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National Conservation Award Presented To Massachusetts Sustainable Timberland Management Company
444 North Capitol St., N.W., Washington, DC 20001, 202-624-7890, www.fishwildlife.org
Contact: Rachel Brittin, Public Affairs Director, office: 202/624-7744, cell: 202/253-0319
 Washington, DC (September 26, 2007)— Cowls Land and Lumber Company in Massachusetts has been awarded the Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies' prestigious Landowner Stewardship Award. The award is presented annually to landowners who make a significant and positive conservation impact on a large area of privately owned land. This national award was presented to Cinda Jones and her husband Chuck Walker of the Cowls Companies at the Annual Meeting of Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies held during the week of Sept/16-21, in Louisville, Kentucky.
"The perpetuation of the diverse and abundant wildlife resources that this country is blessed with is very much dependent on the land management practices and stewardship of private landowners," said Wayne MacCallum, Director of the Massachusetts Division of Fisheries and Wildlife. "Cowls, headquartered in North Amherst Massachusetts, has been continuously managing land for sustainable agricultural and timber purposes since 1741- more than 30 years before the Revolutionary War."
In the last 265 years, the family's Western Massachusetts forest land has been devoted to sustainable timber production, while providing public recreational access and improved wildlife habitat. Cowls was one of the original Tree Farms to embrace and meet the requirements to be certified as a sustainable producer of trees in the United States.
Cowls employs professionally trained foresters in the management of its land and incorporates multiple use into its land management plans. Cowls management plans are long term and set the goal of achieving a sustained yield while retaining diversity of fish and wildlife, habitats, and ecosystems function.
"The condition of their lands today after more than two centuries of harvest proves that they have been able to employ sustainable forest management practices in a manner that benefits local communities and wildlife ecosystems," said MacCallum.
All of the Cowls property is open and accessible for outdoor public recreation to hikers, bikers, snowmobilers, hunters, angler's trappers, ATV use, cross country skiers, and bird watchers. Formal partnerships exist with snowmobile associations and hiking groups that improve and maintain skidder roads and bridges for use as trails.
"This is absolutely remarkable when you consider that Massachusetts is the third most densely populated state in the country, does not have a lot of publicly owned open space, and our private lands are increasingly being closed to public access," said MacCallum.
Cowls has partnered with a number of conservation and environmental groups in efforts to protect restore or sustain native wildlife diversity. They participated in one of the nation's first salamander crossing projects with the Hitchcock Center for the Environment. They were also the first private land owner in Massachusetts to partner with the Massachusetts Division of Fisheries and Wildlife, the Wildlife Management Institute and the Ruffed Grouse Society to dedicate appropriate portions of their land to the Northern Forest Woodcock Initiative. They also belong to and support various local conservation groups and land trusts dedicated to preserving open space and have established an education center to help inform the public, especially youth, about the importance of the sustainable management of forests and associated best management practices.
"The Woodcock Initiative funding we've received so far is being spent on one parcel in Huntington, Mass, but the affects of this new partnership go geographically farther than the dollars have," said award winner and Cowls President, Cinda Jones. "Because of the values he's learned through our partnership with the Massachusetts Division of Fisheries and Wildlife, our Chief Forester now reviews his cutting plans with state biologists to figure out if there are ways we can tweak what we're doing to benefit migratory bird habitat throughout western Massachusetts. Last week in Pelham, Mass, our forester flushed two woodcock on a parcel where he'd never seen any before. The immediate on-the-ground results of our woodcock initiative are undeniable."
Cowls' accomplishments and business success, especially within the context of the economic pressures on land in Massachusetts for over two centuries demonstrates a national model for an agricultural business in a manner that sustains valuable wildlife habitat diversity.
This year's award represents the first time recognition has been given to a sustainable forest-based enterprise (in the past only farmers and ranchers have been recipients) and the first time for a Northeastern state. Qualifications for award winners require that they are actively engaged in a farming or ranching business as an owner, lessee or operator/manager; their land must be under private ownership or control; the nominee must have made the decisions about land management activities for a minimum of five years; and at least 50 percent of the land under ownership or control must be devoted to farming or ranching.
For more information about the Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies' Landowners Award program, contact the Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies, 444 North Capitol St., N.W., Washington, DC 20001, 202-624-7890 or visit their Web site at www.fishwildlife.org.
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The Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies—the organization that represents all of North America's fish and wildlife agencies—promotes sound management and conservation, and speaks with a unified voice on important fish and wildlife issues. Found on the web at www.fishwildlife.org.
Cinda Jones and Chuck Walker of Cowls Land and Lumber Company receive the Private Lands Wildlife Stewardship Award from Ed Parker, Past President of the Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies and Chief, Bureau of Natural Resources for the Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection, and Wayne MacCallum, President of the Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies, and Director of the Massaschusetts Division of Fisheries and Wildlife.
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