By Joe Rankin Forests for Maine’s Future writer In a spruce-fir forest north of Bangor tall towers rise above the treetops, studded with instruments measuring everything from wind to carbon dioxide and methane. Another forest to the southeast gets regular doses of fertilizer while a patch nearby does not. In another chunk of forest on…
By Joe Rankin Forests for Maine’s Future writer With not quite 14,000 acres, the University Forests aren’t in the big leagues of Maine forestland owners. No Irving Woodlands or Plum Creek Timber Co, certainly. But with dozens of parcels scattered the length and breadth of Maine, it’s not exactly small time either. Some of the…
Teachers’ Tours provide a close up view of the forest and the forest economy By Joe Rankin Forests for Maine’s Future writer Wayne Hapgood’s “ah ha! moment” came during a tour of a Pleasant River Lumber Co. sawmill. He was captivated by the computers, the optimizers, the automation that turned softwood logs into lumber. …
By Joe Rankin Forests for Maine’s Future writer Most visitors to Maine probably have a list of things they want to do and see. They want to go to the coast. They want to eat lobster. And they would like to see a moose. Moose are the iconic Maine animal. One that epitomizes the mythos…
By Joe Rankin Forests for Maine’s Future writer The research topics are varied. From what types of forest Canada lynx need to how well herbicides do at helping young evergreens get a head start in a clearcut; how to build a better tree growth model to whether it’s possible to economically thin stands of 20-year-old…
By Joe Ranki, Forests for Maine’s Future writer November 2013 When the emerald ash borer arrives in Maine everyone will lose, but the state’s Native American tribes have more to lose than most. The ash is a valuable hardwood: straight, tall, with a beautiful open grain; producer of prime firewood. The three ash species that…
By Joe Rankin Forests for Maine’s Future writer Stand on almost any hill in Maine, any mountaintop, and you’ll see forest, a blanket of trees. There are rivers, yes. Roads, villages, signs of civilization. But overall it seems to be a world of trees. It is forest that created the Maine mystique. And forest…
By Joe Rankin Forests for Maine’s Future writer Over the centuries the only way to make money if you owned a woodland was cut down the trees so they could be sold and turned into framing timbers, barrel staves, chariots, ship masts, charcoal, furniture, plywood or any of a gazillion and one other things. Now…
Educating lawmakers and public about one of Maine’s biggest industries When the Maine Legislature is in session Patrick J. Strauch spends a lot of his time at the state Capitol. The executive director of the Maine Forest Products Council, Strauch talks to legislators and testifies before committees. Not just the Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry…
The effort to restore the American chestnut tree to Maine’s forest By Joe Rankin Forests for Maine’s Future writer The crew moves across the field, setting fiberglass poles, threading on plastic insulators, and stringing thick Fencing the Winthrop seed orchard (Photo: The Rankin File)black and white polywire around an orchard of tiny trees growing…
