New England Forestry Foundation (NEFF) is conducting a sustainable, climate-smart timber harvest this summer at Sortwell Memorial Forest. A licensed forester has selected individual trees for harvesting.

Visitors are welcome at Sortwell during the approximately three-month harvest but should stay at least 300 feet from active operations. Please use caution.

The parking lot will remain closed during the harvest.

Sortwell Memorial Forest's wellbeing is NEFF's top priority. NEFF will conduct the harvest using our own Exemplary Forestry approach to forest management, which prioritizes forests' long-term health.

NEFF foresters and scientists developed Exemplary Forestry over years of research and on NEFF's own lands. It protects what makes forests ecologically and culturally special, like wildlife habitat, recreational opportunities and healthy waterways, while setting high standards of sustainability for three key goals:

Climate: Mitigating climate change by storing more carbon in New England forests and in sustainable wood products, while helping forests adapt to climate change's impacts.

Wildlife: Improving wildlife habitat and biodiversity.

Wood: Growing and harvesting more sustainably produced wood.

Sortwell was last harvested in 2013, and that harvest has been unnoticeable to trail users for years. NEFF expects the 2026 harvest to produce the same results.

For questions about this harvest, please email us at info@newenglandforestry.org