Note: This accompanies the feature on Maine’s Precious Forests in Habitat Magazine, Spring 2023
Maine’s forests are extensive, but like so much of our landscape, are nonetheless vulnerable to being converted to development and/or degraded from pollution, climate change, poor management practices, and the incursion of nonnative, invasive species.
But Maine’s varied forests — the most extensive relatively intact forestland east of the Mississippi — are an invaluable treasure that provides not just timber and other forest products, but clean air and water, extensive habitat for both aquatic and terrestrial wildlife, and a myriad of recreational opportunities. Consequently, many individuals, organizations, corporations, and state and federal agencies have been using a variety of tools to keep Maine’s forests as forests, particularly since massive sales of the North Maine Woods accelerated in the 1990s. However, there is more to do!
Today, sustainable forest certification, working forest conservation easements, fee acquisitions, ecological reserves, forever wild designations, exemplary forestry, multiple-use state and federal forest management, wildlife refuges, Best Management Practices, and carbon sales all play a role in maintaining and enhancing our forests. Below is a short primer on how some of these programs work and are being applied here in Maine.
Sustainable Forest Certification Programs. There are two major sustainable forestry certification programs operating in Maine — the Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI) and Forest Stewardship Council (FSC). A landowner that participates in the program must meet certain management and business standards in order to become certified, including ones for ensuring no more wood is cut than grown over a 20-year time period, Best Management Practices for protecting water quality are followed, and special habitats such as Bald Eagle nests, are protected. General goals for protecting biodiversity are often included as well, however the standards are somewhat vague, and so have not always led to improved habitat protection and/or management. Landowners in the program are subject to periodic audits to ensure they are meeting those standards, and can sell their paper or timber products stamped with the SFI or FSC logo. Today, approximately 10 million acres, or over 50% of all of Maine’s forestlands, are enrolled in one or both programs. The State of Maine (Bureau of Parks and Lands) has 634,712 acres under dual certification.
Conservation easements first and foremost protect land from future development, but may also be written to protect productive soils, water resources, special natural communities and wildlife habitat, and public access. Easements can be donated and/or purchased from a private landowner, and cover both small and large properties, everything from a local land trust site to a large industrial ownership. Certain specified “rights” are purchased from the landowner and the landowner agrees to manage and care for their land in ways that meet the goals of the conservation easement. More recently, some easements aim to provide additional “ecological lift” by protecting riparian habitat (land adjacent to water), remnant old forest stands, requiring minimum stocking levels, requiring a minimum of X% of the property in older forest condition, and/or establishing ecological reserves where natural disturbance is allowed to take its course. The State of Maine or a private conservation organization usually holds the easement and is responsible for monitoring activities to ensure they meet the terms of the easement.
Fee acquisition by a conservation buyer gives the new landowner more certainty over how the lands and waters they care for will be managed. Fee acquisition is typically more expensive than purchasing an easement, but can be particularly useful where the primary stewardship goals are for protecting ecological values such as certain types of fish and wildlife habitat, exemplary natural communities, and old forests, or for establishing ecological reserves and forever wild places – all of which add diversity to the mosaic of managed and unmanaged forest lands across the landscape.
Ecological Reserves and Forever Wild areas are places where natural disturbances and ecological processes are allowed to unfold without direct intervention from humans. Ecological reserves in Maine include public and private conservation lands that are comprised of a variety of Maine’s natural communities and/or ecosystems representative of the state’s biogeographical diversity, and may include habitat for species whose needs are not likely to be met on managed lands. These places can provide a benchmark for tracking ecological and environmental change and for comparing managed lands with unmanaged lands. In addition, they are usually open for low to no impact scientific research and non-motorized recreation. There are about 90,000 acres of Ecological Reserves on 17 state-owned public land units, and thousands of additional acres on private conservation lands in Maine – the largest on lands owned by the Appalachian Mountain Club, The Nature Conservancy in Maine, and Northeast Wilderness Trust.
Carbon Sales. Forests take up and store tremendous amounts of carbon — in tree trunks, branches, shrubs, roots, and soil. Young forests take up a lot of carbon quickly, while older forests with big old trees store more carbon. Wood used in buildings or furniture also stores carbon. As long as that carbon remains in the forest or long-term forest products, it will not add to the excessive amounts of carbon already causing our climate to warm. Consequently, these forests now have a new “product” that can be monetized and sold as an “offset.” Several landowners have taken advantage of carbon markets to do just that, and to then put the funds raised back into their business, or towards additional land protection, management, and stewardship. Baskahegan was one of the first companies to do so, but others including the Downeast Lakes Land Trust and the Appalachian Mountain Club have also sold carbon credits. In exchange for selling their carbon, they must alter their harvest practices and document that they are growing and/or storing more carbon over the next 100 years than they otherwise would have under traditional management. Other carbon markets are currently being developed for industrial landowners and small woodland owners that do not require the rigorous standards of the California market and/or a 100-year commitment.
Forest Practices Matter. In addition to conserving forestland as forests for the future, long-term stewardship matters. There are many different approaches to managing forestland depending on landowner goals. How a forest is managed will determine which trees, shrubs, herbaceous plants, mosses and lichens will grow and prosper there; what the mix of species, ages, and sizes of trees will be; what habitat features are available to which wildlife species; how much sediment from erosion enters our wetlands, streams, rivers, ponds, and lakes; soil and water quality and temperature; and habitat connectivity.
“Ecological forestry” takes all of these factors into consideration along with timber management goals when planning a harvest, and is gaining more traction here in Maine in recent years. Ecological forestry focuses on mimicking natural disturbance regimes to maintain and enhance structural heterogeneity; retaining snags, old trees, and down logs; lengthening rotation times (time between harvests); and creating landscape connectivity. Several agencies and conservation organizations are promoting and/or practicing ecological forestry right here in Maine, and the Bureau of Parks and Lands already practices multi-use forest management. They consistently have lower harvest rates and higher “stocking” levels (amount of standing timber) than many of their industrial forest neighbors, while still producing high quality timber. When you walk through a BPL forest it has a very different look and feel to it from lands managed principally for maximum timber value.
Exemplary Forestry Fund. This fund has been newly established to purchase private working forest lands that will be managed using the New England Forestry Foundation’s Exemplary Forestry standards (many of which are similar to FFMB). Purchase is being covered by foundation grants and private investors. Private investors understand they will be getting a lower than typical rate of return in the near-term in exchange for knowing the forest will be managed to exemplary standards; these include creating a balance of young and older forests, protecting fish and wildlife habitat, and promoting older forest characteristics in a significant portion of the property — all of which will create a source of both low-grade wood and quality large sawlogs sometime in the future, and also store significant amounts of carbon. A pending acquisition near Greenville could be the first EFF site.
Conservation Projects in Action
Forest conservation projects in Maine often include one or more of the above land protection and management strategies. Here are a few examples:
- The Downeast Lakes Land Trust purchased and manages a 57,703-acre Community Forest, secured a conservation easement held by New England Forestry Foundation on 312,000 acres, established two ecological reserves totaling 10,600 acres, and sold carbon credits on two parcels totaling 41,118 acres. They manage their lands to create patches of young forests for woodcock and grouse, and mature, closed canopy conifer forests with lots of dead standing and down wood for a variety of amphibians, birds, and mammals using Focus Species Forestry, and to provide wood products, fishing, hunting, and education and recreation for the local community. Their lands are all enrolled in the Forest Stewardship Council’s sustainable forest certification program as well.
- The Rangeley Lakes Heritage Trust (RLHT) is working on a multifaceted conservation project around the Kennebago Lake and Kennebago River that once complete, will include a working forest conservation easement on 5,069 acres of privately owned and managed land, a 1,753-acre tract along the River that will be owned by RLHT, and two additional tracts totaling 3,486 acres that will be purchased by a conservation buyer but likely subject to a forever wild conservation easement held by RLHT. The goals of the working forest easement are to prohibit development, fully protect fish and wildlife habitat (especially the waterways, adjacent riparian habitat, and remnant patches of older forest), restock the forest, increase carbon storage, and allow sustainable forest harvesting. In addition to protecting ecological values of the area, the project will also provide access for the public to hunt, fish, paddle, birdwatch, and more. The conservation easements and accompanying forest management plans are incorporating recommendations from Maine Audubon’s Focus Species Forestry, Forestry for Maine Birds, and Forestry for Maine Fish programs. Special attention is being given to restoring and enhancing the coldwater streams and lakes and their adjacent riparian habitats for wild Brook Trout and other aquatic and riparian habitat species, replacing undersized culverts with Stream Smart crossings, and adding down wood in the stream to enhance in-stream habitat.
- The Forest Society of Maine just completed two projects in Western Maine — Grafton Notch and Coburn Gore. These private lands will be protected from development with a working forest conservation easement held by FSM. Some provisions for protecting riparian habitat, rare species and natural communities, and special management areas were incorporated into the easement. In addition, both included small forever wild ecological reserves as well — 6000 acres in Grafton Notch owned by the Northeast Wilderness Trust, and an 1100 acre designated ecological reserve in Coburn Gore.
- The Mahoosuc Land Trust and Midcoast Conservancy both have a portfolio of lands they have acquired and now own and manage, and lands they hold conservation easements on. During the past two years Maine Audubon has worked with both land trusts to integrate Forestry for Maine Birds management recommendations into their forest management plans and harvests, and to design and place several FFMB informational signs at one of their properties designated as a Demonstration Forest. Please visit the Hidden Valley Nature Center in Jefferson or the McCoy-Chapman Forest in Bethel to learn about and see first-hand what FFMB management looks like.