Mount Washington (Mount Everett)


Former fire tower location: Mount Everett State Reservation, Mount Washington State Forest, Mount Washington, Berkshire County, MA

The Mount Everett fire tower was built in 1970. It was never used, never staffed, and never open to the public.

In 1988, Francis Messer, DCR's district fire chief at the time, wrote: "One section of stairs has been removed by Fire Control to discourage vandalism but does not seem to work." He then elaborated: "The building of this tower commenced June of 1970. From day one vandalism was a problem. This tower has not been officially used as a fire observation tower to this date. I have, over a period of years, asked that this tower be removed from the Mt. Everett Reservation because of both vandalism and liability of the state if someone should get injured."

In 1990, Larry Ray, his successor and DCR's current district fire chief, also advocated removal of the Mount Everett fire tower: "This tower is a 40 foot tower built in 1970, it was not manned and has stood empty for those years to present...My recommendation is that the Mount Washington fire tower be dismantled."

The tower was not removed and continued to deteriorate.

In April 1999, DCR held a public hearing at the Mount Washington town hall to announce it would renovate the fire tower to hold its own telecommunications equipment and that of the Southern Berkshire Regional School District.

Tom Vreeland, technology coordinator for the school district, described plans for a remote weather-sensing station with a TV camera and radio link on the fire tower and a microwave backbone network running the length of Berkshire County, from Mount Everett to Lenox Mountain and northward to Mount Greylock. The purpose would be to create a student project offering internet service to schools in Berkshire County. The network's anchor at Mount Everett would be powered by solar energy and a battery pack. He promised an unobtrusive system that would remain small.

A week earlier, Mr. Vreeland had met with the town of Richmond (the location of Lenox Mountain) and provided a fact sheet stating: "The network is designed to have very high reliability, comparable to the existing T1 communications lines, and to be scalable for future expandability." This was of concern to Mount Washington residents who questioned how small solar panels could guarantee reliability comparable to T1 lines, and why Mount Washington wasn't told the system was being designed to enable expansion. Residents were concerned that such a new use of the fire tower would open it to more leases in the future.

Shortly thereafter, the town learned that DCR had received a legislative appropriation of $3.5 million to study, renovate, market, and lease its fire towers as telecommunications sites, that the money for repairing the Mount Everett fire tower came from that source, and that DCR had an active program of leasing its fire towers.

DCR officials said there were no plans to allow other telecommunications uses of the summit, but wouldn't make any promises about what might happen in the future.

Then a member of DCR's Radio Committee said privately that DCR planned to renovate the Mount Everett fire tower and provide space for two telecommunications leases, in addition to that of the school district. DCR also planned to run a power line to the summit.

In August 1999, the Berkshire Eagle reported that the state police had done a study of the Mount Everett fire tower and had been in discussions with DCR about leasing the site for its 911 emergency system. The police spokesperson said the study had shown the site would not be appropriate for its needs. John Motroni, DCR's high-ground manager, said he'd told the police that Mount Everett wasn't available. Whatever the case, this news in light of DCR's policy of making its fire towers available to the state police, and its lease of 30 other sites to the state police, increased the town's nervousness about the state's plans for Mount Everett. (Later, the town learned that the state highway department had also contacted DCR about using the Mount Everett summit.)

In an April 2000 meeting with the town, DCR Commissioner Peter Webber wouldn't promise that the renovated fire tower would be staffed. Mike Tirrell, DCR's fire chief, said the tower would be rebuilt minus the two lower flights of stairs. If a DCR employee wanted to access the fire tower, s/he would have to carry a ladder from the upper parking lot (about 1/2 mile away), lean it up against the tower, and climb to the third level of stairs. Reporting on that meeting, the Berkshire Record noted that "the only access to the tower will be with a removable ladder."

In June 2000, Secretary of Environmental Affairs Bob Durand issued a requirement that if DCR wanted to renovate the fire tower and install any telecommunications equipment on the tower, it would have to file a full Environmental Impact Report. He set very tough conditions before anything could happen.

Shortly thereafter, numerous scientific studies of the Mount Everett summit were launched. Those studies were concluded in 2001. The results were submitted to DCR, and posted on this website.

Based on the results of those studies, in June 2002, DCR submitted a Notice of Project Change to Secretary Durand to remove the fire tower, instead. The Secretary received 41 letters in support of removal, and no letters of opposition.

Comments advocating removal were submitted by Appalachian Mountain Club, Appalachian Trail Conference, Berkshire Regional Planning Commission, Conservation Law Foundation, Massachusetts Audubon Society, and The Nature Conservancy.

The Mount Washington Select Board, Conservation Commission, Board of Health, and Telecommunications Subcommittee also submitted letters in support of removal. Numerous town residents did, as well. The Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection also favored removal.

In July 2002, Secretary Durand approved removal of the fire tower.

On April 25, 2003 DCR airlifted the fire tower off the Mount Everett summit. Mount Washington boards and residents sent many letters to Commissioner Webber thanking him for his decision.