Richard Walsh, a spokesman for the authority.

''We hope to be able to begin taking some trees down [near the Hanscom runways] next summer and complete the work the following winter,'' he said. A consulting firm, Dufresne-Henry Inc. of Portland, Maine, helped Massport prepare the voluminous document.

Bedford conservation administrator Elizabeth Bagdonas said she doubts that hearings will be held until late February or early March.

''This is the largest project that's ever been proposed,'' and that calls for scrutiny of the five-year plan, she said.

Moreover, Bagdonas said, nothing is yet on the agenda concerning two of Bedford's prime parcels, the 118-acre Hartwell Town Forest and the 37-acre Jordan Conservation Area, portions of which, she said, are cited in the plan as having ''existing obstructions,'' or vegetation needing to be cut back from the airfield.

Massport, Walsh said, is entering into a final agreement with the Hanscom Area Towns Committee on an $85,000 grant. The money would enable the committee to hire a technical consultant to review the Hanscom environmental plan, called the Environmental Status and Planning Report. The committee, comprising selectmen from Bedford, Concord, Lexington, and Lincoln, is expected to spend most of next year going over the report and public comments.

Lisa Baci, a 14-year member of the Lexington Conservation Commission and an environmental consultant for 20 years, has agreed to assume the consultant's duties. However, Baci, who has a master's degree in city planning from Harvard, declined to say anything about her new job until the agreement goes into effect.

This story ran on page W3 of the Boston Globe on 12/30/2001.
© Copyright 2001 Globe Newspaper Company.
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