Re[2]: [at-l] Logging on the AT in Maine

[Bob Cummings <ellen@clinic.net> (Bob Cummings)]

"... species in Maine are not the long-lived kinds you find in the west."

 That's right, but many species live many more years than 80. Red spruce can
 live 400 years and a few of the high ridges have such trees. 80-year-old trees
 are old, only because almost all of Maine has been cut again and again. Only a
 few patches of old growth remain, and sadly, except for a few  Nature
 Conservancy purchases, almost no one is making any serious effort to preserve
 these old trees.

  There's a tiny pocket of old growth on the slopes of the Traveler Range in
  northern Baxter State Park, a few acres along the trail on Old Blue, but
  otherwise the old growth is mostly in tiny, privately-owned forests in
  southern Maine.

  Unfortunately, the forestry industry has promoted the mantra of harvest or
  perish. But a few acres here and there should be left to the forces of nature.
  We cherish historical museums, we have yet to learn to cherish natural
  museums, where the forces of nature are allowed to prevail, unhampered by
  human interference.

  Weary