A plan to cut down 175-acres of pine trees in the Manuel F. Correllus State Forest is set to proceed after a state environmental agency determined the project does not need to go through another layer of environmental review.
A pair of Islanders earlier this year asked the Massachusetts Environmental Policy Act (MEPA) office to weigh in on if the controversial tree cutting plan, sought by the state to restore the globally rare sandplain grassland habitat in the forest, was required to go through the office’s review process.
In a six-page opinion released on Dec. 26, MEPA director Tori Kim wrote that an environmental impact review was not needed, though the Department of Conservation and Recreation, which manages the forest, would need to create a property-wide management plan for all of its activities for review by the end of 2026…