Published: 4/6/2021 9:47:28 AM
Regarding Cinda Jones “Fact checking” My Turn, March 31: Once again we see financial motives, in this case millions of public dollars for Cinda Jones and Cowls, rebranded as “conservation.”
“Anticipating these solar farms, Cowls conserved over 2,000 acres of proximate forests in advance — 10 times the amount of forests that will host solar for 20-30 years.” Cowls did not “conserve” the land, the public did. By threatening development, Cowls was given $3.25 million by the public to simply continue business as usual logging of their forests.
Now for some icing on the cake, Cowls again goes to the public trough for “green” energy subsidies that would make clear cutting their forest even more lucrative. It does not take a genius to realize that solar in developed and degraded locations is genuinely “green” energy, but clear cutting forests to install solar to “help” nature is as dumb as a stump.
Most importantly, genuine “protection” of forests does not mean cutting them down.
Please see this example of what Cowls considers “protecting” forests in Huntington: maforests.org/BS.pdf.
Also please see what the state of Massachusetts considers “protecting” forests: maforests.org.
Then please share this information and contact your state representatives and senators and ask them to support and co-sponsor two new forest protection bills for state forests which would provide genuine protection for 16% of all Massachusetts forests, see: savemassforests.com
Chris Matera
PE Massachusetts Forest Watch