Community Stewardship
Healthy forests support healthy communities, wildlife, biodiversity, clean water, climate resilience, and the natural beauty that defines Martha’s Vineyard.
About Friends of Vineyard Forests
FVF’s mission is to protect and preserve Martha’s Vineyard’s forests, woodlands, and natural habitats through education, conservation, advocacy, scientific collaboration, and community engagement.
Why This Work Matters
Conservation for the Future
Forests store carbon in vegetation and soils while supporting habitat, water, soil, and community benefits. Forest conservation can help protect these connected systems for future generations.
Who We Are
Friends of Vineyard Forests is an Island-wide organization focused on forest education, advocacy, community organizing, scientific collaboration, conservation, and responsible stewardship.
FVF works to help the community understand the value of mature trees and forest systems and to encourage consequential tree-loss decisions that are supported by evidence, meaningful public participation, proportionality, alternatives, restoration, maintenance, and long-term accountability.
Our Beginning
FVF’s first campaign grew from community concern about proposed tree removal in Manuel F. Correllus State Forest.
That campaign remains important, but the organization’s mission extends across Martha’s Vineyard’s trees, forests, woodlands, and natural habitats.
How We Work
Evidence and Research
FVF recognizes and respects the complexity of forest systems. We believe that protecting natural resources like tree canopy and forest habitat requires quantifiable data that is driven by science and accounts for the value trees provide in terms of carbon sequestration, air quality, and stormwater mitigation.
Education and Community
We believe informed communities make stronger environmental decisions. Through outreach, public discussion, and scientific data, we aim to promote a better understanding of the ecological importance of the Island’s mature tree canopy, forests, and habitats.
Conservation and Advocacy
Decisions affecting the Island’s tree canopy, forests, habitats, and public lands should include meaningful community input and participation. FVF supports accounting for the ecological and public functions of existing trees and forests before consequential removal decisions are made.
Community Organizing and Responsible Stewardship
FVF supports bringing people together around reliable information, meaningful participation, practical alternatives, and long-term responsibility for the outcomes of major tree and forest decisions.
Our Approach
Thoughtful stewardship depends on community engagement, science, ecological monitoring, and collaboration with experts. We support research and data-driven approaches that improve long-term forest resilience.
FVF believes major tree-loss decisions should identify existing conditions, explain the evidence and objectives, evaluate alternatives, consider cumulative Island-wide effects, provide meaningful public participation, define restoration and maintenance obligations, and monitor results over time.