From: Lilly Lombard <jollyforager@gmail.com>
Sent: Thursday, May 16, 2019 6:57 AM
To: RPS, DOER (ENE)
Subject: Testimony re RPS regulations
Dear Mr. Wassam,
My husband and I own 165 acres of
Chapter 61-A forested property along the Mt. Pisgah range in Westampton, MA.
Purchased 15 years ago from a life-long logger, we initially saw this property
as an investment in its commercial timber. However, two things have shifted our
view of the resources contained in our property.
One is that the land abuts on three
sides forest permanently conserved by the Hilltown Land Trust, and the City of
Holyoke as part of its watershed. It makes up a resilient and connected ecological
corridor that captures and stores water, provides habitat to at-risk species,
and tempers weather events.
The other is that, in the past 15
years, our scientific understanding of the gravity and imminence of climate
change has come into much clearer focus, but research about the role that
forests play in mitigating climate change and holding carbon is a relatively
new field. Therefore, we hesitate to view the timber on our property as a
commercial product that matures in 30-40 years. Should we regard it as public
health & safety investments whose full maturity should be viewed over
300-400 years?
Recently, numerous logging
companies have approached us (without our prompting) offering to harvest our
forest. If the DOER changes the RPS to incentivize biomass production, it would
drive foresters to more aggressive tactics, just as current SMART regulations
have driven large solar companies to aggressively pursue and clear cut western
MA forests for commercial solar farms.
Forests perform services that go
well beyond the fuel contained in their trees. The state should be
incentivizing forest owners like me to store carbon, mitigate storm events, and
provide ecological sanctuary for climate refugee flora and fauna, rather than
to burn trees.
Sincerely,
Lilly Lombard
Northampton, MA