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STOP THE MASSACHUSETTS CHAINSAW MASSACRE

Protect New England’s Forests

 

Unfragmented, Healthy, Beautiful Forests, Deerfield River, Massachusetts

 

A Rare Old Tree Left in Peace in the Northeastern United States

 

Magnificent Old-Growth Forest, Mohawk Trail, Massachusetts

 

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Photos Below are “Local” Clearcutting of MA State Public Forests and Conservation Easements

Sold to the Public with Promises of “Sustainable Forestry” and Approved by Licensed Foresters

 

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Massachusetts DFW Public Forest “Management”, Muddy Brook WMA, March 2020 - Illegal Clearcutting

 

MGL Chapter 131: Section 4: Part 16, Division of Fish and Wildlife: “It shall be a condition of each contract for

the cutting and sale of timber that clear-cutting timber on lands managed by the division is specifically prohibited

 

Muddy Brook WMA Public Forests, March 2020 - Illegal Clearcutting

 

Drone Photo, Muddy Brook State Public Forests, April 2020

 

Muddy Brook WMA Public Forest – BEFORE”  Google Earth  2014 – Hardwick, MA

 

Muddy Brook WMA Public Forest – AFTER”  Google Earth  2019 - Illegal Clearcutting

 

MA Division of Fish and Wildlife, Herman Covey WMA, March 2020 - Illegal Clearcutting

 

 

MA Division of Fish and Wildlife, Birch Hill WMA, May 2020 - Illegal Clearcutting

 

MA Division of Fish and Wildlife, Birch Hill WMA, 2019, Google Earth - Illegal Clearcutting

 

MA Division of Fish and Wildlife - Muddy Brook Wildlife “Conservation” Easement, March 2020 

 

MA Division of Fish and Wildlife - Muddy Brook Wildlife “Conservation” Easement, March 2020 

 

MA Division of Fish and Wildlife - Muddy Brook Wildlife “Conservation” Easement, March 2020 

 

Many More Photos Below

 

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During the last public comment period, 96% of public comments called for more protection of State forests and/or an

end to commercial logging of State public forests, watersheds and wildlife areas.  However, to this day, no Massachusetts

State Public forests are legally and permanently protected from commercial logging.   For comparison, New York State has

permanently and legally set aside more than 20% of its forests in constitutionally protected parks and reserves.  Additionally,

the public is still being forced to subsidize tree-fueled biomass energy which is worse for the climate than even fossil fuels.

 

Now would be a good time for the humility to admit that what we humans have been doing for centuries has created a deep

hole, and stop digging.   Most forest "management" is simply commerce masquerading as conservation.   What would genuinely

“improve” forests is for humans to stop our chainsaw “treatments” and leave a portion of nature in peace to recover from the

damage we have inflicted, and continue to inflict, with our economic goals to infinity (and beyond!) on a finite planet.

 

Luckily, we can improve protection for Massachusetts forests, air quality and climate by passing the following Bills:

 

H.4150 An Act Relative to Forest Protection

Would help protect DCR Public Parks, Forests and Watersheds from logging. (About 14% of MA forests)  

 

H.904 An Act Relative to Increased Protection of Wildlife Management Areas

Would help protect 30% of DFW Public Forests from logging.  (About 2% of MA forests)     

 

These Bills would provide increased protection for 16% of Massachusetts Forests to leave them in peace to

capture and store carbon, clean the air and water, provide undisturbed wildlife habitat, flood control, spiritual

refuge, scenic beauty, recreation opportunities, support the tourism economy, among other benefits.  

 

Please Ask your Representatives to Support and Sponsor These Bills

 

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DFW State Sponsored Forest Destruction Here

 

  Narrated Aerial Video (8 min)        Detailed Report (23 MB)

 

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UNDERSTANDING LOGGING PROPAGANDA  

 

Forest Carbon Storage in the Northeast United States

Comparison of Logging vs. No Logging (No Management)

 

For a Reminder of the Many Benefits Provided by Forests:      Click Here

A Short Video:  The Importance of An Intact Forest Canopy:  Click Here

 

More Massachusetts State Sponsored Forest Destruction 

 

Ground/Aerial Clearcut Photos of Boston’s Drinking Watershed Forests (15MB)  Click Here

Google Earth Clearcut Photos of Boston’s Drinking Watershed Forests (5MB)       Click Here

Clearcut Photos of White Mountain National Forest in New Hampshire (25MB)    Click Here

Vermont Clearcut Photos and Big Plans to Clearcut Green Mountain NF (7MB)    Click Here

 A Channel 5 Investigative Report Video of Massachusetts State Land Logging       Click Here

 

All Massachusetts State Public Forests  (19% of MA Forests)

Merit Full and Permanent Legal Protection from Logging

 

·      Destructive clearcutting is commonplace and most of the logs are trucked to Canada

·      The timber program costs outweigh revenues.  Taxpayers pay to cut down their own forests.

·      The state agencies managing forests use standard industry propaganda to confuse citizens.

 

Biomass Editorial                               Click Here

Biomass “Reality Check”                  Click Here

Comprehensive PPT (45 MB)           Click Here

Forest, Biomass & Media Links        Click Here

 

SEE MANY MORE PHOTOS BELOW

 

All photos below are FSC "Green” Certified, Allegedly “Sustainable” Logging

on Massachusetts State Public Forests, Watersheds and Parks

 

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IT’S OUR CHOICE…..

This?

 

 

Deerfield River, Mohawk Trail

 

Or This

Peru Wildlife Management Area, “Creating Wildlife Habitat”,  Middlefield Road, 2007

 

 

 

Windsor Jambs State Park, 2008

 

Windsor State Forest, Drinking Water Supply Area… “Please Protect it!

Schoolhouse Road near Windsor Jambs Natural Area, 2008

 

“Savoy State Forest, over 50 miles of wooded trails invite year-round recreational access to spectacular natural features. 

Or climb up Spruce Hill on the Busby Trail for breathtaking views, especially during fall foliage and hawk migration.”  

DCR Website

 

Savoy State Forest, Aerial View, New State Rd, Clearcuts, 2008

 

Savoy State Forest, Ground View Of Location Marked In The Photo Above, 2008

 

“Savoy Mountain State Forest makes it easy to leave the everyday world behind. Scenic North and South Ponds,

with wooded edges and hills rising in the distance, offer tranquil places to fish, picnic and swim.”     DCR Website

 

Savoy State Forest, “Shelterwood Logging”  New State Road, 2008

 

We shall require a substantially new manner of thinking if mankind is to survive

~Albert Einstein

 

Savoy State Forest, Aerial View, 44 Acre Cut, Bannis Road, 2008

Busy monster eats dark holes in the spirit world... where wild things have to go to disappear forever"

~Bruce Cockburn

 

Savoy State Forest, New State Road, 2008

When the soil disappears, the soul disappears. ~Ymber Delecto

 

Savoy State Forest, Adams Road, 2007

 

Rules Are For Other People…..Savoy State Forest

 

            Windsor Jambs State Park, 2007

 

Quabbin Reservoir, Aerial View, South Prescott Peninsula Restricted Area, 2008

Hiking is Illegal to Protect the Watershed for Boston’s Drinking Water Supply

 

Quabbin Reservoir, Aerial View, East Prescott Peninsula Restricted Area, 2010

Boston’s Drinking Water Supply Area, White Blotches are Clearcut Areas

 

Quabbin Reservoir, Aerial View, Gate 40 Area, 2010

Boston’s Drinking Water Supply Area, White Blotches are Clearcut Areas

 

Quabbin Reservoir, Ground View, Gate 40 Area, December 2009

  Reservoir Visible Behind Trees

 

Quabbin Reservation, Boston’s Drinking Water Supply Watershed

Gate 40, Reservoir Visible Behind Trees, December 2009

 

Quabbin Reservation, Boston’s Drinking Water Supply Watershed, Gate 40, 2009

 

Quabbin Reservoir Protection Forest, Aerial View, Woodward Road, 2010

 

Quabbin Reservation, Boston’s Drinking Water Supply Watershed

Woodward Road, Ground View, December 2009

 

Quabbin Reservation, Boston’s Drinking Water Supply Watershed

Woodward Road, Ground View, December 2009

 

Our modern industrial economy takes a mountain covered with trees, lakes, running streams

and transforms it into a mountain of junk, garbage, slime pits, and debris. ~Edward Abbey

 

Quabbin Reservation, Boston’s Drinking Water Supply Watershed

Woodward Road, December 2009

 

Google Earth Image, Quabbin Reservation, Boston’s Drinking Water Supply

Northeast Prescott Peninsula, “Before” Cutting, Image April 1, 2005

Note:  Hiking on the Prescott Peninsula is illegal to “protect” the watershed.

 

 

Google Earth Image, Quabbin Reservation, Boston’s Drinking Water Supply

Northeast Prescott Peninsula, “After” Clear-Cutting, Image Sept 21, 2010

 

 

Google Earth Image, Quabbin Reservation, Boston’s Drinking Water Supply

Southeast Prescott Peninsula, “Before” Cutting, Image April 1, 2005

 

 

Google Earth Image, Quabbin Reservation, Boston’s Drinking Water Supply

Southeast Prescott Peninsula, “After” Clear-Cutting, Image July 3, 2008

 

 

Google Earth Image, Quabbin Reservation, Boston’s Drinking Water Supply

Graves Landing, “Before” Cutting, Image April 1, 2005

 

 

Google Earth Image, Quabbin Reservation, Boston’s Drinking Water Supply

Graves Landing, “After” Clear-Cutting, Image July 3, 2008

 

 

Google Earth Image, Quabbin Reservation, Boston’s Drinking Water Supply

Greenwhich-Dana Road, “Before” Cutting, Image April 1, 2005

 

 

Google Earth Image, Quabbin Reservation, Boston’s Drinking Water Supply

Greenwhich-Dana Road, “After” Clear-Cutting, Image July 3, 2008

 

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“At 16,500 acres, October Mountain is the largest State forest in Massachusetts.

Here visitors can camp, hike and enjoy the outdoors while they visit nearby

Tanglewood and other Berkshire Region points of interest.”   DCR Website

 

October Mountain State Forest, Aerial View, County Road, 2008

 

We abuse land because we regard it as a commodity belonging to us.   When we see land as

a community to which we belong, we may begin to use it with love and respect. ~Aldo Leopold

 

October Mountain State Forest, West Branch Road, 2007

 

Every creature is better alive than dead, men and moose and pine trees, and he who

understands it aright will rather preserve its life than destroy it. ~Henry David Thoreau

 

October Mountain State Forest, Aerial View, Illegal 50 Acre Clearcut, 2007

 

Man has been endowed with reason, with the power to create, so that he can add to what he's been

given. But up to now he hasn't been a creator, only a destroyer. Forests keep disappearing, rivers dry

up, wild life's become extinct, the climate's ruined and the land grows poorer and uglier every day.

~Anton Chekhov

 

 October Mountain State Forest, County Road, 2007

 

Let us a little permit Nature to take her own way; she better understands her own affairs than we.

~Michel de Montaigne

 

October Mountain State Forest, Loading for Shipping….. to Quebec, 2008

 

October Mountain State Forest……Bonjour Quebec!   2008

 

Beartown State Forest offers visitors a chance to glimpse deer, bear, bobcat, fisher and other wildlife, including the park's

namesake, the Black Bear. Brooks, beaver ponds, rich deciduous forest, flowering shrubs and wildflowers and fall foliage

are plentiful. The Appalachian Trail passes near Benedict Pond and offers spectacular wooded views” ~DCR Website

Beartown State Forest, Beartown Mountain Rd, 2008

There is a sufficiency in the world for man's need but not for man's greed.

~Mohandas K. Gandhi

 

Poland Brook Wildlife Management Area, Illegal Clearcutting, 2008

 

Sandisfield State Forest, 2008

 

When a man says to me, "I have the intensest love of nature," at once I know that he has none.
~Ralph Waldo Emerson

 

H.O. Cook State Forest, 2008

 

Chester-Blandford State Forest offers a rustic park experience and spectacular Sanderson Brook Falls…..

try the H. Newman Marsh Memorial Trail featuring a challenging, but rewarding, climb to the top of Observation

Hill, with views spanning up and down the wild and scenic Westfield River valley.    DCR Website

 

About 2005, a large clear-cut on a steep slope was illegally cut right up to the edge of a long established beaver pond in Chester

Blandford State Forest.  In August 2008, the beaver dam was breached in a rainstorm and the pond was lost and washed downstream

into to the Westfield River.  It is likely that the extra runoff from the 2005 clear-cut significantly contributed to the dam breach.

 

         

BEFORE CLEARCUT”, Aerial View,  2001          AFTER CLEARCUT”, Aerial View,  2005

 

After Clearcut to edge of Beaver Pond, Before Dam Breach”, May 2008

 

After Clearcut to edge of Beaver Pond, Before Dam Breach”, May 2008        

 

 

  

After Clearcut to edge of Beaver Pond, Before Dam Breach”, May 2008        

 

 

After Clearcut and After Dam Breach”, Nov, 2008

 

 

“The Massachusetts Division of Fisheries and Wildlife is responsible for the conservation - including restoration,

protection and management – of fish and wildlife resources for the benefit and enjoyment of the public. DFW Website

 

Google Earth “Before” photo of large, un-fragmented, interior forest

Fox Den Wildlife Management Area, 2005

 

Aerial View “After” Photo Of Illegal Clear-Cuts In The Same Location

Fox Den Wildlife Management Area, Chipman Rd, March, 2008

 

Conway State Forest,  November 2008

We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children.

~Native American Proverb

 

Below is a logging job on Bear Mountain Road in Wendell State forest.

The large trees were cut for sawtimber and the others were chipped for biomass with a large

on-site chipper.  The contractor stated that most of the chips went to the Portsmouth NH biomass

plant, 125 miles away, with a smaller portion going to the Pine-tree biomass plant in Fitchburg.

The state received $3,000 for the wood and $2,520 worth of road repairs. 

 

Bear Mountain Road, Wendell State Forest, NH Biomass Cut, 2009

 

 

Savoy State Forest, 2008

 

 

The picture below shows an early spring aerial photo of the area before clearcutting. 

The stand is very alive Norway Spruce mixed with some hardwoods with 1800’s era

Miller cemetery located between 2 areas slated for clearcutting.

 

 

 

Below is the “after” photo showing the FSC sanctioned clearcuts right up to the

cemetery.  March 2008.  See following photos for ground views photos 1 and 2

 

Below is “Photo 2” view identified in the previous picture, a ground view of an FSC

sanctioned clearcut to the edge of Miller cemetery area, soon after the clearcut, May 2008.  

Edge trees left around the cemetery demonstrate that the stand was alive and healthy.

 

Below is the “Photo 1” ground view of FSC sanctioned clearcut to edge of Miller

cemetery a year later, March 2009.  Remaining edge trees have died from

exposure and some have blown down into the cemetery.

 

A view looking out from within Miller cemetery, March 2009

 

 

 

“SCS investigated the sites of concern raised by Massachusetts stakeholders in a substantive

manner that conforms with FSC-mandated audit protocols. This investigation included site

 inspections of most of the sites in question. SCS felt confident that the DCR lands in

question were in conformance with the FSC standards.”

 

Miller Cemetery, Adams Road, Savoy State Forest, 2008

 

There is no good reason for commercial logging of State public forests, watersheds and parks.

 

    State public forests, watersheds and parks comprise only 12% of Massachusetts land area and 20% of its forests and represent

our best chance to preserve and protect wilderness areas, fish and wildlife habitat, clean water, clean air, tourism income, carbon

sequestration, scenic beauty and recreational opportunities in this 3rd most densely populated state of 7 million residents.

 

·       The $14 billion tourist industry depends heavily upon protected public forests.

 

 

·       According to the FSC peer reviewer comments, the public “overwhelmingly” prefers no commercial logging on public lands.

 

·       Most of the wood cut on state forests is sent out of state to Quebec and 90% of Massachusetts logging occurs on private lands.

 

·       The timber program loses money, taxpayers are paying to cut down their own forests.

 

    Massachusetts has the opportunity be a leader in forest protection to help reduce global warming and to avoid valid

claims of hypocrisy when we admonish third world countries to protect 25-50% of their forests from logging

 

Public Lands Belong To The Public

It’s Our Choice…..This?

Non-threatening Norway Spruce, Savoy State Forest

 

And This?

Mixed Forest, Holyoke Range State Park

 

Or This?

Quabbin Reservation, Boston’s Drinking Water Supply Watershed

Woodward Road, December, 5 2009

 

 

 

STUMPS DON’T LIE

 

Only when the last tree has died and the last river been poisoned

and the last fish been caught will we realize we cannot eat money

 

Now would be a good time for the humility to admit that what we humans have been doing for centuries has created a deep

hole, and stop digging.   Most forest "management" is simply commerce masquerading as conservation.   What would genuinely

“improve” forests is for humans to stop our chainsaw “treatments” and leave a portion of nature in peace to recover from the

damage we have inflicted, and continue to inflict, with our economic goals to infinity (and beyond!) on a finite planet.

 

Immunize and Arm Yourself Against Logging Propaganda     Click Here

For a Reminder of the Many Benefits Provided by Forests:      Click Here

A Short Video:  The Importance of An Intact Forest Canopy:  Click Here

 

Recent Massachusetts State Sponsored Forest Destruction 

  Narrated Aerial Video (8 min):  Click Here      Detailed Report (23 MB):  Click Here

 

Ground/Aerial Clearcut Photos of Boston’s Drinking Watershed Forests (15MB)  Click Here

Google Earth Clearcut Photos of Boston’s Drinking Watershed Forests (5MB)       Click Here

Clearcut Photos of White Mountain National Forest in New Hampshire (25MB)    Click Here

Vermont Clearcut Photos and Big Plans to Clearcut Green Mountain NF (7MB)    Click Here

 A Channel 5 Investigative Report Video of Massachusetts State Land Logging       Click Here

 

For More Forest, Biomass & Media Links        Click Here

 

OUR PUBLIC FORESTS AT THE CROSSROADS

 

Speak Up For the Trees!

 

 

Contact:

 

Chris Matera, PE

christoforest@gmail.com