Maine State Library Digital Maine Conservation Newsletters Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry 10-1-1997 What's Up, Doc? October 1997 Maine Department of Conservation Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalmaine.com/conservation_newsletters Recommended Citation Maine Department of Conservation, "What's Up, Doc? October 1997" (1997). Conservation Newsletters. 180. https://digitalmaine.com/conservation_newsletters/180 This Text is brought to you for free and open access by the Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry at Digital Maine. It has been accepted for inclusion in Conservation Newsletters by an authorized administrator of Digital Maine. For more information, please contact [email protected]. What's Up, DOC? Issue 10 A Newsletter for Department of Conservation Employees October 1997 DOC Tackles Declining Spruce on the Coast Commissioner’s Column Dave Struble r**v r r v v f 'I C C r>»," r \ f \ r u u O u w» i ^ Congratulations! - to everyone for LI one of our best summers ever. Declining spruce stands on M aine’s coastal islands and headlands Stop for a moment, take a deep have created some interesting challenges for DOC staff. MFS and breath, and reflect on what you LURC s t a f f have worked during the past year to id e n tify declining personally accomplished this year spruce stands and to mitigate the impacts of this decline on so far. The DOC delivered landowners and the coastal fo re s t resource. This e ffo rt has professionally and as a team. I resulted in numerous contacts and the creation of partnerships with know, judging by the good private Iandowners, town officials, land trusts including the Maine responses in the press, letters, and comments, that people noticed Coast Heritage Trust, the Island Institute, Acadia National Park, what we have done. consulting foresters and loggers, and Maine's forest industry. At the same time that we started The coastal spruce decline problem is literally rooted in the two major capital projects, that can extremely shallow and rocky soils of the Maine coast. Most current stress an organization's ability to do stands regenerated on lands used for agricultural, residential, or the little things, we delivered to the people of Maine, and other guests, industrial uses during the 1800’s but were abandoned in the early an extraordinary season of fire 1900's and allowed to revert to spruce forest. These stands are protection and positive visits to even-aged (60 to 80 years old), are now overmature, and are growing parks and lands throughout the extremely slowly on poor sites. These sites can no longer support state. Our geologists also have the large trees now present. Most current stands have not been accomplished much field work that managed to promote more vigorous tree growth. is now ready to convert into maps over the winter. Furthermore, Bob Marvinney and Joe Kelley have Slow growing and under signif icant stress, coastal spruce is now ripe been deeply involved helping the fo r a tta ck by several damaging pests and climatological factors. In Town of Wells define a harbor 1994 th e Insect and Disease Management s ta ff id e n tifie d a rapidly configuration that is acceptable to expanding infestation of "spruce beetle", a lethal bark beetle the Corps of Engineers, Maine predominantly attacking stands of large (greater than 15") spruce on Audubon and the DEP. This islands and the immediate coast. Surveys and evaluations of the project is two parts and involves a dredge of the harbor and spruce beetle outbreak for 1994 to the present have shown a separately, but coordinated, a consistent pattern of expansion and intensification of the replacement of sand on the infestation. Many island and mainland coastal stands in the beaches of Wells. Penobscot Bay area have now lost more than 50% of their spruce over 15" in diameter, and th e outbreak shows no sign o f collapse As you can see from the feature I&DM coastal surveys also revealed a significant problem with article this month our entomologists have had a number of challenging eastern dwarf mistletoe (a parasitic plant) that is attacking projects. weakening, and in many cases killing white and red spruce in coasta stands. M istletoe while not as damaging as spruce beetle, is causing LURC has overcome a huge permit significant losses— predominantly in stands west o f Penobscot Bay load by sheer hard work and Another serious pest, hemlock looper, a defoliator of white spruce reduced the backlog to the lowest and fir, attacked and weakened or killed spruce and fir trees in ever. In addition they had several important big projects like the many coastal areas from 1989 through 1992. In addition to losses Downeast cranberry permit and the from these pests, mature and weakened coastal spruce are now Albany bingo parlor. succumbing to the severe drought conditions experienced in 1995 and severe wind storms in 1991 and 1996. (continued on page four) (continued on page two) (continued from page one) DOC Tackles Declining Spruce on the coast Here Comes the Bride Faced with signif icant and mounting damage on their coastal properties, landowners sought and were provided assistance by DOC s ta ff. Even It's not uncommon for weddings to though the most dramatic losses appeared to be occurring from direct take place in Maine State Parks attack by pest species, I&DM and FP&M Divisions were quick to realize and Historic Sites given the that the real problems of stand overmaturity and the lack of stand unusual beauty at many locations. management could not be addressed in th e long term by an assault on But it's another thing to get your wedding taped for broadcast on the pests involved. The only viable recommendations for mistletoe and national TV. That's just what spruce beetle infestations are oriented toward management happened recently at Fort Point alternatives ranging from allowing stands to decline without intervention State Park, where parts of a to heavy salvage harvests. Timber harvest and salvage operation in wedding were taped for inclusion coastal areas o fte n require zoning variances from LURC or fro m town in an upcoming PBS documentary governments and often cause discontent with other landowners or on Maine Lighthouses. You may now kiss the bride, (Action!)_______ visitors to sensitive areas. The forest management orientation of the coastal spruce problem dictated th a t FP&M should take th e lead in contacting and assisting landowners. I&DM survey and evaluation information was provided to the FP&M and foresters in a ffe c te d areas were familiarized with spruce beetle and mistletoe symptoms and evaluation methods. Landowners with seriously impacted stands that required immediate stand evaluations and recommendations were visited by FP&M foresters and I&DM s ta ff. Many a ffe cte d stands on islands involve coastal protection zones within LURC jurisdiction and LURC staff have been extremely helpful in visiting areas with Forestry personnel and advising owners. Recommendation were given, and as a result several landowners Friends at Work were put in contact with consulting fo re s te rs and loggers and salvage With roof repairs well operations were begun. underway a t Fort Knox, th e attention of the Friends of In Islesboro an association of 12 landowners were assisted with spruce Fort Knox is being turned to beetle salvage on 160 acres of heavily damaged spruce. FP&M in future projects and association with the Island Institute, The Maine Coast Heritage Trust, development o f the famous and the towns of Stonington and Vinal Haven arranged informational historic site. Interest meetings designed to reach and inform affected landowners. Meetings continues to grow in the held in Stonington, Vinal Haven, and Bremen to discuss spruce decline development of a visitor center were well attended and resulted in numerous contacts. S taff from all in the building currently used three MFS divisions and LURC continue to meet w ith and advise as the park maintenance shop. landowners. Mailings by coastal groups, numerous newspaper reports, So fa r, th e Friends have and four one page information sheets prepared by I&DM, FP&M, and awarded tw o contracts to Fire Control have contributed to the e ffo rt to reach landowners. Many study site and building design landowners have been faced with difficult decisions that will result in options. Liaison between th e significant changes in their property. Friends and Parks <& Lands is maintained by park manager Visits to declining spruce stands invariably in the same landowner Mike Wilusz, Assistant Regional question. "Do these problems cause a severe fire hazard? And if so, Manager Mike Leighton, and how do I protect myself?" To address this issue, the MFS has i Historian Sheila McDonald. embarked on a joint project on Great Cranberry Island, spearheaded by Urban & Community Forestry and Fire Control, to develop a municipal fire management plan. This effort will serve as a demonstration project for this process, and will provide a model fo r other communities. 1997 Employee Recognition Service Awards Career Public Service Award Recipients The William Twarog Memorial Manager o f the Year Recipient: Dennis Brown 25 Years Park Manger George Bourassa Colonial Pemaquid State Historic Site Steve Curtis The Departmental Employee o f the Year Recipient: Doug Getchell Peter Lammert Ron Hunt Marketing & Utilization Forester Bonnie Michaud Maine Forest Service Jeannine Plourde Governor’s Special Teamwork Recipients: Dennis Preston Comprehensive Land Use Plan s>° John Scott, Jr. Susan Burns V Fred Todd Caroline Eliot Will Johnston 30 Years Fred Todd Betty Barry Land Use Regulation Commission Tim Caverly William Getchell Transitions Safety Jim McMullen Ron Lovaglio Richard Morse Melissa Winchenbach joined Tom Skolfield As you can see below, August was the Department of Conservation Roger Stanley as our new Business Manager not a good month for us but we did make some improvement in Doug Tyler on September 15.