By JOE RANKIN Forests for Maine’s Future Writer At one time or another we’ve all wished we could see into the future, to get just a glimpse of the ways our lives might unfold if we take this particular job, or buy this house, or marry that person or go to that university. The same…
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 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…
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…
By Joe Rankin Forests for Maine’s Future Writer A few years ago the Greater Lovell Land Trust in the Kezar Lakes region of western Maine was considering merging with the local watershed organization It was an idea that had been around for years and it seemed like an ideal match: preserving land, protecting water. But…
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…
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 talk with the author of “The Changing Nature of the Maine Woods” Andrew Barton grew up Asheville, in the mountains of North Carolina, and as a boy of 8 or 9 he was fascinated by salamanders, lizards and snakes. “My mom wouldn’t let me keep any in the house, which I think just stoked…
