roduction: Ecosystems across the United States provide residents with a variety of services that people benefit from, such as water filtration and clean air. The purpose of this study is twofold, one is to provide a preliminary measurement of the environmental and economic value of an often overlooked habitat in New England: powerline corridors. The other is to analyze how different factors, such as building an access road and the use of herbicides, affect plant populations within New England’s powerline corridors.
Powerline corridors are areas of early successional habitats and typically are located on transmission line rights-of-ways owned by utilities. Today there are 9,000 miles of high-voltage transmission lines in New England (ISO New England) and Eversource alone manages 36,500 acres in…show more content… 2014). Many people consider powerline corridors to be undesirable and often believe them to be nothing more than an corridor of invasive species (Wagner et al. 2014;). However, this is not entirely true as they are an important habitat for many species (Wagner et al. 2014). The goal of this study is to help people perceive this habitat area in a different light. Additionally, working to establish the economic and environmental contributions of this overlooked ecosystem might also help to motivate communities to make decisions that enhance, rather than destroy, the ecosystems that live there.
The Story of the Electric Wasteland? In the 1950’s, many of the plants and animals that live underneath the powerlines today were not there. Back then New England’s “electric wasteland” was just that -- a barren, bleak
