DCR Releases Comprehensive Plan for Blue Hills Planning Unit

For nearly a year and a half, officials from the Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR) along with help from the community have been developing a Resource Management Plan (RMP) for the Blue Hills Planning Unit, which includes the Reservation as well as Canton's and Braintree's Town Brook Flood Control Site.

On Tuesday evening the DCR unveiled a draft of the plan, which includes management goals, 186 recommendations and a wealth of information about the Blue Hills' resources.

Peter Church, the regional director of the South Region, called the plan a cookbook with best practices and proposals for the future.

Paul Cavanagh, the Resource Management Planner, explained that the document also includes a compilation of information about the Blue Hills, including a 100-page appendix.

"This is certainly the most accurate information we have on the Blue Hills Reservation," said Cavanagh, who added he and his team pored over 100 years worth of deeds and other documents to gather the information.

Cavanagh explained that the planning unit was divided into 15 sections for the plan. Most of these sections were divided by their existing names like Great Blue Hill, and so on. The 6,116-acre area is home to 21 natural communities and 18 state-listed endangered species.

The area is not just natural diverse and significant, but also holds cultural value.

"We are rich in cultural resources," Cavanagh said. "We have 30 buildings on the National Register of Historic Places."

The reservation has a total of 188 buildings or structures, 11.9 miles of paved roads and 116 miles of official trails.

The plan was developed as a way to balance recreational needs with the natural resources of the area. The DCR used five goals in the plan:

• Make recreation sustainable and appropriate for the Blue Hills environment.
• Protect those natural resources most at risk from misuse, overuse, obsolete practices pr avoidable environmental change.
• Preserve the distinct scenic and historic qualities of the reservation.
• Promote recreation and other activities that increase appreciation of the natural and cultural environments and their protection.
• Repel or mitigate external pressures that threaten the character and qualities of the Blue Hills.

The plan also lays out 186 recommendations. Cavanagh ranked these suggestions by priority, high, medium or low. He also showed the priority levels based on the availability of funding.

According the plan, there are 11 high priority recommendations that have funding available. There are 25 high priority items that should be funded within five years, and 34 projects that are high priority, which will not be funded in the near future.

Under medium priority recommendations, 60 projects will not have funding in the near future, while seven have immediate funding and 10 will receive money within five years.

On the low priority side, 34 projects are unfunded and five should be funded in the near future.

"We're working with limited resources and this is an example of doing the best we can," Cavanagh said of the breakdown.

The entire RMP is now available online at www.mass.gov/dcr/stewardship/rmp/rmp-bluehills.htm.

Hard copies will be available at Blue Hills District Office, 725 Hillside Street, Milton and eventually at the and local libraries.

The DCR is now allowing for just over 60 days for the public to comment on the plan. Comments can be emailed to rmp.comments@state.ma.us with "Blue Hills RMP" as the subject. Comments can also be mailed to:

Paul Cavanagh
Blue Hills RMP
Department of Conservation and Recreation
Southeast Region Headquarters
P.O. Box 66
South Carver, MA 02366

The public comment period will close on February 7, 2011.

"The reason we do this public process is because we may not have thought of everything," said Samantha Overton, deputy directory of Urban Parks and Recreation.