Forest Protection Advocacy

Centerpieces of Sierra Club MA Forest Advocacy

Together, we work to protect forests for people and the planet through education, advocacy, and collaboration.

Join us as we:

Raise awareness of the interconnectivity and interdependence of healthy forest ecosystems, healthy communities, healthy citizens, and economic prosperity.
Advocate for policies and legislation to protect and preserve Massachusetts’ trees and forests, and expand urban forests, based on the scientific principle that trees are more valuable alive than dead for averting catastrophic climate disruption, preventing biodiversity collapse, and protecting public health. Connect and integrate local, state, national, and international forest policies. Local policies have global consequences.

Our current work:

An image of a reservoir surrounded by trees with text intact forests are crucial for a livable future. Join our campaign

Sign the petition to protect our MA Public Watershed Forests!

Reserves for Old Growth:

“We, {SC} work to protect mature and old-growth trees and forests from logging across Massachusetts' public lands as a cornerstone of MA climate policy.”

Preserving primary, mature forests is a priority Sierra Club goal at the national and state levels. Massachusetts has very little old growth forests, currently less than 0.1% is old growth. But much of our forest lands are mature and have the potential, if left alone to age for the next one- to two hundred years, to become old growth. Most of the public forests in Massachusetts are mature, having grown in abandoned agricultural land that was farmed seventy to eighty years ago. Because of the irreplaceable value of our mature public forests, Sierra Club is fighting to preserve all state forests. If our state forests are designated as reserves and given permanent legal protections, they will develop old-growth characteristics, providing maximum climate protection and ecosystem services.

Sierra Club joined the Primary Forest Alliance calling for a Moratorium on Industrial Activity in Primary Forests until 2050.

A picture containing text, tree, outdoor, plant

Photo from Wild Heritage video

"Primary forests (aka "old growth", "intact" or "virgin forests") are naturally regenerating forests of native tree species, whose structure, composition and dynamics are dominated by ecological and evolutionary processes—i.e. they have “ecosystem integrity.” Prior significant human intervention may have occurred, but long enough ago to have enabled an ecologically mature forest ecosystem to re-establish, including all of its native plant and animal species.
"Proforestation" is a forest management strategy that enables secondary and degraded forests to grow to ecological maturity, i.e. to reach their primary forest state." [Mackey et al 2020] [Moomaw et al. 2019] [Kormos et al. 2017]

Watch this excellent Wild Heritage video for a vision of what primary forests in MA could be like in 2050.

We know how and why to preserve forests. All we lack is the political will.

"Primary forests are truly irreplaceable ecosystems – irrecoverable by 2050 and essential to maintaining a habitable planet.

Action Items:

Submit comments to USFS re: Old Growth Forest