Forest Alliance Annual Meeting

The 2023 Annual Meeting of the Massachusetts Forest Alliance will be held Saturday, November 4 at Greenfield Community College from 9:30 am to 1:30 pm.

The meeting will feature a presentation from DCR Forest Health with updates on the major health challenges facing our forests, including new growing issues like Beech Leaf Disease.

Our keynote speaker will be Russ Richardson, who will deliver a presentation called Managing the Forest Understory. Most woodland owners and managers focus their interest and attention on the trees in the overstory. The forest understory normally gets little attention except for the presence of invasive species. A healthy forest understory can be a key factor in establishing natural regeneration.  After nearly four hundred years of exploitation, the native forest understory is badly degraded and most medicinal plants native to New England’s woodland have been extirpated.

In this presentation, you’ll learn about some once-common understory plants and medicinal plants you can sustainably grow, harvest and sell while you manage your forestland towards maturity. Presented by Russ Richardson, a self-described “dirt forester” and West Virginia Forestry and Agriculture Hall of Fame honoree.

There will also be a short presentation by the Ruffed Grouse Society on their Massachusetts Dynamic Forest Initiative grant program

The meeting will also include a legislative update, a short business meeting, and an awards luncheon, at which we’ll present some well-deserved awards. The cost of the meeting is $35 for MFA members and $50 for non-members.

Registration is open now, using MFA’s new database system. Note that this is the first time we’ve used this system, so we’ve been working to try to make it as easy as possible. While MFA members may log into the system to register, they don’t have to, and can simply click “Continue as Guest” and register without logging in.

To register, click here.

If you prefer to register via mail, click here for a form you can print and mail in with a check.