At Brimfield State Forest, one-third of the trees on its 3,500 acres were blown down.
BRIMFIELD – State Department of Conservation and Recreation properties were hit hard by the June 1 tornadoes, most notably at Brimfield State Forest, where one-third of the trees on its 3,500 acres there were blown down, but the department’s first response included sending crews from throughout the state to clear city and town roads.
“We deployed saw teams to open up roads and help the residents get their electricity back by clearing areas by the telephone poles,” said John Dwinell, district manager for the Department of Conservation and Recreation.
“Then, on Sunday, we moved from being a saw crew team to going to assisting with some of our heavier equipment, which included chippers and bucket trucks, log trucks with a loader. We deployed at least five 5-ton dump trucks,” Dwinell said.
As this work was going on, foresters in the department, working with state Forest Fire Warden Dave Celino and local fire chiefs, started assessing how to deal with 1,200 acres of downed trees at Brimfield State Forest and lesser amounts at other Department of Conservation and Recreation properties in the path of the tornadoes.
One option under consideration is milling the downed trees for lumber, but first there will have to be a detailed assessment on whether there are enough downed trees in good enough shape for that and whether it would be cost-effective to do that.
Dwinell said a complicating factor is that many of the trees were twisted when they were blown over by the tornado.
“DCR’s objective is to use that resource to the best of everyone’s advantage. That will come from what the foresters tell us,” Dwinell said.
Brimfield State Forest has no camping areas but it has offered day-trip recreation in the form of hiking, fishing, hunting, horseback riding, mountain biking, cross-country skiing and other activities.
Because there are hanging limbs and other unsafe conditions on some trails, Brimfield State Forest is now closed to the public.
Dwinell said crews will be examining the trails and assessing safety conditions before reopening them to the public.
Three of seven buildings at the Brimfield State Forest headquarters on Dearth Hill were destroyed in the June 1 storm, so functions that were being performed have been removed to those buildings left standing.
The wooden buildings were constructed in the 1930s by Civilian Conservation Corps crews, and, based on directives from the state historical experts, workers have been sifting through the debris for items of historical significance.
“We want to make sure we do it correctly and document correctly and salvage what we can. There are remnants that show how they actually built those,” Dwinell said. “Because we have historic resources there, we cannot just demolish and remove. We want to make sure we do it correctly.”
Robinson State Park in the Feeding Hills section of Agawam has also been closed because of safety concerns related to the storm.
Dwinell said 19 acres were lost at Robinson and two electrical transmission lines there were damaged.
Some tree trunk removal work has started at Robinson and the crews are working with Natural Heritage representatives there in order to protect endangered species.
There were campers staying at Wells State Park in Sturbridge when the tornadoes passed nearby, but there were no injuries and no damage at that park, Supervisor Brian Jurkowski said.
“Some rode it out and some went into town. We were in constant contact with them,” Jurkowski said.
Speaking of the initial road clearing effort, Dwinell said at least 87 workers in crews from all over the state worked 12-hour shifts to clear fallen tree trunks and limbs so electric power, telephone and cable television crews could put up new poles and resume service in Westfield, Springfield, Wilbraham, Monson, Brimfield, Sturbridge and Southbridge.
“They did yeomen’s work,” Dwinell said. “For some it was more than an hour’s drive to get to the command post we set up in Chicopee.”
Maintaining state parks and forests is the primary focus of the Department of Conservation and Recreation, but Dwinell said part of the mission is also to deploy its people to work with the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency in situations like floods, blizzards or storms like June 1.
“We are out there for everybody,” he said. “Then, they were right back to preparing their parks for a busy week with 90-degrees days and trying to get the pools open on time.
"At Streeter Point Reservation in Sturbridge, we will have a couple of dive teams going through the beach area to make sure there is no debris,” he said.