Ecology

“The Benton Hill Wilderness is a truly ecologically important parcel, notably including a high concentration of State-listed rare and endangered species.”

Massachusetts Division of Fisheries and Wildlife (MassWildlife)

Management

BHWPA maintains the following land management goals:

  1. Protect and preserve State-listed rare and endangered species, which are in abundance in the preserve.

  2. Restore old growth forest, and reduce unnecessary logging of the wilderness.

  3. Increase wild animal populations by providing sanctuary refuge and reducing unauthorized hunting pressures.

  4. Reduce invasive species, and remediate their effects where possible.

  5. Amplify specific areas of interest (trails, water bodies and features, meadows, rock features, vistas, etc.) for the benefit of wildlife and enjoyment of humans.

Terrain

Benton Hill is an approximately 1400 foot “peak” in the southern Berkshires. Its unique profile, however, forms more of a plateau. Among the most distinctive features is the line of cliffs and outcrops to the west overlooking the Konkapot river valley. Benton Hill’s main body of water is an unnamed creek that flows from the extensive marsh, formed by a beaver dam, to the east of Rhoades & Bailey, and which traverses the Wilderness as it flows toward the Canaan-Southfield Road to empty into the Konkapot River.

Trees

Massachusetts State Forester Tom Ryan has identified the following species present in the preserve:

  • Hazelnut

  • Striped maple / moose maple

  • American chestnut (re-sprouts only, infected with chestnut blight)

  • White pine

  • Hop hornbeam (Ironwood)

  • Hemlock (under severe threat from invasive woolly adelgid)

  • Aspen/poplar - either big tooth or quaking

  • American beech

  • American elm (the state tree of Massachusetts)

  • Sassafras

  • Chestnut oak

  • Red oak

  • Black oak

  • White oak

  • Shagbark hickory

  • Bitternut hickory

  • Paper birch

  • Black birch

  • Yellow birch

  • Red maple

  • Sugar maple

  • Black Cherry

  • White Ash (under dire threat from invasive emerald ash borer)

Insects & Amphibians

  • Snakes

  • Frogs

  • Salamanders

Mammals

  • Whitetail Deer

  • Black Bear

  • Bobcat

  • Fox

  • Coyote

  • Fisher

  • Beaver

  • Cougar (extinct/rare)

Birds

  • Wild Turkey

  • Sandhill Cranes

  • Loons

Plants

  • Blueberry

  • Huckleberry

  • Witch hazel

  • Hay scented fern

  • New York fern

  • Interrupted fern

  • Rattlesnake plantain

  • Club moss

  • Spice bush

  • Pennsylvania sedge grass

  • Invasive Species: Multi flora rose, Barberry, Buckthorn, Bittersweet vine