WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — Residents are asking the Conservation Commission to reconsider a 2023 decision that allowed the use of an herbicide that studies have linked to cancer, while its unclear if the group with permission to treat a parcel near the Green River will follow through on the plan.

 

At issue is a 4.3-acre riverfront parcel owned by the Williamstown Rural Lands Foundation off Woodlawn Drive near the site of the town's new fire station.

 

In late 2023, Con Comm OK'd a management plan for the area that included, "a combination of forestry mowing, cut/paint and foliar spray herbicide application," to address the out-of-control growth of invasive exotic plants on the site.

 

But WRLF never recorded the commission's order of conditions with the Registry of Deeds, a step it would need to complete in order to implement the plan. The town's conservation agent told the commission at its March 12 meeting that because of budgetary concerns, Rural Lands had not embarked on the planned ecological restoration, but it might want to revive that plan.

 

The commission's order of conditions expires three years after it was issued in December 2023.

 

"There was a seasonal plan in that [2023] application of cutting at a certain time of year … and then herbicide application in certain times of year to line up with the seasonality of certain plant and animal communities," Community Development Director Andrew Groff told the Con Comm. "They'll have to amend some of that schedule moving forward.

 

"I think we'll see [Williamstown Rural Lands Foundation's Dan Gura] and his contractor in the spring for an amendment to that schedule later in the spring, maybe early summer, and, likely, an extension."