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Massachusetts

Forest Action Plan

Creating resilience in Massachusetts

Although Massachusetts is the third most densely populated state in the country, over 63% of the state is forestland. These 3.2 million acres of forest collectively provide cascading benefits including clean air and water, recreation, wildlife habitat, climate resiliency, and forest products. However, our state has not always looked this way, human use and widespread clearing during the 1800s drastically reduced forest cover and shaped the relatively young forests we have today.

The Massachusetts Forest Action Plan is designed to be a comprehensive resource on the condition, trends, and threats to the forests and trees of Massachusetts across rural, suburban, and urban landscapes. We hope this plan will provide a framework for creating and strengthening partnerships to work toward achieving healthy and resilience forest resources in Massachusetts.



Best Management Practices

Massachusetts’ best management practices (BMPs) program is quasi-regulatory. The state department responsible for BMPs policy development is the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation.

Click here to view the most recent BMPs recommendations on the state forestry agency website.

Click the following links to view available BMP monitoring data and implementation rates from NASF’s 2015 BMP survey and NASF’s 2019 BMP survey.

Massachusetts Forestry Publications

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