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Save the Date: Foresters
Council Meeting May 23rd!
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Please reserve Thursday, May 23rd as the date of the next Foresters Council meeting. We had a huge turnout at the Wood Producers Council meeting in February, and we're hoping for a good turnout for this meeting as well.
The meeting will take place at the Bluebonnet Diner in Northampton, and will feature the Bluebonnet's famous buffet dinner, followed by speakers and presentations.
The meeting is open to foresters, timber harvesters, wood producers, and anyone with an interest. Credits will be available. Look for additional information coming soon, but for now mark the date on your calendars, and plan to join us!
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Cook Award Deadline Extended
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As we announced last month, we've moved the MFA Annual Meeting to the fall. As a result, we've decided to extend the deadline for applications for the Douglas B. Cook Wood Producer of the Year award to July 1.
You can nominate someone for the award online by clicking here. Or download a form to print, fill out and mail.
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Chapter 61 Values Released
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The good news is that forest products markets have been strong in recent years. The bad news is that means that property taxes for Chapter 61 and 61A woodlands will be going up again.
Tax valuations for woodlands under Chapter 61 or 61A will rise sharply in the tax year that begins July 1st, reflecting the strong markets for timber in the past few years.
The average woodland tax valuation will rise from $99/acre to $121/acre for woodlands west of the Connecticut River, a 22.2% increase, and from $78/acre to $98/acre for woodlands east of the river, a 25.6% increase. Highly productive woodlands west of the river would be valued at $146/acre, with below average woodlands at $97/acre. Highly productive woodlands east of the river would be valued at $118/acre, with low productivity woodlands at $78/acre.
The valuation increases mean that total taxes under Chapter 61 or 61A for 50 acres of average woodlands west of the river in a town with a $15 tax rate will rise from $74.25 in fiscal 2019 to $90.75 in fiscal 2020, while taxes on an average 50-acre woodland east of the river with a $15 tax rate would rise from $58.50 in fiscal 2019 to $73.50 in fiscal 2020.
The Chapter 61 and 61A valuations are set by the Farmland Valuation Advisory Commission under a formula that calculates the average stumpage values from timber sales in the past five years weighted by the relative abundance of the species, with a 30 percent discount to reflect that not all trees can be harvested. The rising valuations reflect the strong rise in stumpage prices in recent years compared with the depressed stumpage prices during the recession from 2008 to 2011.
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AmazonSmile for the
Massachusetts Forest Trust
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 The Massachusetts Forest Trust, MFA's nonprofit affiliate, has been accepted into the AmazonSmile program. Through this program, Amazon donates a small percentage of eligible purchases you make to MFT - at no cost to you! This is a simple, painless way to give back.
Getting started is easy. First, click here to pick the Massachusetts Forest Trust as your charity on Amazon. Next, just remember to start your Amazon shopping at smile.amazon.com (it's easiest to make it a bookmark in your browser so you don't forget). That's it! Any eligible AmazonSmile purchase you make will automatically generate a donation, and you can see your impact over time.
Please take just a minute to register for AmazonSmile today.
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 At the beginning of every two-year legislative session on Beacon Hill, thousands of bills are filed. These bills are assigned to committees and scheduled for public hearings. The bills are then given a favorable or unfavorable report out of committee before they ever get to the floor for a vote.
With the new legislative session beginning this past January, we're reviewing and sorting through dozens of bills. There are two bills that are particularly concerning. One (H. 853) would remove wood from the Alternative Portfolio Standard, making it ineligible for earning Alternative Energy Credits (AECs). Only the most modern, cleanest-burning automated pellet and chip boilers/furnaces can earn admission to the program, so this bill would mean those systems wouldn't be installed, resulting in both additional fossil fuel use and continued reliance on older, more-polluting wood heat systems.
The other bill (H. 897) would eliminate virtually all forest management activity on state lands, including most wildlife and watershed management work. This bill would handicap MassWildlife and DCR in their efforts to create diverse forest wildlife habitats, increase forest resiliency and age diversity, and also hurt towns (who receive a portion of any profits), as well as timber harvesters and forest products companies that are paid to take on that work.
MFA strongly opposes both bills and we will work to defeat them. In the months ahead, we may call on your help to advocate with legislators. For the moment, you can click on the bill numbers above to read the text of the bill and see who the co-sponsors are. If your representative or senator is among the co-sponsors, you can reach out to their office to express your concerns.
We're also working to educate new legislators and correct many of the misunderstandings around sustainable forest management and modern wood heating.
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MFA Joins Feel Good Heat Campaign
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 The Massachusetts Forest Alliance has signed on to the Northern Forest Center's Feel Good Heat campaign, which focuses on promoting automated wood heating - pellet and chip furnaces/boilers that are automatically fed and controlled via a thermostat. We're using Feel Good Heat materials when we exhibit at conferences to help spread the word about this modern form of wood heat, which is much cleaner-burning and more efficient than older wood stoves and other wood-burning appliances.
You can learn more about the Feel Good Heat campaign at feelgoodheat.org.
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Check Out These Podcasts!
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 There are a couple of interesting podcasts we wanted to call your attention to. The first is the Northern Logger Podcast. Episodes have focused on everything from workers compensation compliance to personal stories from those in the industry to examination of issues such as global trade and the future of the business. You can check out the Northern Logger podcast's available episodes at northernloggerpodcast.com.
 MassConstruction.org features podcasts as well. They recently sat down with UMass Amherst professors Peggi Clouston and Alex Schreyer to discuss mass timber technology - new wood products that enable building all-wood structures up to 18 stories tall. Mass timber offers significant carbon emissions savings vs a steel or concrete building, as the production of steel and concrete are responsible for nearly 15% of all global carbon dioxide emissions. Making wood products is much less energy-intensive, and you're also sequestering the carbon absorbed by the tree for potentially 100 years or more (a piece of lumber is 50% stored carbon). You can find this interesting podcast by clicking here.
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New Legacy Planning Tool for Landowners
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 UMass Amherst's MassWoods.org has introduced a new family legacy planning tool to help landowners explore the future of their forestland. If you're just beginning the estate planning process, this online tool will help you better understand your options, and connect you with estate planning professionals who can help you meet your goals.
Check out this new tool at masswoods.org/legacy/planning-tool.
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Climate Change Affecting Forest Wildflowers
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 Climate change is beginning to have a worrisome effect on forest wildflowers, researchers find. Richard Primack, a biologist at Boston University, found that trees are leafing out two weeks earlier than in the 1850s, thanks to shorter winters and warmer weather as the result of climate change. However, forest wildflowers such as bluets, marsh marigolds, and bird's foot violets are only blossoming a week earlier.
This is a problem because forest wildflowers rely on access to sunlight in early spring before trees fully leaf out and the forest floor becomes shaded. With less sunlight available, we could see declines in forest wildflowers, wild blueberries, and other sources of food for birds and other forest wildlife.
The research focused on Concord, where Henry David Thoreau kept detailed notes on wildflowers, trees, and other natural processes while he lived near Walden Pond. To read the Boston Globe article, click here.
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MFA Members Featured in Biomass Magazine
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 Biomass Magazine recently did an article about the wood chip infrastructure grants we featured in our last issue. Many MFA members were interviewed as part of the article, which focused on the market for semi-dry wood chips in heating applications.
Thanks to Biomass Magazine for featuring our members! You can read the entire article by clicking here.
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NRCS Looking for Feedback
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 USDA's Natural Resouces Conservation Service (NRCS) is looking for input as they explore changes to their national conservation practice standards. The standards inform how NRCS makes grants under the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) and Conservation Stewardship Program.
Do you have suggestions or thoughts about how NRCS might improve their grantmaking? Click here to learn how to submit your feedback.
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Black Bears Are Active Now - Be Aware
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 MassWildlife reminds residents that black bears are emerging from their dens and actively foraging for food this month. As a result, they advise residents to take care securing garbage, removing bird feeders, and protect chickens and beehives with electric fencing. The number of bears in Massachusetts has risen to an estimated 4,500, and they are increasingly found in Eastern Massachusetts - even making it on to Cape Cod.
You can learn all the tips MassWildlife has to offer by clicking here - make sure to watch the video!
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 Got a nagging question? A serious one, or even just a casual one? You'd be surprised - there are likely others that are wondering the same thing! Send an e-mail to our executive director Chris Egan with "ask an expert" in the subject, and we'll try and identify an expert, ask them the question, and publish their answer in the next Forest Update.
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