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While the harvest scenarios do not anticipate broad scale clearcut- ting, reactions to aesthetic landscape changes are difficult to quantify. The view-shed of most forested areas of Massachusetts now consists of rolling acres of consistent overstory. Even a small amount of clearcutting, consistently repeated across the landscape would dramatically alter these views and probably create a different and negative reaction from tourists or residents. Therefore, any significant increase in clearcutting methods as a form of forest management could have potentially dramatic impacts on recre- ation and tourism and face significant challenges from residents accustomed to a maturing forest. The quantification of these effects is beyond the scope of this study. Fortunately, alternative forms of forest management are available including uneven-aged management that maintains a continuous overstory, and forms of even-aged management that delay final harvests until sizable regeneration has occurred. These alternative methods would mitigate the landscape-scale aesthetic effects on tourism and recreation and likely be more acceptable to residents. 4.4.4 POTENTIALIMPACTSOFBIOMASS HARVESTING ON ECONOMIC PRODUCTIVITY OF FORESTS Massachusetts forests have historically supported a vibrant forest products industry that has declined dramatically in the last two decades. Although harvest rates of sawtimber remain steady, the number of Massachusetts sawmills and wood product busi- nesses has declined. More of the current harvest leaves the state for processing. The future of this industry is directly connected to a continuing availability of high-quality forest products. The growth and harvest of these higher-quality forest products could be either enhanced or diminished by increased biomass harvesting. As demand and price for biomass rises, the number and choice of trees removed in harvests change. Trees that previously had no value and were left behind can now be removed profitably or at no cost. We expect that increased demand for biomass will lead to the introduction of whole-tree harvesting equipment on a wider scale, which will enable smaller trees to be harvested more economically. One positive effect of these new markets is to make it possible for foresters to remove portions of the stand that have little future economic value and thus provide growing space for trees with better potential. Without a biomass market, such improvement operations cost money and are typically not possible to perform. However, new biomass markets may cause the harvest of trees that would eventually develop into valuable crop trees if left to grow. A straight, healthy 10" oak tree that would someday grow to be an 18" high-value veneer log might be removed too early in order to capture its much lower biomass value today. The misuse of low thinnings to remove biomass could also remove the future sawtimber crop as well as the forest structure referred to earlier. Whole tree harvesting equipment may make such removals more profitable, but these trees can also be added to the harvest in conventional operations that use skidders and chain saws. Whether these negative scenarios play out depends on whether the stand is managed with a silvicultural prescription, and that in turn depends on landowner intentions and state regulations for forest management. 4.4.5 EXISTING APPROACHES TO MANAGING LANDSCAPE LEVEL IMPACTS IN MASSACHUSETTS Historically, Massachusetts has not had programs to manage silvi- culture and forest harvesting at the landscape (i.e., multi-owner) level. This may be a function of the historical fact that over the last century Massachusetts forests have been recovering from heavy harvesting and deforestation from a prior period when much of the landscape was in agricultural use. In addition, the statewide harvest has been limited in number of acres and intensity. The advent of increased biomass harvesting, the continued loss of forestland to development and the effects of climate change may change the perception of an expanding healthy forest and need for greater oversight of harvesting at the landscape level. While the state does limit the size of individual clearcuts and requires adequate regeneration from harvests and in some cases regulates harvesting in concern for endangered species, nothing in current regulations or guidance limits the ability of private landowners to independently decide to harvest their forests, even if this results in very heavy and rapid cutting in a relatively small area. Furthermore, under the existing regulations, it is theoretically possible for an individual landowner to legally harvest an entire standing forest within a relatively short timeframe (5–10 years) by using a combination of clearcutting and shelterwood harvests.2 There are many historical reasons why forest regulatory policy has been implemented at the stand level rather than the landscape level. The focus of existing regulations has generally been aimed at protecting public rather than private ecosystem services values. For example, BMPs came into existence to protect water quality, which is clearly an ecosystem service that affects the public good— either through off-site contamination of drinking water supplies or damage to public recreational resources. Proposed policies that assert control over ecosystem services that are viewed as purely private in nature have been much more controversial. The recent proposed changes to introduce better silviculture into the Forest Cutting Practices regulations are a case in point where the State Forestry Committee wrestled with these issues and ultimately agreed on an approach that would require sound silviculture practices across all harvests. The practice of silviculture was determined to be a public value and worthy of addressing in the cutting plans. But again, the only controls on forest harvesting now are at the stand level and focused on protecting values that are traditionally considered in the greater public’s interest, such as clean water, rare species, adequate forest regeneration, and fire protection. Landscape aesthetics, for example, are not captured by any existing regulation. Voluntary programs, such as land 2 Shelterwood harvest are heavier cuttings that are intended to regenerate the forest with seedlings but leave a sheltering mix of larger trees that are removed shortly after the regeneration is established. 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