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Land, Timber, and Recreation in Maine's Northwoods: Essays by Lloyd C

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Land, Timber, and Recreation in Maine's Northwoods: Essays by Lloyd C The University of Maine DigitalCommons@UMaine Miscellaneous Publications Maine Agricultural and Forest Experiment Station 3-1996 MP730: Land, Timber, and Recreation in Maine's Northwoods: Essays by Lloyd C. Irland Lloyd C. Irland Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/aes_miscpubs Recommended Citation Irland, L.C. 1996. Land, Timber, and Recreation in Maine's Northwoods: Essays by Lloyd C. Irland. Maine Agricultural and Forest Experiment Station Miscellaneous Publication 730. This Report is brought to you for free and open access by DigitalCommons@UMaine. It has been accepted for inclusion in Miscellaneous Publications by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@UMaine. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Land, Timber, and Recreation in Maines Northwoods: Essays by Lloyd C. Irland Lloyd C. Irland Faculty Associate College of Natural Resources, Forestry and Agriculture The Irland Group RR 2, Box 9200 Winthrop, ME 04364 Phone: (207)395-2185 Fax: (207)395-2188 FOREWORD Human experience tends to be perceived as taking place in phases. Shakespeare talked of seven ages of man. More recently Erik Erikson has thought of five separate stages in human life. All of these begin to break down, however, when we think of the end of eras. Partially because of the chronological pressure, such times come at the end of centuries. When one adds to the end of a century the concept of an end of a millennium, the sense of change, of difference, of end time can be very powerful, if not overwhelming. The termination of the nineteenth and the eighteenth centuries were much discussed as to the future. Prior to that, there seems to have been less discussion because literacy was not well advanced. If, as an example, one were to think about the year 1000, perhaps the nearest thing to a new beginning would have been the Viking sorties into North America, and very few people would have known about it, or cared very much if they had known. With a much larger literate population in the world, the end of the twentieth century, and the end of this millennium, will, no doubt, produce much discussion. That coincident time arrangement will provide many predictors of the future—some of whom will hail the future, while others will decry the end of a past—with an opportunity to offer many prescriptions on how to behave. Maine faces such a daunting time. The twenty-first century appears to hold a time of vast, kaleidoscopic and perhaps dangerous changes for the Maine biota. The Maine of past time had always met and ameliorated change when it came. To plagiarize myself, “we cut our trees and had them too.” Perhaps that is all going to change. The population pressure for use of the forest space is growing steadily. Maine is the nearest forest for the northeastern urban megalopolis. Maine has always been thought of by these urban dwellers as a place where one went to be reborn, rejuvenated, reclaimed. Maine was, in the vernacular, “someplace else, something different.” Now the groups who want that experience are larger than ever. The lines of people, on bitter cold nights, waiting to reserve this space in “a wilderness area” provides testimony to this. While these pressures increase, the need and demand for paper products continues, and although the redevelopment of the World War II experiences in recycling has diminished demand somewhat, or delayed it, still the need for cellulose is great, and will probably become greater. The sawlog market, long thought to be an artifact of a nineteenth century Maine, has had a remarkable growth in recent years as more of the tree is used and in better ways. New markets have been established. The fuelwood market remains a small but important sector of the Maine woodland economy. All of these factors continue while the population pressure on the space grows. Still Maine has not moved as rapidly in the matters of developing genetically controlled stocks, planting techniques in the difficult areas, and the “control” of harvest techniques, as they modify and change the logging areas. Other areas in Scandinavia, and the American South, and to some degree in the Northwest precede us in these areas of thought and management. To some extent, the Maine traits of stubbornness and individuality may have inhibited thought about the future of the Maine Woods. We face an uneasy and unknown future. The Land Use Regulation Commission (LURC) is in the process of developing a major plan for dealing with the future of northern Maine. There are so many claimants to different uses that these plans engender mainly protest and unhappiness, although most persons would agree that plans for the future are imperative. Lloyd Irland and his group of researchers and thinkers deal with these general points in very specific ways every day. They are a sort of intelligence agency for LURC and for us all. Written in a nonthreatening, non-ideological way, these essays allow the reader to think through a variety of alternatives, and to make decisions, or to press for decisions based on serious facts. As we face the new millennium, this book will help us take the proper steps in the proper place and at the proper time. David Smith CONTENTS Tables ............................................................................................................................. 4 Figures............................................................................................................................ 5 1. Preface.................................................................................................................... 6 2. Introduction: Maine’s Forest Resource................................................................... 7 3. Five Images of the Maine Forest .......................................................................... 15 4. Outlook for Maine Wood-Using Industries .......................................................... 22 5. Maine’s Forest Resource: Notes on the Concept of Sustainability ....................... 26 6. Clearcutting as a Management Practice in Maine Forests .................................... 35 7. Maine’s Forest as Real Estate I: Large Ownerships ............................................. 45 8. Maine’s Forest as Real Estate II: The Subdividers ............................................... 50 9. Outdoor Recreation in the Maine Woods: Issues for the Future ........................... 57 10. Backpacking and Day Hikes: Resources, Opportunities, and Challenges for Public Ways in Maine...................................................................................................... 65 11. Lessons of Jo-Mary Pond: Reflections on Fish, Wildlife, and Forests ................. 69 12. Challenges for the North Maine Woods ............................................................... 72 13. References ............................................................................................................ 80 14. Sources and Permissions ...................................................................................... 86 TABLES 1. Maine forest types, 1982 (thousand acres). ................................................................................................ 9 2. Estimated timberland ownership in Maine, 1991 (thousand acres). .........................................................13 3. Publicly owned lands in Maine, 1993....................................................................................................... 14 4. Recreation participation rates, Maine residents older than age 18, 1991/1992 season. ...........................16 5. Analytical perspectives on Maine’s forest resource. .................................................................................18 6. Annual average employment, selected labor market areas, 1992. ............................................................ 19 7. Peak and current softwood lumber production. ........................................................................................ 31 8. Indicators of the level of management intensity: The forest resource. ...................................................... 32 9. Silvicultural practices—an overview. .......................................................................................................36 10. Forest practice definitions adopted by the Maine Forest Service under the Forest Practices Act. ...........37 11. Harvest cutting treatments used in maine, 1987 and 1993. ...................................................................... 38 12. Considerations in setting silvicultural prescriptions. ................................................................................ 43 13. Recommendations on forest practices. .....................................................................................................44 14. Maine forest landownership, 1972–1994 (thousand a.). .......................................................................... 45 15. Case study areas: Population 1980–1987................................................................................................. 51 16. Case study areas: socioeconomic indicators compared to entire states..................................................... 51 17. Case study areas: employment by sector, compared to state (% of total) 1987 ........................................ 51 18. Subdivision activity, 1980–1989. .............................................................................................................53 19. Characteristics
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