Near Buffam Falls and Amethyst Brook, Eversource proposes to cut the crosshatched (pink and white) areas shown at right.

Along the project’s 29.3 miles, there must be acres and acres that don’t need to be cut. One such area serves as an illustration: the convergence of Amethyst and Buffam Brooks in Pelham. It’s an area of particular concern for several reasons:

• It’s a beautiful spot that generations have cherished.

• It’s sensitive riverfront habitat.

• It’s a deep gorge with cliffs that were the site of a rockslide in the 1950s, causing partial collapse of North Valley Rd. and downstream flooding in areas that have residences, now including affordable housing.

Eversource claims to be acknowledging the sensitivity of this area by eliminating 0.65 of an acre they previously would have cut along the banks (because they now realize that’d be entirely unnecessary). But:

• They’re still proposing to clear-cut the steep slopes from North Valley Rd. down to the brook. They claim that they’ll use mats and leave roots to control the risk of erosion or another rockslide, but that doesn’t sound as stabilizing as the vegetation they’d remove.  

• They’re still proposing to clear-cut trees at the bottom of the gorge, all the way to very edge of the water. The elevation at brookside is 360’. The bases — not tops — of the towers on each side are at 500’ and 530’. Trees would not get tall enough to reach the wires.

Eversource acknowledges that there’s been a longstanding practice of operating with a light touch, simply topping the occasional tree that might pose any risk. But Eversource says that now, “however..., Eversource will implement their standard vegetation management practices in this area, including tree removal." Clear-cutting this area would be a travesty, and a completely unnecessary one: the trees would have to fall up to reach the wires, and the cliffs and wide brooks impede access more than trees ever could.

Eversource offers repeated assurance that "No TRRP [i.e., tree clearing, etc.] activities are planned within the Buffam Falls Conservation Area." That's technically true. But whether intentionally or unintentionally, it’s completely misleading. As shown at right, the Buffam Falls Conservation area and the Alschuler Conservation Restriction (in green) are interrupted by a gap that is Eversource’s ROW (pink star). It’s on this gap that the two brooks converge. The Buffam Falls tumble into a wading pool and then down to here, where there's a shady swimming hole. It’s the gem of this area to anyone familiar with it, despite technically falling between the two conservation areas. Hiking trails exist that are not shown on Eversource’s map [N.B.: these need to be added!], and that appear interrupted above even though they are in fact continuous, spanning both conservation areas.

• Eversource’s proposed clear-cutting is, of course, on their ROW. So yes, as they repeat so many times, it’s not technically in the Buffam Falls Conservation Area, but it’s very much at the heart of these treasured woods.

As much as this one area deserves special focus, it’s also just a case-in-point illustrating the extreme insensitivity of what must be similar disregard in other places along the 29.3 mile corridor targeted in this project.