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Come to the Tree Farm Field Day in
Plainfield on September 26th!
The 2009 Massachusetts Tree Farm Field Day will be
held at the Ashfield Rod & Gun Club in Plainfield on
Saturday September 26th.
Preparations are now underway for the event which
will feature a tour of the Club’s woodlands,
landowner workshops, the annual Tree Farm picnic,
equipment demonstrations, and other events.
The Ashfield Rod & Gun Club owns 100 acres of
woodlands in Plainfield and Hawley that are managed
primarily for wildlife habitat. The property was
originally certified as a Tree Farm in 1957, 52
years ago. The morning tour will visit an early
successional habitat clearcut done 4 years ago as
well as a nearby area where a similar future
operation will be conducted when markets improve.
An afternoon tour will visit a neighboring Tree Farm
in Hawley combining a view of a similar patch cut
for wildlife after 12 years growth with a discussion
of survival and management of trees in a woodland
with significant damage from the December ice storm.
Landowner workshops about managing for habitat
diversity, getting help from the new Farm Bill, and
dealing with ice damaged trees are also planned.
Tickets for the Field Day cost $15
for adults and $8 for children. To register,
contact Greg Cox at 413 339-5526 or email
gcox@crocker.com
Reservations are due by September 23rd.
Directions:
From the East:
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Take Route 2 to Buckland
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Take Route 112 south to Ashfield center.
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Turn right
at the four corners and take Hawley Road west,
bearing right at the first fork about 1 mile from
Route 112.
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Follow
Hawley Road to the Hawley Fire Station and turn left
toward Plainfield on Plainfield Road
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The Rod &
Gun Club is on the right, just past the town line
about 2 miles from the Hawley Fire Station.
From the South:
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Take Route 9 to Goshen, then take Route 112 north to
Ashfield center.
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Follow the
directions above to the Rod & Gun Club.
From the West:
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Take Route 116 to Plainfield
Center and turn left at the four
corners.
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Bear right by the cemetery and then turn right on
North Street 1 mile further up.
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Follow North Street another 2 miles and the Rod &
Gun Club will be on the left, just before the Hawley
town line.
Watch Out for the Asian
Long-Horned Beetle!!!!
The Commonwealth's trees -- from old-growth stands
to state forests to private woodlots to urban street
trees -- are threatened by the spread of the Asian
long-horned beetle (ALB), an invasive wood boring
insect that damages and kills
trees.
This invasive insect kills hardwood
trees; all maple species plus horse chestnut, elm,
birch, willow, ash, sycamore, and poplar.
ALB poses significant threats to
wood, tourism, and maple sugar industries in
Massachusetts and beyond. State
agencies in Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine, New York,
Connecticut, and Rhode Island are very concerned
about the ALB spread through Massachusetts'
reservoir lands to their states.
The ALB infestation in Worcester and
surrounding communities is the largest found to date
in the United States, affecting more than 23,000
trees.
Since the Worcester ALB infestation was discovered
one year ago, more than 22,000 trees have
been cut down and destroyed to try to
limit its spread, and the end is nowhere in sight.
More than 800 additional infested trees have been
found in Worcester this summer and as the result of
confirmation of more than 30 infested trees in
Holden, the area from which no wood can be removed
has been further expanded to 66 square miles. State
and federal forestry technicians and volunteers are
still surveying trees in Worcester and more infested
trees are found every week. Federal officials have
estimated that the total number of trees that will
ultimately have to destroyed to control the
infestation may exceed 40,000.
Governor Patrick has declared August as
Asian Long-horned Beetle Awareness
Month to encourage every
resident in the Commonwealth to be alert and learn
to identify and report sightings of this invasive
insect. Conservation groups and agencies are
mounting a coordinated effort to eradicate the
current ALB infestation in central Massachusetts. As
part of this endeavor, the Department of
Agricultural Resources is offering
free training
for volunteers in August.
Participants will learn how to recognize the signs
of ALB and gain the skills needed to train others.
The Asian Long-horned Beetle (ALB) Outreach and
Survey Project is looking for volunteers to receive
training about ALB and other forest pests. Register
now for an Asian Longhorned Beetle
"Train the Trainer"
session and get the tools you need to teach others
about
Asian longhorned beetle
and protect your neighborhood from this invasive
pest!
These sessions, organized by the
Massachusetts Department of
Agricultural Resources,
are geared towards nursery and landscape
professionals, environmental group leaders, master
gardeners, and anyone else that is willing to commit
to passing on this valuable information to the rest
of the community. Come to a train-the-trainer
session and leave with:
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The ability to recognize ALB and
tree damage caused by ALB
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Tips to distinguish ALB from
similar species and to recognize when tree
damage is not caused by ALB
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Copies of various outreach
materials and other cool ALB gear to distribute
to the people you will be training
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Access to beetle specimens and
damaged wood for your own training sessions
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The latest information on the
infestation in Worcester
For information about ALB training
sessions, email
jennifer.forman-orth@state.ma.us
or call 617-626-1735.
The first year’s cost to eradicate ALBs is more than
$24 million. The city of Worcester will be filing a
home-rule petition with the Legislature to get
permission to borrow $500,000 to plant new trees in
some of the worst hit neighborhoods. The bond money
would supplement more than $200,000 that has been
raised by the nonprofit Worcester Tree Initiative
which seeks to plant 30,000 trees in Worcester over
the next 5 years.
For information/photographs on ALB, see
www.uvm.edu/albeetle/
ALBs arrived in the U.S. prior to 1996 in solid wood
packing materials from China and caused outbreaks of
insects in New York, Chicago, New Jersey and
Toronto. With lots of thoughtful hard work, USDA
and local partners have been able to eliminate ALB
infestations in Queens, NY; Chicago, IL; and
Toronto, ON.
Due to the size of the Worcester infestation, it is
thought that ALBs have been present there at least 8
to 10 years.
The discovery of ALBs in Worcester and adjoining
communities has led to an intensive search since
August to determine the exact extent of the
infestation. The USDA immediately established a
"quarantine" or "regulated zone" from which no
firewood, lumber, branches, twigs, or chips may be
removed. The quarantine area has expanded as USDA
confirms ALB sightings; they recently expanded the
area from to 66 square miles. USDA, the MA
Department of Conservation and Recreation, and the
City of Worcester also immediately began a
coordinated effort to survey street trees, city
parks, and private yards for signs of the
impressively large, black- and- white spotted
beetle.
Please help stop the spread of the
ALB in Massachusetts!
Landowners should learn how to identify ALB, and the
signs of an ALB infestation. If an ALB infestation
is found early, only those trees infested and a few
nearby trees may have to be cut down and chipped.
Any possible infestation should be
reported, either by phone
to 508-929-1300 (Worcester) or 617-626-1779 (outside
of Worcester) or via this website:
http://massnrc.org/pests/linkeddocuments/pestalerts/ALB_Aug2008.htm
U.S. Senate considering Climate
Bill, Includes Carbon Provisions for Working Forests
The U.S. Senate is considering major climate change
legislation this summer that could prove beneficial
to keeping more land in forests.
In
June, the House of Representatives narrowly approved
(219-212) HR 2454, the
American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009,
sponsored by
Representatives Henry Waxman (D-California) and
Edward Markey (D-Massachusetts). This bill would
require major cuts in emissions of carbon dioxide
and set up a “cap & trade” system wherein major
emitters of CO2 would have to cut their emissions by
20 percent by 2020 and 83 percent by 2050.
Businesses which cannot easily reduce their
emissions would be able to purchase carbon credits
from projects that reduce overall emissions.
Under changes won by American Forest Foundation and
other conservation organizations, the bill would
allow actively managed working forests to qualify
for carbon credits, which should allow larger
landowners to realize annual income from the carbon
their woodlands sequester.
Beneficial changes included in HR 2454 are:
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Guarantees that forest offset
market opportunities will be created for family
forest owners, including working forest
management projects
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Ensure that the USDA has the lead
role in implementing the offset markets for
forests
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Ensure "early actors," family
forest owners who have already taken steps to
manage their properties responsibly, will be
rewarded for their carbon-positive activities.
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Allow all biomass from family
forests to be used to meet the Renewable
Electricity and Renewable Fuels Standards,
fixing the flawed definition in the original
Waxman-Markey bill and the 2007 Energy bill,
while maintaining protections for sustainable
forest management.
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Allow a range of green building
standards to qualify, not just LEEDS
The Senate is now considering similar legislation.
On August 4th,
Senator Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire filed
S-1576, The Forest Carbon
Incentives Program Act of
2009, a bill that would reward forest landowners for
completing practices that increase carbon
sequestration and storage on their land. This would
allow the owners of smaller forests to participate
and encourage carbon friendly activities. This will
help capture the carbon benefits of smaller forest
ownerships, as are common in Massachusetts, that
would likely be priced out of carbon offset markets
due to economies of scale. The legislation has been
cosponsored by Senators Olympia Snowe and Susan
Collins of Maine, Bernard Sanders of Vermont and
Charles Schumer of New York, as well as both
senators from Oregon. The legislation is supported
by the American Forest Foundation and other
conservation groups.
If
you would like to help get the Shaheen bill
considered as part of the Senate climate
legislation, call the offices of Senators Edward
Kennedy (202 224-4543) or John Kerry (202 224-2742)
and ask them to cosponsor the Shaheen bill.
For more information, see
www.forestfoundation.org
Chapter 61 Forest Taxes
Cut 40 Percent for 2009!
Thanks to effective efforts by MFLA, new recommended
values for Chapter 61 and Chapter 61A land have been
approved with 40 percent reductions for woodlands
statewide.
In
2008, the first year of the revised Chapter 61
valuation formula, the woodland tax values were set
at $173/acre for forestlands west of the Connecticut
River and $108 for woodlands east of the river.
While those values created substantial reductions
for landowners in areas with high values for
development, they substantially increased the tax
assessments for larger woodlands that lacked
substantial road frontage, with taxes rising up to
900 percent in some instances.
After those values were released, MFLA began working
with Mass. Farm Bureau and DCR officials to study
how the valuation formula differed from formulas
used by other nearby states.
Last fall, a joint working group
comprised of DCR officials, MFLA members, assessors
and Farm Bureau began discussing ways to change the
formula to make it more equitable.
The revised formula with substantial reductions was
presented to the Forest and Farmland Advisory
Committee last month and approved.
The new formula creates a range of values for
woodlands for both East and West of the Connecticut
River.
For East of the river, the average tax value for
fiscal 2010 is $67/acre, with a value for below
average sites of $53/acre and for above average
sites of $80/acre.
The average value is 38 percent lower
than the fiscal 2009 rate.
For West of the river, the average tax value for
fiscal 2010 is $98/acre, with the value for below
average sites of $78/acre and for above average
sites of $117/acre.
The average value is 43 percent lower
than the fiscal 2009 rate.
The value of land in Christmas trees has been set at
$108/acre for fiscal 2010.
To
view the new valuations, see
this.
Emerald Ash Borers Found in
Western New York!
According to a news report on WAMC, the New York
Department of Environmental Conservation has
confirmed that the highly invasive destructive
insect, Emerald Ash Borer,
has been found in western New York along the
Pennsylvania border.
DEC has maintained beetle traps in western New York
for a number of years to watch for possible invasion
by the EAB which have killed millions of ash trees
in Ohio and Michigan and have been found previously
in western Pennsylvania and Quebec. EABs, which
have no native predator, are native to China and the
Korean peninsula. Adult EABs lay eggs in the inner
bark of ash trees. The larvae, when they hatch,
consume the phloem layer, killing the trees.
The EAB infestation was discovered in Randolph, New
York in Cattaraugus
County just north of the Pennsylvania
border.
New York, like other states, has
banned the importation of firewood from out of state
to try to prevent the spread of destructive insects
like EABs.
Ash is an important species of eastern and northern
hardwood forests and is commonly used to make tool
handles, canoe paddles, and baseball bats.
Don’t Move Firewood --- Help
Prevent Spread of Destructive Pests!
Invasive pests like the Asian
long-horned beetle or emerald ash borer are often
spread when people inadvertently move them into
neighboring states in firewood. For that reason,
state officials are urging residents to not move
firewood between states.
Fears of an even greater spread of
the Worcester ALB infestation has led forestry
officials in all six New England states, plus New
York, Pennsylvania and New Jersey to begin surveying
campgrounds and areas of second homes for possible
infestations resulting from Worcester area residents
bringing firewood from home to burn when camping
before the Worcester infestation was discovered last
year. Surveys have shown that 25 percent of campers
in New Hampshire bring firewood from home when they
go camping. Based on that, Vermont officials
estimate that more than 450 Worcester area residents
would have brought firewood into Vermont when
camping between 2002 and 2008.
Vermont has now banned campers from
bringing wood with them. New York now bans the
importation of firewood to avoid spreading insect
infestations.
For more information, see
www.dontmovefirewood.org
Native Lumber Exemption Protected
in New State
Building Code!
Landowners and builders will continue to be able to
use home grown, Massachusetts-produced lumber for
farm and residential construction after proposed
building code changes that would have forbid
construction with local wood were modified this
spring.
Since colonial settlement in the early 1600’s,
landowners have used lumber sawn from native trees
to build with. This year, Massachusetts has adopted
the International Building Code to set standards for
acceptable practices for construction. The IBC,
however, did not include provisions for any
exemption of locally grown and produced lumber from
its standards that all construction lumber be graded
according to international standards. Without an
exemption, locally produced lumber would have been
ruled unsuitable for local building projects despite
the fact that it has been used for construction here
since the early 1600’s. Most lumber produced at
local sawmills isn’t graded due to the expense of
hiring a licensed grader. Some mills sawing hemlock
or pine market up to half of their production under
the native lumber standard for use in barns,
garages, and homes.
With help from a coalition of people, including Fred
Heyes from MFLA, a revised regulation protecting the
continued use of native lumber produced by local
sawmills was included in the final version of the
Code.
This provision allows building
inspectors to accept lumber produced in MA by
“registered mills” in accordance with the Native
Lumber regulations (listed in 780 CMR R4). Native
lumber can then be used in “one and two story
dwellings, barns, sheds, agricultural and accessory
buildings and structures and other uses permitted by
780 CMR 23”. Native lumber can be used ungraded
provided it is stamped and certified as required by
the Native Lumber regulations.
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