HADLEY — A former stable building that has become home for a colony of barn swallows, including 40 pairs which nested inside it this past summer, will be torn down by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the federal agency announced on Wednesday.
“Our plan is to demolish the building before the next nesting season, sometime before mid-spring,” said Andrew French, manager of the Fort River Division of the Silvio O. Conte National Fish and Wildlife Refuge.
“We are concerned about a catastrophic collapse of the building,” French said of the Bri-Mar Stable located off Moody Bridge Road. “It just makes sense to do what we’re doing, and this is not in any way, shape or form bringing an end to swallows.”
In a Finding of No Significant Impact, or FONSI, as part of an Environmental Assessment, the agency determined that the 22,500-square foot, two-story building is a deteriorating structure beyond repair and poses a major safety threat to refuge staff and visitors, along with the barn swallows. This means an environmental analysis and review found that demolition would have no significant impacts on the quality of the environment.
But for Save Our Swallows, a local group that has advocated on behalf of the birds and preserving the barn, the barn’s planned removal is a blow to an important habitat for a species that has been in decline.
A statement from the group noted the decision was not a surprise after offers to pay for repairs and ongoing maintenance of the building were repeatedly rejected: “Save our Swallows is extremely disappointed in the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s decision to destroy this legacy habitat for what is widely believed to be the largest nesting colony of barn swallows in Massachusetts.”
Mara Silver, a member of the organization, said she expects that Save Our Swallows will be meeting with its legal team to determine next steps.
“Save Our Swallows still maintains that Fish and Wildlife hasn’t been transparent through this process and has made assumptions about barn swallow habitat,” Silver said.
The group is already asking that a 30-day public review of the decision be opened under the National Environmental Policy Act. Save Our Swallows previously claimed under NEPA that the agency violated this by gutting the building and closing it to swallows, compromising the building’s integrity.
The decision means that full demolition is being pursued, rather than a phased closure and delayed demolition, which was the preferred alternative. Another alternative was to take no action to preserve or remove the barn.
The FONSI document states the dangers posed by the building: “A small portion of the second floor has already collapsed under its own weight, and floor joists and primary support beams supporting the second floor appear to be close to failure due to prolonged exposure to water and related ongoing decay.”
French said he is under a mandate from the federal Office of Management and Budget to reduce buildings. “We don’t retain structures we don’t need,” French said.
French acknowledged that the number of swallows nesting inside the stable has crept up in recent years, but there are other options for the birds, such as using the nearby hot walker building, or boathouse, where seven pairs of barn swallows nested in 2019.
An Audubon Society report based on nesting over the summer states: “If the USFWS does proceed with the removal of the existing stable, we believe it will be possible to maintain a regional Barn Swallow population that is comparable to current levels.”
“Taking down the structures is not going to harm the swallows. We are confident the Bri-Mar colony will find alternative nesting sites in the area,” French said.
But Silver said that she doesn’t agree with the belief that barn swallows will be fine and that having a building on public land, rather than relying on the whims of private property owners to provide a habitat, is vital. “This is a colony on a national wildlife refuge,” Silver said.
In the face of climate change and other factors possibly affecting barn swallows, removing a significant habitat site is not a wise choice, Silver said. “Having a habitat is one thing we can affect,” she said.
French said refuge staff will continue working to provide suitable habitat and nesting areas for the birds in other locations on refuge land and within the larger Connecticut River watershed area.
He is looking at creating an aerial insectivore nesting demonstration exhibit at the refuge that will include having cameras set up in the boathouse with a live feed, and monitors at the trailhead that would show visitors the barn swallows. This could be the beginning of an aerial insectivore initiative in the Pioneer Valley.
“It’s my hope that people really concerned about barn swallows will join with us and look to move forward,” French said.
Scott Merzbach can be reached at smerzbach@gazettenet.com.
