Jul. 3--Responding to criticism from Eastham residents and a letter from two Cape legislators, NStar has postponed its planned use of herbicides to clear land under its main power lines on the Cape.

The power company has agreed to hold a public hearing in which it plans to make its case for using herbicides instead of clear-cutting the area with a large mower.

"We've been asked to make sure that residents are aware of our plans, and we've agreed to hold an information session," NStar spokesman Michael Durand said yesterday, though no date has been set for the meeting.

But, despite the upcoming information session, NStar is under no obligation to change its intended use of herbicides to selectively target fast-growing trees and other plants under the power lines that form the spine of the Cape's electric supply system. Federal regulations require it to keep that area clear, and the utility company already has the state permits it needs to do the work, which was initially slated to start last Friday.

NStar officials and representatives of the subcontractor who will be doing the work came before Eastham selectmen two weeks ago. Following that meeting, selectmen sent a letter of protest to the state director of the Right-of-Way program. They questioned the use of toxins in an area with sandy, porous soil and private drinking wells that supply water to individual homes, as well as the effect on the town's many wetlands and ponds that abut the power lines.

State Sen. Robert O'Leary and Rep. Sarah Peake cosigned a letter to NStar asking for the delay and another hearing.

"These herbicides generally have serious health impacts on humans and wildlife," said Elizabeth Saunders, environmental health legislative director for Clean Water Action.

"Our position on all use of toxic chemicals is to take the safest alternative available," Saunders said. As an example, she said NStar could manually remove vegetation.

Susan Phelan, director of GreenCape, believes herbicides are used because they are cheaper than manually removing unwanted trees and plants.

"I know a lot of it comes down to money," she said.

But Durand said his company wanted to do something environmentally responsible by eliminating trees and invasive plant species and promoting the growth of low-lying vegetation that will duplicate threatened habitat fast disappearing from the Cape landscape. It's an alternative to mowing with large machines that can clear-cut an area, destroying habitat and the animals who live there, and leave behind a drastically altered view for those who live next to the power lines.

"It's a huge thing that can go through a forest in 10 minutes," Al Melcher said of the wood and brush-cutting machines that clear-cut the NStar right-of-way that runs behind his house in Cotuit. "It looked like hell. It cut everything right down to the blades of grass."

Durand said the subcontractor would use low-pressure backpack sprayers targeting individual plants and trees, and not spray indiscriminately over wide areas. He said a number of environmental organizations have reviewed and approved the plan.

"We have a lot of trees that grow very fast," said Tim Simmons, restoration ecologist for the state Natural Heritage and Endangered Species Program. His agency has had to use herbicides to control invasive species and protect environmentally sensitive habitats in the lands they control.

"We didn't gravitate to this easily," he said. "No other method would have worked for us."

Simmons reviewed and approved the NStar plan. He said the land that runs under power lines makes up some of the rarest habitat in the state, sandplain grasslands that are used by many hawk and bird species that have virtually disappeared from the Cape as forests returned. The habitat was created when Native Americans used fire to clear land for crops, and by European settlers looking for firewood, lumber and agriculture.

"If we were to go with clear-cutting, that (animal and plant) community would become something else," Simmons said.

"That is their last refuge."

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