Providing Leadership

Beyond the “Illusion of Preservation”

The Center shares a recent report on balancing wood production and consumption in New England to a broad audience.

In our Apr. 17 webinar on Beyond the “Illusion of Preservation” – part of our Building the New Forest Future series – Center Program Director Julie Renaud Evans joined three of the seven authors of the recent report Beyond the “Illusion of Preservation” in a panel discussion. Our panelists included:

Caitlin Littlefield, Senior Scientist, Conservation Science Partners
Paul Catanzaro, Professor and State Extension Forester, University of Massachusetts Amherst
Tony D’Amato, Professor and Director of Forestry Program, University of Vermont

We recorded the conversation for you to revisit or share with others.

Now, twenty years since Harvard Forest’s original publication of The Illusion of Preservation – an analysis of Massachusetts’ production and consumption of wood and the disparity therein – Beyond the “Illusion of Preservation” expands the original report to encompass all New England, in light of the increased awareness of the complex role of forests in mitigating climate change, and identifies three steps for addressing the wood production-consumption imbalance across the region.

We’re permanently losing an astonishing amount of forest to development each year. At the same time, there’s growing pressure to curtail harvesting, especially on public forests, which means we’re simply relying on forests elsewhere to fuel our enormously consumptive lifestyles. We need to dramatically accelerate protection of wild forests and sustainably managed forests to take greater responsibility for our resource demands.”

– Caitlin Littlefield, Senior Scientist, Conservation Science Partners

The report envisions that the New England region can take responsibility for our consumption and sustainably produce as much wood as we consume while retaining and enhancing all the other social and ecological benefits of a diverse, healthy forest if we take these three steps.

Protect Forests: Protect New England’s forests, retaining at least 70% of the region in a mix of permanently protected Wildlands (at least 10% of the landscape) and Woodlands (60% of the landscape)
Reduce Consumption: Reduce wood consumption by 25%, orient consumption to more durable products, and enhance wood product recycling
Expand Ecological Forestry: Increase the amount of Woodland acreage in ecological forest management and reorient sustainable production to lumber

Explore the Report

Beyond the “Illusion of Preservation”

Taking Regional Responsibility by Protecting Forests, Reducing Consumption, and Expanding Ecological Forestry in New England

Download the Report

The report found that overall New England produces 76% of the volume of wood it consumes; however, it is geographically imbalanced with Maine producing 325% of the wood used by Mainers (a clear exporter) and southern New England producing less than 10% of the wood that its population consumes. Additionally, and despite the urgency to mitigate climate change, New England continues to lose 30,000 acres of forest cover each year to residential, commercial, and renewable energy development.

Beyond the “Illusion of Preservation” advocates for taking responsibility for balancing the production and consumption of wood within New England and not pushing that wood production elsewhere on the globe thereby extending the “illusion of preservation”. To achieve the goals outlined above, the authors envision 20 million acres of forest are needed to meet our wood consumption needs, sustainably managed to yield 0.4 cord per acre per year. Key to all of this as the panelists underscore is initiating a culture shift that localizes the forest and forest products industry much like the Victory Garden movement during World War II and today’s local sustainable agriculture movement.

Forest Stewardship

Julie Renaud Evans

Program Director

Cell: 603-724-8322

Kendall Gray

Program Assistant

Cell: 443-841-5201

Beyond the “Illusion of Preservation”

Explore the Report

Forest Stewardship

Tracking Changes Across the Northern Forest

Healthy Forests for the Future

Meet the Stewards Balancing the Needs of People and the Forest

Julie Renaud Evans

Kendall Gray

Sign Up for Center and Regional News