Doubling Conservation Efforts in the Next 50 Years Could Ensure New England Remains at Least 70 Percent Forested

Contact: Margaret Nagle at (207) 581-3745

The six-state New England region has more than 33 million acres of forestland — a greater wooded cover than has existed in the region in almost two centuries. But recent years have witnessed a reversal of this trend in all the states with a new wave of “hard deforestation” — the conversion of forests to development and other uses.

In a new report, researchers from Harvard University, the University of Maine and 10 other institutions call for a long-term effort to ensure that New England remains at least 70 percent forested (30 million acres). The goal is to safeguard the natural resources and “basic green infrastructure” that are key to sustaining New England’s landscape and its distinctive way of life.

The report, Wildlands and Woodlands: A Vision for the New England Landscape  (wildlandsandwoodlands.org), calls for 90 percent of protected forest (27 million acres or 63 percent of New England) to be development-free, but continue being managed as “working forestlands” that provide forest products, recreational opportunities, and a host of important natural functions, such as flood control, species habitat and carbon sequestration. The remaining 10 percent of protected forests would be reserved as “wildlands” (3 million acres or 7 percent of New England), where natural processes prevail.

Achieving the vision would require a doubling of conservation effort in the next 50 years, but still leave room for a doubling of the region’s developed area, according to the report, co-authored by 20 scientists specializing in forestry, ecology and environmental studies.

The report’s lead author is David Foster, director of Harvard Forest at Harvard University. Other co-authors include UMaine professors Robert Lilieholm of the School of Forest Resources and Malcolm Hunter of the Department of Wildlife Ecology.

“In an era of uncertainty, when changes in the environment, economy and energy pose great threats to society and nature, the six New England states —Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine — should take a bold, yet prudent and economically conservative step to protect their woodlands, farmlands, waters, coastlines and wetlands,” according to the report.