The concepts of community land and collective stewardship have always been a part of New England's consciousness. Colonial town ordinances regulated use of common woodlots, fields, meadows, swamps, marshes, and streams. And long before the arrival of the colonists, American Indian myth and ritual constituted a conservation ethic that operated to hinder overexploitation of nature's resources. The territory claimed by each tribe--the boundaries of which were well known and defined by watersheds or other physical limits--were held in common.

Although pioneering New Englanders devastated the forests through reckless clearing of forests and squandering of timber and firewood, those who remained on the land after this wave of pillage moved on to the south and west began to learn how to manage and conserve forests around the turn of the century. The people, in keeping with their time-honored tradition of community stewardship, responded by reasserting their claim to the commons. And this is the legacy of their community forests...

COMMUNITY FORESTS:

introduced forest conservation to the people

"Conservation will never accomplish its purpose", observed Harris Reynolds, "until the average man and woman believes in it and puts it into practice". Reynolds, who became secretary of the Massachusetts Forestry Association in 1911, dedicated his life's work to introducing forest conservation to the people, and his enthusiasm for town forests was unparalleled.

revealed a sense of common stewardship

No matter how influential promotions such as The Campaign of Enlightenment may have been, credit for the movement's overwhelming success goes to the people--their faith in common stewardship, their ability to cooperate in common situations, and their commitment to preserving a familiar landscape. They were an important source of local support for improved environmental policy, and their sense of common stewardship today remains a powerful force in shaping decisions about land use.

continue to work for communities

Community forests are, by legal definition, woodlands devoted to production of timber. In some towns in Massachusetts (Groton, Scituate, and Walpole for instance) town forests still supply lumber and cordwood. The same is true in other New England states.

continue to contribute significantly to community habitability and quality of life

Even if communities no longer use their forests for timber, they still provide recreation, a place for studying nature, and habitat for forest plants and animals, among other things. Their future worth will only increase, as the rate of land development in Massachusetts continues to skyrocket.

paved the way for community ownership of land

"The Town Forest Act" of 1913 enabled community ownership of forested land and underscored the need for local means of preserving natural areas.

ignited a momentous trend toward acquisition of open and undeveloped land by communities for the purposes of conservation

"The Town Forest Act" of 1913 enabled community ownership of forests, but what if a town wanted to preserve a marsh? The town of Ipswich was in the throes of such a dilemma when they urged their state representative to help. The result was a Massachusetts law, enacted in 1957, that enabled towns to create conservation commissions

 

Conservation Commissions are charged them with the protection of natural resources in their communities, with an emphasis on marshes, swamps, and other wetlands. Commissions are responsible for inventorying open space, identifying important habitat areas, manage lands for wildlife and other values, and planning for their proper protection. This often calls for local acquisition or obtaining assistance from the state or federal government. The inspiring popularity of conservation commissions, which took off in the 1960's, signaled the end for the town forest movement. Conservation commissions took up the care of some town forests (others, alas, suffered a less agreeable fate and were plowed over to make way for subdivisions, office complexes, and even landfills).

 

New England's current support for

community forests, community wetlands, community wildlands,

community gardens, community farms, and community orchards

is simply part of the evolving character of community conservation.

Community Forests

Massachusetts Community Forestry Council	UMass Eastern Extension Building 240 Beaver Road Waltham, MA 02154	telephone: (781) 891-7760
Southern New England Forest Consortium, Inc.	P.O. Box 760 Chepachet, RI 02814	telephone: 1-800-772-TREE
Massachusetts Forestry Association	P.O. Box 1096 Belchertown, MA 01007	telephone: 413-323-7326

(Note: this is not the same Massachusetts Forestry Association that initiated the town forest movement in Massachusetts. The Massachusetts Forestry Association that initiated the town forest movement in now the Environmental League of Massachusetts)

Community Wetlands

Massachusetts Association of Conservation Commissions (MACC)
"protecting wetlands and open space through education and advocacy"

Community Wildlands

Around the same time that Harris Reynolds was crusading for community forests, Benton Mackaye, cofounder of The Wilderness Society, wrote his prescription for land conservation: a `common public ground' that would serve as a limiting `embankment' to hold back the tide of suburban development and a connected system of wilderness areas:
"Our early settlers first planted civilization by inroads of population through the forest, we today, in order to restore civilization, must develop forest inroads between our population centers". He urged society members to take part in a continent-wide campaign by exploring their bailiwick for a wildland area and then seeking some "local means" for getting it preserved. Efforts to establish "wildland inroads" throughout the North American continent have accelerated in recent decades, in response to an alarming rates of habitat loss and degradation.

The Wildlands Project works in cooperation with communities throughout the continent to create "wildland inroads". The Greater Laurentian Wildlands Project works specifically in New England.
(contact them at 802-864-4850)

Community Gardens

Garden Futures is a collaboration of Boston non-profit organizations that own and serve community gardens.

The American Community Gardening Association (ACGA) is a national organization promoting and supporting all aspects of community gardening in urban and rural communities.

Visit City Farmer's Urban Agricultural Notes for information on and links to community gardens all over the world

Community Farms

Community Supported Agriculture is an innovative strategy to connect local farmers with local communities members who cover a farm's yearly operating budget by purchasing a share of the season's harvest. Members make a commitment to support the farm throughout the season, and assume the costs, risks and bounty of growing food along with the farmer or grower. They help pay for seeds, fertilizer, water, equipment maintenance, land labor. In return, the farm provides, to the best of its ability, a healthy supply of seasonal fresh produce throughout the growing season.

For more information of community supported agriculture contact Community Supported Agriculture of North America (CSANA). Their website includes a list of community farms throughout the country.

Community Orchards

EarthWorks Projects a is community-based environmental organization working in Greater Boston. Their Urban Orchards Program helps to develop community orchards in public school yards, urban parks, and community gardens.

EarthWorks Projects
11 Green Street

Jamaica Plain, MA 02130
phone: (617) 983-9463 or (617) 776-6524 or (617) MA EARTH
email: erthwrks@gis.net

"Conservation is getting nowhere...," Aldo Leopold observed in A Sand County Almanac, "because it is incompatible with our Abrahamic concept of land. We abuse land because we regard it as a commodity belonging to us. When we see land as a community to which we belong, we may begin to use it with love and respect"

ConNE Home Page | Terrestrial Group

Community Forests

Much Ado About Forestry | A Campaign of Enlightenment | Put Your Town on the Map

Aftermath

Hall of Fame

References