North Quabbin Forestry

08/20/2023

Sun, Mike's wife is posting this.

We chose one day in October as a memorial day for Mike.

Sat, Oct 14. 12 - 3

Family, friends, neighbors are going to gather to memorize Mike along with simple Korean lunch which Mike liked...
Please feel free to stop by to share memories of Mike.

Thank you for the prayers with all of my heart. He has left us for another journey but the memories are always with us...

08/05/2023

View Michael Leonard's obituary, send flowers and sign the guestbook.

03/01/2023

01/08/2021

North Quabbin Forestry – 2020 Forestry Work

We had a banner year in 2020! Thanks to all the great timber harvesting companies and landowners we worked with!

Two Main Services: Forest Management Plans and Forest Cutting Plans

I. Forest Management Plans – The Massachusetts Chapter 61 Forest Land Tax Law provides a way for landowners to reduce their property taxes by enrolling in the program and can be combined with the Forest Stewardship Program. It encourages landowners to keep their land in forest rather than developing it and manage their forest effectively to meet their goals.
Forest Management Plans for 2020: 30 plans, 1,648 acres
CO2 sequestered on 1,648 acres = 146,672 tons
The average forested acre in Massachusetts is storing approximately 89 tons of carbon. 51% of that carbon is stored in living plants and trees, 34% in the soil itself, and 15% in dead wood debris and leaf litter.

II. Forest Cutting Plans – The Massachusetts Chapter 132 Forest Cutting Law requires that a Forest Cutting Plan be filed for any commercial timber harvest that exceeds 25 MBF or 50 cords or for lesser volumes when working within wetland resource areas.
Forest Cutting Plans for 2020: 13 plans, 682 acres

Total Timber Harvest Volumes on 682 acres:

MBF Cords Tons
1,812 2,490 6,800

1,812,000 board feet – That is enough timber to build over 1,200 houses (1,500 square feet/house). Total CO2 sequestered = 4,258 tons.

2,490 cords – That is enough firewood (or wood pellet equivalent) to heat or partially heat 498 homes (5 cords/home) reducing the amount of imported heating oil by 373,500 gallons! (one cord equals at least 150 gallons of oil). Total CO2 savings = 4,482 tons since utilization of low grade timber for firewood is carbon neutral as long as our forests are growing faster than they are being cut while burning heating oil emits about 24 pounds of CO2 per gallon.

6,800 tons of chipwood – That is enough to produce .58 MW of power at a biomass power plant (11,600 tons/MW) which is enough electricity to power 435 homes for an entire year! It is also carbon neutral as long as the biomass is derived from well managed forests and our forests are growing faster than they are being cut which they are (up to 5X as fast).

All forest products were harvested from sustainably managed woodlots which followed a Forest Management Plan. The residual forest stands are now of higher quality and will grow at a much higher rate.
We are not only improving woodlots but we are also providing landowners: with a source of income; encouraging them to keep their land in forest; improving wildlife habitat; greatly increasing CO2 sequestration rates; and maintaining many real green jobs right up the wood supply chain. So our forestry work has a huge multiplier effect.

01/04/2021

Temperature and Precipitation Trends in Massachusetts shows a slight warming trend (.2 degree F every 10 years or 2 degrees in 100 years if the current trend holds) and an increase in precipitation (.82 inches/decade or 8.2 inches in 100 years if the current trend holds).

The increase in temperature and precipitation along with a slightly longer growing season and increasing levels of atmospheric CO2 (280 ppm to 400 ppm) which causes plants and trees to grow faster (CO2 enrichment) has increased forest growth much more than it would have been if those variables had stayed the same.

At Oak Ridge National Laboratory researchers examined the response of net primary productivity (NPP) to elevated Co2 in four free-air CO2 enrichment experiments in forest stands. They calculated a 23% increase in forest Net Primary Production as atmospheric CO2 increases to 550 ppm over the next few decade.
Another by the “Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences” indicated that forests in the Eastern United States are growing at a faster rate than at any time in the last 225 years. At the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center, the study of a mixed hardwood forest revealed that the forests are adding an additional 2 tons per acre annually.
On a global scale, the Earth’s vegetated lands have shown significant greening over the last 40 years largely due to rising levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide as measured by Leaf Area Index (LAI). The greening represents an increase in leaves on plants and trees equivalent in area to an astonishing two times the continental United States.

Massachusetts as well as other states and countries could take better advantage of these more optimal climatic conditions for forest growth if we had forest policies that did a better job of promoting forestry.