MassWoods

Three years ago we launched our website, MassWoods, to promote informed forest conservation (management and protection) decisions. We monitor the use of the site and have been very pleased with its success. Since its launch, MassWoods has had over 23,000 visits (an average of 24 per day), with an average visit length of over three minutes and almost four pages viewed per visit.

To ensure that MassWoods continues to be a great source of forest conservation information, we are pleased to announce that MassWoods has been revised to increase the amount and quality of information on the site and to make finding the information even easier. Changes to MassWoods include:

• An “Important Updates” menu on the front page where you can find the latest updates to MassWoods, including information on current topics of importance to the forest conservation community.
• The addition of the "Find a Local Professional" to the main navigation, allowing visitors to find land trusts and foresters working in their town on every MassWoods page.
• A new "Landowner Programs" page describing major programs available to landowners, including information on EQUIP.
• A new "Ch. 61 Current Use Tax Programs" page, including a description of the 2007 program changes.
• Revised Ch. 61/61A and 61 B calculators based on the recently announced FY 2009 rates.
• Top navigation bar with many of the most viewed pages.
• A list of UMass Forest Conservation program projects.

The effective use of the internet requires staying current with available technologies. To this end, MassWoods has been converted from a Dreamweaver to a Joomla! site. Joomla! is an open source content management system. Though this conversion may not be visible to MassWoods visitors, the change gives us an even greater ability to provide a continuously updated source of information for forest conservation decisions.

Please check out the newly improved MassWoods website and thank you for your continued support!