Paul Catanzaro, UMass professor of environmental science, will speak at the Alford Land Trust annual meeting on Saturday, October 4, at 10 am at the Alford Town Hall.
Paul has written extensively on forest stewardship techniques for private landholders. One of our management goals for Elizabeth’s Woods is to restore old-growth characteristics to the forest. He will lead a demonstration walk in Elizabeth’s Woods at 12 noon.
By 1900, most of Berkshire County had been clear-cut to make charcoal for the local iron industry and for agriculture. Without trees to stabilize the ground, much valuable topsoil washed down to the Long Island Sound. With loss of habitat and degraded plant growth, many species like deer, turkeys, and other mammals declined significantly. Through the 20th century, much of the land was allowed to return to forest, and now we have a rare opportunity to correct an environmental disaster.
Old-growth forests are different than our ecologically young second-growth forests. These differences have important implications for forest benefits such as wildlife habitat and climate change mitigation. Paul’s presentation will describe the opportunities — through a combination of passive and active forest management — to restore these missing old-growth characteristics to our forests while meeting other landowner goals.
Here is a link to his publication on Restoring Old Growth Characteristics:
https://masswoods.org/sites/default/files/pdf-doc-ppt/Restoring-Old-Growth-Characteristics/index.pdf