A recently disturbed area at the Country Club of Pittsfield shows the impact of the tree and shrub removal on the golf course. The city Conservation Commission has ordered the club to submit a restoration plan by June 20.
The removal of trees and shrubs from areas of the Country Club of Pittsfield has prompted an enforcement order by the city’s Conservation Commission, which has jurisdiction over wetlands areas.
Pittsfield Reporter
A recently disturbed area at the Country Club of Pittsfield shows the impact of the tree and shrub removal on the golf course. The city Conservation Commission has ordered the club to submit a restoration plan by June 20.
PITTSFIELD — The Country Club of Pittsfield is facing a potential fine and legal action for improperly removing trees and shrubs in and around wetlands on the golf course.
During a meeting of the city’s Conservation Commission last week, conservation agent Rob Van Der Kar said that mature trees, wetland shrubs and herbs — called hydrophytic or water loving plants — were removed from the areas around the second, seventh, eighth, 10th, 11th and 16th holes of the golf course, as well at the southeast corner of the property.
“The golf course superintendent … cleared woody vegetation” in areas that are under the commission’s protection, he told members during the May 9 meeting.
Presenting images of freshly disturbed soil, he told the commission that the “impacts are pretty substantial” over a stretch of land he said was much larger than 1,000 square feet.
The commission voted to ratify an enforcement order, written by Van Der Kar, that requires the club to submit a restoration plan before June 20 that “at minimum, shall provide replacement plantings commensurate to the impact.”
Under the state’s Wetlands Protection Act, any work done within 100 feet of a wetland — the area called the buffer zone — is overseen by the local Conservation Commission to ensure that the work doesn’t damage or alter the wetland. The plants that were removed from the course were in the buffer zone and wetland resource areas.
Commission members used phrases like “boggles the mind” to express their frustration with the club.
Commissioner Jonathan Lothrop said it was “disappointing” that the superintendent took such actions. “This is somebody who should know better, frankly, and that’s a huge worry for me.”
The removal of trees and shrubs from areas of the Country Club of Pittsfield has prompted an enforcement order by the city’s Conservation Commission, which has jurisdiction over wetlands areas.
Commission Chair Jim Conant, who himself had a 26-year career as the superintendent of the course until late last year, recused himself from the proceedings. His colleagues remarked that they were sure Conant had “instructed” his successor “quite well” on state law.
Members noted, with some exasperation, that the commission recently approved work on a culvert in the same area of the course. In that instance the club went through the proper process and came before the commission to make sure that work abided by state law.
Commissioner Stephanie Storie said she was “trying to wrap my head around what their goal was” and added that the club was “aware that they shouldn’t have been doing what they were doing.”
The club has hired White Engineering to survey the impacted areas and help create a restoration plan.
Brent White, the principal and civil engineer for the company, told the commission that “it is well understood by the professional staff as well as the board of directors of the club” that what happened was not OK.
White said that his firm is working to identify — as best it can — the species of trees and plants removed and replant the area. He said the club plans to present the restoration plan for those plantings to the commission ahead of its meeting on May 30.
If the club fails to provide that plan to the commission by June 20, it could face “a fine of not more than twenty-five thousand dollars.”
White also told the commission that the firm has offered to review with the club’s professional staff any future work planned on the course and how that work is covered under the Wetlands Protection Act “to frankly avoid having to stand before you like I am tonight.”
Meg Britton-Mehlisch can be reached at mbritton@berkshireeagle.com or 413-496-6149.
Pittsfield Reporter
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