Governor Maura Healey made a campaign promise to pause logging on state-owned forest land and some environmentalists, such as Melissa Brown of Newton, MA, think that’s the right thing to do. Brown is a cofounder of Trees as a Public Good Network and a member of the steering committee of Our Revolution Massachusetts Climate Crisis Working Group. She feels that forest management should be based on current science, not wood industry marketing and that public forest management should comply with recent state legislation mandating net-zero carbon emissions by 2050.
She feels that science is clear that trees can help stabilize climate, but only if we stop cutting them down and interfering with their growth. Trees clean and cool the air, reduce flooding and soil erosion, filter the water entering our water supplies, provide wildlife habitat, and sequester carbon.
Brown feels that forests provide more life-saving, biodiversity-preserving ecoservices than the sum of their individual trees, so, protecting our forests is crucial to keeping life livable here. Also, old-growth forests provide significantly more ecoservices than “young” forests. She questions why our state agencies take bids from the wood industry to log hundreds or more acres of public-owned land each year when logging prevents young forests from maturing into old-growth forests? She questions why MassWildlife proposes to protect only 10 to 15 percent of the 170,000 public-owned acres it manages in reserves with no logging?
She feels that claims that reducing mature forests is needed to prevent wildfires and wildlife declines, especially game species, and to sequester carbon is unfounded because we are not in arid California, and comparisons to the 1960s, when game species were at very high levels, are misleading. Older trees store and sequester more carbon than younger ones. Undisturbed forest soil also stores carbon as well as containing millions of tiny species with untapped medical potential.
Once forests are cut and allowed to recover, it takes 100 or more years to restore ecoservices. To halt the pace of global warming, there is a need to stop logging public lands now. This pause will not touch loggers’ livelihoods because 79 percent of Massachusetts’ forests are not public lands.
But Chris Egan of Burlington, MA, Executive Director of Massachusetts Forest Alliance has a different opinion. His feeling is that with Massachusetts state forests being divided into recreational parks, forest reserves, and managed woodlands, forest science is increasingly coalescing around this mix and managed with climate-smart forestry techniques. More building with wood instead of carbon-intensive concrete and steel is the best strategy for maximizing carbon sequestration and storage over time.
These conclusions are outlined in the Highstead Foundation’s New England’s Climate Imperative, the New England Forestry Foundation’s 30 Percent Climate Solution, the Commonwealth’s Clean Energy and Climate Plan for 2025 and 2030, and many other research publications. (Highstead Foundation is a regional conservation non-profit dedicated to increasing the pace of land protection in New England and beyond through science, sound stewardship and collaboration.)
Egan feels that the term “commercial harvesting” can be misleading. In this context, it means all forest management activities.
He also believes the proposed moratorium would likely prevent any forest management except for immediate public safety needs. That would mean that the MA DCR could not remove dead and dying red pine plantations in state forests to release the native mixed-species younger forest growing underneath. MassWildlife would be prevented from managing forest habitat for rare, threatened, or endangered plants and animals in its Wildlife Management Areas (WMA). And the Division of Water Supply Protection would be barred from forest management to increase resilience to severe weather to protect the Quabbin Reservoir’s water quality.
He believes in careful forest stewardship on state lands, with a mix of reserves and forest actively managed using the best comprehensive science. Many of Massachusetts’s leading environmental organizations also favor forest management on state-owned lands; Their Climate and Environmental Policy Briefing Book says, “Both forest reserves . . . and sustainably managed forests . . . are important and appropriate on both private and public forest lands in Massachusetts.”
Last December, leaders of The Nature Conservancy’s Massachusetts office, Mass Audubon, and the Trustees of Reservations wrote an open letter to then Governor-elect Maura Healey in Commonwealth Magazine about the need for nature-based climate solutions. In it they said, “We also must manage both public and privately-owned forests through a mix of forest reserves and managed forests, including sustainable timber harvesting. This balanced approach is needed to meet state and landowner climate, biodiversity, and economic goals.”
The source of much of the above comments was a February 12, 2023Boston Globe article entitled: The Argument: Should Massachusetts adopt a moratorium on commercial harvesting on state-owned forest land?
One thing that bothers me if this moratorium is enacted is what happens to the MassWildlife’s WMAs? MassWildlife has statutory responsibility to conserve freshwater fish and wildlife including endangered plants and animals. Its mission is the conservation, including restoration, protection, and management of fish and wildlife resources for the benefit and enjoyment of the public. A large part of its restoration effort is the management of the habitat. Things like berry bushes, young trees, etc. provide food and cover for deer, bunnies, songbirds, and many other critters. They cannot survive by chewing the bark of mature forest trees; rather, they need the succulent browse, buds, berries, etc. of early successional growth.
Taking away one of MassWildlife’s main tools for habitat management, might have unwelcomed consequences.
I hope Governor Healey doesn’t pause the logging without first visiting some WMAs, such as Stafford Hill in Cheshire and seeing the remarkable recovery of grouse, woodcock, songbirds and other critters as a result of MassWildlife’s habitat management program.
MassWildlife Director Mark Tisa Received a National Wild Turkey Federation Award
Recently, the National Wild Turkey Federation (NWTF) presented MassWildlife Director Mark Tisa with its new “Innovation Award” The award recognizes MassWildlife’s use of creative strategies to address conservation issues and declining hunting participation.
“I am honored to receive NWTF’s Innovation Award,” Tisa said. “MassWildlife and NWTF continue to grow our important partnership, collaborating on mentorship and learn-to-hunt programs, as well as habitat and access improvement projects. Through sound wildlife management and the support of conservation partners like NWTF, MassWildlife is proud to continue expanding turkey hunting opportunities in Massachusetts.”
“This partnership has only strengthened under the leadership of Director Tisa,” said Keith Fritze, NWTF Massachusetts State Chapter President. “We share goals for implementing science-based species and habitat management, expanding hunting opportunities, and enhancing learn-to-hunt offerings for youth and adults. We appreciate the support and increased opportunities that Director Tisa’s guidance has afforded the sportsmen and women of Massachusetts.”
When presenting Tisa’s award, NWTF cited multiple regulation changes and initiatives made by MassWildlife that have improved hunting opportunities and wildlife habitat, including:
- Increasing the annual turkey season limit from two to three birds to incentivize participation in the fall hunting season.
- Expanding the archery-only fall turkey season to create more overlap with the fall archery deer season.
- Eliminating smaller shot size restrictions to allow turkey hunters to take advantage of the new advances in heavier-than-lead ammunition, such as TSS.
- Promoting participation in turkey hunting through MassWildlife’s Youth Turkey Hunting Program. With help from NWTF and sporting clubs, MassWildlife’s Youth Turkey Hunting Program has been providing a mentored spring turkey hunt since 2009. Tisa was a key figure in getting this program off the ground.
- With Tisa’s support, MassWildlife is also a critical partner to NWTF and the Ruffed Grouse Society on the USDA Forest Service’s Landscape Scale Restoration grant that seeks to improve forest health on approximately 2,000 acres of public and private forestlands in western Massachusetts.
“To say the director utilized an innovative approach to conservation and hunter recruitment would be an understatement”, said NWTF co-CEO Kurt Dyroff. “Director Tisa has gone above and beyond to ensure both turkeys and turkey hunting are alive and well in the Bay State.”
Trout Stocking
As of last Wednesday, the following local waters were stocked with rainbow trout: Laurel Lake, Stockbridge Bowl and Onota Lake.