NStar has once again demonstrated its willingness to act first and think about consequences later. Today I got a call from a desperate neighbor whose land, abutting the power lines, had received a very unexpected visit by a contractor with heavy equipment, hired by NStar.
Hurriedly a small group of Wellfleet citizens braved the cold wind to meet at noon with an NStar official named Slade and National Seashore representatives at the intersection with Long Pond Road. Kristen Shantz shook her head as we surveyed the damage already done, which included a 26-foot swath of disturbed land to create a 10 to 12 foot roadbed, and in some places, even wider clearing, shown above. “You turned over our blueberry bushes!” one abutter exclaimed with distress. There had been no warning to abutters or to the National Seashore, no filing with Wellfleet's Conservation Commission. R. Cook, of the Seashore, called the work “overkill.” 
Lauren McKean, Highlands Center Project Manager, worried about the box turtles, which can no longer cross the three-foot ridge created at either side of the road bed, and stated how problematic it will be trying to keep summer revelers off this new access road into the depths of the National Seashore. All Seashore representatives, along with some irate citizens, emphasized that rain will now flow more directly downhill towards Long Pond, totally undesirable from an environmental point of view. The road will have six to eight inches of gravel. 
After listening to our complaints, Mr. Slade apologized and agreed to a future meeting to find ways to reduce the damage, but this incident shows NStar’s complete lack of concern for the environment and the people who live near the power lines. The contractor, hired by NStar, came out on a chilly day, when no one was around, and created a road to allow access “to repair electric wires” when NStar and National Seashore workers, not to mention local folks and abutters, have been using the existing sand road for dozens of years without any problem ...
