Who’s Underserved?
The Service Forestry Program was created specifically to engage with private landowners, yet despite targeted outreach efforts over many years, a portion of these landowners remains underserved and unengaged (Table 2). The dominant demographic of private landowners is older, male, and college-educated, creating unintended cultural and other access barriers (USDA Forest Service, 2021). Achieving sustainable forestry on a landscape scale across Massachusetts will require employing better, more culturally appropriate efforts to engage these underserved landowners.
Woodlands Connect engages with forest landowners who are historically underserved under the current administration’s definition. Historically underserved forest landowners (HUFL) qualify for increased targeted assistance from federally funded programs.
Table 2. Massachusetts Underserved Forest Landowners (Source: State-By-State Underserved Landowner Population Data: Region 9, January 2025 (Terracciano & Hollins, 2025)
| USFS Underserved category | % of Acres | Sampling Error | % of Ownerships | Sampling Error |
| Beginning Landowners | 15% | 3.5% | 14% | 4.0% |
| Landowners in High Poverty Areas | 2% | 1.1% | 1% | 0.5% |
| Federally Recognized Tribal Members (Self-Identified) | 0% | 0.0% | 0% | 0.0% |
| Limited Resource Producer* | – | – | – | – |
| Veterans✝ | 10% | 3.1% | 8% | 5.5% |
*This data is not currently tracked at the program level
✝Landowners in census tracts with 10% or more veterans
They are:
1. Beginning Farmers, Ranchers, or Forest Landowners
Beginning forest landowners are individuals who have either never previously owned or managed non-industrial private forestland, or who have been doing so for fewer than 10 consecutive years. This may include those who inherited land within the past decade or who purchased forestland during that period. In the 2022 Census of Agriculture there were 4,070 farmers in Massachusetts who were recorded as new and beginning producers with less than 10 years of farming experience (USDA NASS, 2022). According to the ForestsWork cost-share payment database (analyzed by M. Downey, March 2026), from 2022 to 2025, Beginning Forest Landowners comprised 81% of cost-share participants and accounted for 83% of the enrolled acreage, indicating strong engagement among new landowners.
2. Farmers, Ranchers, or Forest Landowners Living in High Poverty Areas
In 2025, there are no counties in Massachusetts with a poverty rate of 20 percent or more (USDA Economic Research Survey, 2025). However, pockets of high poverty persist in many smaller census tracts in both peri-urban and rural areas. Berkshire County has the largest concentration of high-poverty census tracts in the rural northwest region in the Towns of North Adams, Monroe, Rowe, and Cheshire. The North Quabbin region of Wendell, Orange, Leverett, and Sunderland also contains pockets of high poverty, as well as rural towns isolated along Interstate 90, including Palmer, Ware, and North Brookfield. Ipswich and Peabody in the Northshore as well as the Cranberry Bog regions including Mashpee on Cape Cod also contain high-poverty census tracts with forestland.
3. Federally Recognized Tribes
Massachusetts has two federally recognized tribes, the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe with reservation land in Mashpee (Barnstable County) and Taunton (Bristol County), and the Aquinnah Wampanoag Tribe with reservation land on Martha’s Vineyard (Dukes County). Two tribes have also gained state recognition through executive orders: the Hassanamisco Nipmuc Band (Worcester County) and the Herring Pond Wampanoag Tribe (Plymouth County).
All four tribes currently manage forested land in the state (Cardwell et al., 2020). The Wampanoag are involved in the management of the Mashpee National Wildlife Refuge on Cape Cod, and 227 acres of forestland in the Freetown/Fall River State Forest in Taunton.
Of the four state and federally-recognized tribes: 3,200 are enrolled Mashpee Wampanoag; 1,364 are enrolled Aquinnah Wampanoag, and 2,300 claim membership in the Hassanamisco Nipmuc Band. According to the 2020 Census, there are 24,000 individuals in Massachusetts identifying as American Indian, and over 70,000 who identify as American Indian in combination with another race. Most American Indians currently living in Massachusetts are affiliated with tribes from other areas of the United States as well as Guatemala, Mexico, Ecuador, El Salvador, and Chile.
4. Limited Resource Producer
Forest landowners with limited resources have had gross farm/forest product sales less than or equal to $227,100 in each of the tax years 2022 and 2023, and a total household income that is less than 50 percent of their county’s median household income in each of the previous two years (Table 3). See Limited Resource Farmer/Rancher Self Determination Tool.
Table 3. Limited Resource Income thresholds by County
| County | 50% of the County* Median Household Income threshold | County | 50% of the County* Median Household Income threshold |
| Barnstable | $47,845 | Hampshire | $43,637 |
| Berkshire | $37,894 | Middlesex | $63,151 |
| Bristol | $43,010 | Nantucket | $57,352 |
| Dukes | $47,505 | Norfolk | $61,700 |
| Essex | $49,094 | Plymouth | $54,706 |
| Franklin | $37,269 | Suffolk | $45,060 |
| Hampden | $34,125 | Worcester | $45,875 |
*County Value is calculated as the higher of the National Poverty level or 50% of the County/Area Median Household Income.
Household income thresholds for limited-resource forest landowners vary widely across Massachusetts, reflecting differences in county median incomes. Hampden and Franklin counties have the lowest thresholds ($34,125 and $37,269, respectively), while Middlesex and Nantucket have the highest ($63,151 and $57,352). This highlights that eligibility for limited-resource programs is highly dependent on local economic conditions.
Limited Resource landowner data is not currently tracked at the program level. Woodlands Connect will collect participant survey data to measure the impact of programs on these underserved landowners, monitoring and ensuring the use of effective outreach and engagement strategies. As a long term goal, Woodlands Connect will work to collect metrics that point to the overall percentage of ownerships and acres that belong to this underserved group.
5. Veterans
Veteran forest landowners are individuals who have served in the United States Army, Navy, Marine Corps, Air Force, Space Force, Coast Guard, or Reserves, and who were discharged under conditions other than dishonorable. They are either new landowners (having owned forestland for fewer than 10 years) or have obtained veteran status within the past 10 years.
Massachusetts is home to over 324,000 veterans, or 4.2% of the civilian population. Veteran status is also not currently tracked in forestry outreach efforts. Most veterans live in urban centers, though some of the Top 30 census blocks can be found in more peri-urban and rural areas like Bedford, Freetown, Ware, and Southampton. Franklin County has the highest density of veterans in the state (National Center for Veterans Analysis and Statistics, 2020). Veteran status will be collected in Woodlands Connect participant surveys to better assess the interests and needs of this particular group.
