Your Woods and the Value of Trees

Your woods are important to you, your community, and to the environment.  Woodlands in Massachusetts provide many benefits, purifying the air we breathe and the water we drink, providing habitat for wildlife, and wood to build and heat our homes.

The Department of Conservation & Recreation and the MassConn Sustainable Forest Partnership are holding two Your Woods and the Values of Trees programs in late March and April in Belchertown and Barre.  These programs are for you if you are a woodland owner, a forestry professional, or a community member who cares about woods.

Join with your neighbors to discuss:

• Strategies to keep woods as woods for the long term
• Potential cash from a timber sale and challenges too
• Discuss changes after tree cutting, how the land looks and implications for wildlife.

Each program will feature presentations and discussions by

• A local landowner who is actively managing their woods who will talk about their experiences
• Ron Rich, a professional logger and chairman of the Barre Conservation Commission
• Doug Hutcheson, Service Forester for DCR
• Conservation professionals from a local land trust to talk about land conservation options

Programs will be held on March 29^th from 6:30 to 8 p.m. at the Belchertown Town Hall at 2 Jabish Street, and on April 5^th from 6:30 to 8 p.m. at the Barre Senior Center at 557 South Barre Road in Barre.

For information, contact Ed Hood from MassConn at 508 347-9144 x2 or ehood@opacumlt.org  or Cynthia Henshaw from East Quabbin Land Trust at chenshaw@EQLT.org or 413 477-8229.