Friends of Mohawk Trail State

Hi, I'm Monica Leverett, and my husband Bob and I are raising funds for Friends of Mohawk Trail State Forest to support a film we are producing about the discovery of old-growth forests in Massachusetts. We feel that this film will make a real contribution: by increasing collective awareness of our connection to nature, and promoting the protection of our remaining forests, vital to our survival as a species on this planet.

Old-growth forests have developed naturally over a long period of time without significant human disturbance. As Bob says, “The trees in them connect to periods before our nationhood, and our very oldest trees go well before Columbus came over to this side of the pond. They are living history--a living, breathing, changing ecosystem with continuity into the distant past. Isn’t that important?”

Mohawk Trail State Forest is a publicly owned state forest covering more than 7,700 acres of mountain ridges, gorges, and old-growth forests at elevations ranging from around 600 to 2,080 feet. Mohawk (with adjoining Savoy State Forest) holds almost half of the known old growth in Massachusetts. It contains a section of the original Mohawk Trail, the Native American footpath that connected the Hudson and Connecticut River valleys.

Bob is the co-discoverer of most of the known old-growth forests in Massachusetts since the middle 1980s. At the center of the early preservation movements, he began organizing old growth conferences which continue to this day. He has been dubbed “the East’s leading old-growth forest evangelist.”

Bob is co-founder of the Native Tree Society, co-founder and President of Friends of Mohawk Trail State Forest, co-author of the American Forests Champion Tree-Measuring Guidelines Handbook. The most well-known of his co-authored books is the Sierra Club Guide to Ancient Forests of the Northeast.

Featured in the film, in addition to Bob, are the distinguished scientists he has worked with:

Dr. David Foster, Director of The Harvard Forest Emeritus

Dr. Anthony D'Amato, Director, Forestry Program, University of

Vermont

Dr. David Orwig, Senior Ecologist, The Harvard Forest

Dr. Peter Dunwiddie, Affiliate Professor in Biology, University of

Washington, ecological consultant

Dr. Lee Frelich, Director: Center for Forest Ecology, University of

Minnesota

Dr. William Moomaw, Professor Emeritus of International

Environmental Policy at the Fletcher School, Tufts University

Our filmmaker is Colin Hodgson, who studied film at Brandeis University and with the acclaimed documentary series Frontline at PBS. His films have been shown at festivals across the country, including the Seattle Queer Film Festival, Short. Sweet. Film Fest in Cleveland, and the Massachusetts Independent Film Festival. Julie Akeret is an award-winning filmmaker who has been making documentaries for 40 years. She was thrilled to be part of the interviewing process on this important film.

The first showing of the film will be at the Northeastern Old Growth Conference in Vermont in September of 2025 that brings together researchers, conservationists, planners, policy makers, health professionals, and lovers of wild nature to share their knowledge and perspectives on old-growth ecosystems.

Bob and I have donated significantly to this project. We have also received a substantial pledge from a conservation organization, but can still use “a little help from our friends.” Having completed a rough first draft of the film, we’ll need assistance with further production costs. Our fundraising goal is $8,000. Your donation, no matter the size, helps ensure that this film will be finished, get visibility at film festivals, be shown at education and professional conferences and made available online to the public. Thank you for your support!