RESTORE: The North Woods

09/25/2025

You are cordially invited to:

"Forest Fires in Massachusetts: Myths and Reality."

Saturday October 4 — Presentations and panel discussion 10:30 am to 12:30
The Gallery Room at Plimoth Patuxet 137 Warren Ave Plymouth MA.

RSVP here: https://communitylandandwater.org/featured-events/

In person or zoom. Scan QR code below to register. No charge.

In-person reception to follow (optional) 1:00 pm-3:00 pm. Lunch and time with our speakers and panelists, $35.00 per person Get lunch ticket

In Massachusetts, public agencies are increasingly using controlled burning in state forests and wildlife management areas, such as Myles Standish State Forest. Our coalition is concerned about the air pollution impacts from smoke and particulate matter, the GHG impacts, and the threat to ecosystems. During the last burn, smoke covered areas as far away as Kingston. What is the health impact of this?

Our speakers are experts on these issues and will discuss important questions:

• What is the goal of controlled burning and where is it happening?
• Does controlled burning help with wildlife habitat restoration?
• Does controlled burning help to prevent forest fires?
• What is the risk of wildfires in Massachusetts?

Presenters:
David Foster is director emeritus of the Harvard Forest and its Long Term Ecological Research program and currently coordinates Wildlands, Woodlands, Farmlands and Communities. He is an author of “Meeting of Land and Sea: Nature and the Future of Martha’s Vineyard,” and “Wildlands of New England: Past Present and Future.”

Michael Kellett worked for 40 years to create national parks, save forests, and protect wildlife. He is co-founder and executive director of RESTORE: The North Woods, a New England-based nonprofit organization. He was the lead author of the paper, "Forest-clearing to create early-successional habitats: Questionable benefits, significant costs."

Bill Stubblefield has a lifelong passion for natural history and holds a Ph.D. in Evolutionary Biology from Harvard University. He currently devotes his time to activism on behalf of all lifeforms on Planet Earth.

George Wuerthner is an ecologist and photographer who has visited more than 400 designated wilderness areas and more than 200 National Park System units. He has published 38 books, including “Wildfire: A Century of Failed Forest Policy,” “Protecting the Wild: Parks and Wilderness Foundation for Conservation,” and “Keeping the Wild: Against the Domestication of the Earth.”

RSVP to register for program in person or zoom and for lunch reception.

You are invited to "Forest Fires in Massachusetts: Myths and Reality." Saturday October 4, 2025

09/16/2025

Another scam by the timber, wood products, carbon trading, and boutique architecture industries. Salvage logging is incredibly destructive. But the industry continues to do it because it is profitable. Moreover, there is no credible scientific evidence that “mass timber” buildings are effective for long-term storage of carbon. But why would they let wildlife, clean air and water, healthy recreation, and climate moderation get in the way of profits?

And, of course, this exposes the mentality of the industry, which is driven by trying to meet endless demand. Logging and wood consumption is already unsustainable worldwide. Rather than working to reduce wood demand, they are fine with more than doubling it. Their goal is to squeeze more wood from forests that are already degraded by logging.

Cambium Carbon, a company that turns salvaged wood into cross-laminated timber, is a winner of Fast Company’s 2025 Innovation by Design Awards.

09/14/2025

“Forest Fires in Massachusetts: Myths and Reality”

Find out more about "forest management" in Myles Standish State Forest and Wildlife Management Area. Do we want to see our public lands burned and logged?

DATE: Saturday, October 4, 2025
LOCATION: The Gallery Room at Plimoth Patuxet. 137 Warren Ave Plymouth MA
PROGRAM: Presentations and panel discussion: 10:30 am to 12:30 pm
RSVP: https://communitylandandwater.org/featured-events/

This is an especially important topic for our towns in the Southeastern Massachusetts. Public agencies are increasingly using controlled burning on state public lands, including Myles Standish State Forest and Montague Plains and Muddy Brook wildlife management areas.

Our speakers are experts on these issues and will discuss important questions:
What is the goal of controlled burning and where is it happening?
Does controlled burning help with wildlife habitat restoration?
Does controlled burning help to prevent forest fires?
What is the risk of wildfires in Massachusetts?

Presenters:

David Foster is director emeritus of the Harvard Forest and its Long Term Ecological Research program and currently coordinates Wildlands, Woodlands, Farmlands and Communities and serves on the editorial board of From the Ground Up. He is an author most recently of “Meeting of Land and Sea: Nature and the Future of Martha’s Vineyard,” and “Wildlands of New England: Past Present and Future.”

Michael Kellett worked for 40 years to create national parks, save forests, and protect wildlife. He is co-founder and executive director of RESTORE: The North Woods, a New England-based nonprofit organization. He was the lead author of the paper, “Forest-clearing to create early-successional habitats: Questionable benefits, significant costs.”

Bill Stubblefield has a lifelong passion for natural history and holds a Ph.D. in Evolutionary Biology from Harvard University. He currently devotes his time to activism on behalf of all lifeforms on Planet Earth.

George Wuerthner is an ecologist and photographer who has visited more than 400 designated wilderness areas and more than 200 National Park System units. He has published 38 books, including “Wildfire: A Century of Failed Forest Policy,” “Protecting the Wild: Parks and Wilderness Foundation for Conservation,” and “Keeping the Wild: Against the Domestication of the Earth.”

09/05/2025

"Salvage" logging has no place in responsible forest management. It is a sorry reflection on Minnesota DNR that they are still using this ecologically destructive industrial practice.

Here are excerpts from the report of the Massachusetts Climate Forestry Committee, which was appointed by the Healey administration and included forest ecologists, climate scientists, foresters, and other experts:

https://www.mass.gov/doc/forest-as-climate-solutions-climate-forestry-committee-report-final/download

“The Committee found no ecological rationale for salvage harvesting and noted that it usually represents a short term (10-20 year) carbon loss to the atmosphere in comparison to leaving the wood to decay.” (page 6)

“Recognizing that a disturbed forest is still a forest, in most circumstances the Committee recommends that state land managers forego salvage harvesting and leave dead wood to realize the habitat quality and biodiversity benefits of increased structural diversity of the forest. The Committee also pointed out that disturbances help the agencies achieve their resilience goals insomuch as they diversify age classes and create opportunities for species establishment. In addition, areas of disturbance, particularly wind disturbance, may provide protection from herbivory and facilitate regeneration.” (page 30)

https://www.dnr.state.mn.us/news/2025/09/04/salvage-harvests-set-stage-forest-regeneration

08/30/2025

This is a scam marketed by the timber, wood products, and boutique architecture industries using cherry-picked "science" to make it look climate and environmentally friendly. In fact, these "mass timber" buildings promote overcutting of forests, spew out massive amounts of carbon into the atmosphere, use toxic adhesives, are fire-prone, and depend on public subsidies. It is good that Maine has not gone all-in with this destructive, dead-end technology.

08/27/2025

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/19vDQYkbMs/

Bascom Lodge in Adams, MA. Restaurant in Bascom Lodge atop Mount Greylock, Adams M

08/26/2025

This is bad, but not shocking. The problem is that the Forest Service’s legislative mandate includes logging and other “multiple uses.” This lawsuit challenged the quality of the review the agency did under National Environmental Policy Act, which was seriously flawed. But the legal standard is open to subjective judgement and in this case the judge was satisfied that the agency did enough.

This is another example of why we need to redesignate this public forest as White Mountain National Park. The National Park Service is mandated to preserve the forest, not log it. So there would be no logging plan in the first place.

https://indepthnh.org/2025/08/22/federal-judge-rules-with-forest-service-on-plans-to-log-near-piermont-gorham/

08/23/2025

This is bad. Logging is already a huge and growing threat to our national forests. This is yet another major threat. We need to give our national forests the protection they deserve by converting them to national parks or designating them as wilderness, where this kind of resource exploitation is prohibited..

WASHINGTON — U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke L. Rollins issued a memorandum announcing a new policy directive prioritizing land use efficiency when evaluating proposals for...

08/22/2025

BERKSHIRE NATIONAL PARK FOR PEOPLE, BIODIVERSITY, AND CLIMATE

PLACE: Bascom Lodge at Mount Greylock State Reservation
DATE: Sunday, August 31, 2025
TIME: 5:30 - 6:30 pm

Presentation is open to the public and free of charge.

The science is clear: we need natural and near-natural areas to stabilize climate, prevent massive biodiversity loss, and benefit public health and well-being. Yet, less than 4% of New England, and even less of Massachusetts, meets this protection standard. Can we address this gap? Yes! National parks have provided this protection since the designation of Yellowstone in 1872 as the world’s first national park. A campaign to designate a new generation of national parks offers a positive way to highlight important places, connect the public to our natural heritage, and enact strong legislative measures to provide permanent protection.

Michael Kellett will talk about a proposal to create 100 new national parks across America — including ten in New England. This presentation will feature a spectacular Berkshire National Park, which would reach from the Connecticut River Valley to New York’s Taconic Mountains, and from the Vermont border to the Litchfield Hills in Connecticut.

Michael is the founding executive director of RESTORE: The North Woods, a New England-based nonprofit organization established in 1992. He has 40 years of experience advocating for national parks, wilderness, natural forests, free-flowing rivers, and imperiled wildlife. In 1994, he developed the original proposal for a 3.2-million-acre Maine Woods National Park, which laid the groundwork for the 2016 designation of Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument by President Obama. He co-authored three pending Massachusetts bills that would designate 80% of state public lands as permanent parks and reserves protected from logging. He has visited more than 260 national park areas across the country.

(photo: Chris Matera)

For more information: https://www.restore.org/events/2025/8/1/berkshire-national-park-for-people-biodiversity-and-climate

08/15/2025

The timber, wood products, and boutique wood architecture industries and their allies have obviously been doing a lot of work promoting this ecologically harmful building material. They have a lot of money for marketing and it is paying off with softball stories like this.

It is a disservice to the public that otherwise capable reporters are uncritically accepting the many scientifically questionable and unfounded claims made by this short-sighted and selfish industry.

If the news media looked more closely, they would find that there are numerous problems with this technology. This includes increased releases of carbon into the atmosphere, toxic adhesives and fire retardants, the promotion of increased logging and plantation forestry, and economic unprofitability that requires major public subsidies.

Cross-laminated timber, or CLT, is composed of layers of wood glued together at 90º angles and is more fire-resistant than traditional timber.