Unnamed observers at the Enbridge work site in Lincoln. Route 2 is in the background. (Photo by Protect the Lincoln Forest)
Protests against tree-cutting to allow a gas pipeline equipment next to Route 2 in Lincoln have resulted in at least four arrests.
On Tuesday, July at 11:16 a.m., Lincoln police arrested two people (a 57-year-old from Newton and a 17-year-old from Somerville) for trespassing on the site. Their names were not released because their arraignment has been delayed until January 2025, and the charges will probably be dropped if they aren’t arrested again. The following day, Massachusetts State Police arrested two other people whose names were also not immediately available, but who are not from Lincoln.
A number of environmental activists gathered off Route 2 just east of Bedford Road to protest the tree-cutting that is necessary for a crane to access the site. The crane will be needed for work there to upgrade Algonquin Gas Transmission Pipeline equipment owned by Enbridge. The work is related to a larger project to expand the capacity of the entire pipeline called Project Maple.
The land is owned by the City of Cambridge, which rejected Enbridge’s original plan to pay the city $10,000 in compensation for clear-cutting about 50 mature trees. Enbridge sued, threatening to take the land by temporary eminent domain as permitted by federal law, but later settled on a scaled-back proposal for removing half as many trees. Because the parcel is in Lincoln and has a conservation restriction, Lincoln officials were also involved in the discussions.
The activists on site included a “tree-sitter” who hauled himself high into a tree and lived on a platform there for several days. Videos taken by hum and others in a group called Protect the Lincoln Forest were posted on X on a page called Protect the Lincoln Forest. The tree was not among those slated to be cut down, but in adjacent area of trees in a designated “effort to save” area. The two groups of trees together cover about 9,000 square feet.
Once word got out that the project was about to start, Lincoln’s Conservation Department was flooded with calls and emails protesting the move and the fact that a routine pre-construction site walk before work began was not open to the public. “Most of the calls I’ve received have not been from Lincoln residents,” said Conservation Director Michele Grzenda.
The site walk was undertaken to ensure that proper erosion controls were installed and that the approved limit of work was demarcated correctly in the field, Grzenda said, adding that such walks are not public meetings.
Lincoln police offices on private detail as well as state police have been on site during the protest and tree-cutting activities. Officers working regular shifts have responded when needed, including two well-being checks on the tree-sitter during the week.
Enbridge says that piping more natural gas into the region will help stabilize energy prices, make the electric grid more reliable, and help states meet their climate goals by burning less oil on cold days, according to a January 25 WBUR article. But groups opposing the project including the Sierra Club and the Conservation Law Foundation disagree. The issue has also been covered by Universal Hub (see stories on May 8, May 27, and June 13).
The work in Lincoln is “a maintenance project through which we’re rebuilding an existing meter station to help support the ongoing safe operation of Algonquin gas transmission to continue meeting everyday energy needs in Massachusetts. The Lincoln Meter Station rebuild project will not increase the certificated capacity of the Algonquin gas transmission system,” Enbridge spokesman Max Bergeron said in an email to the Lincoln Squirrel. “As part of this project, we’re installing newer technology at the Lincoln Meter Station that will bolster safety and efficiency to continue to reliably meet local energy needs.”
Under terms of the settlement, Enbridge must plant replacement trees when its work is done. Lincoln officials will be notified when the restoration work and a mandatory three-year monitoring period is about to begin, Grzenda said.
Lincoln residents Alex Chatfield and his wife Trish O’Hagan were among those on site during the protests. “It’s concerning to us because it is an example of scenarios that play put all across the country routinely between Enbridge (and other pipeline companies) and local communities,” Chatfield told the Lincoln Squirrel. “Enbridge has a long and disturbing track record of overriding the concerns and priorities of cities, towns, and tribal authorities by using federal laws such as the Gas Act to build, rebuild, and expand pipelines. When it meets with opposition, as was the case with this project on the part of Cambridge, it goes to court and threatens to take what it wants through eminent domain and usually wins.”
Chatfield added that he and O’Hagan have been part of “peaceful resistance” at other Enbridge sites, including the West Roxbury Lateral Pipeline in 2015 and 2016 and Line Three in Minnesota in 2021.
This isn’t the first time that tree-cutting by outside agencies has caused angst in Lincoln. Residents near Route 2 were upset about the removal of dozens of trees in 2013 at the start of the project to build new service roads and a flyover at Crosby’s Corner. More recently, smaller trees and brush were removed from land over the Kinder Morgan gas pipeline that crosses Bedford Road, though there were no known public protests.
The two arrestees were aged 57 and 27, respectively.