Airport's veggie tales have unique language

By Kerry Drohan, Globe Staff, 9/16/2001

BEDFORD - During a recent public hearing about Massport's plan for
vegetation management at Hanscom Field, resident Ron Green had a question:

''When did we start calling them `vertical intrusions?''' he asked. ''When I
was growing up around here, we always called them trees.''

They are also called ''vertical penetrations'' or ''vertical obstructions,''
and are among ''target vegetation'' around the airport. The ''Vegetation
Management Plan'' (VMP) is full of fun phrases like ''Fell/Frill-and-Inject
Treatment,'' ''snag density,'' and ''scrub-shrub wetlands.''

Welcome to Veggiespeak.

The new language is an offshoot of the vegetation plan and related
documents, which are being reviewed in ongoing public hearings. The suburbs
around Hanscom are becoming one huge VMA (Vegetation Management Area), not
to be confused with one huge VMZ (Vegetation Management Zone).

Veggiespeak is best used under stress, in verbal (or herbal) clashes between
Massport officials and opponents of commercial air service at Hanscom.

It's a jungle out there. So The Globe provides this free quiz for those
interested in testing their ability to talk the talk.

Question 1 (worth one point): Which of these vegetation-conversion options
is not listed in the VMP?

a) Cut and Chip

b) Clear and Grub

c) Clean and Jerk

Answer: ''C'' is correct. Note: In a burst of clarity, the VMP cites a means
of conversion that they are not going to try: ''Push Trees Over/Pull Trees
Down.''

Question 2 (four points): Translate this sentence:

''Under the WPA, this wetlands system includes bank, BVW, BLSF, LUWW, and
riverfront area.''

Answer: ''Under the Wetlands Protection Act, this wetlands system includes
bank, bordering vegetated wetland, bordering land subject to flooding, land
under a waterway, and riverfront area.'' Note: Award yourself one bonus
point if you know what WPA stood for in the Franklin D. Roosevelt
administration.

Question 3 (1 point): Which doesn't belong, and why?:

a) MEPA

b) YOP

c) SHPO

The answer is ''C.'' MEPA is Massachusetts Environmental Policy Act. YOP is
Yearly Operational Plan. SHPO (rhymes with throw) stands for State Historic
Preservation Officer, who speaks a different language altogether.

Question 4 (5 points): Write the meaning of these acronyms:

a) RSE

b) RSA

c) RSZ

d) SPCC

e) FYOO

Answers: Runway Safety End, Runway Safety Area, Runway Safety Zone. SPCC is
Spill Prevention Control and Countermeasure. FYOO is Fiscal Year 2000 - and
aren't you glad they explained that one?

Quiz scores: If you miss them all, that's normal. A score of 3 or 4 means
you probably live in the VMZ. A score of 5 or 6, you represent your town on
a subcommittee. A score of 7 or more, you should be writing state reports.

Last lesson: idiom. Fluent Veggiespeakers incorporate phrases into the
existing Hanscom lexicon to create nuanced conversation. For example,
Massport spokespeople never say ''the public.'' It's always ''the traveling
public.'' So try asking, ''What will the traveling public think of the VMP
when they land in an RSA?''

Airport opponents like to say ''incremental degradation,'' as in ''the
incremental degradation of more than 500 historic chicken sheds.'' So try
really mixing it up: ''Do you think the new VMP will result in the
incremental degradation of the traveling public?''

This story ran on page W1 of the Boston Globe on 9/16/2001.
© Copyright 2001 Globe Newspaper Company.
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