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National Woodland Owners Association Magazine
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The National Woodland Owners Association publishes a quarterly magazine for their members. With grant funding, NWOA sends a free issue of their National Woodlands magazine once each year to MFA members. We occasionally get confused phone calls when this issue arrives each spring, so we wanted to let you know to expect it soon!
NWOA also offers a number of other electronic communications, including their weekly Wednesday Woodland Word e-newsletter, a quarterly National Woodlands Essentials e-newsletter, and more. Click the publication titles in the previous sentence to sign up, or click here to see all the options.
Joining NWOA costs as little as $40 annually. Click here to learn more.
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CECP Meetings April 14/15
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The next virtual public meetings on the Clean Energy and Climate Plans for 2025 & 2030 will be held TODAY, April 14 from 1 - 3 pm and 6 - 8 pm, as well as TOMORROW from 2 - 4 pm. These meetings were to focus on buildings and working lands like forests, but will now focus on all sectors of the plans.
You can get login information and optionally register for the meetings (space is limited) by clicking here. Recordings and slide decks from previous meetings, including past forest-related meetings, can be found at the same link. Recordings from these meetings will be posted there as well in the days ahead.
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This month's issue of the Forest Update is brought to you by:
Pirner Logging & Land Clearing is a fully-mechanized timber harvesting, logging, and land-clearing operation in central Massachusetts with more than 25 years of experience. Fully licensed and insured, Chris Pirner and his employees have developed an excellent reputation among landowners and state and private foresters for careful, professional work.
Pirner Logging & Land Clearing was recognized as the 2021 Douglas B. Cook Wood Producer of the Year as a result of their high-quality work.
Pirner Logging & Land Clearing also sells both green and seasoned firewood either cut and split or tree-length, as well as wood chips, and delivers locally.
Thanks to Chris Pirner and Pirner Logging & Land Clearing for their generous support!
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Chapter 61 Values Announced
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 Tax valuations for woodlands enrolled in Chapter 61 or 61A will decline for woodlands west of the Connecticut River, and rise slightly for woodlands east of the river for the tax year that begins on July 1st.
The Farmland Valuation Advisory Commission voted new valuations in March for the fiscal year 2023 which begins July 1st.
The average valuation for woodlands west of the Connecticut River will drop from $116/acre to $108/acre, a reduction of 6.9%, while the average value for woodlands east of the river will climb slightly from $119/acre to $120/acre, an increase of less than 1 percent..
For years, average values for woodlands west of the river was higher than east of the river. But last year valuations for eastern woodlands climbed above those to the west, the result of higher stumpage prices paid on timber in central and eastern Massachusetts. This likely reflected the strong demand for white pine during the pandemic.
West of the river, below-average woodlands would be valued at $86/acre while above-average woodlands would be valued at $130/acre.
East of the river, below-average woodlands would be valued at $96/acre, while above-average woodlands would be valued at $144/acre.
Valuations for land in Christmas tree plantations will drop from $116/acre to $114/acre, while non-productive land such as wetlands or rocky land would be valued at $57/acre.
Under the formula, a 50-acre average woodland west of the river would be valued at $5,400 for tax purposes, and in a community with a $15/$1,000 valuation tax rate, would be assessed $81 in annual taxes under Chapter 61, a cut of $6 from the current year..
A 50-acre average woodland east of the river would be valued at $6,000 for tax purposes, and at a $15 tax rate, would be assessed $90 in annual taxes, a rise of $0.75 from the current year..
Values for Chapter 61 & 61A forestland are set using a formula MFA developed with assessors, the Department of Conservation & Recreation and the Massachusetts Farm Bureau Federation. The formula is based on average stumpage price values, discounted to reflect that not all woodland growth can be harvested due to site and environmental considerations.
For a copy of the new valuations, click here.
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 The biggest news in the legislature is the introduction of the Senate climate bill, S.2819. The Senate took the House's offshore wind bill and replaced its language with a significantly broader bill. This bill incorporates a number of other climate-related bills and touches on offshore wind, solar, electric vehicles, and heating systems.
The most important news for our members is that the Senate bill incorporates the Lesser bill (S.2197), which removes wood from the RPS (renewable power) and APS (renewable heat). This obviously is not ideal, and is the result of significant misinformation. At the press conference for the bill, Senator Creem claimed this language was necessary to prevent the Springfield biomass power plant from being built. In fact, that plant is already dead, and both the current and the proposed RPS regulations prohibit new biomass power plants from becoming eligible for the RPS - anywhere in Massachusetts.
Lumping in modern wood heat with giant biomass power plants is misleading - they are entirely separate things. Modern wood heat is a proven decarbonizer, as shown by the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center's GoClean website.
The Senate climate bill will likely pass with this language, and the bill will then go to conference committee with the House, where the two bills, which are radically different, must be reconciled. MFA will continue to work to educate legislators on the value and importance of modern wood heat, and we'll keep you posted as the bill proceeds into conference.
Many of the bills that had an extended deadline for committee action of March 31 were given an additional extension to May 12. These include H.912, which would largely ban cutting trees on state-owned forestland, and H.1002, which would prohibit MassWildlife from managing for wildlife in 30% of Wildlife Management Areas. We'll look for action on these bill by that new deadline.
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A number of upcoming webinars focus on forest carbon. Check these out!
 First, on Wednesday, April 27 from 10 am - 11:30 am, Mount Wachusett Community College's Senator Robert D. Wetmore Center for Forest and Wood Products will hold the first in a series of panel discussions related to forests. These panel discussions will be co-hosted by Senator Anne Gobi, a friend and colleague of the late Senator Wetmore, and George Locasio, a professor of forestry at MWCC and a former wilderness firefighter.
In connection with Earth Day, the first discussion will focus on The Role of Forests in Carbon Sequestration. This webinar will present a good backgrounder on forest carbon. Panelists for the discussion include Dr. Laura Marx, a forest ecologist at The Nature Conservancy; Brian Hawthorne, Habitat Program Manager and forester at MassWildlife; and Emma Ellsworth, Executive Director of the Mount Grace Land Conservation Trust.
The webinar is free, but you must register. Click here to learn more and register for this webinar.
 If you haven't already joined the mailing list for the Securing Northeast Forest Carbon Program, run by the North East State Foresters Association, you can do so here. The newsletter will contain useful links and programs designed to educate forest landowners, foresters, and others.
The program will offer a number of free webinars each Wednesday morning in May around the topic of forest carbon. The webinars are designed for consulting foresters, but can be valuable for forest landowners as well.
Here are the webinars - click the links to register!
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Baker-Polito Hiring Incentive Program
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 The Baker-Polito Administration introduced a new hiring incentive program called HireNow. The program offers businesses that hire new full-time workers (30 hours or more a week - no temps or contract workers) an incentive of $4,000 per employee, up to 100 employees for a total of $400,000 per company.
New employees must earn between $14.25 and $42.50 an hour/ between $21,375 and $85,000 per year. They are eligible for the program only once, and must be employed at least 60 days before qualifying.
You can learn more about this program at mass.gov/hirenow.
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Energy Security in Europe
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Russia's invasion of Ukraine has led to spiking fossil fuel energy prices. Many European countries rely on Russian gas and oil for winter heating. However, the Nordic countries, especially Norway, aren't in this position.
Why not? In part, it's because they have installed district heating systems - essentially, plants that supply heat to much of a town or city through pipelines. District heating is more widely used throughout Europe than America. Poland and Germany have extensive district heating systems, but typically use gas to fuel those plants. In Norway, more than 90% of district heating energy is supplied by renewable sources, including sustainably-harvested wood, which is abundantly available. As a result, Norway is less vulnerable to world events affecting their winter heating bills. Iceland has reached a remarkable 100% renewable heating benchmark, but they are a special case, with active volcanoes resulting in significant geothermal energy close to the surface. Read more about this here.
Here in Massachusetts, as fossil fuel prices spike from world events, more people are heating with local, renewable wood instead. Now is the time to replace your older wood stove with a new, more efficient, and cleaner model, as Congress voted in a 26% tax incentive on the purchase price of a new stove. Talk to your local stove shop to learn more about this program.
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More Accurate Test for Lyme Disease
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 Tufts University researchers have discovered a new way to test for Lyme disease that is more accurate in the early stages of the disease, when treatment is most effective.
Testing for antibodies to Lyme disease is difficult because it may take weeks for the antibodies to appear in the bloodstream in detectable levels. Current testing is estimated to miss half of all cases when testing in the first two weeks after infection, and miss 15% of cases even after a month. The new test looks for a different type of autoantibody that appears shortly after infection in detectable levels.
As Lyme disease is a serious problem, with 500,000 infections (mostly in the Northeast), each year, improved testing could make a difference. Lyme disease remains a serious threat to those who work in or spend time in forests.
Click here to read the Boston Globe article (subscription).
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Northern Long-Eared Bat To Be Listed As Endangered
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 The US Fish and Wildlife Service is proposing to list the Northern Long-Eared Bat as endangered. The bats have dramatically declined over their range (which includes Massachusetts) as a result of White Nose Syndrome - a fungal disease that kills the bats.
An endangered listing would have impacts on solar, wind, and other land development projects. But it would also have an effect forest management, as the bats can nest in trees down to as little as three inches in diameter.
FWS has indicated that endangered listings are coming for other species of bats including the little brown bat and the tri-colored bat (formerly the eastern pipistrelle) - which also are present in Massachusetts - in the next two years, as White Nose Syndrome has devastated their populations as well.
Comments may be submitted to FWS through May 23.
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Mass Timber Accelerator Projects Named
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 We previously told you about the Boston Mass Timber Accelerator program, a partnership between the Boston Society for Architecture, the Boston Planning and Development Agency, WoodWorks, the US Forest Service, the ClimateWorks Foundation, and others to encourage the use of mass timber in construction projects.
The first seven projects to be accepted into the program have been named, and they are scattered across Boston. Click here to learn more about the projects chosen.
You can also download the Mass Timber Design Manual from WoodWorks, which contains case studies, Q&As, technical resources and more by clicking here.
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Here's a list of some upcoming events - both MFA events and those hosted by our friends. Click the links to learn more.
April 19 Yale Forest Forum - Forest Bionergy - webinar
April 20 Forestry BMPs for Extreme Weather - webinar
April 20 Woodcock & Snipe Walkabout - Jefferson, NH
April 26 Crafting Bird Habitat Tour - Monterey
April 27 Role of Forests in Carbon Sequestration - webinar
April 27 Game of Logging Level I Workshop - Middle Grove, NY
April 28 Game of Logging Level II Workshop - Middle Grove, NY
April 29 Game of Logging Storm Damage - Middle Grove, NY
May 4 The Science of Forest Carbon - webinar
May 5 Chainsaw Safety Workshop - Salem
May 10 Safe and Effective Felling Workshop - Sunapee, NH
May 10 Silvicultural Options for Degraded Woodlots - webinar
May 11 The Science of Forest Carbon Management - webinar
May 12 Fundamentals of Forestry Workshop - Colebrook, NH
May 15 Bird Habitat Woods Tour - Wrentham
May 18 Forest Carbon Markets Overview - webinar
May 18 Managing for Forest Carbon Workshop - Amherst
May 25 Forest Carbon Project Developers - webinar
June 3 White Pine Health Workshop - Durham, NH
June 17-18 Women's Basic Chainsaw Safety - Concord, NH
Additional information about these and other events will be posted at www.massforestalliance.net/calendar as information becomes available. Have an event you'd like us to promote? Email Greg Cox at gcox@crocker.com.
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