The U.S. Army plans to construct a new, 65-acre firing range on the Fort Devens South Post. Work on the site is expected to begin next spring, with completion scheduled for midsummer 2022.
The project would impact wetlands under the jurisdiction of the Lancaster Conservation Commission, which held a hearing on the proposed range Oct. 13. Although the new range would be close to Harvard’s border, none of the area seems to be within Harvard’s jurisdiction, according to conservation agent Liz Allard.
Overall, the South Post Reserve Forces Training Area covers about 4,700 acres and includes several firing ranges for different types of weaponry. According to the Army’s notice of intent, the new range would be about a mile south of the post’s main entrance and about 3,000 feet west of its border with the Oxbow National Wildlife Refuge.
Michael Penney of the consulting firm GeoInsight presented the Army’s plan to the Lancaster Conservation Commission. He said the new range would mostly overlie an existing range. But construction would still involve clearing about 18 acres of woodland that has grown up on the range, as well as moving about 30,000 cubic yards of soil. Penney acknowledged at the outset of his presentation that he knew nothing about the weaponry to be used on the new range or about its noise impact.
The site work for the range is expected to impact five Lancaster wetlands—two areas that border streams, a wet meadow, the southern edge of Slate Rock Pond, and a vernal pool. Photographs in the GeoInsight report show a beaver lodge on one of the sites.
The Nashua River Watershed Association wrote to the Lancaster commission, saying the proposed range “raises serious environmental protection concerns” because of its impact on threatened or endangered species of plants and wildlife. Massachusetts lists the whole area as priority habitat.
The best-known of the threatened species in the area is the Blanding’s turtle. Cara Sanford, former chair of Lancaster’s Open Space and Recreation Committee, said in the hearing that the project would harm the rare turtles’ habitat.
“To the turtle, this is one wetland complex,” Sanford said, not five separate areas. Blanding’s turtles live 75 years or longer and do not reproduce until they are about 20 years old, she said. They also travel long distances, moving constantly among the wetlands in their range. The proposed regrading and road construction, Sanford asserted, would make the whole area “useless to turtles.”
The Lancaster Conservation Commission reached no decision on the project at last week’s meeting and continued the hearing until Oct. 27 or possibly Nov. 11.
Lancaster’s conservation agent, David Koonce, said in a phone conversation that he expects the commission to seek a peer review by a consultant. The commission will choose the consultant, he explained, but the applicant (that is, the Army) pays for the review. Koonce said the commission is concerned with two issues: the project’s impact on wildlife, and the level of contamination of the site. He said, “One of the primary concerns is ‘What is out there?’”
