Adjacent to Mount Grace’s headquarters and Skyfields Arboretum in Athol, is the state-owned Lawton State Forest. The Lawton Forest was the first woodland certified as a Tree Farm in Massachusetts. It was permanently protected in 1987 when Mount Grace purchased the property at the request of the Athol community and sold it to the Department of Conservation and Recreation. The Tree Farm was run primarily as a Red Pine plantation. Many of these non-native trees are now succumbing to disease and dying. DCR has a Forest Management cut designed to restore a more resilient native habitat.

Please join us on a walk and learn about how it will impact not only forest carbon, but also forest resiliency and biodiversity. Speakers Joelle Vautour (DCR Midstate District Forest Manager) and William VanDoren (DCR Biomatrician) will address how the planned tree harvest will regenerate a native mixed hardwood forest. Registration Required.