Funding for Enhanced Habitat, Climate Adaptation, and Resiliency
Communities across the commonwealth are finding creative ways to integrate climate science into on-the-ground decision making regarding community forests and management. Community forests benefit all of us by providing a myriad of environmental, health and economic benefits. However, these forests are experiencing a multitude of stressors stemming from climate change. Please join us for information on funding strategies to respond to forest conservation, habitat, and climate challenges in your community. Recently completed habitat and climate-informed community forest management projects will be explored through case studies.
Pre-registration is required.
Click HERE to register
Who Should Attend
All that are passionate about community forests and forestry. Information learned can be applied to private and public lands, and is compatible with many objectives including wildlife habitat, water quality, recreation, forest products, and carbon sequestration. Continuing Forestry Education (CFEs) will be made available.
Additional program support and partners:
Mass Woodlands Institute, Mass Audubon, Bay State Forestry Service, USDA Forest Service, Wigmore Forest Resource Management, Green Natural Resources, MA Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs, and Native Habitat Restoration. The Town Forest Conference is funded by the Department of Conservation and Recreation’s Working Forest Initiative
What is the Mass. Town Forest Conference?
In 1928, the first conference of town forest committees is organized by the Massachusetts Forestry Association and convenes in Boston. Albert Cline, Assistant Director of Harvard Forest, stressed that weeding and releasing were the most important silvicultural treatments for improving the quality of timber stands, and Claude Tillotson, a forest inspector for the U.S. Forest Service stationed in Amherst, Massachusetts, placed special emphasis on the ability of town forest committees to demonstrate the practical value of forestry management.
After a fifty-two year (52) hiatus, the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation, Massachusetts Forest Alliance, and Bay State Forestry Service celebrate the centennial of the Town Forest Act of 1913 (town forest enabling law). The Town Forest Conference in 2013 convened in Fitchburg, where participants toured the first town forest established in Massachusetts. The Town Forest Act of 1913 understood the importance of connecting “community” to open space and encouraging the active stewardship of these special places.
Timeline of New England Town Forests:
“Re-establishing” the town forest conference came from Thinking in Forest Time: A Strategy for the Massachusetts Forest
FUNDING for ENHANCED HABITAT, CLIMATE ADAPTATION & RESILIENCY
AGENDA
6:30P to 9:00P
6:30PM: Welcome
Jennifer Fish, Director Service Forestry Program
6:35PM – 7:10PM: Working with Your Open Space Plan & Maintaining Forests as Forests
- Community Forest Program
Neal Bungard, Natural Resource Program Leader, U.S. Forest Service
- Forest Legacy Program
Lindsay Nystrom, Massachusetts Forest Legacy Program Coordinator
7:10PM – 7:55PM: MassWildlife Habitat Management Grant Program (MHMGP)
James Burnham, Department of Fisheries & Wildlife
Marianne Piche, Assistant Habitat Management Biologist at Department of Fisheries & Wildlife
7:55PM – 8:05PM: QUESTIONS
Neal Bungard, Lindsay Nystrom, James Burnham, and Marianne Piche
BREAK
8:10PM – 8:20PM: The Working Forest Initiative: Implementing Stewardship in Your Community
Michael Downey, Massachusetts Forest Stewardship Program Coordinator
8:20PM – 8:50PM: Habitat Restoration in Stockbridge & Great Barrington
Jess Toro, Native Habitat Restoration, LLC
8:50PM – 9:00PM: QUESTIONS/WRAP UP
Jess Toro and Michael Downey
