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
The planning has already started! Have an idea or want to be involved? Contact the planning committee, we’d love your input.
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!