DEM ANNOUNCES HOME FUELWOOD CUTTING PROGRAM AT NARRAGANSETT BAY NATIONAL ESTUARINE RESEARCH RESERVE

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News Release
RI Department of Environmental Management
235 Promenade Street, Providence, RI 02908
(401) 222-2771 TDD/(401) 222-4462

For Release:	December 2, 2002
Contact:	Gail Mastrati 222-4700 ext. 2402 Stephanie Powell 222-4700 ext. 4418

DEM ANNOUNCES HOME FUELWOOD CUTTING PROGRAM AT NARRAGANSETT BAY NATIONAL ESTUARINE RESEARCH RESERVE

Goal is to Improve Wildlife Habitat While Also Providing Firewood for Residents

PROVIDENCE - The Department of Environmental Management is accepting bids from individuals for the right to harvest cords of wood on Prudence Island under DEM's home fuelwood program. The selective woodcutting helps to improve wildlife habitat by stimulating new growth, and by creating den trees and cavity nesting sites, while providing firewood for residents.

The area to be cut is within the DEM-managed Narragansett Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve at the southern end of Prudence Island.

Roger Greene, manager of the reserve, notes that the wood cutting program helps improve wildlife habitat for many species of wildlife by encouraging a diversity of forest trees, understory, and groundcover plants which, in turn, support a diversity of forest wildlife. But, he adds, it is important that the cutting be done selectively and with care. A total of seven lots have been marked by DEM foresters and contain between two and 4.25 cords per lot. Only marked trees within these lots can be cut and no other trees or shrubs can be cut or damaged in the process.

The right to cut the marked trees on the reserve will be awarded on a competitive per-lot bid basis. The lots are currently available for viewing. Information and bid forms can be obtained at the reserve, 55 South Reserve Drive, Prudence Island, 02872, or by calling the reserve office at 683-6780. Bids will be opened at 11 a.m. on Wednesday, December 18 at the reserve headquarters on the island.

Bidders and any of their woodcutter helpers involved with the program must be present at the bid opening, at which there will be an informative presentation about the goals of the wildlife enhancement program at the reserve, the types of habitats being created, and the kinds of animals that would use them. Refreshments will be served.

Each successful bidder will be required to enter into a simple agreement that will cover the rules of the cutting operation. They will have up to seven days to pay for the wood (payment must be by check or money order made out to DEM/State of Rhode Island), and cutting may begin after full payment has been received. Cutting must be completed and all wood removed from the lots by February 1, 2003 (weather permitting). Fuelwood lots will be open for cutting from 8 am to noon on Tuesdays and Thursdays through the time period, and successful bidders can remove wood cut in the morning until 3 pm on those days.

The Narragansett Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve includes more than half of Prudence Island, most of Patience Island, all of Hope Island, and the surrounding waters out to a depth of 18 feet. Approximately 4,500 acres of upland, freshwater wetland, inter-tidal habitats, and sub-tidal areas of Narragansett Bay are managed through the reserve.

The fuelwood program on the reserve is an outgrowth of the home fuelwood program launched by DEM in state management areas in response to the energy crisis of the late 1970s. The program has continued as a well-received initiative that benefits the environment as well as the individuals who participate.

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