[at-l] AT on Katahdin open 6/3

[ellen at clinic.net (Bob C)]

TJ can tell us better, since he has seen the area, but I suspect the land subject to a final two years of harvesting is being "high graded," which means the company is taking the best and leaving the low value junk stuff.

If so, there will be plenty of native species left to reseed. Maine has abundant rainfall evenly distributed around the year, which means it is almost impossible to keep trees in this state from sprouting and growing naturally without any special interference from humans.

I've driven and walked through the area many times, and don't recall any exotic plantations ever having been planted, which makes me think the Nature Conservancy will just leave the area alone and let it grow back as it will.

This is not an unusual situation. Most of the 200,000 acres that governor baxter purchased and donated to the state was acquired either after a recent harvest or purchased subject to a final harvest. Despite this, Baxter Park is as close to "wilderness" as exists in Northern New England.

Among the interesting stories that I wrote about over the years was an account of a similar "final" harvest plan.

I first visited the park in 1963 and saw a major logging operation along the road to the Roaring Brook campground. I was told it was Great Northern exercising it's final cutting rights on land the good governor had purchased.

Later I heard the operation had ended because the independent contractors had left, complaining that there was not enough logs to make it worth while.

Suddenly a decade later six months before the cutting rights would legally end, Great Northern announced a "crash" program to remove the remaining wood. Then, immediately, came an offer from the politicians that run Baxter Park to swap the remaining southern wood with Great Northern for wood in the "scientific forestry area" that Baxter had set up in the northwest corner of the park.

This scheme smelled badly to me, especially, since the park authority and Great Northern couldn't seem to remember who first suggested the swap. Great Northern said it was the forest commissioner, chair of the three-member park authority. The forest commissioner said it was Great Northern.

Anyway, I and Phyllis Austin of the Maine Times weekly did the stories. An environmental gadfly filed or threatened a law suit, which the park settled by giving Great Northern $800,000 to purchase the remaining wood that the company 10 years earlier had claimed to be worthless.

It was a terrible ripoff of Governor Baxter's generous legacy. But I think it had more to do with philosophy than corruption. The forest commissioner didn't like the idea of wilderness. He thought all trees should eventually be harvested and he probably thought this would be a good way to kick start the harvesting in the northwest part of the park.

BTW. Great Northern later gave the forest commissioner $30,000 to publish his memoirs, so some corruption may have been involved. The last I heard the commissioner, Austin Wilkins, was still alive. He must be around 103 now. Track him down, TJ, and interview him.

Weary

....
> I know little of TNC lands in question.  My question would be, how will 
> the 
> forest be reestablished?
> 
> Do they let the land "regenerate" for a while?
> Do they seed by air, plant seedlings or let nature take its course?
> Will someone apply a herbicide before planting?
> Will someone apply a treatment following its treatment?
> If planted, will they be recent native species, historically native 
> species? 
> Will they be a genetically engineered or a hybrib seedling?
> 
> I know many forestlands are not what they used to be.  The Chestnuts, 
> Elm 
> and other species do not thrive as they once did.  Do conservation 
> organizations like TNC following full acquisition strive to return the 
> lands 
> to their "Colonial Habitats" or more near term makeup?
> 
> Mark
>