The Massachusetts Forest Alliance, a Marlborough-based organization that advocates for a strong, sustainable local forest economy, has honored two Franklin County land stewards for their notable work in the industry.

With nearly 80% of the county being forests, this region is extremely important for the lumber industry statewide, according to the Massachusetts Forest Alliance. The two recipients are Jay Healy of Charlemont, who received the John H. Lambert Forest Stewardship Award, and Pantermehl Land Clearing of Ashfield, which earned the distinction of Massachusetts Wood Producer of the Year.

Jay Healy

The John H. Lambert Forest Stewardship Award bestowed to Healy, a former agricultural commissioner and state representative, is named after the former state forester who was the award’s first recipient. As the Massachusetts Forest Alliance’s highest honor, it is given to recognize lifetime achievement in stewardship of woodlands or improving forest policy.

In naming Healy the winner, the alliance recognized both his long service in state office and his family’s stewardship of their roughly 350 acres of woodlands at Hall Tavern Farm in Charlemont. Healy’s family owns the oldest certified tree farm in the state that is still operational, according to the Massachusetts Forest Alliance. It was certified in 1949 and will celebrate its 75th year in 2024.

“Jay Healy and his family have sustainably managed their woods long before the concept of sustainable management began to be discussed,” Hawley resident Greg Cox, program director for the forest alliance, said in a statement. “Their commitment to careful management of their woodlands is something any landowner should emulate on their property.”

Healy’s experiences producing lumber and running a small sawmill led him to advocate on the state level for farms and forestry businesses in hopes of helping them better compete in local markets. Healy is an advocate for building the local infrastructure needed to have a closed-loop timber industry in the state, considering most of the unfinished products get shipped to Canada for processing.

“It’s crazy to have all this material fly out of state and then we ship it back here to use it,” Healy said. “It is a real lost opportunity for local jobs.”

As a legislator, Healy put in considerable effort to teach the Legislature’s urban and suburban members about the needs and concerns of rural residents. As agricultural commissioner, he educated other agencies that agriculture is more than just growing food, but also includes growing long-term crops like trees.

When asked about the John H. Lambert Forest Stewardship Award, Healy said “it is nice to be recognized” and that he is “honored to receive this appreciated award” from the forest alliance, which he said “does a very good job in advocating for environmentally sound and economically viable forestry.”

Pantermehl Land Clearing

Meanwhile, Pantermehl Land Clearing was named the Massachusetts Wood Producer of the Year for 2023.

“We are honored to receive this award and appreciate all that the Massachusetts Forest Alliance does to support our industry,” owner Richard Pantermehl wrote in an email.

The business, Pantermehl explained, has “diversified and evolved with the forest industry” over the course of 40 years, “from logging, land clearing, wildlife habitat management, trucking and excavating. We have a great, hardworking crew that completes projects efficiently.”

Today, Pantermehl Land Clearing has 11 employees. Operations include trucking, maintaining right of ways for utilities and railroads, moving timber mats for transmission line maintenance, clearing for wildlife habitat, excavation and septic system installations. While timber harvesting is no longer the sole focus of the business, Pantermehl Land Clearing still does logging and wildlife habitat work.

Massachusetts Forest Alliance President Dicken Crane praised Pantermehl in presenting him with the award at the Forest Alliance’s Annual Meeting in Greenfield.

“There are a lot of jobs where some aspect can only be done efficiently by equipment that smaller loggers can’t afford to invest in,” Crane said in a statement. “Working with Pantermehl’s allows you to get those parts of a job done at an affordable cost and benefits everyone.”

One job Pantermehl did that required specialized equipment was opening up the overgrown railroad right of way for Knowledge Corridor train service along the Pan Am Railways line between Springfield and Northfield. To do the work, they had to have equipment modified so it could operate on the railway track itself because many parts of the line have no highway access.

Pantermehl said he had been lucky to take advantage of opportunities as they arose. He felt he was lucky to have started his business in the 1980s when equipment was more affordable than it is now, when many machines cost $500,000 or more.

“The future of the industry does not look optimistic as we are losing our pulp mills, our sawmills, our chip markets, and our workforce due to lack of interest and political support,” he wrote.

The warming climate has made working in the environment much more difficult, he noted. Pantermehl said he is also worried about changes to forests due to the problems caused by invasive species.

Reach Bella Levavi at 413-930-4579 or blevavi@recorder.com.