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:             

• Take Route 2 to Buckland

• Take Route 112 south to Ashfield center.

• Turn right at the four corners and take Hawley Road west, bearing right at the first fork about 1 mile from Route 112.

• Follow Hawley Road to the Hawley Fire Station and turn left toward Plainfield on Plainfield Road

• The Rod & Gun Club is on the right, just past the town line about 2 miles from the Hawley Fire Station.

From the South:             

• Take Route 9 to Goshen, then take Route 112 north to Ashfield center.

• Follow the directions above to the Rod & Gun Club.

From the West:             

• Take Route 116 to Plainfield Center and turn left at the four corners.

• Bear right by the cemetery and then turn right on North Street 1 mile further up.

• 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:

• The ability to recognize ALB and tree damage caused by ALB
• Tips to distinguish ALB from similar species and to recognize when tree damage is not caused by ALB
• Copies of various outreach materials and other cool ALB gear to distribute to the people you will be training
• Access to beetle specimens and damaged wood for your own training sessions
• 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:

• Guarantees that forest offset market opportunities will be created for family forest owners, including working forest management projects 
• Ensure that the USDA has the lead role in implementing the offset markets for forests 
• Ensure "early actors," family forest owners who have already taken steps to manage their properties responsibly, will be rewarded for their carbon-positive activities.
• 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.
• 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.