Forestry Site Plans

Forestry Site Plans are an important part of the Forest Management Planning process, and provide detailed natural resource information for individual DFW properties or groups of properties, including information on past and planned forest harvesting operations (more general information on DFW properties is presented in Forest Management Zone (FMZ) plans that cover all properties in one or more ecoregions of the state).

The DFW Forestry Program has developed draft site plans for all properties where harvesting has occurred over the past decade, and for all properties where harvesting is planned in the near future. Draft site plans are currently being revised to take advantage of updates to the DFW landcover datalayer, the DEP wetlands datalayer, the NRCS soil survey datalayer, and the MassGIS ortho-photo datalayer. Updated plans will go through in-house review during 2007, and will subsequently be posted for public review and comment, likely beginning in 2008. DFW will announce the posting of site plans for public review widely through direct email contacts with conservation groups and through 'MassWildlife News' releases.

DFW Forestry Site Plans include the following information, tables, and figures:

Forestry Site Plan Contents

Section	Description
Property Summary	Property name(s), town(s), Wildlife District, FMZ, Ecoregion, Watershed, acres & stands previously harvested, and acres & stands planned for harvest.
Property Description & History	Physical location, character, size, and acquisition history.
Landscape Setting	Physical surroundings and character.
Management Goals	Current and desired distribution of forest types, structural attributes, and successional stages.
Forest Certification	Status and implications of FSC certification.
Harvesting Operations	Accounts of past and planned harvest operations, including silvicultural prescriptions, harvest locations and directions, and outcomes, with links to Ch. 132 Forest Cutting Plans.
Environmental Permitting	Summary of permitting requirements for management.
Biological Monitoring	Summary of standard monitoring procedures, and results of pre- and post-harvest monitoring to date.
Rare Species Concerns	Summary of process for identifying and mitigating rare species concerns during harvesting operations.
Invasive Species Concerns	Summary of process for identifying and mitigating invasive species concerns during harvesting operations
Soil & Water Quality	Summary of soil & water resources on the property and mitigation applied during harvesting operations.
Historical / Cultural Resources	Potential for and mitigation of impacts on historical/cultural resources.
Recreation & Aesthetics	Summary of recreation activities and aesthetic concerns, and mitigation applied during harvesting operations.
References	Literature cited
Appendix I	Forest Certification Conditions Status
Appendix II	Federal and state laws regulating forest management activities on DFW lands

Forestry Site Plan Tables

Table Name	Description
Forest Age Class Distribution	Current vs. desired distribution of forest size classes (seedling, sapling-small pole, large pole, sawtimber, and large sawtimber).
Landcover Summary	Acres by upland forest type, wetland forest type, non-forest upland type, and non-forest wetland type.
Soil Series Summary	Acres by soil series and general soil class.
Slope Class Summary	Acres by 10% slope classes.
Priority / Estimated Habitat Summary	Acres of NHESP rare species habitat.
Stream Summary	Miles of streams, number of stream sections (including data on any exemplary cold-water fishery stream segments) & acres of associated filter strips.
Management Summary	Acres by active vs. passive management areas, and partition of active management area by potential even-aged vs. uneven-aged management sites.
Harvest Operation Summary	Acres of past and present harvest operations by contract number with links to Ch. 132 Forest Cutting Plans.

Forestry Site Plan Figures

Map Name	Description
Locus Map	Site location in the region and state.
Topographic Map Series	Typically 1:24,000 scale maps showing property locations over USGS topographic map background.
Landcover Map Series	Typically 1:12,000± scale maps showing property locations over MassGIS ortho-photo background with landcover (e.g. forest cover type) polygons where available.
Soil Series	Property boundaries with NRCS Soil Survey type background.
Soil Erosion Potential	Property boundaries with NRCS Soil erosion potential background.
Slope Classes	Property boundaries with 10% slope class background derived from MassGIS digital elevation model (DEM).
Priority / Estimated Habitats	Property boundaries with NHESP Atlas background showing rare species habitat polygons.
Active vs. Passive Mgt. Sites	Potential harvest areas, forest reserves, wetlands, filter strips, buffer strips.
Even-aged vs. Uneven-Aged Harvest Sites	Partition of active management sites into areas potentially available for even-aged vs. uneven-aged silviculture.
Harvest Areas	Past and planned harvest areas (descriptions of past and some planned harvest areas include links to the corresponding Ch. 132 Forest Cutting Plan).