Protecting Maine’s forest landscape through conservation easements By Joe RankinForests for Maine’s Future Writer Next year the Forest Society of Maine will reach the big 3-0. As in 30 years. Sometime in the next two or three years it will have another nice round number to celebrate — one million. Conserved lands on Moosehead…
By Joe Rankin Forests for Maine’s Future Writer It was a hot July day in the 1970s. Dave Struble was back home in Island Falls, on a day off from his job as a regional entomologist for the Maine Forest Service. But it was too hot to do much, and he suggested to his…
By Joe RankinForests for Maine’s Future Writer Pam Wells has patience.When she’s in search of the perfect photo she can wait hours, in some disheartening conditions. She’s not Bobcat (All photos courtesy Pam Wells)shooting brides or weddings or newborn babies or products. She’s photographing the natural world. And she knows there are a lot…
New composites, nanocellulose coatings, liquid fuels are on the horizon By Joe Rankin Forests for Maine’s Future Writer Dwane Hutto is obviously enjoying himself. He has just described a fairly complicated chemical process that started with ground up trees and produced a dark liquid in a vial that he holds high so everyone can see…
A new online course can help you enjoy and manage your woodland By Joe Rankin Forests for Maine’s Future writer Picture this: Three generations of a family huddled around a computer screen, reading, talking, and answering questions online. No, they’re not facebooking, skyping or playing the latest space aliens shoot ’em up game…
There are many forest types in the Pine Tree State By Joe Rankin Forests for Maine’s Future writer The Maine Woods. Writers use the phrase all the time. As though the entire state was covered with a blanket of spruce and fir and pine, with some maples thrown in. But as anyone who has walked…
By Joe Rankin Forests for Maine’s Future writer For trees, the forest is truly a jungle. First there’s the Olympic-scale intense competition for food and sunlight. Everyone straining for those life-giving photons, a silent stems-and-branches brawl. And it can go on for decades, centuries. In fact, it’s never really over. The…
By Joe Rankin Forests for Maine’s Future Writer In the video the young woman stops her car at a nature center, rummages around in the backseat, picks up a field guide and . . . tosses it aside. Instead, armed with her iPhone, she heads into the woods to learn about trees….
A venerable paper mill is the world leader in release papers By Joe Rankin Forests for Maine’s Future writer The names paper manufacturers give to the printing and writing papers that most people come across in their regular workday can be, well, a little boring. They’re heavy on words like premium, or gold, gloss…
By Joe Rankin Forests for Maine’s Future writer You’re driving down a Maine highway, following a logging truck that’s teetering and swaying with a load of logs, belching diesel fumes, and, because your cell phone fell down between the seats, you have time to speculate about where those logs might be going. …
