Hunting Season (time of great troubles for the animal species)

Trail and right of way used by some hunters to set up blinds. In September it is flooded by storms, but will be soon trodden by hunters.

Hunting is completely unnecessary in the species' forest. This trail, which is also a right of way, which is now flooded with rain water from a September storm, will soon be used by hunters to get deep in the species' forest and kill native animal mega-fauna. For the time being at least, Buckland State Forest species' forest is mostly canopied which maintains the native animals species numbers in a dynamic equilibrium. Under the canopy, hunting actually destabilizes this natural population balance by random killings and by hunters altering animal behavior.

The person who logged this place without consulting the State has appeared in court. Friends of BSF was told by a State ecologist that all logs should be returned to the forest floor for natural decomposition.  We agree.

When large mature native trees are felled by legal or illegal loggers or wood cutters the forest canopy leafs lower to the ground as saplings or, actually on the ground, as brush and weeds. When the uppermost canopy is gone this alters everything. Species' forests are supposed to have complete leafy, bird filled, mammal filled, insect filled and vine filled canopies high high up and out of reach. High canopy leaves limit browsing on the forest floor and thus stabilize deer populations. 

One of the lesser problems in Buckland State Forest species' forest is trash. 

April 2015 Species' Forest Circuit Tour in Cooperation with Friends of Buckland State Forest

SPECIES' FOREST CIRCUIT TOUR

Welcome forest mountain guardians, ethical vegans, ethical vegetarians, ethical conservationists, writers, all progressives and vegan atheists. Free and open to the public!

April 25, 10:00 AM, rendezvous at Deerfield River overlook, visitors center, 75 Bridge Street, Shelburne Falls, MA (US) Free, Public invited.
(802) 258 7845

Towns of Buckland, Conway, Ashfield, Conway Street, Summer Street, South Street, Conway Road, Shelburne Falls Road, Wilder Hill Road, Baptist Corner Road, March Road, Bray Road, Ashfield Street, and the mountains within.

See http://maps.massgis.state.ma.us/map_ol/oliver.php .

Same weekend as: Sunday, 4/26, New England Vegfest, Worcester, MA (US)

Illegal logging in Buckland State Forest

Logging without a logging plan.

There will be a public tour by car and on foot at a selected group of mountains in Massachusetts (US). The circuit will be the shortest public road circumnavigation of the selected mountains. On this day it will be ten miles by car stopping at a variety of locations. We will visit several “conserved” forests and learn that conservation means something different to those in control. From the outside forests may simply look the same, but these forest are not protected over time. In some cases you may return in a decade or so only to find the forest logged or gone. How can that be if they are “conservation” land? What is being conserved? You will learn that only a species’ forest set-aside is returned to nature complete. Only the species’ forest is conserved, restored and preserved for the Rights of Nature. There is always some Human purpose which always harms other forests. This tour is in cooperation with Friends of Buckland State Forest.

A species’ forest is of, by and for all the other native plants, animals, fungi and soil microbes which occupy or have occupied their forest. Why does species have an apostrophe?

Species Forest, Inc. is an IRS 501(c)(3) non-profit organization organized in Massachusetts, US. Please call Richard Stafursky at (802) 258 7845 for information or email rhstafursky@yahoo.com. New Web site is http://speciesforest.blogspot.com/, 

old Web site is http://wslfconwaymausa.blogspot.com/ [World Species List]

DCR probing illegal timber harvest within Buckland State Forest

"Report: DCR probing illegal timber harvest within Buckland State Forest"By Mary Serreze | Special to The Republican  March 22, 2015

Triage

Triage

Very, very sad for the forest

Buckland State Forest, Buckland, MA (US) has been triaged as a WOODLAND (aka tree plantation). We sent a complaint to the Massachusetts government administration during the triage, but they did not listen. Triage will be hard to undo, but undo we must.

Forests under state and federal management face the same dangers. Caution! The link here is of most forest organizations in the US and some other nations, but ask yourself the question, "Does this organization listed protect the species' forest or does it protect the rights of people to exploit the forest?" It can't do both. The slightest use of a forest harms the forest forever. There is no win win. The forest always loses if used in any way by people (e.g. trails, logging, hunting) and the forest gradually slips out of the natural dynamic equilibrium which it needs to survive as a species' forest. See federal list http://www.discovertheforest.org/partners/  , US Forest Service (www.fs.fed.us) Forest Partners.

Under the US Obama administration they are getting better at promotion, but the US Forest Service is still run buy the forest resource stakeholders. A stakeholder is an organization or person who has a property or money interest in some action. Ethical conservationists are not stakeholders. As individuals, ethical conservationists have no personal profit as their goal. State and federal foresters and employed ecologists are stakeholders.

Beware of stakeholder words and expressions. Does that word come from a forest industry or was that term co-oped by industry. Beware sloppy words that originally were used by the GREENS, but have been adopted by industry. For example, the word biodiversity has been adopted by nearly all forestry companies who say they are interested in biodiversity when in fact they log native forests and this prevents the return of the species' forest. Also, WOODLANDS is just another name for a tree plantation. "Best practices" is just another name for forest management, yet a species' forest does not need to be managed.

When you see a list of forest organizations find out what is their history.  Don't trust their printed mission statement. See http://speciesforest.blogspot.com/ .

A species' forest is of, by and for all the other plants, animals, fungi and soil microbes that occupy their forest. A species' forest is not managed by or for people.

Join our friends group this spring and summer  2015. All welcome. Our sole purpose is to protect.

Best wishes,

Richard (Dick) Stafursky

802 258 7845 ( c e l l )

Friends of Buckland State Forest, Ashfield, MA (US)

Important words for the Friends of Massachusetts State Parks

OCCUPY

RIGHTS OF NATURE

CLIMATE

DIVEST CARBON

Geneva Forum UN Right of Nature 2014

Conference in United Nations, December 2014 : A Universal Declaration of Rights of Nature ?

Nature

Divest Massachusetts Rally at the State House, Boston 2015

"Woodlands" Is A Term Used By Commercial Foresters.

LinkedIn Question

What have you done for the environment?

Buckland State Forest has been defined as a "woodlands" by logging interests. This designation will make it very difficult for Friends to stop commercial logging here, but Friends will try. For years commercial loggers have looked upon Buckland State Forest with envious eyes and they have quietly made their plans.

If you are not a member of LinkedIn it is easy to do and it is free. The above link will ask you to join.

The above question was answered by hundreds of people both government workers and ordinary people. Ordinary people are great contributors to projects and ideas because their job is not at stake. Too often we go to meetings where professional foresters and professional ecologists answer questions by simply referencing code, law, government policy, "best practice" management practices written by commercial foresters and many other "official" resource guides.

South River State Forest, Conway, MA (US) is only a few miles from Buckland State Forest. It is a little lower in altitude and it is adjacent to the Deerfield River. Other than that the forest is just about the same.

South River State Forest is about to be logged by private contractors. The public cannot trust the reports and studies done by the state. That is because logging in Massachusetts' lands are motivated and legislated by stakeholders and not ethical conservationists. A stakeholder is a person or organization which as a money or property interest in some action. Only ethical conservationists have an interest in the well being of the forest and do not intervene except for true management of human caused problems (such as invasives, forest diseases and non-native species). The healthiest forest is a species' forest (aka a natural forest). Consultants who are hired by the state, by definition, never are independent experts. They are always looking for the next paying customer and that is usually the State.

So check out these global and nationwide thoughts written by stakeholders and non-stakeholder alike.

Massachusetts Commonwealth state species' forest that are approved for logging are renamed "woodland" at the suggestion of commercial logging companies.  This renaming was intentional as to make it appear that logging of these species' forest was the true order of things. No, forests do not have such an innate resource purpose.

Letters and Comments 2014

Letters and Comments

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On Oct 27, 2014, at 10:47 PM, richard stafursky <rhstafursky@yahoo.com> wrote:

Sharl,

Thanks for the note. We are at Friends of Buckland State Forest, MA (US).

Fungi at nearby Flagg Mountain ghost subdivision state land.

We probably will not come to the FN Conference Dec. 6, 2014. For the last year we have been visiting Buckland State Forest from several vantage points. Currently our purpose is to find out the extent of human impact from hunting, snowmobiles and future logging. We probably won't have a plan to get these things banned soon. These are entrenched practices that will be hard to kill, so to speak. That is unfortunate, because they do harm the species' forest of Buckland State Forest. Right next door are Flagg Mountain, the Species List Forest and lands of NEFF. All are open to the public and all can be accesses by walking.

The ghost subdivision of Flagg Mountain is rife with invasive plants. If the nightmare of logging (selective or clearcut) happens those invasives would spread via logging roads to the sun-lit logged areas. The Species List Forest to the east has just about eliminated most of the invasive plants caused by a State illegal logging plan some 21 years ago. That was eight years prior to the Species List Forest being donated. If Buckland State Forest was logged we fear it would also give invasives more than twenty years to invade the area.

Next year we plan to check out reports that there are non-native Norway pine and European larch in BSF. None of us are botanists so it may take a while to confirm this. If there are significant number of non-native trees we will have to devise a plan for their removal and a plan to prevent non-native saplings from growing again. We do not know the extent of the early 20th century tree plantation and we can't even begin to guess on how to eliminate it and return the full canopy of a species' forest in perpetuity. There are several options to choose.

At this time we have only two members of Friends of Buckland State Forest. We have informed the Buckland Town Administrator of our and concerns. She has provided us with some helpful information. We have posted at least one event, but only one person has gone with us. There is a lot of competition from other forests open to the public in the area. In order to get the community involved in defending Buckland State Forest it will take some planning. Our goal is to return the forest complete. A returned species' forest is the healthiest forest. It is best for the climate and the human community. The MSJC has made it perfectly clear that simply by being conservation land all such lands benefit the community. We believe that Buckland State Forest can and should be such a place and it should join with the existing Species' List Forest in northern Conway as a model species' forest. A species forest is of, by and for all the other native plants, animals, fungi and soil microbes that occupy or have occupied that place.

Two years ago Susan and I participated in a FN Conference in Worcester. There was no opportunity for local groups to speak. We had expected that all of the FN Conference would be for friends participation. Instead we were an audience only. In 2015 perhaps this will be different. If so, I would be glad for Susan or me to make a presentation.

Our web site is not well viewed. We are working on this, too.

Best wishes,


Friends of Buckland State Forest
Richard Stafursky
155 Belmont Avenue
Brattleboro, VT 05301
rhstafursky@yahoo.com
802 258 7845 cell


On Monday, October 27, 2014 7:06 PM, Sharl Heller <slheller@comcast.net> wrote:


Hello Richard,

How've you been? Do you have a website or facebook page that we can link to from the Friends Network newsletter and website? Hope to see you at the FN Conference Dec. 6!

Thanks,

Sharl Heller, Facilitator
The Massachusetts Forest and Park Friends Network
http://www.networkingfriends.net

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Richard,

Thank you for the update and the link. 

We listened to the suggestions of friends groups and give more time now for groups to share what they are doing with the other groups.

You have a big job on your hands with little support. Keep up the good work.

Best,

Sharl

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