Welcome to the website of the Friends of the Middlesex Fells Reservation. Our mission is to protect and preserve the natural and historic resources of the 2500 acres of the Fells through public outreach and support.  Contact us at: friends@fells.org  781/662-2340.  It's easy to become a member. 

  Note: Calendars and Newsletters are available as easy to read Adobe® PDF files; if your computer needs the PDF Reader it is available free here

Visit www.FoundintheFells.com to help you identify the notable flowers and plants on your next Fells visit.

Eastern Fells    Mike Ryan photo

New Friends of Fells T-shirts now available!

 For details click here

Fells Lecture Series – Upcoming Events

Tuesday, February 9  7:00pm to 8:30pm
Volcanoes Old and New: In the Boston Basin and Hawaii
Ed Myskowski: Peabody Essex Museum

Tuesday, February 23 7:00pm to 8:30pm
A Huge Step Forward: How the Middlesex Fells was Created
Mike Ryan: Executive Director, Friends of the Middlesex Fells

Spring lectures will be posted soon!  All lectures take place at Breakheart Reservation.

With thanks to the staff of the Department of Conservation and Recreation for their help and support for the Fells Lecture Series!

GET INVOLVED!

Volunteering, trail maintenance, trail adoption; these are several of the simple and effective ways through which you can help preserve the rich heritage of the Middlesex Fells for yourself and future generations. Visit our submissions page to view photos and stories contributed by friends of the Fells. Current Volunteer Opportunities: we are looking for hike leaders, grant writers, special events assistants, and much much more.The Middlesex Fells are ours to enjoy and protect. Please look at our Get Involved page for more information!

   Virginia Wood          Photos Mike Ryan

Family hike at Bellevue Pond     

“What we wanted in the Fells was a bit of Nature in our midst that we might watch its workings...We wanted our tree covered rocks and cliffs that these might lift themselves up by friendly trunks and swing themselves down by branches...we wanted dark, crowded places, even jungles, that we might press through them and come out upon wild pictures which we had never dreamed were there.”

[Ellen Wright, 1906]

2060 ACRES, DON'T GET LOST!

Purchase a map for your next visit and support the efforts of the Friends of the Fells.
Maps may be purchased.

 

 

 

 

Comprehensive 1995 – 2007 Middlesex Fells Reservation Bird List

Observers: Dana & Inge Jewell, Friends of the Middlesex Fells and Marj Rines, Menotomy Bird Club here

Alert: Monday, February 8, Public Meeting
Fells trails assessment and planning process
 
The next phase for citizen efforts to protect the natural features of the Fells Reservation takes place at a Public Meeting called by the Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR) for Monday, February 8, 6:30 p.m. – 8:00 p.m., at the McGlynn School Auditorium, 3001 Mystic Valley Parkway, Medford, Mass.  Precise directions for this location can be found here

This public meeting is part of a (DCR) trails assessment and planning process for the entire Fells Reservation, launched in response to an effort earlier this year by the New England Mountain Bike Association (NEMBA) to convert Fells Reservation hiking trails to bike use.

Resource protection is critical –  high quality visitor experiences can only be derived from successful protection of the special ecological nature of the Fells Reservation.

Now, with the threat to turn the Fells into a bikers’ playground, the ability of the Reservation to remain a natural oasis for plant and animal species – and to provide quality visitor experiences – is very much at stake. The push by the New England Mountain Bike Association to build ever growing webs of bike trails in the Fells poses serious problems of habitat fragmentation, erosion, threats to wildlife and water quality, and increases in visitor conflicts, including risks to public safety.

In recent weeks many Fells supporters have sent letters to DCR to urge that the agency provide, in the words of one comment, ‘skilled management of the sensitive environment.”

If continued resource protection and ability to enjoy the natural features of the Fells is important to you please attend the February 8 Fells Public Meeting. 

Your input is needed! 

Fells trails assessment and planning process

An effort launched earlier this year by the New England Mountain Bike Association (NEMBA) to convert Fells Reservation hiking trails to bike use has led to the Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR) initiating a trails assessment and planning process for the entire Fells Reservation.

The Friends of the Fells approves of bike riding in the Fells, as long as it is in compliance with DCR rules and guidelines. However, for decades the Fells trail system has deteriorated, with miles of damage by unauthorized bike use on hiking trails being among the major causes. (For the complete Friends biking policy statement, click here).

According to biologists who have conducted a multi-year study of the Fells the reservation is at a “tipping point” with regards to protection of plant and animal life biodiversity.    Now the push by NEMBA to build ever growing webs of trails in the Fells poses serious problems of increased habitat fragmentation, increased erosion, and threats to wildlife, as well as increases in visitor conflicts, and added concern about public safety.

During the DCR trails assessment process please make your voice be heard if continued resource protection and ability to enjoy the natural features of the Fells is important to you:

 Send Fells trails comments to DCR at: paul.jahnige@state.ma.us 

 or write to: Middlesex Fells Trail Plan, 136 Damon Rd., Northampton, MA 01060 

 Please send the Friends of the Fells a copy of your comments, either by email friends@fells.org or surface mail: PO Box 478, Stoneham MA, 02180

The Friends will notify all members about this critical opportunity for public input, when the date and location is known.

DCR’s Goal: Minimize Ecological Impact: DCR states that the agency’s trail system goals include highlighting ecological, scenic and cultural features, and meeting these goals in a way that meets user expectations while minimizing ecological impacts. See http://www.mass.gov/dcr/news/publicmeetings/greenways.htm
  

NEMBA’s Goal: A Bikers Playground - With over 30 miles of carriage road trails and the 6.3 mile mountain bike loop around the western Fells, bike riders have ample opportunities in the Reservation, which balances the needs of bikers with those of other users. But NEMBA wants to turn the Fells into a bikers playground, including night riding, conversion of all hiking trails and even illegal trails into bike use trails with no concern for impacts on natural habitat, and much more; see http://www.gbnemba.org/component/content/article/17/118.html. This even includes a publicly stated desire by NEMBA to take over all trail planning, building, and maintenance in Fells.

‘Free-riders’ seek the thrill of riding over natural habitats.

NEMBA calls for all Fells hiking trails to become “shared use” which in reality means that hikers would increasingly be chased from the hiking trails by groups of fast riding bikers. The needs of one user group should not have precedence over the needs of others. The Fells must be managed in a way that preserves and protects the right of all members of the public to enjoy the beauty and serenity of the Fells.

NEMBA’s push for night riding is insensitive to the disturbance to Fells wildlife and inevitable habitat damage.  Many of the Fells wild animals are nocturnal or twilight feeders, and studies have shown that their disturbance is detrimental to their health and reproduction. 

The ability of citizens to visit the Fells for enjoyment of nature away from the busyness of urban life has been important for generations, but now the future of the Fells is at a crossroads.

On its web page DCR lists several aspects of its Trail System Planning Process which are critical for the Fells, including: 

To preserve Fells biodiversity closing off redundant fire roads and unauthorized hiking trails to restore and enlarge ecological habitats is critical.

Additional parking should be created by re-opening the Bear Hill parking lot.

In addition to these important steps, we encourage you to ask the DCR to add permanent Fells Rangers and coordinate enforcement of park regulations with State and local police enforcement agencies.

Your input is critical if the beauty of the Fells is to continue to be upheld and protected.  Send a message today to DCR at: Paul.jahnige@state.ma.us sharing your experiences, concerns, and ideas for how the Fells Reservation can be best appreciated and protected.

Thank you.

Alert: Fells protection lawsuit filed in Superior Court

On October 6, 2009, the Friends of the Fells, the City of Medford and more than ten citizens filed a Complaint in Superior Court challenging the decision issued in June by Environmental Secretary Ian Bowles that the Langwoods Commons project does not require further environmental [MEPA] review.

The Complaint charges that the environmental Secretary and the Commissioner of the Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR) are in violation of applicable environmental protection statutes and regulations, and are unlawfully depriving the public from meaningful opportunities for review of the potential environmental impacts from the development project.
 
On September 18, 2009 the Commissioner of DCR signed an agreement with the Gutierrez development company and Simpson Housing that authorizes immediate construction of the Langwood Commons housing and office project.

Under the agreement, the Langwood Commons developers would be allowed to transfer to DCR the duty to mitigate their traffic impacts, and DCR waives its responsibility to require the developers to seek permits for changes to DCR's historic parkways.  

The Superior Court Complaint charges that environmental secretary Ian Bowles ignored and violated the MEPA regulations by allowing DCR and the developers to separate the development project from its traffic generated roadway impacts, without any guarantee that environmental harm from thousands of additional daily traffic vehicles from the project would ever be properly evaluated and mitigated.

The ruling in June that paved the way for the September 18 agreement between the developer and DCR reversed nine years of state environmental [MEPA] decisions by successive environmental secretaries, and rulings from DCR that had rejected the huge project because its traffic impacts would threaten public safety and require changes to ihe Fells parkways that would impair their scenic and historic integrity.

Thus the Superior Court complaint further charges that the Secretary and DCR have ignored their duties and obligations to preserve and protect the Middlesex Fells historic parkways and to provide meaningful opportunities for public environmental review of potential harm to those parkways.
 
The Friends of the Fells appreciates widespread community support for the continuation of the unprecedented campaign to save the Fells Reservation historic urban parkland now and for future generations.

The wider implications of the suit point to concern for the future of environmental review in Massachusetts.  Allowing a developer to voluntarily opt out of the state environmental review process simply by declaring that the proposed development is not subject to state permits would set a precedent that will have wide-ranging impact, reducing the state’s authority to protect DCR park land and parkways.  The citizens suit intends to require the Commonwealth to assert its proper oversight role and authority, and not allow developers to decide when projects are, and are not, subject to state environmental review.    

Friends of Fells board chairman David Hoff commented regarding the legal challenge, “It is not acceptable for the developers to evade proper environmental oversight by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, nor for the state to allow evasion of the review process. If the developers would present a project plan that is similar in traffic impact to the previous maximum use of the site with a hospital, and which respects the historic nature of the parkways and the nature of the Fells Reservation, citizens would be supportive of such a plan."