Title: The Silver Maple Forest Belmont Uplands
1The Silver Maple Forest (Belmont Uplands) The
Impact of Development
- Charles J. Katuska, MFS,PWS
- Consulting Ecologist
- The aesthetic, wildlife, watershed protection,
and wood production values of these (suburban)
woods will increase in every future decade -
Lloyd Irland
2What Is It ?
- The Belmont Silver Maple forest is a mixed
association of various wetland and upland plant
communities on about 15 acres. - Silver maple (Acer saccharinum) dominates the
central core of the site. - Unusual, relict forest community in this context
3The Belmont Silver Maple Forest
ARLINGTON
Route 2
Little Pond
Acer saccharinum
BELMONT
CAMBRIDGE
Little River
4Silver Maple (Acer saccharinum)
- A native floodplain tree species with specific
autecological values - - Provides an important wildlife food resource
(newly broken buds) at a critical time of the
late winter - High value food source for beaver, second
only to alders - High value for cavity-nesting wildlife
- Shallow fibrous root system well adapted to
reducing erosion and stabilizing soils
5This well-grown, diverse, and regionally uncommon
forest stand exists in a unique context
6Locally Unique Forest Context (USGS GAP Analysis
for Biodiversity)
Menotomy Rocks Park
ARLINGTON
Spy Pond
BELMONT UPLANDS
LITTLE POND
Cambridgepark
City Infirmary
BELMONT
CAMBRIDGE
Fresh Pond
7The Belmont Silver Maple Forest
- Forested land always provides value to the urban
environment - Maintains and improves
air quality - Maintains and improves water quality
- Reduces volumes of stormwater runoff
- Provides important wildlife habitat
- Recreation
- Aesthetics
- Educational Value
8The Belmont Silver Maple Forest
- Provides additional site-specific functions and
values here - - Serves as an important core habitat
adjacent to Little Pond and the Alewife
Reservation - Size and Shape
- Land Cover Type
- Relative Seclusion in Context
- Provides a significant reserve within a
network of other habitat patches for the
continued preservation of area-sensitive species
9Now, the Belmont Silver maple Forest is the site
of a substantial development proposal -
10How would the Development (commercial or
residential) of the Silver Maple Stand affect
Forest values ?
- Add pollutants and additional stormwater volume
to an already stressed receiving water system - Directly eliminate core wildlife habitat and
reduce the quality of remaining habitats - Reduce air quality in the immediate area and
contribute to local/regional air quality problems - Eliminate the opportunity for recreation in the
development area itself and reduce the quality of
the recreation experience in undeveloped portions
of he site - Eliminate the locally unique and regionally
significant floodplain forest aesthetic experience
11Final Considerations
- The environmental values of the Belmont Silver
Maple Stand are not solely related to wildlife
habitat or the protection of its surrounding
wetlands. - The development of the Belmont Silver Maple Stand
will substantially eliminate its forest values
and will degrade the forest forested wetland
values of the remaining land and the adjacent
public open space. - Potentially significant forest values do not flow
to the community under current private ownership.