VI.  Old-Growth's future in Massachusetts
 
 
If the local appetite for timber does not change, old-growth will have a bright future here in Massachusetts.  The few stands that have been identified are receiving more attention.  Efforts to develop these areas will probably be met with same outcry as in the Mt. Wachusett case.  Judging from current logging activity, many stands are likely to remain undisturbed for the 50-150 additional years required to become old-growth (DEM 1992).  
 Picture: L.Orrell.
Average forest growth in Massachusetts from 1971-1984 was three times greater than timber removals on private land and five times greater on public lands (DEM 1992).   However, current trends may change- we can't count on the continuation of our benign neglect for the forest.  More and more of our forest is owned as smaller and smaller parcels, a trend which makes logging less likely, but residential development more likely (DEM 1992).  Residential development may be the main threat to Massachusetts forests today, fragmenting and erasing forests in ever-widening circles around Boston, Springfield and Worcester (Foster 1995).  State forests and parks will probably contain more and more old-growth forest as the decades pass.  This is especially true of areas managed mainly for passive recreation such as hiking.

What is needed is a plan outlining the amount and type of old-growth we want to have.  Although the desirable amount of old-growth is open to debate, surely we can all agree that 0.05% of our forests is too little.  Only by setting aside some forests explicitly can we be confident that we will have a reasonable amount of old-growth in the future.  In addition, protection of old-growth currently on private lands ought to be enacted.

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