February 2011 By Joe Rankin Mention maple syrup season and the image that leaps to mind for most people is straight out of a Norman Rockwell print: metal buckets, old Dobbin pulling the sleigh, a weathered sugar shack in the moonlight, and steam billowing off the old wood-fired evaporator. These days, the picture is likely…
Forest scene on Branch Lake land in Ellsworth. Photo courtesy of Jerry and Marcy Monkman, Ecophotography.org Fresh from the Woods January 2011, edited for republication January 2023 By Joe Rankin They provide timber, hiking trails, opportunities to learn, and even maple syrup. They serve to protect watersheds and provide habitat for wildlife. They’re town forests. Also…
Fresh from the Woods Trails for the 21st century December 2010 By JOE RANKIN It’s a beautiful day. Leaves are turning. The air smells of the dying days of summer. A swollen stream roars off to the right. The group is moving slowly, pulling brush off a newly cleared footpath. Snipping pesky branches, cutting saplings. Later…
Fresh from the Woods Seeing the people behind the trees By JOE RANKIN A few years ago Wendy Farrand, a rep for Maine Custom Woodlands, learned a valuable lesson. She was trying to sign up a large forestland owner as a client and started touting the fact that her company’s people were all master loggers…
Fresh from the Woods Prentiss & Carlisle president Donald White, left, Gov. John Baldacci, and P&C Chairman David Carlisle show off the Austin Wilkins Award plaque, carved of prime cherry wood. (Photo by Joe Rankin) Prentiss & Carlisle: a proud history of forest stewardship By Joe Rankin When it comes to good timberland management, spreadsheets…
Fresh from the Woods North Maine woods Maine seeks $25 million for conservation By Joe Rankin Maine’s north woods covers some 12 million acres, a near contiguous swath that qualifies as the largest unbroken tract of forest east of the Mississippi. While that forest has provided jobs and recreational opportunities for generations, these days it…
Fresh from the Woods Sustainably harvested logs are loaded in the Scientific Forest Management Area at Baxter State Park. (Photo courtesy of Baxter State Park) Keeping Maine’s Forests Part II: Exploring Options for the Maine Woods By Andrew Kekacs Editor’s note: This is the second article in a two-part series about a landmark report on Maine woodlands issued in late 2009….
Fresh from the Woods Sunrise at Haymock Lake in northern Maine. (Photos by Andrew Kekacs) Keeping Maine’s Forests: Part I By Andrew Kekacs After more than two decades of often-rancorous debate about forest policy, a quiet effort by the University of Maine, industry representatives, environmentalists and the Baldacci administration might finally have moved those who care…
Fresh from the Woods Author Tom Wessels stands on a pile of stones in Brooks that may conceal the foundation of an early dwelling. Tom Wessels reads complex stories written into the forested landscape By Andrew Kekacs The highlight of the day came just a few minutes into the talk. Tom Wessels, author of “Reading…
Fresh from the Woods A group of hikers nears the summit of White Cap Mountain in the KI Jo-Mary region. (Photo courtesy of North Maine Woods) North Maine Woods offers unequalled opportunities for backwoods recreation By Andrew Kekacs Few would argue that the 205,000-acre Baxter State Park is a national treasure, but there is another…
