The money will go toward conserving forests that are more than 150 years old, called late successional old growth stands.
Author: Katie Delaney
PISCATAQUIS COUNTY, Maine — The New England Forestry Foundation has been awarded a $4.3 million grant from the U.S. Forest Service to conserve some of Maine’s oldest forests and help combat climate change.
The foundation will pay landowners to conserve forests that are more than 150 years old, called late successional old growth stands.
Deep within Katahdin Iron Works Township is the Silver Lake Silver Maple Flood Plain Forest, which contains brown ash trees and silver maples that are hundreds of years old.
Steve Tatko, vice president of land, research, and trails for the Appalachian Mountain Club pointed out a towering silver maple.
“This is a relic from a couple of centuries ago,” he said.
The Appalachian Mountain Club, a conservation group, owns the late successional old growth forest. Tatko said this forest type is “highly rare,” and provides rich soil and flood control.
“It is also storing tremendous amounts of carbon,” he said.
That is why the New England Forestry Foundation is using its grant to conserve these forests, to help the environment.
“These stands are incredibly important for us to keep on the landscape so that we don’t increase CO2 levels in the atmosphere,” Alec Giffen, senior advisor for the foundation said.
According to the foundation, one acre of these old-growth forests stores five times more carbon dioxide than the average wooded acre in Maine’s commercial forests. Giffen said that alongside conservation efforts, the grant will help landowners increase timber harvesting in their younger forests.
“Which go to support the loggers, go to support the mills, go to support the rural economies,” Giffen said.
In addition to carbon storage, conserving these forests fosters biodiversity and wildlife habitats.
“At a time when climate change feels like it’s closing more and more doors around us, this is an opportunity to keep doors open, and to have conversations, and have resources available for the future,” Tatko said.
The New England Forestry Foundation is determining which forests to prioritize based on which are scheduled for harvest soon. Then they will collaborate with landowners.