‘Carnage’ by design? Messy cut part of Minute Man reforesting plan

Mulching machines have played a bittersweet symphony in recent months after invasive vines choked the ash trees along Monument Street. 

The bittersweet vine is a common enemy in Acton forests. Crews felled dead trees as part of a larger plan to restore forests within Minute Man National Historical Park and left a tangle of tree stumps and logs behind.

Concordian Charlie Moore called it “carnage.” During a recent town Conservation and Climate Coffee, resident Lisa Resnick said the trees looked “hacked.” 

The haphazard scene, officials say, is by design to remove the risk of falling debris while preserving some of the habitat. 

“Nature isn’t always beautiful,” said Minute Man National Historical Park Resource Manager Margie Brown, “but it will recover.”

Tree removal

Minute Man is one of dozens of parks participating in the National Park Service’s Resilient Forests Initiative. 

Between the forests project and two other habitat efforts, crews are working on 15 tracts throughout the park, including the Monument Street parcel and a plot near Meriam’s Corner, Minute Man Superintendent Simone Monteleone told The Acton Bridge.

Monument Street work near the Old Manse, the Reformatory Branch Trail, and North Bridge will continue for the next two years.

Bittersweet vines kill trees by smothering or uprooting them. Roughly 40 ash trees were dead or dying on the Monument Street land as of this winter due to bittersweet and other issues, per NPS estimates. 

The work ahead involves clearing invasives and planting new trees. Officials said they wanted to remove the dead trees to protect workers during that process.

The NRC let work proceed with a late-January vote, and a contractor soon churned through the Monument Street property.

Workers left the downed trees where they landed and kept some partially standing after lopping off their tops to create a “wildlife snag.”

Pileated woodpeckers and nuthatches are among the animals that currently call that area home, Monteleone told The Bridge.

Crews also worked while the ground was still frozen to avoid further environmental damage.

It was “the best thing they could have done,” town Assistant Natural Resources Director Rose Kaforski told The Bridge. 

A ‘pain in the ash’

Workers will conduct targeted herbicide treatments to manage invasives. Crews will then seed new trees and shrubs, NPS biologist Rachel Vincent told the NRC this year. 

Workers will also be busy around Meriam’s Corner in the months ahead, Brown said. 

All told, Monteleone said the Resilient Forests Initiative and other projects are rehabilitating roughly 60 acres across Minute Man. 

Acton is fighting everything from invasive spotted lanternflies to water chestnuts. The bittersweet problem is widespread, town Land Manager Will Holden told The Bridge.

It’s “a real pain in the ash,” Concordian Peter Alden quipped to conservation coffee guests.

“Over a couple years, we’ll start to see improvement,” Kaforski from the Natural Resources Division told The Bridge.

As unseasonable snow flurries fell earlier this month, spring flowers bloomed along Monument Street beside a freshly sawed stump.