I can tell you (NEARA: are you listening), the worst threat to stone
structures is sloppy forestry practices and I cannot see why our community doesn't make
at least a minimal effort to complain about it and, maybe, get it fixed.
A couple days ago I posted a photo of a stone wall crushed from the tread of heavy equipment. I sent the photo to the New England Forestry Foundation and heard back as follows:
"I
can tell you our normal procedure is to avoid creating new openings in
stonewalls whenever possible by not crossing them or using existing
openings. Unfortunately, that is not always possible given the extensive
nature
of stonewalls throughout our region. "
[Peter gnashes his teeth] So guys: how about sending a few emails about this to various people? Not destroying stone walls as part of forest "stewardship" should be a requirement for a permit. A lot of people take those tax breaks, make some money, and could care less if they destroy everything to get to the trees. I think town historic and natural resource committees ought to be challenged about this. Towns need to protect their stone walls if the state refuses.
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3 comments :
A friend of mine in VT has been talking to forestry officials, alerting them to stone structures in the woods that they should avoid when cutting down trees. Apparently it is working in this one area (Stockbridge).
It time for some regulatory policy.
It certainly doesn't help when the walls are described as "linear refuse piles."
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