There are few places where you can photograph mosses, liverworts, and lichens on forested volcanic rock outcrops while recording the songs of Prairie Warbler, Indigo Bunting, Field Sparrow and Eastern Towhee. American Woodcock have stopped “peenting” and started parenting in the forest edge habitat adjacent to the powerline cut at Breakheart Reservation.

The semi-open rock outcrop oak forest adjacent to the power line cut at Breakheart Reservation has created the perfect habitat for Eastern Whip-poor-will, a nocturnal bird whose habitat is being lost to development. Eastern Whip-poor-will need a patchwork of open woodlands with little understory adjacent to meadows and shrublands.

Whip-poor-wills nest in oak leaf litter and hunt large moths at dusk and dawn in the open woodlands of the oak-dominated NEMT forest adjacent to the shrublands and meadows of the power line cut. There are at least 6 bird species of Greatest Conservation Need in the MA State Wildlife Action Plan (SWAP) nesting and foraging in this unique habitat created by the combination of open woodlands adjacent to shrublands including this previously undocumented population of the rapidly declining Eastern Whip-poor-will. Eastern Whip-poor-will was added to the MA Endangered Species List in 2011 as a species of Special Concern. Residents of June Circle have heard Eastern Whip-poor-will calling from the forested area behind June Circle for years, but this population was not previously documented with the Natural Heritage and Endangered Species Program. There are only 10 known sites in MA with 5 to 10 breeding pairs of Eastern Whip-poor-will.

The eBird hotspot for NEMT forest  lists 100 species of birds seen or heard in the 28 acres of NEMT forest, forested wetlands, and edge habitat along the power line cut in Breakheart Reservation.

The planned new half-mile road will run through known deer foraging and bedding areas between Farm St and Hemlock Rd, not only impacting breeding bird habitat, but also destroying the amphibian migration pathway linking multiple wetlands within a vernal pool cluster and stormwater runoff corridor. The planned new road follows ephemeral stream beds and impacts two vernal pools where wood frog and spotted salamander can be found on warm rainy nights in March and April.

All these amphibians along with countless plant and animal communities in the oak, pine and hickory hilltop forest will vanish forever when over 13 acres of the NEMT forest is logged and the rock outcrops blasted for the new hilltop NEMT vocational school opening in Jan 2026. 

Unlike neighboring Breakheart Reservation, the NEMT forest and associated forested wetlands have been relatively protected from the scourge of invasive species currently invading our woodlands. The floristic quality index, currently at 43, is exceptional, both due to the lack of invasive species and the diversity of plant species with new species being found weekly.