New England forest forum draws a throng
Toolbox
Staff report - Published: June 9, 2010
LITTLETON, Mass. — A standing-room only crowd attended a New England Forestry Foundation (NEFF) conference on a breakthrough Harvard Forest report focused on saving the region's forests at a time of development threat and climate challenge.
The day-long program of speakers and workshops at the Grappone Center in Concord, N.H., Friday, which featured the Harvard Forest's Wildlands and Woodlands study and a keynote address by Pinchot Institute president Dr. Al Sample, was an overwhelming success, said Lynn Lyford, executive director of Littleton, Mass.-based NEFF.
"We were looking at 200 participants, and then 250 and we had to close off registration at 275," said a Lyford. "It was just an incredible turnout and a strong indication that New Englanders, from families who actively manage their forestlands to land trusts committed to protecting forests and watersheds, care about our collective future."
Friday's workshops focused on four distinct but complementary areas: growing conservation capacity through land-protection partnerships; expanding funding strategies; establishing broader "woodland councils" and cooperative regional efforts; and promoting agricultural landscapes.
The Harvard Forest report calls for preserving almost three-quarters of New England's remaining open space—30 million acres—as working forests and farms, watersheds and wilderness. Of that total, 27 million acres would be committed to managed forests and farms, thus protecting the region's working landscape traditions, while 3 million acres would be designated wilderness.
The report also cautions that for the first time in 150 years, forest cover is declining in every New England state.
Underlying much of the day's discussions for the throng of landowners, ecologists, and conservationists was a sense of urgency on two fronts: a finite opportunity for land protection as developers await an economic rebound, and the growing threat of climate change. Carbon dioxide is the chief greenhouse gas tied to global warming, while large, unfragmented forests serve as crucial carbon repositories.
The region's environmental journey is at a pivotal moment, Harvard Forest director and Wildlands and Woodlands lead author Dr. David Foster told the assemblage.
"We have a second chance," Foster said. "New England not only has the history, but also an incredible capacity for conservation, that can be carried forward in an even grander fashion."
Keynote speaker Sample, head of the conservation institute named for U.S. Forest Service icon Gifford Pinchot, viewed climate "volatility" as one of the greatest threats facing conservation and natural resource protection. As some species move north in response to warming temperatures, "entire (natural) communities are being dismantled," Sample warned. He called for a "third strategy, of adaptation" to successfully confront climate threats. "We must re-organize ourselves."
NEFF's Lyford said participants left the conference sober-minded about such ambitious goals, but enthusiastic that there is both the will and energy to achieve them. "We face an urgent environmental reality that is both challenge and opportunity," she said, "and this conference shows that hands-on, ground-up efforts will be important keys to success."
For more information, visit www.newenglandforestry.org.
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