Wildlife Habitat Improvement Harvest Tour

Want to see how new forest habitat can be efficiently created to help birds and other threatened wildlife?   If so, come to the Mass Forest Trust’s Wildlife Habitat Improvement Harvest Tour on Saturday, February 11^th, in Hawley.

Mass Forest Trust was recently awarded a Habitat Management grant by Mass Wildlife to create 30 acres of early successional habitat at the 110-acre Taylor Forest in Hawley and Ashfield for wildlife species which have been declining. 

With the funding, MFT has contracted with John Conkey & Sons to cut and remove the low value timber on the property, setting the stage for new forest growth that wildlife increasingly find in short supply in Massachusetts.

The logging work began in early February and is expected to be completed before month’s end.  The Taylor Forest Habitat Improvement Tour will be held on Saturday, February 11^th, from 10 am to noon.  The tour will show part of the woodland that hasn’t been cut yet, then part where work has been done, and then travel to another nearby woodland where a similar early successional habitat was created in 2004 to see how it evolves over time.

The tour will be led by forester and wildlife biologist Tom Brule.

Directions:     Take Route 112 or Route 116 to Ashfield Center.

                      At the 4 corners on Route 112, go west on Hawley Road and bear right to continue up through Apple Valley.

                      Follow Hawley Road 4.7 miles from the 4 corners to the Hawley Fire Station at the intersection of Ashfield and Plainfield Roads

                      We will go to the harvest site, then to the site harvested in 2004.

Participants should dress for the weather and snow conditions.  With more snow forecast Thursday, snowshoes may be useful.  The tour will be postponed if heavy snow or rain is falling, with a snow date of February 12^th at the same time.

For more information or to check on the tour’s status, call Greg Cox before 9 am at 413 339-5526 or 413 475-2883 cell.