December 7, 2006

I am a private forestry consultant in the Downeast area and in 1998 I prepared a forest management plan for Woodlawn that the Hancock County Trustees of Public Reservations subsequently approved. The trustees have recently contracted with me to evaluate the present harvest being conducted by Prentiss & Carlisle for compatibility with the original management plan and current trustee objectives. I feel the present harvest is in keeping with the trustees’ past and present objectives, is improving the health and vigor of the woodland and I wholeheartedly endorse their continuing forest management efforts. The woodland at Woodlawn is very familiar to me and I would like to respond to some of Catherine Raymaker’s comments, perhaps shared by others, that appeared in the Nov. 16 edition of The Ellsworth American.

The cut-to-length system Prentiss & Carlisle is using leaves the marketable timber piled in the woods until a forwarder comes along to pick the logs up and forward them to the yard, which they are trucked from. The wood is never skidded, or dragged on the ground; it is carried out on the forwarder, with minimal soil disturbance. To its credit, Prentiss & Carlisle has delayed forwarding its merchantable wood during this rainy season and is waiting until the ground dries out or freezes to move its wood, which lies in an orderly fashion awaiting the forwarder.

Many people could accept some careful thinning at Woodlawn and would welcome the clearing of the debris left from the recent windstorm and years of brush accumulation. That is exactly what is taking place in this careful and thoughtfully executed harvest. To do that sort of timber stand improvement work without the balance of a harvest is too costly for Woodlawn’s — and most anybody else’s — budget. Woodlawn’s forest stands have been harvested since Col. John Black completed his mansion back in 1828. Harvesting encourages a healthy and vigorous forest and is compatible with beautiful grounds for recreational pursuits, diverse wildlife habitat
and reduced fuel for forest fires, should they occur.

A harvest is overdue at Woodlawn, with many of the trees going by their merchantable value. These suppressed and low-quality trees have made up the highest percentage of the harvested wood, by far. The standing trees at Woodlawn are healthier and more vigorous than any of the harvested trees were. A lot of the dead/dying trees have been harvested also, and this is made economically possible by the current biomass markets. Previously, this wood was not merchantable and was left in the woods. This biomass product is low-paying, but the real value lies in getting it out of your woodlot to make way for the next round of young trees and to reduce fuel for fire. In spite of the biomass harvest, the grounds at Woodlawn are presently far from sterile. Tom Nelson, manager of woodlot management services for Prentiss &
Carlisle, is supervising this harvest and is ever mindful of aesthetics and of wildlife needs.

It pleases me that there are so many people who support sustainable logging in our commercial forests. Some, however, don’t wish to encounter such “destruction” in a beloved county “park.” I don’t agree that the harvest at Woodlawn is “inappropriate and shameful, especially considering the limited amount of public green space in our town.” What I view as shameful is that the city of Ellsworth, along with many other municipalities, seems to place such little value on green space, public or private. It is fast disappearing. If more people can be encouraged to make their woodland more productive economically, more green space will remain undeveloped. I applaud the
efforts of the trustees to ensure that we have access to a healthy forest so close to downtown.

It is not fair to judge the harvest midstream, just as it is unfair to view a half-finished construction project as complete. The end result of this current harvest at Woodlawn will look a lot different than the in-progress harvest looks. Some areas of Woodlawn are being intentionally left alone, as a control block to help educate the public about management versus no management. The Hancock County Trustees of Public Reservations believe, and I agree, that this is a wonderful opportunity to educate the public about “commercial” forests being beautiful and valuable — to recreationists, wildlife and the economy. The trustees plan on hosting a field day to review this harvest, as well as prior harvesting, of the Black Estate. I hope you all can be there.