Step Under the Canopy
Each year, forest landowners and forest industry leaders gather at Canopy Forest Forum to interface with forest policymakers, up-and-coming professionals, and students. This event celebrates our forests and their many values as well as the stewardship that strengthens, supports, and sustains them. Our forests are powerhouses that boost our economy, conserve wildlife, and fight climate change across the Commonwealth. Whether you are concerned about applying new approaches to forest conservation due to climate change, implementing novel forestry projects, or advancing your forest-based business, step under the canopy and join us at the next forum.
Canopy 2026: Rooted in Resilience
Canopy Forestry Forum 2026: Rooted in Resilience will take place Thursday, March 5, 2026, at UMass Amherst.
Preregistration for Canopy 2026 is Full, Limited Walk-ins Available
Due to overwhelming interest, Canopy 2026: Rooted in Resilience preregistration has reached capacity and is now closed. Those who are interested in attending may register onsite on the day of the event. Contact UMass for information about walk-in registration.
Schedule of Events*:
8:00am - 8:30am: Registration
8:00am - 9:00am: Information Alley and Forestry Office Hours
9:00am - 9:15am: Welcome Remarks
9:15am - 9:30am: Rooted in Resilience: The State of the Forest – Past, Present, & Future
9:30am - 10:15am: Keynote by Dave King PhD
10:15am - 10:45am: Break, Information Alley and Forestry Office Hours
10:45am - 11:45am: Concurrent Breakout Sessions 1
11:45am - 12:45pm: Lunch, Information Alley and Forestry Office Hours
12:45pm -1:45pm: Concurrent Breakout Sessions 2
1:45pm - 2:15pm: Break, Information Alley and Forestry Office Hours
2:15pm - 3:15pm: Concurrent Breakout Sessions 3
3:15pm - 3:35pm: Closing Remarks
3:35pm - 4:00pm: Raffle
*Subject to change
Concurrent Breakout Session Descriptions
Concurrent Breakout Sessions 1: 10:45am-11:45am
Boots on the Ground: A candid look at fieldwork, office work, and everything in between
Forestry careers blend fieldwork, office work, and everything in between. This session offers a candid look at what professionals really do: measuring trees, writing plans, meeting with landowners, and navigating policy. Learn what the workday looks like, the challenges, and the rewards of being a forester today.
Speaker(s):
- Joelle Vautour (mod) & Amelia Zani, State Public Lands / Management Forestry, DCR
- Gabrielle Hardyn, MA Licensed Forester, Long View Forest, Inc.
- Mark Mueller, Forest Resources Manager, Hull Forest Products, Inc.
- Jacob Siedel & Paula Uribe, Private Lands / Service Forestry, DCR
What's Coming Down the (Mass)Pike? Stressors taking the fast lane across the state
Invasive pests and pathogens don’t wait for an invitation, and they move fast. This session explores emerging forest health threats racing across Massachusetts, from insects to fungi. Learn how to spot them early, understand their impacts, and prepare management strategies to protect your woods before it’s too late.
Speaker(s):
- Mark Falkenberry, Forest Health Program, DCR
C-SIP in Action: Opportunities for loggers
The Climate Stewardship Incentive Program (C-SIP) isn’t just for landowners—it creates new opportunities for loggers, too. This workshop explores how C-SIP can offer incidental opportunities for additional income, support planting, utilize the bridge mat program, and connect you with other cost-share programs designed to strengthen forestry businesses and practices.
Speaker(s):
- Sean Libbey (mod), Private Lands / Service Forestry, DCR
- Aaron Cardwell, Logger and Mill Owner, Aaron Forestry Services
- Jacob Macko, Private Lands / Service Forestry, DCR
- Ry Patton, Forester, Baystate Forestry Services
For Keeps: Building financial and family resilience in your forest
Between rising costs, aging ownership, and development pressures, many landowners wonder how to keep their forests — financially and within the family. This session brings together experts and peers to share strategies for sustainable income, cost-share opportunities, and long-term legacy planning.
Speaker(s):
- Alison Wright-Wright (mod), State Public Lands / Management Forestry, DCR
- Dicken Crane, Holiday Brook Farm
- Lloyd Crawford, Co-Owner & Operator, Stump Sprouts Lodge & XC Ski Center
- Jakob Palches, Ranger, The Ashmere Project at Camp Chesterfield
- Mary Wigmore, Private Consulting Forester, Wigmore Forest Resources
Balancing Act: Forests with many values
Landowners and managers often juggle competing goals—habitat, carbon, recreation, aesthetics, and more. This session explores how passive and active management can complement one another, offering flexible pathways to resilient forests. Through shared experiences and case studies, participants will learn how others choose management approaches that reflect both values and ecological needs.
Speaker(s):
- Paul Catanzaro, Professor & State Extension Forester, UMass, Amherst
Concurrent Breakout Sessions 2: 12:45pm-1:45pm
Mapping Your Future: GIS for early careers
Geographic Information Systems (GIS) are powerful tools for today’s foresters and natural resource professionals. This session introduces how GIS is used in mapping, planning, and decision-making, with a focus on skills and resources early-career professionals can use to build confidence and strengthen their career path.
Speaker(s):
- Rich MacLean, Quabbin Watershed Forester, DCR Watershed Forestry Program
- Jack Nessen, GIS Manager, Mass Audubon
- Erica Poisson, Watershed GIS Director, DCR Watershed GIS
Inside the Native Land Conservancy: Land care in action
Leah Hopkins (Narragansett Tribe), DCR’s Indigenous People’s Partnership Coordinator, will facilitate a conversation with Chief Earl Mills Jr. and Dr. Diana Ruiz of the Native Land Conservancy. The discussion will explore the benefits of working directly with Indigenous partners in forest stewardship, co-management, cultural respect easements, and legacy planning.
Speaker(s):
- Leah Hopkins (mod), Indigenous People’s Partnership Coordinator, DCR
- Chief Earl Mills Jr. (Mashpee Wampanoag), Land Care Manager, Native Land Conservancy
- Dr. Diana Ruiz, Executive Director, Native Land Conservancy
Doing More with Less: Practical, low-cost habitat improvements for your woods
Whether you have 10 acres or 100 acres discover practical, low-cost strategies to improve wildlife habitat on your land. From selective thinning to leaving brush piles, learn how small, intentional actions can create big benefits for birds, pollinators, and forest health—without stretching your budget.
Speaker(s):
- Matt DiBona, Director of Land Stewardship, Mount Grace Land Conservation Trust
- Tom Lautzenheiser, Senior Conservation Ecologist, Central/West Region, Mass Audubon
- Tom Wansleben, Habitat Biologist, Department of Fish and Game, Division of Wildlife MassWildlife Habitat Management
Win-Win: Implementing landscape conservation to promote forest resilience and recover forest birds
Forest resilience and wildlife conservation are not mutually exclusive, nor do they stop at the property line. This session explores how landowners, foresters, and conservation partners can collaborate across boundaries to improve forests at the landscape scale. Learn about the importance of working at the landscape scale, planning and implementing regional projects, funding opportunities, and how scaling up strengthens both ecological and community resilience.
Speaker(s):
- Jeff Larkin, Distinguished Professor of Wildlife Ecology and Conservation, Indiana University of Pennsylvania; Forest Bird Habitat Advisor, American Bird Conservancy
Concurrent Breakout Sessions 3: 2:15pm-3:15pm
Why C-SIP Matters: Expanding access and advancing climate stewardship
What if stewardship choices could shape climate resilience, not just respond to stress? This session introduces the Climate Stewardship Incentive Program (C-SIP), which lowers financial and technical barriers to forest management. Learn who’s eligible, what practices are supported, and how cost-share funding turns intention into on-the-ground resilience across Massachusetts forests.
Speaker(s):
- Michelle Nikfarjam, Program Manager, Land and Food Sovereignty, Pocasset Pokanoket Land Trust (PPLT)
- Mike Barry, Private Forest Lands Director, Private Lands / Service Forestry, DCR
- Mike Downey, Private Lands / Service Forestry, DCR
Forests for Fish: Linking Woods, Water, and Resilience
Forests for Fish brings together forestry and fisheries management to address the challenges facing cold-water streams and their surrounding forests. This session highlights how active woodland stewardship—like invasive species control, planting native riparian species, and managing forest cover— can strengthen habitat, resilience and forest value. Adding stream restoration practices makes forest management a powerful tool to reduce pressures of climate change on wildlife and community infrastructure.
Speaker(s):
- Emily Boss, Executive Director, MA Woodlands Institute ; Community Conservation Manager, Franklin Land Trust
- Pia D. Martin II, Community Program Coordinator, MA Woodlands Institute
- Erin Rodgers, Ph.D., Program Manager, Trout Unlimited
- Will Sloan Anderson, Director of Land Stewardship, Franklin Land Trust
- Becca Smith, Events and Membership Coordinator, Franklin Land Trust
Passing the Torch: Practical paths and peer wisdom for landowners
From estate planning to ownership transitions, forest succession comes with tough decisions—and powerful stories. This session blends practical advice with peer learning, offering space for landowners to share experiences and explore creative ways to keep forests cared for and connected across generations, communities, and changing circumstances.
Speaker(s):
- Paul Catanzaro, Professor & State Extension Forester, UMass, Amherst
- Landowner(s) TBD
Words that Work: Designing messaging that connects
Explore how to translate complex forestry concepts into messaging that resonates with diverse audiences—from landowners to legislators. Learn practical strategies for clear language, engaging visuals, and storytelling that inspires action in forestry and natural resources. This session emphasizes real-world communication tactics, including framing, tone, and audience-driven messaging.
Speaker(s):
- Doug Brown, Director of Stewardship, Berkshire Natural Resources Council
- Marie Rockett, Executive Creative Director, Argus
- Jack Saul, Executive Director & Publisher, Center for Northern Woodlands Education
Past Forums
Canopy 2025: Innovations in Practice
This year at the 2025 Canopy Forestry Forum, nearly 300 attendees from across the state came together on Thursday, May 29th, 2025 at the UMass Amherst Conference Center.
Ethan Tapper - a forester, birder, naturalist, and digital creator, and the bestselling author of How to Love a Forest- joined us as keynote speaker. He has been recognized as a thought-leader and a disruptor in the forestry and conservation community of the northeastern United States and beyond!
A snapshot of this year’s sessions included “From Small to Large: Disturbances, their impacts, and recovery,” “Teamwork Makes the Dreamwork: Achieving your goals with a forester,” “Changing Conditions and Changing Practices: How professionals are adapting to extreme weather,” “Knowledge is Power: Opportunities for landowners,” and so many more!
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Open PDF file, 105.47 KB, CANOPY 2025 Agenda (English, PDF 105.47 KB)
Canopy 2024: Forests, Climate, and Innovations Forum
The Massachusetts Department of Conservation & Recreation held the inaugural Canopy 2024: Forests, Climate, and Innovations Forum on Thursday, March 21 at the beautiful, mass-timber John Olver Design Building. This building is the largest and most technologically advanced academic contemporary wood structure in the US. It is also the first in the US to use the wood-concrete composite floor system.
Canopy 2024 featured speakers and workshops focused on how Massachusetts forest landowners and forest-based businesses can meet the growing demand for wood products in economically and environmentally sustainable ways. The keynote speaker was Tom Bodett, an author and regular on NPR who also founded HatchSpace, a community woodworking shop in Brattleboro, Vermont.
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Open PDF file, 410.64 KB, Canopy 2024 Agenda (English, PDF 410.64 KB)
Building a Sustainable Future Through Forestry
Watch to see how wood connects us to our forestlands and each other. Hear from a few voices within the large community of people in Massachusetts that take pride in caring for our forests, and harvesting, milling, and using local wood.
This video was produced by the Massachusetts Department of Conservation & Recreation and the New England Forestry Foundation, with support from partners at Mass Audubon and Mass Woodlands Institute.
If you're interested in sharing your forest story in future video series, please reach out to Jennifer Shakun at jshakun@newenglandforestry.org. Tell us about working in the woods, your successes with forest conservation or management projects, inspiring examples of local wood use, or all of the above!