Pooling Resources

In August 2023, NEFF Board and long-time staff member Whitney “Whit” Beals generously donated 590 acres of land in southwestern Ashburnham, Massachusetts to NEFF’s Pooled Timber Income Fund (PTIF). The property, named the Beals Family Memorial Forest in accordance with Whit’s wishes, will forever remain an active woodland managed for timber production, biological diversity, and water quality. By enrolling his property in the PTIF and thereby donating the land to NEFF, Whit permanently conserved his forestland while providing his named beneficiaries with an even stream of lifetime income.

Whit, who sadly passed in September 2023 after a courageous fight with cancer, was an avid conservationist who worked tirelessly to protect land across New England—both his family’s land as well as that of hundreds of other landowners he worked with during his 20 years with NEFF’s Land Protection staff. Whit was aware of the options available to private landowners to conserve their land. He worked with those landowners to meet their personal goals, building important relationships and leaving a lasting ecological impact along the way. Whit was a true forest champion in every sense of the word. He always sought the best in people and knew that a team-oriented approach toward conservation yielded the greatest possible result for all.

Charlie Reinertsen

“Whit Beals had a huge impact on NEFF and the land conservation world,” said Sophie Anthony, NEFF’s Conservation Project Manager. “Whit’s support of the Pooled Timber Income Fund increases its ability to provide financial and conservation benefits to other landowners in New England. I feel extremely lucky to have worked with Whit, especially on this piece of land that he was so passionate about.”

Whit’s environmental legacy continues to grow with gifts like the one in Ashburnham: a forest protected from development, providing renewable and climate-friendly long-lived timber products, managed using NEFF’s holistic Exemplary Forestry standards. Whit saw the PTIF as a way to conserve his land. He wanted to see the land thrive and benefit from NEFF’s 80-year history of exceptional forest stewardship while preserving an important green corridor for wildlife—a network of undeveloped land holdings in north-central Massachusetts that help make up the Millers River watershed. Whit also cared to see that his beneficiaries would be taken care of. The PTIF ensured a stream of lifetime income that would help supplement their lifestyles.

More than this, and perhaps instinctively given his 50-year career in the conservation field, Whit saw the promise of the fund as a powerful tool with huge implications for protecting private land en masse. This visionary financial vehicle provides a new opportunity and pathway for landowners to meet their conservation goals. With the additional benefits of lifetime income to the landowner, the PTIF has proven to be an attractive option. In fact, since its founding in February 2019, the PTIF has amassed 2,159 acres of forestland saved in perpetuity. This acreage includes Winchendon Forest, a 119-acre property also in Ashburnham that entered the PTIF in 2023; it is located across the street from Beals Family Memorial Forest, and so NEFF manages them as essentially one 709-acre forestland.

Though the PTIF itself is reasonably new, its inspiration and model has existed for decades: the pooled income fund (PIF), a type of charitable mutual fund or charitable trust that pools cash or securities donated to a charity. The charity then invests these monetary assets with the aim of providing an income benefit for the beneficiary and charity. NEFF’s PTIF, the first known conservation and timber-minded pooled income fund, adds a unique twist to the traditional PIF. Because timber is harvested in most years from one or more of the pooled properties, each member of the fund receives a more even stream of funding than they would if they managed their own land. There is also a reduced risk of loss due to natural disturbance, invasive species, disease, and the sensitivity of fluctuating timber prices.

“We have 215,000 private family forest owners in New England,” said NEFF Executive Director Bob Perschel. “Some of them would like to conserve their land but are not yet ready to do so. The Pooled Timber Income Fund was structured with these landowners in mind. They now have the option to put their forests under Exemplary Forestry management, receive an immediate tax break and annual revenue, and know their land will be protected and productive forever.”

The PTIF also accepts cash donations, and offers land trusts the option to lease timber from their land to the PTIF for 30 years, with the land trust maintaining full ownership and recreational management of their land. For more information, visit the PTIF webpage or contact Conservation Project Manager Sophie Anthony at [email protected].

About Beals Family Memorial Forest

This woodland has been actively managed since 1920, and was initially acquired with the intent to provide a sustainable flow of wood products to local furniture, toy and tool industries that were thriving in the Winchendon and Ashburnham region of Massachusetts in the 1920s.

Wildlife habitat is abundant and diverse on the property, which features an 8.8-acre beaver pond, open shrub swamps, spruce bogs and seasonal streams. The Natural Heritage Endangered Species Program (NHESP) has listed the forest as a Priority or Core Habitat, and identified species like the Dwarf Mistletoe, Slender Cotton Grass, and Common Loon on site. Timber harvesting has produced multiple tree age classes within the forest, with several pockets of young forest habitat created during the last harvest nearly 15 years ago.