Richardson Green

ALERT: The Lynnfield Board of Selectmen are holding a critical meeting on Monday, January 4th at 6pm. The meeting is to hear from the public and decide if the Town should exercise its right to permanently protect this parcel. Massachusetts state law gives Lynnfield the right to save this forested parcel from turning into a subdivision. So far, nearly 500 residents have weighed in, with 80% strongly in favor of conserving this critical piece of forest. The Town's Planning Board and Conservation Commission also unanimously support preservation, and have been working to educate the public about this opportunity. This is a critical meeting for the Selectmen to decide whether the town should exercise its right under state law, or waive the right and lose this forested land to development. 

Please join on Monday and make your voices heard!

When: Monday, January 4th, 6pm

Where: Zoom  https://zoom.us/j/9622573815 

Who: All Residents of the Town of Lynnfield

Why: To protect our forests, our drinking water supply, and wildlife habitat in the headwaters of the Ipswich River.

Changes in land cover can cause lasting changes on the Earth system. Maps are a great way to visualize and better understand these changes. This presentation shows four factors that the potential development of Richardson Green could influence. Throughout the presentation, there are links to websites that describe these factors in further detail.

The urban heat island effect occurs in areas that are more paved and have more concrete. Incoming solar radiation is absorbed rather than reflected creating a rise in local temperature. This is especially seen in areas that have little green spaces. Forests and pockets of trees are good ways to mitigate the heat island effect. Although this heating effect is prominent in more urbanized areas such as cities, such effects are experienced in suburban communities as well. Click  here  to learn more about the consequences of the urban heat island effect.

In the map above, notice how areas that are more developed have a heat island effect, but Richardson Green and surrounding forests do not.

Forests act as important water filtration systems and help prevent runoff. When forests are replaced by concrete, the ground becomes impermeable and water is unable to make its way to the ground. Many  studies  show the importance of forests in maintaining a stable water supply. Water availability in Lynnfield has been of increasing concern after experiencing a large  drought  in the summer of 2020.

In the map above, Richardson Green has a deeper water table than many of the surrounding areas. This shows the importance of forests in the preservation of ground water.

"Seventy percent of forest lands are within a half-mile of forest edges. That means almost no forests can really be considered wilderness." -Nick Haddad, North Carolina State University

 Fragmentation  is the division of habitats due to human influence. Fragmentation of forest habitats is especially problematic and can result in population decreases in many species. By clearcutting a part of a forest, in this case Richardson Green, not only is that forest lost but also divisions are created between habitats.

The above map classifies different land cover types. For the purpose of this study, both open fields and water are the same color. This is because these two classes were needed to be excluded due to the focus on forest and residential areas. The fragmented forest class mainly describes areas that are on the edge of forests or small pockets of trees in between residential areas. Looking at the year 2000 image, there was fragmentation throughout the town of Lynnfield, however, there was still a healthy amount of forested areas for a suburb.

Due to different satellites being used, the 2018 image may show a more drastic representation of the land cover classes for that year. However, with the anomalies taken into account, there is a change in landcover between 2000 and 2018. There is an increase in the amount of residential cover that once was fragmented forest. The change from 2000 to 2018 tells us that there has been an increase in development in the town of Lynnfield. This increase in development detected by the comparison of these two images matches up because of the recent history of newly added streets and houses. This increase in development further fragments forests as shown in the 2018 image.

The act of  deforestation  has been shown to accelerate the warming effect in the Earth's climate system. Trees act as absorbers of carbon dioxide to mitigate future climate warming. Thus, the clearcutting of forests will release all of that carbon once trapped in those trees. That CO2 would then go directly into the Earth's atmosphere, contributing to a greater warming effect.

The map above shows vegetation levels of ground cover using an NDVI index. A Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) allows us to better visualize differences in vegetation amount. Areas with a greener color represent healthy vegetation, whereas less green areas have less vegetation. Notice how the Richardson Green area is darker than most areas around it. This tells us that there are high vegetation levels in Richardson Green. Healthy forests like that of Richardson Green are important in absorbing CO2 and mitigating climate change.