New England Forestry Foundation Celebrates 70th Anniversary With Plans for Annual Meeting Featuring Environmentalist Jeremy Grantham

LITTLETON, MA--(Marketwired - May 8, 2014) - The New England Forestry Foundation (NEFF), founded in 1944, is celebrating its 70^th anniversary this year and will mark this occasion and the foundation's many accomplishments during their annual meeting scheduled for Thursday, June 5^th, World Environment Day. The featured keynote speaker will be Jeremy Grantham who with his wife, Hannelore, established the Grantham Foundation for the Protection of the Environment in 1988 to protect and improve the health of the global environment. Its grants focus on climate change and biodiversity conservation, with an emphasis on international initiatives. Jeremy is a trustee of The Nature Conservancy and Rare Conservation and a supporter of NEFF. He is also a co-founder of GMO, LLC, an investment management firm in Boston that currently manages approximately $100 billion, predominately for large institutions.

The New England Forestry Foundation Annual Meeting will take place on Thursday, June 5^th, starting at 5:00pm at the Boston Seaport World Trade Center in Boston. The event will feature remarks from NEFF President Timothy Ingraham and Executive Director Robert Perschel who will discuss the findings of the foundation's new report New England Forests - the Path to Sustainability, a case for how forests can help us in the 21^st Century. The event will include presentations during the annual meeting followed by a cocktail reception. All are welcome to attend with advance registration. Visit www.newenglandforestry.org/events for further information.

"The New England Forestry Foundation continues to deliver dramatic conservation accomplishments for New England's communities and their forests," said Robert Perschel. "We have protected 1 out of every 3 acres conserved in the region during the last 15 years with a vision to keep 70 percent of New England forested into the future through action, advocacy, and outreach. We look forward to bringing our members together to celebrate, discuss our goals, and be inspired by one of our biggest supporters, Jeremy Grantham."

During the event, the speakers will highlight the impact of NEFF's initiatives including the protection of 1.1 million acres of forests through conservation easements -- an area larger than Rhode Island; conservation of 26,000 acres in the nearly 150 community forests owned by New England Forestry Foundation, where they demonstrate sustainable forest management; providing recreational opportunities, clean air and water, economic opportunity climate stabilization, and improving resiliency to climate extremes, and local, sustainable timber products for hundreds of New England towns.

About The New England Forestry Foundation
The New England Forestry Foundation acts to ensure the conservation and sustainable management of the region's forests. They are the only non-profit organization with a region-wide geographic focus and a pro-forest mission. For more information, visit www.newenglandforestry.org.