Wildlands Campaign Documents
Join Our Wildlands Campaign – January 2026
Frequently Asked Questions – February 2026
Resources for Wildlands Campaign
Wildlands Campaign and Climate Action Now Meeting Recordings
November 12, 2025 Wildlands Campaign Monthly Meeting – speaker Brian Hall, coauthor of the Wildlands in New England: Past, Present, and Future report. His presentation explained their Wildlands vision, and demonstrated a draft web map which identifies their priority areas for conservation.
September 10, 2025 Wildlands Campaign Monthly Meeting – short presentations by our members – Ralph Baker, Bill Copeland, Thien Nygen, Janet Sinclair, Lynne Mann
June 11, 2025 – Wildlands Campaign Monthly Meeting speaker David Foster, Director Emeritus of Harvard Forest
May 14, 2025 Wildlands Campaign Monthly Meeting – speaker Zack Porter , Executive Director of Standing Trees
March 12, 2025 Wildlands Campaign Monthly Meeting – speakers Michael Kellett, RESTORE: The North Woods and Janet Sinclair, Save Mass Forests
February 2, 2025 Wildlands Campaign Monthly Meeting speakers Dr. Susan Masino, Dr. Bill Stubblefield, and Dr. Lynne Mann
December 11, 2024 Wildlands Collaborative Campaign launch: with Dr. Susan Masino and Dr. Bill Stubblefield
Protecting Wildlands in our Communities, Dr. Susan Masino and Dr. Bill Stubblefield, October 28, 2024 CAN meeting, (including the Q&A)
The Power of Saving Place: Climate Regulating Ecosystems for Local and Global Wellbeing, Dr. Susan Masino, April 29, 2024 CAN meeting
Wildlands Report
Wildlands in New England: Past, Present, and Future; (pdf of full report)
Criteria and checklist for designating a property as a Wildland:
Wildlands in New England State Summary Downloads
Wildlands in New England – Interactive Map
Current Forest Legislation
Massachusetts
https://www.restore.org/savemassforests
H953: AN ACT RELATIVE TO FOREST PROTECTION
https://malegislature.gov/Bills/194/H953 sponsored by Representative Carmine Gentile,would update century-old public land policies written before we recognized the climate crisis and global loss of biodiversity and would help address these concerns by designating 312,000 acres of forest lands controlled by the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR) as parks or reserves.
H952: AN ACT RELATIVE TO WATERSHED FOREST PROTECTION
https://malegislature.gov/Bills/194/H952 sponsored by Representative Carmine Gentile, would designate over 100,000 acres state owned watershed lands as parks or reserves.
H1048: AN ACT RELATIVE TO INCREASED PROTECTION WILDLIFE MANAGEMENT AREAS
https://malegislature.gov/Bills/194/H1048/Cosponsor sponsored by Representative Danillo A. Sena, would add 50,000 acres of state owned Wildlife Management areas as reserves.
Together these bills would permanently protect 462,000 acres as intact ecosystems that are influenced primarily by natural processes in our forests and parks — a level of protection that now exists for only 1% of the state’s land base.
Vermont
https://www.standingtrees.org/post/a-view-from-the-statehouse-2025-vermont-legislative-update
Actions you can take NOW to support wildlands on our public lands:
Please contact your state representative and senator and ask them to co-sponsor the bills. The ask is simple: ” Please co-sponsor these bills, which would protect our state-owned lands as permanent reserves, with similar protection to that of our National Parks.”
Please sign here as an individual and/or an organization to ask the Massachusetts Legislature to ensure the passage of these bills.
Forests are essential! End logging on public lands of the Quabbin, Wachusett, and Ware watershed. Sign the petition.
The Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR) intends to clearcut 175 acres of white pines in Manual F. Correlus State Forest on Martha’s Vineyard. Sign the petition to Stop the Clearcut
Here is a sign on letter that asks that twelve state forests in the Pittsfield Complex be protected as “reserves” like our National Parks. Or some areas minimally managed as “parks”.
Sign here to request the immediate stop on any contracts, logging. and other forest management activities of 122.0 and 108.8 acres of woodlands as proposed in the “ Willis Road North and Willis Road South, Lawton State Forest by the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR).
More Information and Resources
Keep It In the Forest, The Forest Carbon Coalition
Reports
Scientific Articles
- Intact Forests in the United States: Proforestation Mitigates Climate Change and Serves the Greatest Good
- Forest-clearing to create early-successional habitats: Questionable benefits, significant costs
- The Importance of Natural Forest Stewardship in Adaptation Planning in the United States
- Adaptation and Mitigation Capacity of Wildland Forests in the Northeastern United States
- Wilderness in History and Ecology
Examples of Wildland Intent, Sample Programs, and Best Practice Stewardship
- Massachusetts examples featured in Wildlands in New England: Past Present and Future:
- Massachusetts 2024 Funding for Protection of Forest Reserves
- MA Forest Reserves 2024 Funding
- Best Practices for Natural Area Stewardship Policy (via CT)
- Sustainable Simsbury Newsletter, Nov. 2024 (via CT)
Websites with Resource lists
- Northeast Wilderness Trust (NEWT) – library of resources
- NEWT Research and Essays
- Sierra Club Forest Protection Team Resource List
- Climate Action Now, Western MA, Regenerative Farming, Forests and Food Systems (“RF3”)
- Land Trusts in Massachusetts
- Harvard Forest
- John Muir Project
- Ecological Society of America (ESA), 7 journals, many open access articles and others can be found on Google Scholar or SciHub
- oldgrowthforest.net Find a Forest Near You
Indigenous Influence on the Land in New England
- Faison, E.K. (2024) Wilderness in History and Ecology, Arnoldia, 81(3): 20-33.
- Hayward, G. (2023) Mature and Old-Growth Forests: Definition, Identification, and Initial Inventory on Lands Managed by the Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management. USDA Forest Service Technical Report.
- Munoz et al. (2014) Defining the spatial patterns of historical land use associated with the indigenous societies of eastern North America J. of Biogeography. 41(12): 2195-2210.
- Human impact on New England ecology was minimal before Europeans arrived | Harvard Magazine
- Faison EK and Cachat-Schilling NR (2026) Wilderness, Indigenous land zones and regionality in North American forests. The Ecological Citizen 9(1): 38–49. https://www.ecologicalcitizen.net/pdfs/epub-150.pdf
Abstract: The concept and conservation approach of wilderness in the United States has been criticized as Eurocentric, as incompatible with Indigenous land use and as ignoring Native people’s longstanding presence on the North American landscape. In opposition to this view, this paper argues that many Indigenous societies recognized parts of the landscape as analogous to wilderness – dwelling on, and limiting disturbance practices to, a minor portion of their homelands, primarily living spaces. For instance, the Nimiipuu in the Rocky Mountains and Algonquian nations of the Northeast left the uplands and mountains uninhabited, restricting activities there to ceremonial, spiritual, or seasonal hunting and gathering purposes. Indigenous terms such as titoqa-nót wétes (‘people-less land’) and táuohkômuk (‘wilderness’) align closely with the 1964 Wilderness Act’s definition of wilderness as lands “untrammeled by man” and “where man is a visitor who does not remain”. Studies on the impacts of northeastern Indigenous land use on vegetation corroborate these land use restrictions, revealing local rather than widespread regional impacts. Taken together, Indigenous classifications and empirical evidence suggest that great swaths of upland forested areas of Turtle Island (North America) grew and self-organized with minimal human impact before European colonization.
Popular articles
- Society Needs A Doctor’s Prescription For Nature Noema, Oliver Milman, February 5, 2026
- A logging bill masquerading as wildfire protection By James Hansen and Dan Galpern, February 13, 2026
- The Death of the Forest Service Is Overdue by Andy Kerr, The Wildlife News, December 14, 2025 –
- Rewilding is a radical act of humility, WBUR, Sep 10, 2024
- Can logging in New Hampshire help fight climate change? Boston Globe, Oct 26, 2024
- That buzz you hear is debate over logging in N.H., Boston Globe, Nov 4, 2024, (LTE)
- Old forests are critically important for slowing climate change and merit immediate protection from logging, The Conversation, Jan 19, 2024
- All forests are important, old forests are priceless, Jim Furnish, New Hampshire Bulletin, December 9, 2024
Videos/Webinars
- Old Growth Forests – Nature’s Biotic Water Pump
- The Critical Role of Forests in Protecting Climate and Public Health(Presentation from the Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office 2023)
- Climate Action Now, RF3 Forest Protection Speaker Series (2020 – 2024, many relevant talks)
- The Return of Old Growth Forests, Jan 16, 2024
- Wilderness Works Too: The Promise of Passive Rewilding MA Sierra Club Talk, July 2025
- Rewilding the Northeast: The Case for Untrammelled Nature in a Changing World, Nov 7, 2024
- October Chapter Meeting: Dr. Richard Birdsey: The Potential of Forests in Massachusetts to Address Climate Change
- The Pillage of Muddy Brook (Wildlife Management Area)
Additional campaigns
Sierra Club Massachusetts Chapter ‘Forests are Essential’ Campaign
Wildfire
There has been a lot of debate in the Western US about logging to help control wildfires, as well as salvage logging after wildfires. Neither of these are helpful, either to fire prevention, containment, regeneration or biodiversity. With the recent uptick in wildfires in the Northeast, we anticipate the state and timber industries to promote logging for wildfire prevention. Below are some articles that provide evidence that such practices are not helpful and have the potential to create even more dangerous conditions.
Forest Fires in Massachusetts: Myths and Realities: Conference Oct. 4, 2025 – Community Land and Water Coalition – Listen to individual presentations from Michael Kellett, George Wuerthnor, David Foster, and Bill Stubblefield
Scientific Articles
Logging does indeed increase fire risks!: David Lindenmayer
Have Western USA Fire Suppression and Megafire Active Management Approaches Become a Contemporary Sisyphus, DellaSala, et al., 2022
Forest Carbon Emission Sources Are Not Equal: Putting Fire, Harvest, and Fossil Fuel Emissions in Context, Bartowitz, et al., 2022
Does Increased Forest Protection Correspond to Higher Fire Severity in Frequent-Fire Forests of the Western United States? Bradley, et. al., 2016
Popular articles
Wild Fires & Wild Forests: After a Year of Historic Wildfires, How Can We Protect Ourselves and Our Forests? Horsley, et. al, n.d. (From Old Growth Forest Network)
The Problem With Prescribed Burns Books/Chapters
Chapter 13 – Flight of the Phoenix: Coexisting with Mixed-Severity Fires.” In The Ecological Importance of Mixed-Severity Fires, DellaSala, et al., (ed), 2015
Webinars
Smokescreen: Debunking Wildfire Myths to Save Our Forests and Our Climate, Hanson, Chad and
Smokescreen Webinar, 2024
Another Smokescreen Webinar (many more if you google it)
Videos
Fire Suppression and Climate Change: A Conversation with George Wuerthner