BRUNSWICK (AP) – Nearly 24 million acres, equivalent to 85 percent of the Northern Forest, changed hands over the past 25 years as forest products companies sold timberlands to cash-rich investors such as insurance companies and pension funds, a report says.

The Manomet Center for Conservation Sciences said Tuesday its new report on the massive change of ownership of New England’s Northern Forest calls for measures to encourage diversity of plant and animal life and efforts to keep the forest productive.

The Northern Forest extends from northern New York into Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine, the state which accounts for 84 percent of the sales.

“Unlike the traditional forest product companies, many of these new owners are not as interested in a public discussion on the sustainability of the land they own,” said John Hagan, program director of Manomet’s Forest Conservation Program.

Hagan said the sales raise questions about whether the new owners will be responsible stewards of the land.

The report called for development of new data sources to assess forest biodiversity and development of incentives to encourage landowners to participate in sustainable forest certification.

The Massachusetts-based environmental research center also recommended the development of state-level processes to track transactions involving large parcels of timberland.

Manomet said it has taken steps to work with some of the new landowners by establishing projects to protect forest plants and animals.

“The objective over the next year will be to build relationships with the new landowners to ensure they have tools and knowledge to be good environmental stewards of their land,” the organization said.

AP-ES-01-10-06 1704EST

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