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Our Mission
The New England Forestry Foundation is dedicated to providing for the conservation and ecologically sound management of
privately owned forestlands in New England, throughout the Americas and beyond.
This mission encompasses:
- Educating landowners, foresters, forest products industries, and the
general public about the benefits of forest stewardship and
multi-generational forestland planning.
- Permanently protecting forests through gifts and acquisitions of land for
the benefit of future generations.
- Actively managing Foundation lands as demonstration and educational
forests.
- Conservation, through sustainable yield forestry, of a working landscape
that supports economic welfare and quality of life.
- Supporting the development and implementation of forest policy and forest
practices that encourage and sustain private ownership.
NEFF History
NEFF was established in 1944 to care for and make
more prudent use of the forests of New England. Under the leadership of Harris
A. Reynolds, then Secretary of the Massachusetts Forest and Park Association,
the Foundation attempted to do what no other organization had done before —
to offer active, continuous, and complete forest management services to
landowners across the region.
They believed that controlled
cutting and planned forest management would produce a continuous yield of
high-quality timber as well as enhance wildlife habitats and protect the productivity of the land.
The Foundation continued to
encourage and carry out practices that helped to produce healthy forest
environments. These forests, in turn, produced more and better-quality timber,
improved habitat for wildlife and created recreation opportunities.
In addition to providing forestry services, NEFF
has devoted professional resources to conservation and education initiatives.
With this threefold approach — forest management, conservation, and
environmental education, the Foundation has worked with both private landowners
and broader local publics for whom decisions about local land use, wildlife
habitat and beauty of the natural landscape have great importance.
Over
the last 15 years, continuing population expansion and sprawl have led to much
fragmentation of New England’s forestland. NEFF has been working to counter this
deterioration in forest quality by encouraging the private, non-industrial
forest landowner to become an active steward of their property. In 1994,
NEFF began to proactively increase its land conservation activities while still
maintaining its core mission of forest management and education.
NEFF Today
NEFF is today recognized as a
leader in conserving
working forests, educating the public about forestry, and assisting landowners
in the long-term protection and sustainable management of their properties. NEFF is “green certified”
under Forest Stewardship Council guidelines. NEFF manages 130 demonstration forests, totaling
more than 23,000 acres. NEFF also holds 125 conservation easements protecting
1,138,000 acres. NEFF participates in a variety of forest policy discussions and
activities that affect landowners and property managers in New England.
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