On May 11, 2004, EOEA received Green Certification of its forest management by the Forest Stewardship Council, an independent organization that reviews and "certifies" sustainable forest management around the world. This review is the most comprehensive of any done by a state to date as it includes all state-owned environmental lands including wildlife management areas, state forests and water supply lands. Read the full Certification Report.

One end result of Green Certification is the identification of “forest reserves” on approximately 20% state land where commercial harvesting will not occur. State forestland that is not within a reserve (approximately 80% of state forestland) will remain open to sustainable harvesting of renewable wood products. The sustainable harvest of renewable wood products provides a range of important forest-age classes throughout the landscape that help conserve biological diversity. In addition, sustainable harvesting on state forestlands supports rural economies in Massachusetts by providing jobs for loggers and mill workers. Renewable wood products, including those produced from harvesting operations on state forestlands, are used by all residents of the Commonwealth.

At the same time, our forest reserves will capture other elements of biodiversity that may be missing from harvested sites. These elements primarily include the extensive accumulation of large woody debris that results when commercial harvesting does not occur. Only in reserves will the total amount of woody biomass produced within a forest ecosystem remain within the ecosystem. Additional elements of biodiversity that will occur in reserves include an abundance of live trees 200-500 year old and extensive “pit and mound” micro-topography that occurs when old trees are blown over. Harvested lands can and do support these elements to some degree, but only in reserves will these elements become dominant and ubiquitous. Learn more about Forest Reserves on state lands.

EOEA also supports the highest standards for forest management on the state’s more than two million acres of private forest land by funding forest stewardship plans for interested private landowners. Through an extensive outreach effort, DCR’s Forest Stewardship Program has sent educational materials to nearly 15,000 landowners who collectively own 685,000 acres or 1/3 of the state’s private forest land. Over the past three and one half years, this project has completed 760 forest stewardship plans on more than 51,000 acres of forests. Each plan is completed by a private professional forester who works closely with the landowner to meet the landowner’s goals by utilizing sustainable forest management practices. Landowners commit to implement these plans and keep their land in forest cover for a 10 year period. At a cost to the state of about $17 per acre, this is an excellent tool to help conserve forest land and increase sustainable forest management.

Over the past two years EOEA has also been working with a diverse coalition of organizations to move important forest initiatives forward. Through a series of five Forest Forums, a group of 35 individuals, representing forest landowners, private foresters, timber harvesters, mill owners, land trusts, and environmental advocates, have been involved in several forest initiatives including: the new Forest Viability Program; revisions to the Current Use Forest Tax Law Program (Chapter 61); the “Call to Action to Maintain our Forest Heritage in Massachusetts”; activations of the State Forestry Committee; recommendations for the state’s Working Forest/Forest Reserves proposal; recommendations for the state’s Chapter 61 and Forest Stewardship Green Certification effort.

Coordination of forest management activities among the three EOEA land management agencies is accomplished through an "ecoregion" planning process, whereby ecological and sociological assessments and subsequent management guidelines are developed for each of the 15 ecoregions in the state.
The ecoregion documents help guide the development of land management plans for individual state-owned properties. It is also hoped that private forestland owners will use the documents when making decisions about how to manage their lands.

Ecoregion guidance documents will be produced over the next several years. Drafts of these documents will be posted on this website to facilitate public review and comment.

To view the status of document development, click on the appropriate ecoregion below:

• Final Berkshire Ecoregions Assessment
• Lower Worcester Plateau Ecoregion