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Serving as a resource to help strengthen the ability of friends groups to better protect and enhance Massachusetts’ forests and parks since 2007.

Last update: July 14, 2010 .

Forestry Concerns Pages

Massachusetts Forest and Park Friends Network

Join the Friends Network

Links to networking friends

MA forests and parks need friends - NE District

MA forests and parks need friends - Western and Central Districts

List of MA forests, parks and trails

Historic resources in friends groups' forests and parks

Campaign to stop illegal off-road vehicles

Resources for friends groups

Send us your news items for the next newsletter!

 

butterfly

Photo by Mike Ryan

In every walk with nature one receives far more than he seeks—John Muir

 

  friends of Georgetown RowleyJoin Friends of Georgetown Rowley on Facebook:

New Facebook Wall "Take a minute, Save a Forest". Visit the group.

Massachusetts Forest and Park Friends Network 2nd Annual Conference—October 24, 2009

Conference Highlights


View Friends in Action 2009 Slide Show


Forest Futures Presentation

Welcome to Massachusetts Forest and Park Friends Network

Massachusetts Forest and Park Friends Network is an independent grassroots organization of volunteer Friends groups working together to better protect and enhance Massachusetts’ state forests and parks. The MA Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR) oversees 259 forests and parks, but only 34 Friends groups serve a particular state property. Our goal is to support communication between Friends groups and DCR and everone who cares about forests and parks. We want to see a Friends group in every forest and parkland in the Commonwealth.

Be part of the solution! Sign up for the MA Forest and Park Friends Network Newsletter!



New

Friends Network Letter to DCR Commissoner Sullivan thanking him for his recent decision to require a Resource Management Plan for the Middlesex Fells Reservation.

Why MA needs Resource Management Plans — Middlesex Fells Trails Planning Process Letter from 4 Environmental Groups to DCR

Alerts!!

Help your park. Insist on a Resource Management Plan for all forests and parks as required by MGL Chapter 21, Section 2F. Click here for more information on what you can do to help get a Resource Management Plan for every forest and park!

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The Friends Network Thanks Our Representatives Who Supported The OHV Enforcement Bill! Thank you!

Want to thank your Representative? MA State Representatives voted in favor of the OHV Bill with 142 Yeas, 12 Nays. View the roll call (courtesy of Jennifer Ryan, Legislative Director, Mass Audubon, www.massaudubon.org). Our thanks to Jen for keeping everyone well informed and up to date.

Who voted NO against the most important environmental bill of the past two years? Barrows, Cabral, Callahan, Garry, Gobi, Guyer, Kujawski, Pignatelli, Frost, Humason, Polito, and Webster. We need to ask these Representatives why they think it's OK to turn a blind eye on destructive criminal activity and why they do not want to see cooperation on finding legal places to ride OHV's.

The OHV bill will give enforcement officers the tools they need to stop illegal and destructive riding on public and private lands and provides funding for the development of public trails in appropriate places. For more information, read the letter sent by nine major conservation groups OHV Joint Letter.

Park Watch

DCR Rangers have set up a Park Watch program to better protect public lands with the help from volunteers. Concerned citizens can call (866) PK-WATCH 24/7 to report any suspicious activity. DCR Rangers will contact the appropriate agency AND they will record your call for future enforcement planning. Report illegal activity every time to make it work! Callers remain anonymous. Find out how to organize Park Watch for your favorite forest or park. Contact Bureau of Ranger Services. We need one number that works statewide to report problems and to help protect our forests and parks! Demand Park Watch!

Read the June 28, 2010 letter sent to DCR Commissoner Sullivan from the Friends Network regarding the need for Park Watch.

 

Public Tours of Forest Lands

Professional foresters and biologists from the Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR) and the Department of Fish and Game’s Division of Fisheries and Wildlife (DFW) are leading a series of evening tours this month on state lands to explain and discuss state forestry and wildlife habitat management practices. 
These tours are open to the public. Tours will take participants through areas that have been open to commercial harvesting for the purposes of watershed management as well as forest and wildlife habitat diversity. The final tour in the series will feature a sawmill and forest products manufacturing company.
The state lands tours will be conducted (rain or shine). Participants should wear sturdy footwear and bring bug repellant.

July 21, 6:30 PM—DFW Phillipston Wildlife Management Area, Phillipston
This site features a 30-acre, old-field, white pine harvest that used a seed-tree cut to regenerate a more diverse stand of mixed species, including red oak, white pine, black cherry, and hemlock. The resulting young forest habitat benefits several declining bird species, such as brown thrasher, blue-winged warbler, and white-throated sparrow. Meet at the Templeton General Store at the intersection of Routes 101, 2A, and Baldwinville Road. Carpooling to the tour location is encouraged.

July 28, 6 PM—Heyes Forest Products, Orange
This sawmill and forest products manufacturing tour will feature Heyes Forest Products (HFP), a company that has harvested trees and manufactured lumber products from the forests of the North Quabbin region for 40 years.  Meet at 6 PM at Heyes Forest Products, 34 Daniel Shays Highway (Route 202) in Orange.

For more information contact Jessica A. Rowcroft, DCR Resource Management Planner: 617.626.1380/Jessica.Rowcroft@state.ma.us.

Friends Network Note: Please attend the forestry tours, and when you go, ask the DCR forest professionals how the state can continue to harvest forest products from public lands in good conscience knowing that a site-specific Resource Management Plan (RMP), required by MGL Chapter 21, Sect. 2F, has not been completed for each forest?

Forest Resource Management Plans (FRMP) were developed for DISTRICTS with a focus on timber management. They are way too general to fully protect our natural and cultural resources. To really insure sustainable and multi purpose forests, we need a complete inventory of all forest values for each forest and a comprehensive RMP plan to insure the survival of representative forest types throughout the Northeast. Accepting FRMP’s is like being interested in buying a house and having the realtor tell you that you don’t need a house inspection because the neighborhood is in pretty good shape! You’d never buy that! Insist upon RMP’s for each forest and park and insist upon a statewide comprehensive conservation plan before accepting any more logging on public land!