Join Williamstown Rural Lands for their second conversation with the Family Forest Carbon Program on Tuesday evening, January 10th at Sheep Hill or remotely.

6:00 PM – Viewing of Pre-recorded Talk (Talk also available to watch ahead of time: Here)

7:00 PM – Q&A with Laura Marx (The Nature Conservancy) and Patricia Ruby (American Forest Foundation)

RSVP HERE

Please note that this session will not be recorded. 

The Family Forest Carbon Program: Climate-smart forestry guidance and incentives for small family forests

In July 2022, the American Forest Foundation and The Nature Conservancy began enrolling landowners in western and central Massachusetts (as well as Vermont and 4 counties in eastern New York) in the Family Forest Carbon Program. This program provides an option for landowners for whom carbon storage is one of their values to get technical assistance and annual payments if they commit to either delaying harvest, or doing climate-smart forest harvests, for 20 years.

Patricia Ruby, Northeast Director for the Family Forest Carbon Program (American Forestry Foundation), and Laura Marx, Climate Solutions Scientist with The Nature Conservancy walked through the program in a presentation for Massachusetts Land Trusts, which we will play first (also available to watch ahead of time). After the presentation, join Patti Ruby and Laura Marx for a Q&A session. They will answer your questions about eligibility, how to enroll, how consulting foresters and land trusts can work with the program, and ways this program is different from existing carbon market programs. More information is available at www.familyforestcarbon.org

Knowing Your Landscape is a free, monthly series of talks and workshops designed to answer questions you might have about land stewardship, anticipate your concerns, and provide information and resources to landowners and land stewards. The series is jointly sponsored by our Talks on the Hill and the Working Lands/Working Hand programs. Participants in the series (and you may attend any or all) will learn about:

• the natural and productive components of the rural landscape,
• policies and regulations applicable to land conservation and management,
• land and natural resource management practices to keep things growing, and
• programs that support land stewardship by private landowners.