The 14,000-acre Southeastern Massachusetts Bioreserve, the only such reserve in the state, opened last week in Fall River-Freetown. The reserve is the first step toward the state goal of protecting 200,000 acres of open space by 2010.
“[The reserve] will really help preserve the quality of life in a densely populated area,” said Executive Office of Environmental Affairs spokesman Doug Pizzi.
The bioreserve was dedicated by Secretary of Environmental Affairs Bob Durand last Tuesday. Two additional bioreserves are also being planned for other areas of the state.
The bioreserve will benefit the community by providing nearly 22 square miles of wooded area for passive recreation, Pizzi said. It will also protect 4,300 acres of watershed land in the city of Fall River, one of the largest tracts of native woodland in southeast Massachusetts, according to a press release.
Additionally, Pizzi said, the reserve will serve to protect the local water supply and preserve a “large functioning ecosystem.”
Composed mostly of forested areas described as similar to the rugged terrain of Maine as well as white cedar swamplands, the bioreserve is home to dozens of rare wildlife species, such as the box turtle and snowshoe hare and several varieties of salamander.
According to a press release, the bioreserve will protect several species and areas considered at risk by the state’s Natural Heritage and Endangered Species Program, like the white cedar swamps and the barrens buck moth. The bioreserve also encompasses 17 ponds and the Copicut Reservoir and houses 92 documented bird species and 291 documented plant species.
Pizzi also said an educational center has been proposed to open in the reserve to help children learn about the environment.
Duran and Fall River Mayor Edward Lambert presided over the dedication ceremony. Acting Governor Jane Swift was slated to speak at the event, but canceled due to a death in her family.
Under the current plan, the reserve area will be permanently protected, an important factor in preserving the ecosystems and ecological processes of the area. The land will be protected “in perpetuity,” Pizzi said. “It will basically never be developed.”
Three thousand eight hundred acres of the land in the center of the bioreserve was sold to the state by a local family, the Hawes.
“We really can’t say enough good things about [them],” Pizzi said. “The family had an affinity for the land and didn’t wish to see it developed.”
This is an account occasionally used by the Daily Free Press editors to post archived posts from previous iterations of the site or otherwise for special circumstance publications. See authorship info on the byline at the top of the page.
