'Buy local' motto should apply to wood

Published on December 15, 2006

You're walking along one of your favorite trails for the first time in a couple of months and you see heavy equipment, trees cut down, logs piled up and major tracks through the woods.

What do you do? Call the town Conservation Commission? The Department of Conservation and Recreation? The owner? Everybody you know? Or just fuss and fume?

The first thing to do is to understand that Massachusetts has some of the most stringent regulations for timber harvesting in the country, whether on public or private lands. You can learn more about what those regulations are, and how they are enforced, by talking with service foresters, who work for the DCR.

There is a DCR office in Amherst, on the UMass campus, a rustic-looking building on the western edge of campus, in what used to be real woods, between the parking lots and Route 116. The office doesn't get a listing in the local phone book (it probably would have cost the state money to add more listings) but it is in the UMass phone book: 545-5993.

Second, remember (or find out) who owns the property. Many (most?) of the trails we hike on in this area are on private land, not public land.

It is vitally important that we behave ourselves in either case: follow any posted rules about the kinds of recreation that are allowed (Hiking? Mountain biking? All terrain vehicles? Hunting?), whether we can go off trail, whether dogs are allowed and whether they should be on a leash, etc.

On private land, we should add our most polite and agreeable behaviors. The owners of private land who allow public access are being very generous; in return, we owe them, at minimum, a clear understanding that it is their land. If an owner is doing some timber harvesting, we need to understand that that is their right. If we have questions about what is being done, we should ascertain who owns the land and politely contact the owner, whether person or corporation, not harass the person doing the work.

Last month I took part in a hike led by the Appalachian Mountain Club and was delighted to hear the leader thank the man at the truck "for allowing us to use this land."

Good for her. That kind of comment may contribute to the owner continuing to allow use of the land. Arguments or calling in the authorities may have the opposite effect.

Another reason to know who owns the land is so you can help keep it well maintained by reporting misuse or illegal dumping to the owner. Cinda Jones, president of the Cowls lumber company, asks that people who see such activities call her. If you think something is amiss, she'd like to hear from you.

In the meantime, I want to ask those of us who recreate in and love to look at our forests to think about "forest management" (that is, cutting trees with a plan and care) in a new way. Most of us find the sight of the actual process ugly, now matter how well it's being done. I do. But I don't like the look of a newly plowed field as much as the look of standing corn, either.

The facts are, we all use wood and wood products. Some species of birds and other animals need openings, edges of forests or young trees for their nesting or feeding habitats. We don't want all our forests developed into house lots; to keep the forests as forests, we need both public protection for some areas and owners of private land able to make some money from the wood growing there. A couple of years after a cut, the plants are growing back and the birds that need that habitat are flocking to it.

It's time for those of us who support "buy local" food to do the same for wood: local timber wouldn't have to be shipped great distances, burning diesel all the way; trees grow well here; and our regulations mean it is far more likely to have been harvested in an environmentally sound, sustainable way, than if it came from somewhere else.

What is our excuse for importing 95 percent of the wood products used in Massachusetts? We can learn to live with the temporary disruption to our visual delight, while supporting our neighbors and local economy and giving back to the people who let us walk across and enjoy their land.

Elisa Campbell is the former chairwoman of the Select Board and Planning Board.