Another View Archive
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The Laws of Nature Can’t Be Repealed
After a high-water event, there are people who will say that the way to prevent future flooding is to dig out the river channel so it can hold more water and armor plate the banks with riprap. That approach sometimes works, and in some immediate stretches of river it may be necessary. But a broader view must be considered, as… (more)
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How Manomet Got it Backwards
In 2010, the Manomet Center for Conservation Sciences conducted a study for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts to examine the greenhouse gas implications of using woody biomass for energy. Manomet’s report stated that burning wood initially emits more greenhouse gasses than burning fossil fuels, and that it can take 30 years or more for this “carbon debt” to be repaid. The… (more)
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The Weeks Act and the Next Century of Conservation in New England
A century ago, northern New England was a mess. Its forests were cut over and burned out, and the remaining stands were a mere remnant of the wooded expanse that once sheltered native peoples and later greeted European colonists. These settlers’ demands for food, fuelwood, and building material began a clearing process that peaked in the 19th century, when nearly… (more)
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Another View
Recently, I learned that a 700-acre property that I have managed rather intensively since 1955 has been put on the market. Although the property has been in one family’s hands since World War I, there is no interest in continuing forest management into the third generation. This is not an isolated event for me, not, I judge, for many other… (more)
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Another View
California has the most restrictive forest practices in the country- if not the world. We own forestland in both California and Vermont, and we spend three-quarters of the year in California, where our 2000 acres of redwood and Douglas fir timberland is north of the coastal town of Ft. Bragg. Our heart, however, is in Vermont where we enjoy long… (more)
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Endangered Species Act Must be Changed
The Endangered Species Act (ESA) is the most far-reaching and powerful environmental law every enacted. But the ESA needs work. The fact that one single, unverified sighting of an Indiana bat halted logging on 109,000 acres of the Green Mountain National Forest (GMNF) should be proof enough. The complete content of this article is part of the downloadable pdf of… (more)
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Can We Trust the Paper Companies
Recent big industrial forestland sales in the Northeast have aggravated an already tense relationship between the paper industry and independent logging contractors, calling the companies’ commitment tot he region into question. The complete content of this article is part of the downloadable pdf of this issue, available in our online shop.
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More Than One Path to Better Forestry
I had an interesting meeting with a consultant recently who was doing market research, political searching, and some plain digging in the dirt of the forest certification world that, up until now, has been dominated by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC). He was working for FSC’s new executive for U.S. operations. This consultant has done some pretty interesting consulting work,… (more)
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Debunking Misinformation About Vermont’s Current Use Program
In light of the down economy, Vermont, like many states in our region, is looking for ways to reduce its annual budget. Last year, the legislature attempted to take $1.6 million from the Use Value Appraisal (Current Use) program, a conservation measure that taxes land on its value for agricultural and forestry uses and not on its development potential. The… (more)
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Conserve More Land Today through Parcel Aggregation
Harvard Forest recently produced a report called Wildlands and Woodlands, A Vision for the New England Landscape. The vision calls for a long-term conservation effort that would conserve 70 percent of New England’s forests – a bold objective. The question now becomes: how can this be accomplished? The traditional method of working with willing landowners to conserve individual tracts of… (more)