MASSACHUSETTS' DRUMLINS: A DISAPPEARING LANDSCAPE FEATURE?

The subtle landscape features of central and eastern eastern Massachusetts include many hundreds of drumlins that were formed during a pre-Wisconsinan glacial advance. Although there are examples of drumlins being excavated going back a hundred or more years, this process appears to be accelerating as development moves out from Boston and commercial real estate is developed along arterials. These small upland areas tend to be protected in towns with significant amounts of conservation land. In other areas, environmental regulations do not preclude their leveling since they are generally not important for groundwater recharge and receive none of the protections afforded to wetlands, for example. Still, loss of upland areas of this sort must involve loss of habitat diversity, and consequently biodiversity, greater than what would be expected considering simply their areal extent. The aesthetics of landscape modification of this sort also involves building of artificial catchments to control runoff and water quality.