MA: Forest Policy on a Foreign Planet

ALC Note: This letter was originally published in the July/August 2010 edition of the Forest Landowner magazine.

Massachusetts Soap Box
Delivered July 8, 2010

By Cinda Jones
State Coordinator and 9th Generation
President of W. D. Cowls, Inc. Land Company

It feels like Massachusetts landowners are stranded on a bizarre and foreign planet these days. A place where the noise made by a small, but passionate, part of the public is more compelling to forest policymakers than fundamental principles of natural resource management, a place where a narrow band of scientific data is trotted out to justify hasty and drastic policy changes. Massachusetts landowners are reaching out to regional and national like-minded organizations and corporations for advice and help, and we’re getting it. If some of the policies proposed for Massachusetts forests and forest landowners take hold here, a bad precedent with possible national implications would be set.

Click Here to read the entire article on the American Loggers Council’s website.