The Bureau of Forest Fire Control and Forestry offers programs to promote, protect and enhance healthy and diverse wooded and urban forests throughout our Commonwealth including grant opportunities for urban forestry and volunteer fire assistance, staff assistance to municipalities for fire control, consulting forestry and forest stewardship for private lands, oversight of forest health issues including insect and disease control and storm related response, regulatory guidance on timber harvests as well as forest management and timber sales on state lands.
There are 3.2 million acres of privately and publicly owned forest land in Massachusetts of which 450,000 acres are State Forests, Parks and Reservations. Municipal watershed lands cover 245,000 acres as well as 351 municipalities with associated urban trees and forests. The Bureau of Forest Fire Control and Forestry serves all of these owners and the forest they care for through the programs listed below. If you have questions or simply care about the forests of Massachusetts this is a good place to start.
The Urban and Community Forestry Program offers technical assistance and grants to communities to build long-term support for the protection and management of public trees and forests.
The Forest Health Program monitors and assesses factors that influence the health of Massachusetts's forests.
The Private Lands/Service Forestry Program provides technical and financial assistance to private landowners and municipalities in forest resource planning, forest management, and forest protection.
The Forest Legacy Program is a partnership between participating States and the USDA Forest Service to identify and help protect environmentally important forests from conversion to non-forest uses.
The Markets and Utilization Program assists landowners, foresters, timber harvesters, sawmills and manufactures in the promotion and expansion of the forest products industry in the Commonwealth.
