Because of the way our nation was born and grew, we tend to think of land as an infinite resource. Most of us have ancestors who left an Old World where only the wealthy owned land. When they…
Magazine Series
Mill Prices
The prices reported here are those that log buyers—mostly sawmills and wholesalers—are paying for logs. Because these are prices paid for delivered wood, landowners need to adjust…
From the Center
At a recent foresters’ conference, I was discussing with a friend a report we’d heard on the future of Maine’s forest products industry. He noted that, while the volume of wood harvested…
Protecting Forest Roads
The woods road’s worst enemy is water. It makes travel difficult, and if it’s not diverted, rainwater can wash away a road surface in a single summer storm. You can avoid problems…
A Place in Mind
Giant sugar maples line each side of the abandoned town road above our farm – gnarled veterans with ropy bark and knobby knees. When the fog is just right on spring and autumn mornings,…
Mill Prices
The prices reported here are those that log buyers—mostly sawmills and wholesalers—are paying for logs. Because these are prices paid for delivered wood, landowners need to adjust…
Can Your Woods be Too Tidy?
A landowner once phoned to ask me to visit his property to see all the good work he’d done extending his landscaping efforts from his yard into the surrounding woods. He was pleased with…
Porcupine, Erethizon dorsatum
Most of us have been at least annoyed, if not infuriated, by porcupines from time to time. Their desperate need for salt in the summer months gets them in big trouble around the house. They…
A Contract Between Friends
A forest community is the net result of a wide variety of relationships among and between different organisms interacting in a particular place over time. The key word here is relationships.…
Editorial
One of the great pleasures of wandering in the undeveloped woodland in our area is finding cellar holes, barn foundations, and all kinds of old fences, and imagining what a particular place…