Where the Wild Things Go: How Young Animals Disperse · A NEW WAY OF LOOKING AT THE FOREST SPRING...

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SPRING ’13

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Where the Wild Things Go: How Young Animals DisperseThe Ballad of Amos Congdon

A Gym Floor from Local Trees

Old Logging Films, Squirrel Sap Taps, Chainsaw Sharpening, and much more

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Northern Woodlands / Spring 2013 1

VOLUME 20 I NUMBER 1 SPRING 2013

Elise Tillinghast Executive Director/Publisher

Dave Mance III, Editor

Meghan Oliver Assistant Editor

Amy Peberdy, Operations Manager

Emily Rowe Operations Coordinator

Jim Schley, Poetry Editor

REGULAR CONTRIBUTORSVirginia Barlow Jim Block Madeline Bodin Marian Cawley Tovar Cerulli Andrew Crosier Carl Demrow Steve Faccio Giom Bernd Heinrich Robert Kimber Stephen Long Todd McLeish Susan C. Morse Bryan Pfeiffer Michael Snyder Adelaide Tyrol Chuck Wooster

DESIGNLiquid Studio / Lisa Cadieux

CENTER FOR NORTHERN WOODLANDS EDUCATION, INC.Copyright 2013

Northern Woodlands Magazine (ISSN 1525-7932) is published quarterly by the Center for Northern Woodlands Education, Inc., 1776 Center Road, P.O. Box 471, Corinth, VT 05039-0471 Tel (802) 439-6292 Fax (802) [email protected]

Subscription rates are $21.50 for one year and $39 for two years. Canadian and foreign subscriptions by surface mail are $26.50 US for one year. POSTMASTER: Send address corrections to Northern Woodlands Magazine, P.O. Box 471, Corinth, VT 05039-0471 or to [email protected]. Periodical postage paid at Corinth, Vermont, and at additional mailing offices.

Published on the first day of March, June, September, and December.All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without the written consent of the publisher is prohibited. The editors assume no responsibilityfor unsolicited manuscripts or photographs. Return postage should accompany all submissions. Printed in USA.

For subscription information call (800) 290-5232.

Northern Woodlands is printed on paper with 10 percent post-consumer recycled content.

magazine

on the web WWW.NORTHERNWOODLANDS.ORG

THE OUTSIDE STORYEach week we publish a new nature

story on topics ranging from how

trees survive the cold of winter to

why some animals’ colors aren’t

true blue.

EDITOR’S BLOGIf you’re a sugarmaker who sells any

amount of bulk syrup, you should look at

the sugarhouse certification being pushed

by the Food and Drug Administration,

because this is where the industry is

going. And it’ll be region wide.

WHAT IN THE WOODS IS THAT? We show you a photo; if you guess

what it is, you’ll be eligible to win a

prize. This recent photo shows a

steam donkey.

Sign up on the website to get our bi-weekly

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Cover Photo by Chris Mazzarella“I paddled past this mink on my kayak last spring in northern New Hampshire. With my camera at

the ready, I was able to snap a couple quick shots before his curiosity expired and he was gone. I

captured this image with a 70-200 mm f2.8 lens on my Canon 5D Mark III.”

2 Northern Woodlands / Spring 20132 Northern Woodlands / Spring 2013

Among the many priorities crowding school budgets, environmental education

often gets short shrift. Many educators see the value of bringing more

nature into the classroom, but the reality of other costs – from textbooks to

health insurance – leaves very little money for what is broadly defined as

“enrichment” spending.

So how do schools fund demonstration gardens, live animal encounters,

and field trips to beaver ponds? Often, individual educators and community

members dedicate their personal time: they apply for grants, sell cookies for cents on the

dollar, or seek in-kind donations. In the end, all too often, they dig into their own pockets.

This year, the Center for Northern Woodlands Education is testing out a new way for

schools to raise funds for environmental education, with much better margins than your

standard bake-sale brownie. In January, we launched Subscriptions for Schools in Maine and

Massachusetts. The concept is simple: Northern Woodlands will support local fundraising

campaigns for up to 50 schools in each state, permitting PTOs and other school volunteer

groups to sell subscriptions to the magazine for $21.50 and keep $10 per sale.

Northern Woodlands couldn’t offer this program without the support of donors, both

individuals and nonprofit organizations. In the Bay State, the Massachusetts Forest Alliance

(www.massforestalliance.org) is cosponsoring the program. Founded in 2012, the MFA was

formed when several groups concerned with forest stewardship joined together. It represents

forest landowners and industry professionals, provides continuing education and public

outreach, and advocates for a strong, sustainable forest economy.

Another key participant in the Massachusetts program is the Hitchcock Center for the

Environment (www.hitchcockcenter.org). This highly respected nonprofit serves over 6,000

children, youth, and adults each year through educational programs that foster a greater

understanding of the local environment. The Hitchcock Center will be using Subscriptions for

Schools to raise money for the children of low-income families to attend its summer camp.

In Maine, we recently had the opportunity to share information about the program at the

annual meeting for the Small Woodland Owners Association of Maine (www.swoam.org).

Incorporated in 1975, SWOAM has an impressive history of promoting forest stewardship and,

through its land trust, protecting forestland while also promoting multiple-use management.

So, Maine and Massachusetts readers, please check out these organizations, and help

spread the word about Subscriptions for Schools. More information is available by calling our

office at (802) 439-6292, or by emailing us at [email protected].

One other school-related note: on page 21, you’ll find an essay by high school student Kia

Amirkiaee, focusing on the value of working forests in Vermont. This is the winning essay

in a contest supported by the French Foundation, Vermont Woodlands Association, and

Vermont Department of Forests, Parks and Recreation. Congratulations, Kia!

Elise Tillinghast, Executive Director, Publisher

Center for Northern Woodlands Education

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

President

Julia Emlen Julia S. Emlen Associates Seekonk, MA

Vice President Marcia McKeague Katahdin Timberlands Millinocket, ME

Treasurer/Secretary Tom Ciardelli Biochemist, Outdoorsman Hanover, NH

Si Balch Consulting Forester Brooklin, ME

Sarah R. Bogdanovitch Paul Smith’s College Paul Smiths, NY

Esther Cowles Fernwood Consulting, LLC Hopkinton, NH

Dicken Crane Holiday Brook Farm Dalton, MA

Timothy Fritzinger Alta Advisors London, UK

Sydney Lea Writer, Vermont Poet Laureate Newbury, VT

Bob Saul Wood Creek Capital Management Amherst, MA

Peter Silberfarb Dartmouth Medical School Lebanon, NH

Ed Wright W.J. Cox Associates Clarence, NY

The Center for Northern Woodlands

Education, Inc., is a 501(c)(3) public

benefit educational organization.

Programs include Northern Woodlands

magazine, Northern Woodlands Goes

to School, The Outside Story, The

Place You Call Home series, and

www.northernwoodlands.org.

from the enterC

The mission of the

Center for Northern

Woodlands Education

is to advance a culture

of forest stewardship

in the Northeast and to

increase understanding

of and appreciation for

the natural wonders,

economic productivity,

and ecological integrity

of the region’s forests.


in this ISSUE

50

features30 Amos Congdon TONY DONOVAN

42 Protecting Nature. Harvesting Timber. How Conservation Groups Got into Managing Forestland, and the Lessons They’ve Learned. JOE RANKIN

50 Cutting the Apron Strings: How Young Animals Disperse KURT RINEHART

58 From Forest to Floor: the Gym a Community Built JULIA SHIPLEY

departments 2 From the Center

4 Calendar

5 Editor’s Note

6 Letters to the Editors

7 1,000 Words

9 Birds in Focus: Misfit Migrants BRYAN PFEIFFER

11 Woods Whys: Is Soil Scarification Good or Bad for the Woods? MICHAEL SNYDER

13 Tracking Tips: Squirrel Sap Taps SUSAN C. MORSE

14 Knots and Bolts

26 Field Work: The Treehouse Guys KRISTEN FOUNTAIN

56 The Overstory VIRGINIA BARLOW

62 Discoveries TODD MC LEISH

65 Tricks of the Trade CARL DEMROW

67 Upcountry ROBERT KIMBER

68 WoodLit

71 Mill Prices

79 Outdoor Palette ADELAIDE TYROL

80 A Place in Mind JOHN ELDER

22

58

3042

4 Northern Woodlands / Spring 2013

A Look at the Season’s Main Events

MarchPraise be to the mole, for shrews, mice,

and voles all use its tunnels / You might

hear a saw-whet owl at night. This little

bird sounds like the beeping made by

heavy equipment when it’s backing up /

Pussy willows will soon begin to open.

Bring some indoors for an early taste of

spring / Red-breasted nuthatches nest in

old woodpecker nests or natural cavities.

They smear the entrance with pitch, which

may deter red squirrels from enlarging

the hole

The opposite of homebodies, opossums

rarely spend more than a couple of nights

in the same nest. They are mating now

and their tiny offspring will move from the

uterus to the pouch in two weeks’ time /

Queen bumblebees are collecting pollen

from the flowers of red and silver maples /

Woodcocks will soon be searching for

earthworms. Nerves and blood vessels in

the tip of a woodcock’s bill allow it to sense

odors and movements as it probes into

the soil

Star-nosed moles give birth in May or

June to three to seven young. Look for

them in wet, mucky areas. They use their

excellent swimming skills to hunt aquatic

prey such as leeches and crustaceans /

The first litter of chipmunks is born.

Another batch will be born in mid-summer /

Marsh marigolds are blooming / Male

house wrens return. They build nest

foundations of coarse twigs and the

females will use grasses and feathers to

complete the cup-shaped nest

“When the wind is from the north and

west, that’s when sugaring is the best.” /

Male goldfinches are showing more bright

yellow and their black caps are getting

darker / After snow melt is a good time

to eat wild cranberries from bogs, after

mixing them with a bit of sugar. The

fruits stay on the plants all winter /

Among the earliest migrants are many

water lovers: gulls, geese, eagles, and

ducks are pouring north / Ermines are

turning from white to brown

Gray comma butterflies may fly on warm

days. They overwintered as adults and this

first generation doesn’t need flowers,

preferring rotten fruit, carrion, and dung / A

female spring peeper may lay as many as

900 eggs, attaching each one to underwater

vegetation / The turkey vultures now returning

are rarely preyed upon. Their diet of putrefied

carrion makes them unpalatable / Eager

Canada geese are pressing north, seeming

to fly faster now than in the fall

Sugar molecules in evaporator steam can

seed clouds and produce microbursts of

sugar snow – it’s sort of like falling maple

syrup-flavored ice cream / “If it thunders

on All Fools’ Day, it brings good crops of

corn and hay.” / Phoebes are back, often

choosing nest spots where they are sure

to be disturbed and causing everyone to

stop using the front (or back) door for a few

weeks / Aspen leaves unfurl. Bears may

climb the trees to eat these early greens

Great spangled fritillaries overwintered

as caterpillars. They are now feeding on

the leaves of violets. Almost all fritillary

caterpillar larvae feed on violets – all kinds

of violets / Porcupines must be happy in

spring. The buds of many trees have more

than 22 percent crude protein compared

to the two to six percent in the bark and

twigs that have sustained them for the last

six months / Daddy longlegs are hatching

from eggs laid late last summer

Bring in the birdfeeder to keep hungry bears

from developing bad habits as they come out

of hibernation / Balsam shootboring sawflies,

about the size of large blackflies, may be

abundant in Christmas tree plantations at

midday in the warmth of the sun / Ruby-

crowned kinglets are coming through. Most

of the year they live in coniferous forests,

but when they first arrive in spring, they

are everywhere / Gypsy moth eggs begin to

hatch when shadbush flowers

April 21-22: Lyrid meteor shower. The

Lyrids usually produce about 20 meteors

per hour at their peak and they leave

bright dust trails that last for several

seconds / The hermit thrush’s song now

heard at twilight has been translated as

“oh holy holy, ah purity purity, eeh sweetly

sweetly,” with distinct pauses between

the phrases / Wood turtles emerge from

streams. They stay near water at first but

will expand their foraging area over the

next few weeks

Winter-killed animals are now food for

emerging bears. Not fussy, bears will eat

the maggots if a carcass has begun to

putrefy / Willow pollen is the first spring

food for many bee species / Watch for

returning yellow-rumped warblers. They

use a variety of techniques for catching

insects and will work over decaying logs,

bark, or litter; sometimes they hawk for

insects / Both male and female cardinals

are singing. Usually just male songbirds

get to do this

Newly emerged Canadian tiger swallowtail

males congregate in puddles for moisture

and nutrients / Brown creeper nests are

being built behind loose slabs of bark.

It may take them a month to complete

construction / Ruffed grouse chicks leave

the nest within hours of hatching and can

fly at 10 to 12 days / The chestnut-sided

warbler has a long chestnut colored stripe

down its side and is singing “pleased

pleased pleased to meetcha” from shrubby

or edge habitat

May 25: A lunar eclipse will be visible

throughout most of North America, South

America, western Europe, and western

Africa / May 28: Venus and Jupiter will be

within 1 degree of each other in the evening

sky. The planet Mercury will be visible

nearby. Look to the west just after sunset /

Honeybees may swarm, especially on a warm

sunny day following days of rain or cool

cloudiness / Most newborn fawns are walking

and nursing when less than one hour old

April MayFIRST WEEK

SECOND WEEK

THIRD WEEK

FOURTH WEEK

C A L E N D A R

These listings are from observations and reports in our home territory at about 1,000 feet in elevation in central Vermont and are approximate. Events may occur earlier or later, depending on your latitude, elevation – and the weather.

By Virginia Barlow


By Dave Mance III

EDITOR’S note

While it’s pretty audacious to reduce the Northeast, a region with hundreds of unique

ecosystems, to three generalized parts, if pushed, you can do it. There’s the North Woods,

stretching through Northern Maine, the Whites, the Greens, and the Adirondacks. Then

there’s the middle, hill-country forest in mid-Maine, southern New Hampshire and

Vermont, the Berkshires, the Catskills. And, finally, southern New England, with its flatter

land and proximity to the population centers on the coast. You can see these rough divisions

on forest maps – the sub-boreal regions of the far north transition to the Acadian hill forests

in the midlands before becoming oak/hickory forests in the south. You can see the lines on settlement and

forest cover maps: dark green in the still sparsely populated North Woods morphing into a light green mix

of farms, forests, and development before becoming heavily populated pink and red fingers that point toward

Portland, Boston, Providence, and New York City.

These north/south divisions give us a framework for telling stories about land conservation efforts, too. In

the North Woods, the big story in land conservation over the past 25 years has been the fate of large blocks of

industrial forestland – Joe Rankin’s story on page 40 relates to this. From the moment Diamond International

sold 1,000,000 acres of forest in 1988 to the Finch Paper-to-The Nature Conservancy-to New York DEC deal

that was recently completed in the Adirondacks, the burning question in conservation circles has been, How can

large blocks of forestland and the rural ways of life (animal and human) that are attached to them be kept intact?

In the middle region, where most parcels are more modest in size, the conservation questions tend to

revolve around forest health and development pressure. How can income be generated from a forest that,

through generations of high-grading, has been reduced to a fiber supply? Or from a forest that, through

simple farmland reversion, is stocked with 50-year-old pasture pine and red maple? And, as development

pressure increases and tax rates go up, how do you keep a 135-acre lot of marginal timberland from becoming

five neat 27-acre lots?

In the south, of course, the high population density shifts the paradigm, and conservation becomes more

about preserving what’s left.

As fate would have it, right after we received Rankin’s piece, Chuck Wooster sent us an update on carbon

credits (page 18). For years there’s been buzz around the idea that a carbon credit could become a saleable

forest product, and since the new California initiative went into effect on January 1, the buzz has increased.

I’m as confused by the idea of buying and selling an invisible product as you are. And even proponents

of carbon credit trading agree that there’s a host of open questions about the endeavor’s viability: Is the math

reliable enough to establish a carbon baseline on a property, from which someone can measure an increase

or decrease in carbon storage over time? What about the problem of fixing the price, even if you can quantify

the increase in stored carbon? How do you deal with the fact that forest ownership is constantly in flux? (And

nature, too – how do you factor a forest fire into your sequestration plans?) And what greater good has been

accomplished when relatively well-off landowners in the Northeast, where there’s a long tradition of sustainable

forest management, are paid to take their forestland out of production, and the hole left in the global wood

market is filled by black market Cambodian hardwood that’s being cut from a steep hillside by some poor

logger making $5 a log so he can put food on the table?

I’m skeptical, frankly. If the Emperor is wearing clothes, he’s wearing a flesh-colored body suit and my eyes are

getting old. But it helps if, instead of considering the whole idea based on a small woodlot in the middle or south-

ern part of the region, I picture it working on one of those big parcels up north, where there are greater social and

ecological benefits to be gained from preventing fragmentation. If timberland owners can use carbon credits to

diversify the management portfolio on their 50,000 acres; and if the associated management for carbon improves

the land’s carbon storage capacity and also makes it more productive in a traditional cords-and-boards sense

(thus allowing the carbon credits market to complement the wood products market, not compete with it); and if

this market-based “solution” to emissions control really does push polluters to clean up their acts, and the entire

system doesn’t just become a twenty-first-century version of the old Catholic system of indulgences (commit a

sin, pay your way to absolution) – as some fear – or a drain on the economy – as others fear – then, well . . .

We’ll see. NW


letters to the EDITORS

Friend & FarrierTo the Editors:

I was relieved last week when my friend and

farrier John Hammond showed up as scheduled.

After reading, “For Donald and John” by Sydney

Lea (Winter 2012), I was afraid he may have

abruptly relocated to the South Pacific or some

other locale suitable to the slow pace and

leisurely life of retirement. When I put the question

of his continued employment to him he assured

me that he is still at it.

As he got the winter shoes on one of my team,

we passed the late fall morning in our usual

fashion: catching up, reminiscing, and pondering

the minor weaknesses and admirable strengths of

people and horses. I enjoy watching John shoe, as

he does not let the conversation interfere with his

attention to the details of his work any more than

he lets the work interfere with a good story. I have

noticed one such detail for years. Once the hoof

is ready for the shoe and the shoe for the hoof,

he arranges two sets of nails neatly between the

fingers of his hammer hand, readily accessible as

he sets the shoe. This method is not only efficient

and pleasing to the eye of a workman but leaves

his mouth uncontaminated with stable germs and

free to continue our conversation.

Thanks for a great magazine; I look forward to

every issue.

Mark Cowdrey, Andover, NH

A Fresh Look at BeechTo the Editors:

The article “Beech Party: How to Promote Beech

(yes, promote) on Your Woodlot” (Winter 2012)

was very timely in shaking us up to take a fresh

look at this species – an amazing change since I

published a paper in 1955 as part of the Northeast

Forest Experiment Station’s series on beech

utilization. At that time, the prevailing sentiment

was, “Anything you can do with beech, you can

do with sugar maple and do it better.”

I was impelled at that time to break into poetry,

(with apologies to Gelett Burgess’ poem “I Never

Saw a Purple Cow”):

I seldom see a pure beech stand.

I hope there’s not a grown one.

But I can tell you this firsthand, –

I’d rather see than own one.

Larry Hamilton, Charlotte, VT

Where’s Waldo? To the Editors:

Meghan Oliver’s review (Winter 2012) of John

Ford’s book Suddenly, the Cider Didn’t Taste So

Good: Adventures of a Game Warden in Maine,

recounts a story that took place at Unity Pond in

Walden County. Unity Pond is actually in Waldo

County (not Walden), a wonderful place that I had

the great fortune to call home for eight years, two

of which were spent living on Unity Pond, also

known as Lake Winnecook. This little known body

of water gave me many great memories of bird

watching, kayaking, fishing, skating, and playing

ice horseshoes. Although I missed seeing Ford’s

escapades, I look forward to reading his book,

almost as much as I look forward to each issue of

Northern Woodlands. My only complaint about this

publication is that it doesn’t come every month!

Erin Agius, Caribou, ME

Northern ExposureTo the Editors:

Naomi Heindel’s piece on the Cree and northern

Quebec (The Cree and the Crown, Winter 2012)

was wonderful, giving those of us in the Southland

a good view of the real world. My wife, Gretchen

McHugh, traveled to that country 20 years ago

when Hydro-Quebec was staging the Great Whale

River project. There were temporary delays, but

the juggernaut of urban demand has continued

to press on.

Heindel’s observations on the reduction in

Quebec’s wood production can be made every-

where; here in the Adirondacks – or rather, New

York State generally – we are producing far more

wood than can possibly be sold.

John Sullivan, Chestertown, NY

To the Editors:

Naomi Heindel’s article on the Cree and Crown was

one of the most interesting Northern Woodlands

has published in the many years I have been

a subscriber. Congratulations to her and many

thanks to you.

Lou Bregy, Weston, CT

Natural HighTo the Editors:

The reviewer of New England’s Natural Wonders:

An Explorer’s Guide states that Katahdin, “at

5,267 feet, is New England’s highest peak”

(Winter 2012). That statement is incorrect

unless we send New Hampshire back to jolly old

England. Washington, Adams, Jefferson, Monroe,

and Madison are all taller than Katahdin.

Matt Stacy, West Topsham, VT

We love to hear from our readers. Letters intended

for publication in the Summer 2013 issue should

be sent in by April 1. Please limit letters to 400

words. Letters may be edited for length and

clarity.

Farrier John Hammond.

MA

RK

CO

WD

REY


While on a late-spring hike, photographer

Frank Kaczmarek came across a bald-

faced hornet nest that had dislodged

from a tree. He took out his camera and

captured these new adults emerging from

their cells, and naturally, soon felt a sharp

pain on his left arm as the hornets began

to defend their nest.

1,000 words


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into one, forest landowners and industry professionals have the necessary

means to provide a consistent and unified voice on matters of forest policy,

ending the era of underrepresentation in the Commonwealth.

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The Massachusetts Forest Alliance promotes the adoption of policies

that support a strong, sustainable forest economy, responsible forest

management practices, and the continuation of working forests on public

and private lands.

Join today!


Migration Misfits

Story and photo by Bryan Pfeiffer

Pick your favorite sign of spring: squirrels mating, mud

oozing, maples flowering. Mine is a vulture soaring.

Change in the air is a naked, ruddy head gliding

in on big wings. But more than being a vernal

messenger, the turkey vulture is an avian iconoclast.

It topples simplistic notions of migration.

We can usually predict, within days, the return of many spe-

cies from far away, such as Bicknell’s thrush (from the Caribbean),

warbling vireo (from Mexico and Central America), or bobolink

(from South America). These are complete migrants; all of them

left us last fall, and they return, predictably, each spring.

But a number of species migrate on the cheap. These partial

migrants fly south for winter, but not too far south. Among certain

species of partial migrants, some members head south while others

move short distances or even remain in the breeding region.

The eastern bluebird is an example. One of America’s most

elegant songbirds is a mess when it comes to distribution and

migration. Consider its range map. To be sure, most bluebirds

left the northern portions of the breeding range last fall. Yet

a few hardy individuals regularly pass the winter in places as

cold as Vermont or north of the Great Lakes. The same goes for

American robins, red-winged blackbirds, and other “harbingers

of spring.” Overall, yes, these species migrate. But among them

we find mavericks in the cold, particularly during winters with

abundant food supplies.

Migration isn’t necessarily an easy option. Falling temperatures

and dwindling food resources do drive birds southward in fall,

but migrating to avoid winter’s hardship is itself risky. Beyond

the caloric demands of flying south (and then north again in

spring), stopover sites along the way might hold unreliable food

or unfamiliar predators. Some migrants lose prime wintering

sites altogether – to storms, for example, or commercial develop-

ment. Imagine yourself on a plane for Brazil, arriving to find that

your airport has vanished.

But there’s another reason to stay put. It’s a guy thing. Among

some partial or short-distance migrants, males linger farther

north than females. In winter or early spring, for example, you

will probably find more males among groups of American robins

or dark-eyed juncos. In some species, the relative abundance of

females increases steadily southward.

A classic explanation for the overabundance of males in winter

is that turf matters. By migrating short distances, or by never

leaving, northern-residing males get first dibs on the better

territory. So, counterbalancing the risk of death in the cold is the

benefit of breeding success in spring. And the winners’ offspring

might themselves inherit the fitness to stay north next winter.

It’s a convenient hypothesis, natural selection in action. But

is it true? Beware of easy answers. Perhaps males are more

abundant in the north simply because they out-compete females

BIRDS in focus

for scarce food resources. In the struggle for existence, males

will indeed be aggressive toward females over food. Fatter, larger

males fare better in the cold.

It’s likely that all these explanations fit in one way or another,

which brings me to the turkey vulture, a partial migrant whose

northernmost members retreat south in the fall. I expect to find

robins, bluebirds, and juncos here in Vermont each winter, but

rare are turkey vultures in the cold. They winter in southern New

England and points south.

But around the middle of February, as the sun drags itself

higher above the horizon each day, before red-winged blackbirds

sing “honk-a-ree,” before American woodcocks begin their frenetic

courtship flights, and before eastern phoebes arrive in the yard, a

turkey vulture drifts north on teetering wings and a balmy breeze.

It isn’t spring. Not yet. But the vulture, searching for some-

thing dead, is a reliable emissary for a season’s rebirth.

Bryan Pfeiffer is an author, wildlife photographer, guide, and consulting naturalist who

specializes in birds and insects. He lives in Montpelier, Vermont.

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Range maps for partial migrants – like bluebirds – should be taken with a grain

of salt, since some bluebirds migrate to warmer areas in winter but some stay

in their breeding territory.


Box 1153Greenville, Maine 04441207.695.2561westbranchpondcamps.com

A traditional Maine sporting camp,owned and operated by the same family since 1910 and surroundedon all sides by permanentlyconserved forestlands.

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By Michael Snyder

Although the word is related to scarring –

something you’d think we’d want to

avoid – soil scarification [pronounced

scare-ification] is a legitimate silvi-

cultural technique that is sometimes

necessary for regenerating native trees.

But as with so many aspects of forestry,

when misunderstood or poorly applied,

soil scarification can indeed be scary,

bringing with it a host of unintended

consequences.

Regeneration – the successful estab-

lishment of new seedlings capable of

growing up to be the future forest – is

a forester’s most fundamental responsi-

bility. But it is far from easy; it depends

on careful attention to the ecological

requirements of each tree species and a firm understanding of how

to create the right conditions for the species you want to grow.

Silvicultural soil scarification involves disturbing the

forest floor in a controlled way. It is used to rearrange some of

the leaf litter, mixing it with – and exposing – the mineral soil

below. Foresters employ skidders, dozers, tractors, or horses to

prepare the forest floor, scuffing the ground surface with the

equipment itself or with materials dragged behind – from trees

to bedsprings.

Natural (and less controlled) scarification happens when

trees are uprooted by wind, when heavy rains or snowmelt

carry leaves and needles downslope, or, say, when a flock of

turkeys moves through the woods, scratching away leafy debris

in search of insects and seeds to eat. Such disturbances – be

they natural or manmade – alter the prospects for tree seedling

success in subtle but profoundly important ways.

Before the litter layer is scarified, only certain tree seeds can

successfully germinate. A relatively large, heavy seed like an acorn

might have enough energy and a strong enough first root to make

its way through a mat of decaying leaves and twigs and into the

more abundant moisture and fertility of the mineral soil below.

But small- and light-seeded species such as white pine, paper

birch, and hemlock, are notoriously ill-suited for such conditions,

and their seeds often dry out and die if they land on undisturbed

leaf litter. Scarification creates highly suitable seedbeds, and when

the seeds of birch, pine, and hemlock land on bare mineral soil,

their seedlings can outgrow those of other trees. This explains

those veritable rivers of pine or birch saplings that so often

colonize old skid trails snaking through the woods.

Is Soil Scarification Good or Bad for the Woods?

Does this mean that we can best manage for light-seeded

species by driving heavy machinery throughout the woods,

crushing plants and rutting and compacting soil with impunity?

Hardly. Successful scarification is not automatic and it’s not

an excuse to rip up the woods. When misapplied, it can result

in soil erosion and compaction, damage to remaining trees,

the uprooting or damaging of seedlings, unwanted expansions

of weeds or invasive plants, the stimulation of unwanted

noncommercial trees, a loss of stored soil carbon, and who

knows what sorts of problems for the little-known world of soil

microbes and invertebrate animals.

Legitimate scarification requires thoughtful planning and

careful execution under appropriate circumstances. We know

that felling large trees and pulling or even carrying them out

of the woods is disruptive and must be carefully controlled.

That’s why, on balance, unintended damage during logging is

minimized when harvests are conducted in the dormancy of

winter over snow-covered, frozen terrain.

But in some ground conditions and in some forest types,

winter logging can present an obstacle for regeneration because

the very attributes that protect the ground make scarification

almost impossible. The forester often has better prospects

for successfully regenerating light-seeded species on summer

ground, when planned scarification is more likely, especially if

it is thoughtfully applied and well timed to coincide with a good

crop of newly fallen seeds, ready to grow.

Michael Snyder, a forester, is Commissioner of the Vermont Department of Forests,

Parks and Recreation.

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Sap Taps

The transition from late winter to early spring is

my favorite time for wildlife photography.

The warming snow pack is pock-marked

with tracks everywhere; some creatures

are seeking mates, some are preparing for

new offspring, and others are enjoying new

sources of nourishment.

I often get busted at this time, too. A

busy-body red squirrel invariably discovers

me, hidden quietly in my blind, and scolds

me with much foot stomping, tail flagging,

and churring. There’s little merit in getting

up and relocating, however. Usually, the

territorial sciurid eventually quits and goes

about other business. On one occasion

many years ago, I was fascinated to watch a

red squirrel travel along the smooth trunk

and limbs of a nearby young red maple,

periodically stopping to cock its head and

bite through the bark into the xylem. Hours

later, after the sap had leaked through the wounds and

then freeze-dried in the chilling evening air, the same

squirrel returned and licked at the site of the wound’s

now-concentrated nutrients.

Maple sap is also being harvested by us at this time,

so I naturally deduced that the scores upon scores of

squirrel-made “sap taps,” as I have named them, might

actually serve the same purpose. Sure enough, Bernd

Heinrich, respected biologist and well-known author,

made a similar observation and systematically sought to prove

it. Heinrich concluded that the large temperature fluctuations

that occur in late fall, during warm spells in winter, and espe-

cially in early spring, create an opportunity for squirrels to tap

trees for their sugar – especially sugar maple. He observed many

squirrels returning to their sap holes to lick the “candied sugar

streaks” after the sap’s watery contents had evaporated. Heinrich

meticulously proved that the dried wounds’ exudate had a sugar

content considerably higher than that of the original sap.

While sugar maple is the tree of choice, I’ve discovered red

and gray squirrel taps on 23 species of trees and shrubs, including

all maple species, bitternut hickory, red oak, apple, aspen, bass-

wood, witch hazel, and rhododendron, to name just a few of

the curious varieties involved. A stem or branch simply has to

be smooth and thin-barked, and thus easily wounded. Sugars,

as Heinrich proposes, are a sought after nutrient, but I suspect

minerals may also be key attractants.

Careful inspection of the sap taps shows the dot-dash

pattern I’ve described for black bear scent-marking bites. The

By Susan C. Morse

TRACKING tips

dot is a smaller wound created by the squirrel’s upper incisors,

which were inserted into the bark and anchored there, while the

longer dash is caused by the movement of the lower jaw’s

incisors scraping across the bark. Squirrel tap marks measure

roughly two millimeters wide for two incisors side by side. It’s

fun to examine fresh sap taps in early spring, for you can readily

see the minute grooves that were created by the squirrel’s teeth.

Some small maples become covered with hundreds of the

tiny calloused scars resulting from the accumulation of sap

tap wounds over years of time. Occasionally, sugar maples in

particular may become black with the opportunistic growth of

a sooty mold organism, an Ascomycete fungus that is able to

subsist on sweet nutrients released from the tree’s wounds.

Susan C. Morse is founder and program director of Keeping Track in Huntington, Vermont.

Top: Squirrel sugarmaker. Bottom: Very

fresh sap taps – note incisor grooves.


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K N O T S & B O L T S

[ S K I L L S ]

Negotiating a Sugarbush LeaseOne could be forgiven for thinking the U.S.

maple industry is in decline, considering the

poor sugaring season in 2012 and fears about

climate change, but the reality on the ground is

that business is booming. The U.S. Department of

Agriculture estimates that 9.8 million trees were

tapped nationwide last spring – up 38 percent

from just 10 years ago. Production is also up,

on average, about 77 percent. While production

varies from year to year due to weather, the

steady increase of maples tapped and syrup

produced appears likely to continue despite stable

or decreasing prices for bulk syrup.

Politicians have taken notice of the sugar-

ing boom and included a Maple Tap Accessing

Program (TAP) Act in the 2012 Farm Bill (maple-

glazed pork) designed, among other things, to

“help maple farmers access trees that are currently

on private lands.” New York Senator Chuck

Schumer, perhaps the leading maple proponent in

Congress, sounds like an old-time oil prospector

as he extols the virtues of sugaring on his website:

“They say money doesn’t grow on trees, but with

millions of trees waiting to be tapped, there may

be bucketfuls of dollars inside them.” In my own

work as a consulting forester, I’ve seen more client

interest in sugaring; in fact, I received a phone call

last year from a realtor who was working with an

investor looking to start a 100,000-tap sugaring

operation, from scratch, in New England.

As the maple industry grows and competition for

available taps increases, tapping leases are becom-

ing an option for landowners looking to generate

revenue from their woodland. But as with anything

in life, people should look before they leap. What

follows is a primer on sugarbush leases, designed

to give both landowners and sugarmakers a realistic

snapshot of what they may be getting into.

Location, location, location

When looking at a prospective sugarbush lease

site, the first thing a sugarmaker is going to want

is a suitable number of taps per acre. Ideally, the

number will be somewhere between 50 and 100;

generally speaking, a stand with fewer than 50

taps per acre is not considered financially viable

South- and east-facing slopes are generally more

desirable for sugaring than north- and west-

facing slopes. Uniform slopes with easy access to

the bottom are most desirable. Larger areas are

generally more valuable, as they contain a suf-

ficient number of taps to recoup the investment

of infrastructure – the economy of scale.

While maple sugaring evokes the image of

sap buckets, a horse-drawn gathering tank, and

steam rising from a deep-woods sugarhouse,

modern maple operations are nowhere near as

quaint. The modern sugarmaker relies on miles

of plastic tubing, stainless steel collection tanks,

vacuum pumps, and often large trucks capable of

hauling thousands of gallons of sap at a time.

A landowner should be aware of the modern

look of sugaring and know that the sugarmaker

will need to do maintenance work during all sea-

sons. Sugaring occurs during mud season, and

access roads will, in all likelihood, become rutted

and need repairs; expectations about mainte-

nance are an important part of any agreement.

Tubing installations are generally permanent;

unless it’s specified in the lease, tubing will stay

in place year round.

Forestry implications

Managing a forest stand for maple sap production

involves a light cutting of undesirable trees and

brush on a periodic basis (generally every 10-15

years). A year or two before starting a sugarbush

lease, it is often advisable to perform an improve-

ment cut to remove softwood, hazard trees, and

any mature veneer trees that would otherwise not

be tapped. This work may be undertaken by the

landowner and his or her forester prior to entering

into a lease agreement, or by the lessee (working

with the owners’ forester) prior to installing lines.

In most cases, a thinning for sugarbush improve-

ment can be handled as a simple modification to

an established forest management plan.

Tapping involves drilling a hole in the bot-

tom six to eight feet of a tree. While tap holes

normally grow over within two years, these

holes will diminish the quality of the butt log for

veneer. Tap holes are considered a defect of low

to medium impact for sawlogs, therefore you

should consider whether veneer trees should be

identified and excluded from a maple lease.

Standards

Standards and expectations should be clearly out-

lined in a written lease defining the area covered,

the duration of the lease, payment amount, and

Good sap collection access is a key component to any sugarbush.


method of payment. It should also address whether

the stand, or portions of it, can be subleased, tree

care, and tapping standards. Model standards

can be found on the Northern Woodlands website

(www.northernwoodlands.org).

Standards for sugarbush management should

include the size and depth of the tap hole –

current best practices recommend holes that are

5/16-inch diameter and no deeper than 2 inches,

including bark. Traditional tapping guidelines held

that trees over 10 inches in diameter at breast

height could get one tap, over 15 inches two taps,

over 20 inches three taps, and over 25 inches four

taps. Modern best practice guidelines are more

conservative, however, and suggest that trees

between 10 and 18 inches in diameter should get

one tap, and anything larger can have two.

Lease payments are generally made annually,

based on the number of taps. The rate is negotiated

between the landowner and producer and often

includes maple syrup as part of the payment. Lease

rates depend on such factors as the quality of the

sugarbush, the number of available taps, taps per

acre, access, and distance to the sugarhouse. The

per-tap rate for maple leases on Vermont State land

is determined annually and is set at 25 percent of

the average of the per-pound price for Fancy and

Grade C bulk syrup on May 1 of the preceding year.

In 2012, the rate was $0.67/tap.

When negotiating a lease, it’s important that a

landowner have an idea of the financial invest-

ment a sugarmaker is making. Tubing costs

an average of $10-$15 per tap. This includes

material and labor for the tap, drop line, lateral

lines, main lines, and associated fittings. Storage

capacity of at least one gallon per tap is required,

at a cost of $1-$1.50/gallon; a vacuum system

costs a minimum of $4,000. The cost of setting

up a maple lease is therefore substantial. Tapping

leases generally run for a minimum of 10 to 15

years, in order for the producer to recover his or

her investment.

Sugarbush leases have the potential to provide

landowners with annual income, provide sustain-

able forest management, and help perpetuate

the working landscape in the Northeast. Done

with proper care and clear expectations, leasing

forest land for maple sap production can result in a

win-win situation for all involved.

Dave Mance, Jr.

If the pan doesn’t have lead-solder, and the thermometer

doesn’t contain mercury, this rig might just pass inspection.

[ T I M E S A - C H A N G I N ’ ]

Sugarhouse RegistrationRumors have been swirling in sugarmaking circles about government registration of sugar-

houses in all the states where maple syrup is produced. We asked Matthew Gordon, the new

executive director of the Vermont Maple Sugar Makers’ Association, to shed some light on this.

Gordon told us that the push for registration began in 2002 as part of the Bioterrorism Act,

that regulations were modernized as part of the Food Safety Modernization Act of 2011, and that

registration is recommended for anyone who makes and sells syrup.

You can register online, which is a two-part process. First you need to set up an account with

the FDA here: www.fda.gov/Food/GuidanceComplianceRegulatoryInformation/Registrationof

FoodFacilities/OnlineRegistration/ucm114181.htm

Then you need to submit the registration; this link offers step-by-step instructions:

www.fda.gov/Food/GuidanceComplianceRegulatoryInformation/RegistrationofFoodFacilities/

OnlineRegistration/ucm073706.htm

If the online registration is too frustrating, you can download a paper copy here: www.fda.gov/

Food/GuidanceComplianceRegulatoryInformation/RegistrationofFoodFacilities/ucm073728.htm

It’s probably safe to say that all sugarmakers are on board with the idea of doing their part to

keep the sap supply safe from an act of terrorism, but they’re also concerned that by involving

the FDA and registering their sugarhouse as a “food facility,” they’ll open themselves up to

invasive bureaucratic meddling. Will sugarhouses soon be required to have hot running water

and flush toilets? Will wool caps and Carhartt jackets be replaced by hair nets and aprons?

Gordon said that to some extent this is still an open question. The government has determined

that sugarmaking is a low-risk activity and exempt from the most stringent food safety

regulations, but they will be requiring “good manufacturing practices” that were still in the

proposed/open-to-comment phase at press time.

While the final regulations will likely fall closer to “annoying” than “truly onerous” on the pain-

in-the-butt scale, it’s probably safe to say that the days of boiling eggs and hot dogs in the front

pan will soon be over.

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[ B E T U L A S A C C H A R U M ? ]

New England’s Other SyrupIn Leicester, Vermont, up a rutted driveway off Route 7, Kevin New cobbled

together a sugarhouse out of an old goat barn and plywood. He boiled a lot

of sap last spring, long after most sugarhouses had gone dormant. In fact,

he boiled almost up until the leaves came out. For his labors, he points to a

neat double row of mason jars he has for sale along the back window of his

shack. They’re filled with rich, red, birch syrup.

Yes, birch syrup.

New is part of a new wave of sugarmakers who are adding birch trees

to their sugarbush portfolio. There’s enough promise in the pursuit that

Cornell’s Sugar Maple Research and Extension Program and the University

of Vermont’s Proctor Maple Research Center have begun doing experiments

to find out how much sap – and sugar – birch trees produce.

A handful of producers have been making birch syrup for decades in

Alaska, Canada, and Russia, but researchers want to determine whether,

using modern maple syrup equipment like vacuum tubing and reverse

osmosis machines, birch syrup can be profitable in New England.

The water content of birch sap is a challenge. Typically, 40 to 60 gallons of

maple sap yield one gallon of syrup. This spring, New averaged 116 gallons of

birch sap to make one gallon of syrup, which means a lot of time in the sugar-

house, and, for traditional sugarmakers, a mighty big stack of cordwood. Birch

sap flows more slowly from the tree than maple sap does, and it’s higher in

fructose than maple sap, which means it scorches more easily when boiled.

The reward is in the price. One major Alaskan producer gets $328 a gallon.

Last year, David Moore, a birch syrup producer in Lee, New Hampshire,

charged $20 for an eight-ounce glass bottle. This year, he’s upped his price

to $25 because his season was cut short by 80°F temperatures.

Maple syrup producers rely on a cycle of frosty nights and warmer days

to create stem pressure in a maple tree. Birch sap is different in that root

pressure drives a sap run. Birch sugaring season, then, occurs immediately

after maple season, in that brief window after the snow has gone and the

soil has dried out, but before leaves have fully emerged.

“Most years, when I’m putting in my birch taps, my neighbors are pulling

out their maple taps,” Moore said.

It’s not hard to imagine that other ambitious producers will find birch syrup

attractive. They could wind down their traditional six- or eight-week maple

season, clean their gear, and head right into birch for another round of two

to three weeks.

Now you may be asking yourself the same question I was: “What’s the

stuff taste like?” Before you go hunting for a jar of birch syrup and start whip-

ping up your favorite buttermilk batter, consider this: “It’s kind of a waste to

put it on pancakes,” said one of Moore’s best customers, Evan Mallett.

Mallett’s the chef at Black Trumpet Bistro in Portsmouth, New Hampshire.

Still, his warning doesn’t mean birch syrup isn’t tasty. “I’ve thought of myriad

applications for it,” he said.

Mallett calls it a “dark flavor” and treats it a bit like molasses. His most

recent incarnation is a raisin mostarda: a traditional northern Italian condi-

ment that he likes to serve with cheese to his customers. “The roundness

and molasses effect of the birch syrup is great for neutralizing the sharpness

of the mustard seed,” he explained.

“It’s not maple,” said New. Instead, he calls birch syrup spicy and fruity.

“Some people call it tangy.”

Bob Rook, the owner of Emack and Bolio’s ice cream in Boston, thinks

birch syrup is delicious. Last year, he made a 20-gallon batch of birch-walnut

ice cream, and his customers liked it.

“For my taste buds, it was more intense and better in flavor than maple,”

Rook said. “The problem with birch syrup is that it’s very, very expensive.”

If more maple syrup producers hear his message, the laws of syrup supply

and ice cream demand might just get the price down to where he’d churn

another batch.

Joshua Brown

Abby van den Berg, of the Proctor Maple Research Center, gets ready to tap a birch tree.


[ C O M M U N I T Y ]

Something Sweet in New YorkPostal workers have postal routes; milk truck

drivers have milk routes. But a maple route?

Last spring, The Wild Center, a nonprofit

environmental education organization and natural

history museum in Tupper Lake, New York, decided

to start a maple sugaring operation. All they were

missing was a sugarbush. Jen Kretser, director of

programs at The Wild Center explained, “We are a

science museum, we have about 31 acres of land,

but we only have one maple tree.”

So the museum offered a free maple workshop,

a free pancake breakfast, and a bucket and tap to

anyone in the community who wanted to tap their

yard maples and donate the sap. They expected

about 20 people. More than 80 showed up.

Each sap run, Wild Center volunteers drove

from house to house and collected sap – in all

about 920 gallons, which made around 23 gallons

of maple syrup. The finished product was put in

mason jars and slapped with a museum-designed

label that read, “The Tupper Tappers.” Each

participant received 50 percent of the maple

syrup produced from their sap.

“The most important benefit of this project is

that it allows the family that has a maple tree

in their yard to experience the whole process

and taste real maple syrup,” said Helen Thomas,

director of the New York State Maple Producers

Association. “Today, so many people have no idea

where their food comes from, so this does a great

deal to educate them.”

This year, the community maple project is

expanding. TWC has invested in more tapping

supplies and is constructing their own sugar

house, complete with a reverse osmosis unit

– a fancy filter that removes water from the sap.

A dentist in Watertown donated a new 2-by-4

evaporator.

Because of 2012’s mediocre sugaring season,

the volunteers were able to operate on a learning

curve without any obvious setbacks, and prepared

themselves for a productive sugaring season and

an increase in community participation. Thomas

said the appeal of the community maple project

is bound to last. “We find that once you have

tasted the real thing, it is hard to ever buy any-

thing but.”

Danielle Owczarski

A girl learns about the history of sugaring as part of The Wild Center’s maple sugaring education program.

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[ P O L I C Y ]

Creating Carbon CreditWell-managed forestland provides a host of benefits

to society, from flood mitigation to wildlife habitat

to carbon sequestration, and there’s long been talk

about finding ways to compensate landowners whose

forests provide these benefits. Recent developments in

California might be bringing this idea closer to reality.

Since January 1, California has operated the nation’s

first cap-and-trade scheme for limiting carbon emis-

sions. Under the scheme, which applies to a broad

spectrum of California’s manufacturing economy, from

cement factories to oil refineries to power plants,

companies are required to either reduce their carbon

emissions over time (comply with the “cap”) or else

purchase pollution credits from other companies that

have successfully done so (make use of the “trade”).

The state plans to gradually reduce the total number

of pollution credits available, with the goal of lowering

California’s carbon emissions to 1990 levels by 2020

and to 80 percent below that by 2050.

Of particular relevance to us in the Northeast is a

provision that allows companies to mitigate up to eight

percent of their emissions by purchasing carbon offsets

from anywhere in the country. A power plant near Los

Angeles, for example, could purchase a conservation

easement on forestland in New Hampshire with the

provision that the land be managed in such a way that

it will soak up and store enough carbon to offset the

emissions in Los Angeles. One such offset project is already in the works: the Downeast Lakes Land

Trust in Grand Lake Stream, Maine, has certified that 19,000 of the 34,000

acres in its Farm Cove Community Forest are eligible to be used as offsets under

the California program. If a sale for the carbon rights can be arranged with a

California company, the group plans to use the proceeds (estimated to be in the

neighborhood of $2 million) to purchase and conserve additional lands.

This is exactly what many people have long envisioned – a program where

landowners are recognized and compensated for good forest management

and where that compensation is then plowed back into more good forest

management. But the California program is still in its infancy, and it’s far from

clear that this program will succeed where previous efforts have failed. The

Downeast Lakes project, should it go through, might be more of a special

case than a harbinger of things to come.

Laury Saligman co-founded Conservation Collaboratives LLC in 2006,

with the goal of purchasing and conserving forestland using carbon offsets,

among other funding sources. At present, Conservation Collaboratives owns

a 1,000-acre parcel in Vermont, and Saligman, along with the Northern

Forest Center in Concord, New Hampshire, started the Northern Forest

Carbon & Ecosystem Services Network.

“We were hoping to generate enough revenue through the carbon offset

program to purchase a permanent easement for the property, but so far it just

hasn’t worked out,” said Saligman. “A big problem is long-term uncertainty

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– we have no idea what the price for carbon will be in the future, and since

the California program is only certain through 2020, it’s hard to justify the

short-term costs and the long-term liabilities of being part of the program.”

Carbon offset payments don’t come cheaply. As a landowner, you need to

count how much carbon is currently on your land, you need to demonstrate

how much carbon it will soak up in the future, you need to guarantee that

you won’t change your mind later (and cut down the forest instead), and

you need to hire third-party verifiers at every step along the way. All without

knowing how much money you might make at the end of the day.

“These projects are very complicated,” said Saligman. “We have a bunch

of sharp people working on this, and the joke has become, ‘How many PhDs

does it take to make a carbon project work?’ There’s the financial piece, the

regulatory piece, the forestry piece. You have to find a consultant who thinks

about this stuff every day, who wakes up in the morning thinking about carbon

offsets.”

There are two more uncertainties surrounding the California program: it’s

presently authorized to run only through 2020, and the auction process for

trading carbon credits began last November, so the long-term value of storing

carbon on forestland has not yet been established. The hypothetical power

plant in Los Angeles isn’t going to pay the hypothetical landowner in New

Hampshire until the company knows what its other options might cost.

Meanwhile, the track record for carbon offsets in the United States is


not encouraging. The Chicago Climate Exchange collapsed in 2010 after it

became clear that the federal government had no immediate plans to regulate

carbon emission, and the Northeast’s Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative has

defined offset projects narrowly enough (they only apply to projects that turn

nonforests into forests) that no landowner has yet been able to benefit.

All may not be lost. As the California program gains traction over the

coming year, the longer-term price of carbon offsets will become clearer.

Meanwhile, the best approach for landowners, especially those with smaller

holdings, might be to join with other landowners to aggregate their carbon

offsets into larger projects, whose scale would justify the expense. Similar

programs already allow landowners to work together to receive green certi-

fication from the Forest Stewardship Council, for example.

“Ultimately, aggregation is going to be essential,” Saligman said. “There’s

no easy way this can work for the majority of landowners, otherwise.

California has not yet adopted aggregation, but it’s not that they won’t in the

future.”

Saligman concluded on an optimistic note. “When you look at the statistics,

Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont are the most forested states in the

nation, and most of our land is privately held. Our forests have a huge

potential for helping to address climate change. Maybe it’s not going to be

through the new California market, but maybe California will spur something

new to happen here.”

Chuck Wooster

In dollars and cents

Let’s say the carbon-offset market takes off in the next few

years and that small-time landowners are able to get in on the

deal by aggregating their lands with those of their neighbors.

How much money are we talking?

On average, an acre of middle-aged, well-stocked wood-

land in the Northeast contains about 90 metric tons of carbon

dioxide equivalent in its trees and is capable of soaking up 1

additional metric ton per year. Right now, California carbon

credits are selling for about $10 per metric ton, though they

are forecasted to rise to as much as $30 per ton as the cap

gets lowered. Let’s use $20 per ton as an average, and let’s

say you own 100 acres.

If your 100 acres is in imminent danger of development,

you can claim that the 900 metric tons (90 tons per acre x 100

acres) of carbon that your land is currently storing is going to

be released into the atmosphere when the bulldozers arrive.

Put a permanent conservation easement on your land and

agree to good forestry practices, and you’ll receive a one-time

payment of $18,000 for your efforts (900 tons x $20 per ton.)

Figure that the aggregators and third-party verifiers will take

20 percent or so, leaving you at around $15K.

If your land is in no danger of development but you want to

commit to managing your forest primarily for carbon storage

(which is to say, working with a certified forester on a plan for

maximizing forest growth), you can make the case that your for-

est management will allow you to store 2 metric tons of carbon

dioxide per year instead of the baseline 1 ton. You’ll receive

credit for 100 tons of stored CO2 per year (2 tons stored less the

1 ton baseline x 100 acres), which at $20 per ton will earn you a

payment of $2,000 per year (or more like $1,600 after everyone

else gets paid.)

What does all this carbon dioxide add up to? A car driven

12,000 miles per year, the national average, will emit about

5 metric tons of carbon dioxide, so the improved forestry

practices on your 100 acres will offset the equivalent of 20

average cars driving for a year. And if you protect your land

from development and keep the forest intact? You’ve saved the

equivalent of 200 cars driving for that year.

The fine print: actual results will vary. These numbers are

generalized to cover the region. If you own very high-quality

woodland that’s both well-stocked with big trees and in danger

of being developed for housing, you might beat these numbers

handily. If, on the other hand, you own cut-over woodland on

poor soils located far from the nearest proposed subdivision,

these numbers will be the stuff of fantasy. As will all of these

numbers if the carbon-offset market doesn’t develop.

The Downeast Lakes Land Trust has registered

19,000 acres near Grand Lake Stream, Maine,

for the California cap-and-trade program.


MB

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[ P R E S E R V A T I O N ]

More Than a Snapshot: Preserving Historic FilmWhen David Weiss obtains a canister of old movie

film, he gives it the sniff test.

“I pry off the lid, sniff it, and if it doesn’t knock

me over with the smell of vinegar, it’s pretty good,”

Weiss said. A whiff of acetic acid – known in the

biz as “vinegar syndrome” – indicates advanced

deterioration. If the film smells like moth balls, it’s

in decent shape.

Weiss is the executive director of Northeast

Historic Film, an organization dedicated to pre-

serving New England’s heritage by protecting old

movies. Their Bucksport, Maine, location houses

more than 10 million feet of historical film. The

group works to salvage film in all conditions:

burned, scratched, torn, or salad-smelling.

Preserving historical films is a way to stay

connected to “the reality of the past,” Weiss said.

When he began preserving New England’s old

films in the 1980s, his goal was to make histori-

cal footage accessible to people hungry for their

heritage. In Maine, this heritage was more often

than not lumber based, and films ran the gamut in

content from 1930s’ log driving to 1940s’ training

films for the pulpwood industry.

The first film Weiss rehabilitated – a 1930s

logging film shot on a 6-mm camera by the owner

of the now defunct Machias Lumber Company in

Maine – was made into the movie From Stump to

Ship. In its original format, the 30-minute film was

silent but came with a script for narrators

to read while the film was playing. In the

revised version, a Maine resident narrates

the script as a voiceover in the film. (“Fo uh

one hundred and sixty nine consecutive

ye ahs, the forests on the Machias Rivah

have resounded with the sound of the

woodsman’s axe.”) The film includes foot-

age of men using two-man crosscut saws,

hand tools, sleds, and horses to log in

winter. Viewers see the men eating one

of their many meals of the day and watch how

logging camp cooks prepared beanhole beans

(see recipe, next page). In the spring footage, men

use peaveys to coax logs down the river, deftly

running across moving logs in their spiked boots.

When From Stump to Ship had its initial show-

ings in 1985, “people flocked to it,” Weiss recalled.

“It wasn’t brilliant filmmaking, but we gave

people something that was important to them – an

unvarnished view of that industry. Everybody’s

grandpa worked in the woods, so there were close

ties to big industry here. It was relevant,” he said.

Soon, the film became part of the curriculum

in Maine elementary schools. Copies were given

as presents for Father’s Day, Weiss said. It was

shown in nursing homes and at historical societ-

ies. In 2002, the Library of Congress added From

Stump to Ship to the National Film Registry. “The

success of that film led us to do more,” he said.

Today, the Northeast Historic Film collection

offers hundreds of documentary films on life in

old New England, including such classics as Dead

River Rough Cut, a film about two Maine beaver

trappers, and King Spruce (in one part, when

dynamite is brought out to clear a logjam, the

narrator dryly concludes: “very few logs are lost,

and very few men.”) In Days Gone By: Vermont

Country Ways, includes personal narratives and

footage of chores, harvests, barn raisings, and

seasonal rhythms of old time Vermont.

The film preservation process includes much

more than adding a narrator or artfully splicing

footage. After the initial sniff test, the real work

begins. If the tiny perforations that edge the film are

cracked, they must be repaired. If the film is tightly

coiled around a small reel, the staff transfers the

brittle film to a larger reel. Dirty film is run through

a cleaning machine to remove dust and dirt.

Finally, the old film is digitized and transferred

to DVD, Blu-Ray, or made into a computer file. In

order to transfer all that film, though, the original

machines needed to play it must be up and run-

ning. That means keeping old projectors and the

now-historical VHS players functioning.

Weiss said owners of historical film footage

should preserve the film before it’s too late. And if

you do get it transferred to DVD, don’t throw out

the original film, but store it in a cool, dry place (he

recommends the closet in your guest bedroom).

Without the original, he said, transferring moving

images into whatever future format exists may

not be possible.

The historical films Weiss works preserves are

not all tied to big industry. One of his favorites is a

six-minute film, Cherryfield, 1938.

“It’s really simple,” he said. The film is footage

by a resident of a small town in southeastern

Maine during the Depression. “Someone went

around and took shots of everybody in town:

school kids, teachers, shopkeepers, guys cutting

wood. In a very short time, you feel like you’ve

wandered around town and gotten to see who’s

there and what they’re doing,” Weiss explained.

“There’s no plot. But it reveals a very nice portrait

of a place; that person had a nice eye.”

The original film is in horrible shape, Weiss

said. It’s got water damage, scratches, and sec-

tions spliced out. “The strength of its images

comes through anyway.”

Meghan Oliver

JAN

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Joe Gardner of Northeast Historic Film.


[ E S S A Y ]

Vermonters and Forests: A Symbiotic Relationship Editor’s note: Last winter, the Vermont Woodlands

Association partnered with the Vermont Department of

Forests, Parks and Recreation and Northern Woodlands

to sponsor an essay contest for Vermont high school

students. The topic: why working forests matter. Below

is the winning essay, selected out of nearly 50 entries.

Story has it that in 1773 explorers stood on top of

Killington Mountain and bestowed the name Verd-Mont

– or Green Mountains – on the territory. While this story

may be apocryphal, the beauty of the state is not, and

over 200 years later, Vermont’s verdant, forested land-

scape is still mesmerizing. While the splendor of the

trees, particularly in autumn, attracts thousands to our state, the forests also provide wood for building,

fuel to heat homes, and habitat for a wide variety of flora and fauna. Such a valuable resource warrants

our stewardship in order to maximize its potential and ensure that it is maintained for posterity.

Looking back on our relatively short history, it is easy to see the results of not safeguarding this

resource. In the early 1800s, Vermont was a fledgling state, largely populated with small subsistence

farms. Thousands of wooden homes and outbuildings were being constructed, and wood was the most

common type of fuel used for both heat and cooking. In the 1830s, there were over a million sheep in

Vermont, which led to a great transformation in Vermont’s landscape. It was estimated that around 70

percent of the forest was cleared for grazing sheep, which led to a number of negative consequences,

including erosion. Although it has taken nearly two hundred years to recoup from this time of deforesta-

tion, Vermont has recovered and is now approximately 78 percent forest, earning it the title of the fourth

most forested state in America.

Looking at our past underscores the importance of sustainable stewardship and what we need to do to

insure Vermont will stay the same for future generations. These efforts include selective cutting to maintain

the health of the forest. Since there is a great deal of competition for resources within the forest, selective

cutting weeds out the old and defective trees, which can then be used for other purposes, such as firewood.

With these trees gone, there is more space and nutrients for the younger, healthier trees to grow.

Having lived for six years on my grandparents’ dairy farm, I’ve seen firsthand the importance of

stewardship and how crucial trees are to Vermont and its citizens. During the coldest days of winter,

like many other Vermonters, we throw an extra log on the fire instead of cranking up the thermostat. By

using wood, which is a renewable resource, we are helping to promote a greener, more ecological state.

Moreover, since my family sells maple syrup, we rely on the maple trees in our sugar bush to provide

sap that can be processed into syrup. My family is not alone in our reliance on forests. Like many towns

in Vermont, my hometown has a tourist-based economy, which is contingent upon the beauty of our

forests and landscape.

One of the reasons people are drawn to Vermont is because of its connection to nature; when one

drives to school, one can see a flock of turkeys cross the road, or a gangly fawn walking for the first

time. It’s a special aspect of Vermont that very few other places have.

Vermonters and forests have always had a symbiotic relationship. The forests provide us with many

resources, including lumber with which to build our homes and firewood to heat them; in return it is

our duty to keep the forests healthy. Written in our state song is the phrase, “Let us live to protect her

beauty.” As the next generation of forest stewards, I think we owe it to Vermont to do just that.

Kia Amirkiaee is a sophomore at Woodstock Union High School in Woodstock, Vermont. She

enjoys spending time at her grandparents’ farm, which has been in her family since the 1830s.

She plans to pursue a career in environmental law.

Beanhole beansBeanhole beans were a staple of lumber camp

cuisine. You’ll see camp chefs in old logging films

lifting steaming pots of them from the earth.

According to the Maine Folklife Center, the idea

originated with Native Americans. The recipe

has variations, but in general, New Englanders

replaced the maple syrup Native Americans used

with molasses, and salt pork replaced other

meats used by natives.

The beans were cooked in cast iron pots that

were lowered into pits in the earth several feet

deep, where hot coals awaited. Beans were sim-

mered anywhere from several hours to several

days. Robert Campbell, who died in 2010, was a

Mainer renowned for his beanhole beans. Here,

he shares his way of constructing a bean pit*.

“What I did, I dug a pit about 30 inches deep

and put a cast iron manhole cover in the bot-

tom. Oh it must weight well over 100 pounds.

And then I took two truck wheels, welded them

together, put those in the hole, and then I sur-

rounded them with roughly 95-100 window-sash

weights around the wheels … rocks off the farm

… and finished the top with bricks. Now I can

fire it up with a couple of basket loads of wood

for two, two-and-a-half hours, then shovel it [the

coals] out, put the beans in [cover with coals and

dirt to seal] and cook them from 12 to 20 hours

and they, so far, come out perfect every time.”

Here’s our house recipe, based on Campbell’s.

Readers, share your own beanhole bean recipes

with us at www.northernwoodlands.org.

Beanhole beans

11 pounds yellow-eye beans

5 pounds salt pork

2 cups molasses

1 cup maple syrup

5 tablespoons dry mustard

Salt and pepper

5 whole onions

2 heads of garlic

Water to cover

Put all ingredients in Dutch oven. Put Dutch oven

in bean pit. Cover with coals and seal with dirt in

early morning. Dig up later that night. Eat.

*Excerpt courtesy of the Maine Folklife Center.


[ T H E O U T S I D E S T O R Y ]

Illustrations by Lauren DiBiccari

The Annual Frog SymphonyWe’re used to tracking spring’s progression through flowers

(colt’s foot to purple trillium to columbine) or bird sightings

(phoebes to sapsuckers to warblers). Spend time near a wet-

land and frog song can be used in the same way.

Frogs and toads have a distinct calling phenology (and phonology)

largely influenced by climatic variables such as humidity and the

temperature of air and water. You can think of the anuran (frogs and toads)

breeding season as a symphony with three major movements – the onset

of each varies depending on location, elevation, and microclimate, but the

order of appearance remains the same.

The first movement begins in spring with the onset of the first warm rains,

when nighttime temperatures remain above 40°F. Out come the wood frogs,

whose quacking calls may only last a week or so. Around the same time,

spring peepers add their bell-like peeps, continuing nightly for four to six

weeks. Where northern leopard frogs occur, their rhythmic, low snores usually

peak in late April.

The second movement begins with the subtle snoring of pickerel frogs

and the prolonged, nasal trill of American toads. As temperatures warm, gray

treefrogs add their short, trumpet-like trills, along with a few plunky banjo

notes of green frogs.

With summer in full swing, a steady chorus of green frogs signifies

the onset of the final movement, which also includes the steady bassline

“jug-o-rums” of American bullfrogs, and in northernmost areas, the

staccato, percussive rapping of mink frogs.

By early August, the anuran symphony has been replaced by the

crickets, katydids, and cicadas of late summer.

Steven D. Faccio

Editors’ Note: Hear the quacks, snores, trills, and plunks of these amphibians

on the Northern Woodlands website.

Wood frog

Spring peeper

Northern leopard

Pickerel



American toad

Gray treefrog

Green frog

American bullfrog

Mink frog

This chart shows frog song progression, starting with the quacking wood

frog in early April and ending with the rapping mink frog in mid-summer.


A Consulting Forester can help youMarkus Bradley, Ben Machin, Mike Scott Redstart Forestry Juniper Chase, Corinth, VT 05039 (802) 439-5252 www.redstartconsulting.com

Anita Nikles Blakeman Woodland Care Forest Management P.O. Box 4, N. Sutton, NH 03260 (603) 927-4163 [email protected]

Herbert Boyce, ACF, CF Deborah Boyce, CF Northwoods Forest Consultants, LLC 13080 NYS Route 9N, Jay, NY 12941 (518) 946-7040 [email protected]

Gary Burch Burch Hill Forestry 1678 Burch Road, Granville, NY 12832 (518) 632-5436 [email protected]

Alan Calfee, Michael White Calfee Woodland Management, LLC P.O. Box 86, Dorset, VT 05251 (802) 231-2555 [email protected] www.calfeewoodland.com

Richard Cipperly, CF North Country Forestry 8 Stonehurst DrIve, Queensbury, NY 12804 (518) 793-3545 Cell: (518) 222-0421 Fax: (518) 798-8896 [email protected]

Swift C. Corwin, Jr. Calhoun & Corwin Forestry, LLC 41 Pine Street, Peterborough, NH 03458 Swift Corwin: (603) 924-9908 John Calhoun: (603) 357-1236 Fax: (603) 924-3171 [email protected]

Daniel Cyr Bay State Forestry P.O. Box 205, Francestown, NH 03043 (603) 547-8804 baystateforestry.com

R. Kirby Ellis Ellis’ Professional Forester Services P.O. Box 71, Hudson, ME 04630 (207) 327-4674 ellisforestry.com

Charlie Hancock North Woods Forestry P.O. Box 405, Montgomery Center, VT 05471 (802) 326-2093 [email protected]

Make decisions about managing your forestland

Design a network of trails

Improve the wildlife habitat on your property

Negotiate a contract with a logger and supervise the job

Improve the quality of your timber

Paul Harwood, Leonard Miraldi Harwood Forestry Services, Inc. P.O. Box 26, Tunbridge, VT 05077 (802) 356-3079 [email protected]

Ben Hudson Hudson Forestry P.O. Box 83, Lyme, NH 03768 (603) 795-4535 [email protected]

M.D. Forestland Consulting, LLC (802) 472-6060 David McMath Cell: (802) 793-1602 [email protected] Beth Daut, NH #388 Cell: (802) 272-5547 [email protected]

Scott Moreau Greenleaf Forestry P.O. Box 39, Westford, VT 05494 (802) 343-1566 cell (802) 849-6629 [email protected]

Haven Neal NRCS Technical Service Provider Haven Neal Forestry Services 137 Cates Hill Road, Berlin, NH 03570 (603) 752-7107 [email protected]

Christopher Prentis, CF Lower Hudson Forestry Services 14 Van Houten Street, Nyack, NY 10960 (845) 270-2071 [email protected] www.lowerhudsonforestry.com

David Senio P.O. Box 87, Passumpsic, VT 05861 (802) 748-5241 [email protected]

Jeffrey Smith Butternut Hollow Forestry 1153 Tucker Hill Road Thetford Center, Vermont 05075 802-785-2615

Jack Wadsworth, LPF, ME & NH Brian Reader, LPF, ME & NH Jesse Duplin, LPF, ME & NH Wadsworth Woodlands, Inc. 35 Rock Crop Way, Hiram, ME 04041 (207) 625-2468 [email protected] www.wadsworthwoodlands.com

Kenneth L. Williams Consulting Foresters, LLC 959 Co. Hwy. 33, Cooperstown, NY 13326 (607) 547-2386 Fax: (607) 547-7497

Fountain Forestry 7 Green Mountain Drive, Suite 3 Montpelier, VT 05602-2708 (802) 223-8644 ext 26 [email protected]

LandVest Timberland Management and Marketing ME, NH, NY, VT 5086 US Route 5, Suite 2, Newport, VT 05855 (802) 334-8402 www.landvest.com

Long View Forest Management Andrew Sheere SAF Certified Forester & NRCS Technical Service Provider Westminster, VT 05158 (802) 428 4050 [email protected] www.longviewforest.com

Meadowsend Timberlands Ltd Jeremy G. Turner, NHLPF #318 serving NH & VT P.O. Box 966, New London, NH 03257 (603) 526-8686 [email protected] www.mtlforests.com

New Hampshire, Maine, and Massachusetts require foresters

to be licensed, and Connecticut requires they be certified.

Note that not all consulting foresters are licensed in each

state. If you have a question about a forester’s licensure or

certification status, contact your state’s Board of Licensure.


Farm Cred

Britton Lumber Company

Manufacturers of Eastern White Pine Lumber Since 1946

P. O. Box 389 • 7 Ely RoadFairlee, Vermont 05045

[email protected]

www.brittonlumber.com

FIELD work

By Kristen Fountain

At Work Building Treehouses with The Treehouse Guys

Like house designers everywhere, James “B’fer” Roth starts

with the building site. Though unlike most, it’s not the soil or

topography that he studies first. He looks for the right cluster

of trees.

Roth, 54, is one half of The Treehouse Guys, a two-year-old

design-build company based in Warren, Vermont, that con-

structs sturdy, whimsical treehouses for all seasons. He is the

design half of the equation, while partner Chris “Ka-V” Haake,

36, takes the lead on building.

Their treehouses, featured in Treehouses of the World and

other books, are as simple as a roofed room reached by a lad-

der and as elaborate as a multilevel fortress with windows and

door frames, entryways and wide decks. Some are even multiple

structures spanned via suspension bridge.

Roth and Haake formed their business to bring their distinct

style to private backyards. So far, work has been primarily in

northern New England. But they also are the go-to firm for

making treehouses accessible by wheelchair or walker, a niche

within a niche, that takes them around the country.

Both men get deep satisfaction from seeing people who

have been tethered by illness, age, or other disability set free by

the view from among the branches and birds’ nests. In this kind

of treehouse, anyone can clamber up and find a perch. The

experience leaves first-timers exuberant.

“When you see a kid in a chair – or an adult – in a treehouse,

the joy meter is off the charts,” Roth said. In many of his designs,

the ramps curve and turn around live tree trunks, offering the

challenge of an upward climb. “My favorite part is seeing the

smiles of the kids who go up it, who have never been off the

ground, really,” Haake said.

The two men honed their craft while part of Forever Young

Treehouses, a now dormant nonprofit started by board members

of the Make-a-Wish Foundation of Vermont with one mission:

constructing universally accessible treehouses.

They contacted Roth about the idea through the Yestermorrow

Design Build School in Warren, where he is an instructor. Then,

Roth had a shop in Waitsfield where he designed and built furni-

ture made from peeled logs and branches. That is where he first

met Haake, a New Jersey transplant who stopped by one day in

the late 1990s with a question about securing the top of his yurt.

Roth’s friends and colleagues knew of his affinity for tree-

houses. He built his first one in the early 1980s on friends’ land

in Warren, soon after graduating from Johnson State College

with a fine arts degree. “I never had one when I was a kid,” said

Roth. “It turned into a pretty extravagant thing.” The octagonal

structure became his home during warmer months for several

years. He wooed his wife there, serving dinner on their first date

20 feet in the air.

So Roth embraced the challenge and asked Haake to help

with the first prototype on the grounds at Yestermorrow. The

products of their long collaboration, now approaching 40

structures in 20 states, can be seen in public parks, camps,

hospitals, and schools from coast to coast, including Oakledge

Park in Burlington, Crotched Mountain Center in Greenfield,

New Hampshire and Pinetree Camp in Rome, Maine. In 2011,

Paralyzed Veterans of America recognized the men’s work with

their Barrier-Free America Award.

Costs vary widely. A small backyard treehouse without

ramps starts at around $12,000. Their most expensive, and

largest to date, was an accessible treehouse with a winding path

and several levels for a public park in Torrance, California. The

$750,000 project took many years to complete and was funded

by the Annenberg Foundation.

These days, The Treehouse Guys tackle three or four tree-

The Treehouse Guys, James Roth and Chris Haake (bottom right), work on a treehouse.

CH

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whole notion is that it floats,” Roth said.

Through the small world of professional treehouse builders,

The Treehouse Guys met an Oregon-based civil engineer who

specializes in their mechanics. Once a design is complete, Roth

hires him to do the calculations on bracket angles and other

support specifics.

Despite these details, in many ways a Guys job site isn’t much

different than any other kind of small-scale craft construction.

Lumber, branches, and other materials are grouped and stacked

next to power tools and large, well-stocked toolkits. Reggae tunes

from a boombox set a laid-back mood. Haake’s border collie

waits in the sun for one of them to throw a cloth Frisbee. And the

partners joke back and forth, speaking their own language.

When Haake is maneuvering a branch that will serve as a

platform brace into position, he listens for Roth to say the word

“Larry.” That stands for “Larry Goodnuff,” a sort of patron saint

for treehouse builders, which is code for “that will work.” The

big bolts that secure the houses are “bombers.” And then there

are the nicknames.

Roth picked his up in childhood. His middle name is Burton

and his father – a handy fellow who built the house they lived

in – explained once when Roth was small that his full name was

“James ‘B’ for Burton.” Roth told him he liked the name, except

for the “B’fer” part. His dad cracked up and the name stuck.

Haake got his nickname from Roth, who teased his younger

helper by calling him “the caveman” when they first started

working together. Haake had done some basic construction as

a teenager, but he picked up most of his skills from Roth on

the job. Early on, his instinct was to use physical force to make

unruly parts fit together. The phrase to describe that quickly

became “getting cavey,” which morphed into “Ka-V.”

Haake is now a builder with finesse. “He evolved quickly,”

Roth said. He now prefers to cut

wood by feel using one main tool – a

chainsaw.

“I actually don’t like conventional

building,” Haake said. “If I couldn’t

use a chainsaw, I wouldn’t do it.”

Both men like the intuition and

flexibility needed to bring Roth’s

designs to life. The reliance on trees

and peeled branches makes small

accommodations – a notch here and

there – essential. “It’s like a sculpture,”

Roth said. “You’re not throwing a flat

object against a flat object.

There is a serendipity to the flow

of work that they enjoy. “The magic

of things just finding their way into

place is fun,” said Roth. “The cosmic

connection, when things work out

just the way you hope.”

Kristen Fountain is a writer living in Stowe, Vermont.

She reports for the Waterbury Record.

houses a year, usually booked the year before. In 2012, the

summer brought several backyard projects near their homes in

Vermont. In the fall, they spent a month living on a secluded

property on Lake Winnipesaukee, building a private treehouse

overlooking the water. The pair already has three on next year’s

schedule, all universally accessible – two in Michigan, where

Roth was raised, and one in Oklahoma City.

In Roth’s designs, living trees serve as the building’s primary

support. “The configuration of the trees, that drives the shape

and design,” he said. He prefers the hardwoods – maple, oak,

and ash – but will also use healthy hemlock and pines. If there

aren’t enough live trees, he looks for sturdy stumps. For auxil-

iary posts, The Guys bring in hand-hewn logs that they bury.

The model rarely calls for cutting down trees. Roth prefers to

incorporate the existing forest as much as possible. As a result,

trunks often bolt up through holes in the deck or clip a roof eave.

For the frame, they rely on pressure-treated pine to withstand

weathering. But the siding is all live-edge, rough-sawn boards.

The bark makes squiggly dark lines along the exterior, creating

a playful, rustic feel. Windows, mismatched, sometimes tilted,

and terraces fenced with an open pattern of hand-stripped

branches complete their signature look. Wherever they work,

their goal is to rely as much as possible on locally sourced and

locally milled wood.

The enemy of treehouses is wind and bending. To account

for that, supporting floor beams are connected by a bracket to

a collar pounded several inches into a corner tree. A bolt slides

both through one end of the arm-size bracket and through an

oblong hole in the side of the collar. The hole is designed to give

the bolts play and allow the house to move with the trees. “The

A finished product from The Treehouse Guys.



The Lyme Timber CompanyInvesting in Forestland Since 1976

Forestland Investments l Conservation Advisory Services

23 South Main Street l Hanover, NH 03755 l 603.643.3300 l lymetimber.com



Text and photos by Tony Donovan


I’ve been lucky enough to have met a lot of

interesting people in my life. I’ve known some

wonderful characters in the New York film

business, and I’ve traveled the world to meet

great people in other countries. Still, the most

memorable person I’ve known lived here

in Lyme, Connecticut: the woodsman Amos

Congdon, who has meant far more to me than

the expresidents and their wives, the athletes

and coaches, or the movie stars I might have met.


He was born on the first day of spring in 1899. A small man, though he said he’d been “stout,” that is, strong,

when he was young; able to lift an anvil into the truck bed when no one else could do it. He had bright blue eyes,

snow-white hair, and most often a white beard as well. He wore the cotton shirt and pants uniform of the American

working man: the Dickie brand, or sometimes Lee. On days he’d wear all blue, I’d see him as the spirit of the Union.

When he wore gray, I’d see him as Confederate. This was in the early ‘70s, when the civil rights battles were being

fought, war in Vietnam was raging. When he’d wear blue and gray, which he often did, I’d see him as the spirit of

the country, united once again.



A small family-run hardwood mill – a tie mill

they called it – for railroad ties, the main

product they had starting up. The rectangular

shed, 75 feet long and 35 feet wide, is open on

three sides. Built on a north-south line with

the saw to one side facing west. Two iron rails,

45 feet long, set on cement piers run in front

of the saw blade. A carriage pulled by a cable

carries the log down the tracks into the saw

to make each cut. Reversing direction on the

sawyer’s action, it returns to him so he can

turn the log and set its next position. The bright

aluminum roof has scattered patches of green

fiberglass so the light underneath is often a

faint green for our work. The front half of the

mill has a floor of thick oak planks, dark and

twisted over the years, raised high enough

off the ground so trucks could be loaded off

the front. The back is earthen, bark and wood

scraps, lengths of poison ivy vine, broken

tools, pieces of chain, plastic kitchen contain-

ers for oil and gas, and the oak skids where

logs are piled waiting to be sawn. The saw is

a bright silver disc after a day of work. It can

rust and turn dark overnight.


Left, mill worker Ed Cories, and right, Bob Congdon, Amos’ youngest son.


He climbs up on the rollers with a file in his hand. Two oil rags are thin pads for his knees. He kneels at the saw, still for a

second, resting on his heels, then he rises up and leans over the saw blade. Using the file as a bar, he pulls the first tooth

to him. All the sawmill’s belts and wheels turn that one portion of the saw’s circle in a soft, quick moan. Holding the file in

two hands, he sets it into the curve of the socket. Then he strokes it across the tooth face, once, twice, maybe three times.

The sound is surprisingly soft. Amos taps the file on a small iron wheel at his side. It sounds like a bell. He taps it again to

clear it of steel filings. And then he might say, “Years ago everything was pure, the rivers, the air, and the soil. Now it isn’t

so.” He pulls the next tooth toward him and the mill’s actions turn again, the one small fraction of the saw’s rotation.


Maybe it takes five or six seconds to cut the

length of the log, small red pine logs, “bony logs”

or “pecker poles,” as they might say. Amos pulls

the pine slab away from the saw, waits for the

carriage to pass by him, stop at the end of the

tracks, reverse direction and return to the saw-

yer. He lifts the pine with two hands and steps

quickly across the tracks, throws the slab up on

a pile and turns back toward the saw. Quickly

crossing the tracks a step in front of the carriage,

he stands at his place by the saw, reaches down

to clear the bark and ice off the rollers. The saw

blade is turning over 700 times a minute. It’s a

hiss and a whir under the noise of the diesel.

He’ll take away each piece of wood, and carry

each board to its pile. Drop the 4-by-6, 6-by-6

lumber into the pits, hurry back to his place at

the saw every time. “Carrying slabs” is what they

called it; or “taking away,” “off-carrying.”

There are 50, maybe 60 logs on the skids. It

takes only a minute or two to saw out each log,

this bony red pine. He has 8, maybe 10 seconds

to carry each piece away and return to the saw.

He’ll do it five, six times for each log. Three

hundred times or more he’ll carry-away before

they stop work. Sawing red pine, Amos Congdon,

76 years old.

37


I know construction of this sawmill in the early ‘70s was the proud

accomplishment of a lifetime of hard work, by both himself and his

wife, Bertha. His work in the woods, chopping brush with an ax for

birch and witch hazel oils, sawing out logs for other men’s mills,

hickory for firewood to New York City, cedar poles to net the tobacco

around Hartford, mowing hay in the meadows with a scythe and

salt hay in the marshes as well. Mrs. Congdon’s hard work in small

factories across the river, in Westbrook and Essex, at a steam laun-

dry in Old Saybrook. All three sons were sawyers. That seems

a great accomplishment to me . . . to teach three sons to saw.

Left, Bob Congdon, Amos’ youngest son, and mill worker Bill Turner.


Let me tell you one last story about him. He and

his wife had been living together in one room at

a nursing home in Essex. He was taking care of

her in his mind and she likewise was taking care

of him. Mrs. Congdon passed away first. I went to

offer my condolences. He was totally distraught.

I knew there was really nothing I could do to

comfort him. I sat down beside him. He was 92.

Cartoons were on the TV in front of us. After a

while, a nurse brought his lunch. She put the tray

in front of him. “Come on, Amos, you have to eat

something,” she said and then left the room. On

one side of us was a black woman, a white and

black polka-dot bandana on her head, faded

man’s white shirt, a ragged blue cardigan

sweater; angry, wild eyes, muttering, cursing to

herself. On the other side, a middle-aged white

man in a wheelchair, dressed in a Perry Como

sweater like an insurance salesman from a

generation before, a dull silver-blue tie, blue

shirt, and gray summer flannels. Brain damaged,

ugly, heavy, and silent in his chair. Amos and

I sat for a while.

His lunch was cold tomato soup, a piece of bread

with margarine, a gray pear, cup of ginger ale,

black coffee. I encouraged him to eat. Finally

he took the bread in his hands and broke it into

pieces. He offered me a piece. Did I want it? He

offered some to the empty white man and the

muttering black woman as well. Will we share

this bread with him? I remember thinking at the

time, “What a great presence of mind he has.”

Always, you know? A wonderful spirit, good and

kind. How proud I was to be with him then. How

glad, how thankful I am to have known him.


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(1-888-734-4625)

he Maine Chapter of the Nature Conservancy never planned to get into the

forestry business. All it wanted to do was protect the upper St. John River.

Born in the northwestern part of the state, the St. John is one of Maine’s

iconic rivers and the longest free flowing river in the eastern U.S. In its

upper reaches, near the Quebec border, it runs through low hills clothed

in maple, birch, and beech; the valleys are draped in spruce. It’s a place of haunt-

ing beauty, where the ghostly Canada lynx stalks snowshoe hares and American

martens sniff out voles among the spruce. Moose are everywhere. More than

a dozen rare plants live here, including the Furbish’s lousewort, livid sedge,

Mistassini primrose, and English sundew. There are rare peatlands, 300-year-old

spruce forests, and rare spruce bogs.

So, when International Paper Co. announced its intention to sell some 185,000

acres of Upper St. John Valley forestland in 1998, the Conservancy teamed up

with an anonymous timberland investor to bid $35.1 million for the property,

with the conservancy pledging about $3 million of that sum. The Conservancy

would get several thousand acres along the river and its tributaries and other

lands to establish a forest reserve. The investor would get everything else.

The bid came in third. The investor took his money elsewhere. Everyone

thought that was that. But a few weeks later, the chapter got a call: the higher

bids had fallen through and the owner was willing to accept the Conservancy’s

original bid, if the deal could close in six weeks.

“That led us to make a very bold decision to buy the whole thing,” said William

Patterson, who oversees management of 225,000 acres for the Maine Chapter. The

Nature Conservancy borrowed the entire amount, then mounted a fundraising

drive to pay it back. In the meantime, they needed money to pay interest, and

there were timber contracts with another year and a half to run. “If the first deal

Protecting Nature.

Harvesting Timber.

How conservation groups got into managing forestland, and the lessons they’ve learned.

By Joe Rankin

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The Downeast Lakes Land Trust manages some of its Farm Cove Community Forest land for timber, while some is designated as an eco-reserve. Here, an early successional habitat plot is created.

The Downeast Lakes Land Trust

manages some of its Farm Cove

Community Forest land for timber,

while some is designated as

an eco-reserve. Here, an early

successional habitat plot is created.


had come together, we probably never would have been practic-

ing forestry,” said Patterson. “It’s almost as though we fell into it.”

The deal closed in December 1998: the largest TNC purchase

in the U.S. up to that time. And it put The Nature Conservancy

in an unusual position: here was an organization dedicated

to preserving forests, who suddenly found themselves in the

business of harvesting wood.

“We just didn’t need to take that much land out of production,

from a scientific perspective,” said Patterson. Protecting the river

corridors and creating a network of forest reserves would accom-

plish the same thing, but at much less cost. Phasing out timber

harvesting “would have been a hardship on local workers, mills,

and communities,” he said. “It’s just not affordable, either.”

The new land rushLand ownership in the Northern Forest is in a state of flux.

After generations in which ownership hardly changed at all, in

the late 1980s a seismic shift began, the aftershocks of which are

still being felt. Between 1980 and 2010, more than 23 million

acres of forestland were sold, from New York to Maine – some of

it more than once, according to forest economist Lloyd Irland.

It was precipitated by a perfect storm of financial factors, said

Irland, including the fact that Wall Street investors abandoned

the idea that a paper company needed to own timberland to

ensure a fiber supply. Energy costs were going up; paper use was

falling. In the name of bigger is better, paper companies began

gobbling up competitors. Many companies disappeared entirely.

Others lived on only as brand names. The “winners,” Irland puts

verbal quotes around the word, were left with aging mills and

mountains of debt. And their gaze turned to their timberlands.

“[Selling the land] was one place a company could raise a

bundle of cash quickly, because no one wanted to buy the mills,”

Irland said. Enter the Timberland Investment Management

Organizations, the Real Estate Investment Trusts, pension

funds, and institutional investors. Irland said that for decades

you couldn’t get investors to even look at putting their money

in timberland, but this was the roaring 1990s and people had

money to invest, much of it from burgeoning retirement funds,

and they were looking to diversify portfolios as a hedge against

the volatility of stocks. When the John Hancock Life Insurance

Co. and Harvard and Yale universities invested in timberland,

people took notice. Of course, many of these new investors

weren’t looking to make money from the trees, but were looking

instead to split up parcels and resell, or hold for a 10- to 15-year

period, then turn it over, capitalizing on expected appreciation.

Conservation organizations, worried that these new own-

ers would liquidate large blocks of intact forestland, soon got

in on this new land rush. The Conservation Fund, The Nature

Conservancy, and The Trust for Public Land, among others,

all purchased significant acreage in New York, Vermont, and

New Hampshire – including 300,000 acres of former Champion

Lands that stretched across all three states. (In many cases the

organizations later resold the land to public entities or private

companies, often retaining conservation easements.)

But the great bulk of the large timberland transaction (“large”

being defined here as a parcel over 50,000 acres in size) was

taking place in Maine. Between 1980 and 2006, 1.68 million

acres were sold in Vermont, New Hampshire, and New York

combined. In Maine, 18.6 million acres changed hands during

that same timeframe, often more than once. Buyers included The

Nature Conservancy, who bought the St. John Forest lands in

1998; the Appalachian Mountain Club, who bought 65,500 acres

in the 100 Mile Wilderness east of Maine’s Moosehead Lake in

2003 and 2009; and the Downeast Lakes Land Trust, who bought

33,708 acres just west of the town of Grand Lake Stream.

Different goalsSo, now that conservation groups find themselves managing

forestland, what are they doing different? All say they want to

continue harvesting timber, in part to contribute to the local

economy. But their management goals also include protecting

sensitive areas, improving wildlife habitat, and encouraging pub-

lic recreation, even if it means sacrificing some timber income.

After The Nature Conservancy bought the St. John Forest,

it put nearly 56,000 acres – about 30 percent of the land – into

forever-wild reserves. According to Patterson, they looked for

areas with fairly mature forest, where there were few roads and

more than one forest type. The Conservancy’s management

plan stipulates that in every timber harvest five to eight percent

of the land is to be permanently untouched in a sort of micro-

reserve. The organization also created a 1,000-foot buffer along

the main stem of the St. John River, where most of the rare plant

communities – and recreational users – are found.

“We operate under a conservation model that suggests that

a network of medium-sized forest reserves, scattered across

the landscape, will be critical to the health of the forest,” said

Patterson. The idea is to create older, ecologically stable forests

to provide refuges for birds and mammals, such as the pileated

woodpecker and the marten, that only thrive in older woods.

AMC took a similar approach, voluntarily setting aside a lot of

operable timberland to be managed in a natural condition. “About

21,000 acres, or a third of our property, is designated forever-wild

forest reserve,” said David Publicover, the AMC’s forest ecologist

and assistant director for research. “We believe that there is a need

for more natural areas in the north woods of Maine to provide a

range of values that are not provided by the best of the actively

managed timberlands. We did it partly for remote backcountry

recreational purposes and partly to restore late successional forest

to the area, which is habitat that’s lacking in the region.”

As part of its Farm Cove Community Forest, the Downeast

Lakes Land Trust set aside 3,560 acres around Fourth Machias

Lake as an ecological reserve. The land butts up against other

ecological reserves the state of Maine manages, said Director

Mark Berry. The rest of the land is managed for timber, but

under a plan that gives wildlife habitat, timber production, and

public recreation equal value.

Berry said when the Trust acquired its lands the property had

been commercial forest, but wasn’t in horrible shape. That being

said, one objective is to increase the amount of standing timber

to 20 to 22 cords per acre. (By comparison, in 2011, the average


stocking rate across the eight Maine counties with the largest

timberland holdings was 16 cords per acre; for the state as a

whole, it was 17.2 cords per acre, according to Ken Laustsen, a

biometrician at the Maine Forest Service.) It will take a while to

do that, he acknowledged.

Other non-profits, too, are trying to increase the amount of

standing timber on their woodlands, and the higher stocking

levels they aim for are only one thing that differentiates them

from investor-owned timber companies and makes them more

like the managers of public lands, such as Maine’s Bureau

of Parks and Lands. Private timber management is “much

different” than that of nongovernmental organizations, said

Publicover. Nonprofit management “is similar to public lands

management, but notably different than commercial lands,” he

said. “No investment owner aims at 20 to 22 cords per acre.”

There are only so many ways to log, and the nonprofits use

many of the same silvicultural techniques that the for-profit

timber companies do, whether shelterwood cuts, patch cuts, or

selection cutting.

But Publicover points out that there are variations on each of

those practices. Nonprofits and public land managers are “more

likely to use longer rotations, maintain higher post-thinning

stocking, and retain more mature trees. We make a tradeoff of

economic maximization for noneconomic benefits.”

In a standard shelterwood cut, for instance, a stand is logged,

but older trees are left to provide partial shade for seedlings and

saplings in the understory. Later, when the saplings are well

established, the rest of the overstory is removed, leaving a stand

of trees that are roughly the same age. Publicover points out that

this perpetuates a cycle of even-aged forest. AMC prefers what

he calls “deferred shelterwood,” forgoing the final overstory

harvest and leaving the oldest trees, which ensures a multi-age

stand and a forest that is more structurally complex.

The Conservancy has done a fair number of shelterwood cuts

and multistage removals on the St. John lands, said Patterson. In

late 2012, working with University of Maine scientists, the orga-

nization even began experimenting with clearcutting on a small

scale – less than 100 acres – in an area where spruce seedlings

were well established.

“Clearcutting can be a controversial management tool and

has been badly applied in some instances,” said Patterson. “But

it is a legitimate forest management technique when done to

achieve specific objectives.” In this case, it’s to create habitat for

lynx, which prefer young spruce groves as the place to hunt their

favored prey, the snowshoe hare, and to provide a little age diver-

sity, since most of the spruce in the area is 20 to 30 years old.

“The difference is not huge,” said Patterson of forestry in the

St. John Forest. “We cut a respectable amount of wood each year,

a 13-year average of about 20,000 cords per year from 125,000

acres of land. Many of the forestry techniques we use are not

unique to TNC. It is perhaps the combination of the protections

we have in place and our landscape-level approach to forest

management that is unusual. Like any landowner, we avoid

harvest prescriptions that are not workable for contractors or

that result in a net loss to the Conservancy.”

A new perspectiveOne of the things the nonprofits agree on is that getting

into the business of managing land for timber has given them a

whole new perspective. In many ways, it’s been a hard lesson.

“One thing I’ve learned is how much we are constrained by

the nature of the land, the nature of the stands we’ve inherited,”

said Publicover. “I know there’s a lot of talk about uneven-aged

management in the northern hardwoods region. I think that

works when you have a lot of sugar maple and yellow birch. It

doesn’t work so well when you have stands of beech dying of

beech bark disease.”

Leaving enough larger trees on those stands to qualify as

an uneven-aged stand would mean leaving diseased beeches

that won’t survive until the next cut, he said. And the econom-

ics wouldn’t even cover the cost of having the trees marked.

Publicover said there were other ways to meet the AMC’s goals,

including shelterwood cuts or overstory removals in areas

where the understory was well-established.

Publicover has been part of the Northern Forest debate for

years. He was deeply involved in the Northern Forest Lands

Council process. He contributed to the first edition of Good

Forestry in the Granite State, and was a member of the team that

developed the first regional standards for Forest Stewardship

Council certification in the Northeast.

“I tell people I spent the first 10 years of my career at AMC

telling other people how we should be doing things. Now that

we own land, I get to find out how much of what I was saying

actually made sense,” he joked.

The AMC knew from the outset that it was going to be

managing its property for timber, said Publicover. First, because

forest products are a big part of the local economy, and second,

to cover expenses. “We’ve found that owning land is expensive.

There’s property taxes, road maintenance. We went into it

and didn’t really know how expensive it is to maintain roads,

especially given the high level of public recreation we are

promoting,” he said.

In Vermont, the Atlas Timberlands Partnership’s annual

costs run $100,000 to $150,000, including $60,000 in taxes, said

Lakeside at the Farm Cove Community Forest.

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Changes in Forest Ownership in Northern Maine

Traditional ownership types

Industry

Old-line family

Individual/family

Tribal

Federal

Public (state)

Nonprofit

Other

Emerging ownership types

REIT

Financial investor

Developer

Contractor/new timber baron

Ted Shina, consulting forester, shows the harvest of a recent shelterwood cut on land owned by AMC, with softwood on the bottom, hardwood on top.

In 2011, the forestry work of the Maine chapter of The Nature Conservancy attracted the attention of the Discovery Channel’s American Loggers reality show.

TOM

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MAP PROVIDED BY WILDLANDS & WOODLANDS,

REPRINTED FROM LILIEHOLM ET AL. (2010) WITH

DATA FROM THE JAMES W. SEWALL COMPANY.

1994

2009


Carl Powden, Northern Greens regional director for Vermont

Land Trust. Generations of high-grading, however, left them

with a forest that will produce mostly pulp for quite a while. In

terms of cash flow, “it’s been lean.”

“It’s going to take a long time to turn things around. And in

the meanwhile, no one is going to get rich,” said Powden, who

acknowledged that going into the working forest project, “I thought

it would be challenging, but I didn’t realize how challenging.”

Is it a worthwhile pursuit? “Absolutely. It’s worthwhile to

keep the land in forest and produce timber products and the

jobs associated with that. But I think at least equal to that . . .

is the learning that’s come from that. The firsthand knowledge

that we’ve gained from Atlas is something that goes with me

every time I go to talk to a forestland owner who’s thinking

about putting a conservation easement on his or her property.”

Patterson had a similar observation: “If we didn’t have this

experience ourselves, we might go out and sit across the table

from a large landowner who we’re negotiating an easement

with and say, ‘Can’t you do all these items for conservation?’

and think that there’s no cost to the landowner. We’ve learned a

lot. Some things we’re able to quantify for ourselves. Others are

more just a conceptual understanding.”

All the conservation groups acknowledge that they have an

advantage over private commercial forestland owners: donors

ponied up money to buy the property so they aren’t stuck with

paying long-term interest on debt. In the case of the Atlas

Timberlands, the Freeman Foundation donated $5 million of

the $5.5 million purchase price and the John Merck Foundation

another $250,000. The Nature Conservancy’s St. John Forever

capital campaign raised its entire $35.1 million from donors,

including one donation of over $3 million. AMC and Downeast

Lakes Land Trust similarly depended on donors to make their

projects happen.

Setting a trend?One shouldn’t get the idea that conservation groups are going

to continue buying up working forest all across the North Woods.

Irland, the Maine-based forest economist who’s closely fol-

lowed ownership changes in the Northern Forest for decades,

said these purchases came about as a result of a particular set of

circumstances, among them the low price of forestland. Since

then, timberland values have risen and stumpage prices have

fallen.

“They don’t have the money, and they have pretty much got

their hands full taking care of what they’ve got. It’s not their core

business. And the threat’s not there right now. One reason for

moving into a lot of these things was the perception of threat, of

sprawl and subdivision. That was not an irrational argument at

the time it was made. It’s a harder argument to make right now,”

said Irland.

Plus, he said, not many conservation organizations want

“100 percent of the forest management job. They want just what

they need. What they’re concerned about now is fragmentation

and conversion. If they can get that taken care of and get these

landscapes protected against land subdividers, for many of

them, that’s their best objective.”

Going forward, Irland believes, and others concur, that con-

servation easements, not outright purchase, will be the tool of

choice for protecting large swaths of forestland.

“Conservation easements are a more economical way to

promote sustainable forest management and they’re adequate

to prevent land conversion in most places,” said Patterson.

“However, for a network of forest reserves, it is necessary to

purchase the land outright, including the valuable timber rights

needed to establish a reserve.”

The Downeast Lakes Land Trust is one of the few nonprofits

still looking to buy. The Trust is focused on raising $24 million

to acquire 22,000 acres between its Farm Cove Community

Forest to the west and Passamaquoddy tribal lands to the east.

The targeted land surrounds the village of Grand Lake Stream.

The Trust’s Mark Berry considers it to be a “major gap in the

conservation landscape down east.”

Future influence?One question, of course, is whether the new nonprofit

owners will have a long-term influence on the way forestry is

practiced in the North Woods. Some think the answer is yes,

that this more holistic model will give commercial landowners

something to reach for. But AMC’s Dave Publicover doesn’t

suggest that what AMC does should be a model for commercial

landowners.

“The goals and constraints are different,” said Publicover. A

commercial forestland owner is trying to do right by the land

while generating an adequate return on the parcel’s timber, a

preservation-minded owner is trying to establish a wilderness

area untouched by human hands, a conservation organization

like the AMC is trying to do both things – to promote a model

for land conservation that bridges the gap between preserve and

commercial working forest.

“We’re trying to do something that’s more diverse and more

complex,” said Publicover, though he’s quick to add that it’s been

done before, most notably in the White Mountain National

Forest.

“A hundred years ago, the forest was a landscape devastated

by extensive liquidation harvesting and massive forest fires.

Today, it’s considered one of the most beautiful landscapes in

the Northeast and the largest expanse of relatively mature for-

est,” Publicover said.

In his mind’s eye, Publicover can see the Appalachian

Mountain Club’s holdings two or three centuries hence: its eco-

reserves looking like old growth, their legacy of repeated heavy

harvesting virtually erased. The managed timberlands are well

stocked with trees of different ages, many high-quality sawlogs,

and quite a few venerable giants. Some big trunks lie rotting on

the ground. From ferns to fungi, salamanders to deer, the forest

has a healthy complement of other life.

Joe Rankin is a former newspaper reporter who lives in Central Maine where he writes

on forestry topics, keeps 70 hives of bees, does market gardening, and walks his dogs

in his 70-acre woodlot.


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Woods?

Keynote speakers:Bernd Heinrich, Author,

University of Vermont Professor EmeritusStephen Fairweather, Ph.D.,

President/Biometrician, Mason Bruce & Girard, Inc.

for more information:www.nesaf.org

New England Society of American Foresters Spring Meeting

Sunday River Resort, Newry, MaineMay 15 – 17, 2013


1 Young porcupines spend their first summer in the mother’s territory. At weaning, young-of-the-year

females disperse, whereas weaned males remain loosely associated with their mothers.

2 Male mourning doves present females with several potential nesting sites to choose from, while

simultaneously defending said sites from rivals. Once he’s convinced a wandering female to nest in his

territory, he’ll gather nesting material for her. Chicks can survive on their own five to nine days after

leaving the nest, and most leave the nest area within two to three weeks of fledging.

3 The red eft is the dispersing form of the eastern newt.

2 3

1

KATH

ERIN

E DAVIS


ot long ago, as the ice went out on

my local brook, I came across some

fresh beaver cuttings and a scent-mound

in an area that showed sign of having

been dammed before. Did the fresh sign

indicate that beavers had moved back

into the drainage? Maybe. But maybe not. Fresh

sign doesn’t always indicate that an animal has

taken up residence; often, it’s left by transients

just passing through.

The dispersal of young animals away from

where they’re born is called “natal” dispersal,

and these youngsters are likely to be transients.

Young beavers move in the spring, most songbirds fly

from their natal nesting areas in summer, and young

deer often wander or are chased off to find new

ranges in fall. The timing of the dispersal comes at

a tipping point between the ability of the young to

be independent and the need of the mother to turn

her energies toward the next breeding opportunity. Northern

cardinals disperse less than two weeks after hatching, and the

parents will raise multiple broods in a single year; male white-

tailed deer are self-sufficient and tend to disperse around six

months of age; beavers disperse in their third year.

The gender of the animal doing the dispersing also varies. One

sex is often the primary disperser, either leaving in greater numbers

or traveling farther before settling. Among most mammals,

young males disperse and young females stay close to their

mothers’ ranges. Coyote packs are typically family groups, with

last year’s daughters staying to help mom and dad raise the next

litter. When you see does and yearling deer in the fall woods,

the yearling is most likely a doe fawn from the previous year;

she’ll eventually establish her own range, but it will neighbor and

include her mother’s.

The reason that males of most mammal species do the

dispersing is that dominant males monopolize access to breeding

females. Think big, antler-clashing bucks vying for a ready

doe. Biologists call this female defense polygyny, and in such

a system, a female’s lifetime reproductive output (i.e., fitness)

depends on how well she can exploit her home range to care

for herself and her young. Male reproductive output is less

about proper care and feeding and more about competing

successfully for many mates. In such a system, the females

stay put, and the males travel far and wide to find them. Even

red-backed salamanders exhibit female defense polygyny

and male-biased dispersal, albeit on a scale of centimeters.

Most birds, on the other hand, exhibit female-biased natal

dispersal. A male establishes and defends a breeding territory

around a nest, enticing females to settle and mate with him

in exchange for care and feeding of her and the young.

Biologists call this resource-defense breeding, and in this

By Kurt Rinehart

system, the male’s fitness depends upon

taking full advantage of a good piece of ground,

while the female’s depends on picking a good male.

The mammals that have evolved to feature

female-biased dispersal likely did so as a hedge

against inbreeding. An alpha male porcupine, for

instance, can dominate local breeding for two or

more years, leading to the strong possibility of

mating with his own daughter – unless she disperses.

The mating system is still one of female defense,

but the tenure of dominance is long. Contrast

this with white-tailed deer, where a male tends to

dominate breeding for only a year before being d

isplaced by a stronger and (because of dispersal)

unrelated buck. Ultimately, the pattern of dispersal

reflects the interplay of access to food and mates with the

costs of inbreeding or life as a transient. A slight shift

one way or another determines whether the species

conforms to the common patterns or becomes an exception.

Despite the evolutionary benefits of dispersal, it is no picnic

for individuals. Transients are often too small or inexperienced

to compete adequately with residents for food and space. After

sometimes violent rejection by their mothers, transients survive

in poor habitat unused by others, while under frequent attack

by residents. They often suffer death from hunters, cars,

malnutrition, and adults of their species. This is why sightings

and evidence of mountain lions in New England doesn’t

necessarily mean a resident breeding population. (DNA

tests on a male mountain lion that was killed by a car in

Connecticut in 2011 indicate that it made its way from

the Black Hills region of South Dakota.) Dispersers can be

pioneers that inhabit (or reinhabit) suitable areas, but a lot of

them will die without finding such opportunities.

Yet, in a very real way, the long-term survival of a species

depends on these transients seeking new frontiers. Like seed

banks and doomsday bunkers, it’s a hedge against disaster. The

red efts that are seemingly everywhere in the woods all summer

long are the dispersing form of the eastern newt. After hatching

in still water, a newt larva metamorphoses into an eft and crawls

out of the water. Red efts can cover hundreds of meters in a single

summer and can persist in this stage for up to seven years. Many

end up back in their natal waters to breed, but if that pond has

failed due to silt buildup or dam failure, the newts’ only insurance

as a species lies in those lonely migrants – those who made it over

the hill and into a new pond, formed behind a dam of shining

sticks, recently built by a young beaver who had himself just

struck out on his own.

Kurt Rinehart is a doctoral candidate at the University of Vermont, where he studies

ecology and management of Black Bears. He is the co-author of the Peterson

Reference Guide to Behavior of North American Mammals.

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4 Young moose are weaned in their first fall but

remain with their mothers through their first winter.

Calves without mothers don’t typically survive. If

the mother has another calf the next spring, she will

aggressively repel her yearling and form a protective

bond with the new calf. The yearling will keep trying

to reconcile, but the mother will have none of it. This

casts the young moose adrift, but often yearlings

will lurk within their mothers’ home ranges through

summer until forced away for good in the rut; the

females are now rivals to their mothers and the males

to rutting bulls. Most moose disperse only a few

kilometers, though males move farther than females.

5 Grouse grow more slowly than songbirds, and

don’t reach adult size until late summer or early

autumn. When they are about 14 weeks old, they

strike out on their own in search of a new home

range. The adult males you hear drumming in fall

are reestablishing their territories, and they don’t

tolerate the dispersing youngsters, who are subse-

quently driven into poorer habitats and unoccupied

territories.

4

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6 Natal dispersal among birds is mostly female-

biased, and that holds true for osprey. In one study

from coastal New England, slightly more females

dispersed than males and over larger distances

– one traveled 325 miles, over 10 times farther than

her male counterparts.

7 Insects are animals, too, of course, and those that

lack wings have to find creative ways of dispersing.

A baby spider builds a silken parachute and uses the

wind. To cover long distances, an emerald ash borer

might use a stick of firewood and an unsuspecting

human. Parasites, like this grasshopper nematode,

use hosts to carry them away from their birthplaces.

The nematode lays its eggs on a plant, where they’re

ingested by a grasshopper. The eggs hatch and begin

to eat the grasshopper from the inside out. When it

dies, they emerge, crawl into foreign soil, and molt into

adults. The adult females lay eggs on a nearby plant,

and the lifecycle repeats.

8 When a deer hunter misses a smasher buck,

he’ll often let himself off the hook by thinking, “Well,

at least he’s out breeding does and contributing to

the good antler genetics around camp.” While said

dominant buck will indeed be siring does that will

grow up to establish home ranges nearby, the deer’s

genetically blessed male offspring are likely to leave

town when they’re between six months and one year

old and set up home ranges that are miles away. Of

course, in moments of anguish, no one likes a know-

it-all, so keep this information to yourself and just

nod your head in agreement.

7

STEVE C

REEK

8


9 In late summer, fox kits begin long exploratory movements away from their natal areas. In fall, most leave, though when there is an

abundant food source, they may stay on through the first winter. Males disperse farther than females. An average from five different regional

fox tracking studies showed that the mean dispersal distance for females was 6.8 miles, for males 19.22 miles. One radio-collared male

walked 244 miles – roughly the distance from Albany, New York, to Portland, Maine.

10 A typical beaver colony consists of a mated pair of adults, yearlings from the previous year, and kits born in the spring. After two years in

the colony, young beavers make way for new kits and disperse, wandering up, down, and across watersheds until finding an unmated resident

beaver or unclaimed adequate habitat where they can establish a new territory and colony of their own. Scent mounds, like these that you find

on the riverbank in spring, are warning signs to dispersing beavers that this territory is taken.

11 Muskrat dispersal is common in the spring, though in some areas the young of the year leave home to find suitable winter habitat in

the fall. In one New York study, the mean dispersal distances for spring muskrats was 716 feet; the most adventurous traveled about a mile.

Three times more males than females left.

Mikael Batten, East Orange, VTDarby Bradley, Calais, VTRobert Bryan, Harpswell, MEFred Burnett, North Clarendon, VTBeth Ann Finlay, Chelsea, VTPeter Forbes, Waitsfield, VTRobert L.V. French, Hopkinton, NHRichard Hausman, Ryegate, VTJim Hourdequin, Hanover, NHSherry Huber, Falmouth, MECharles Johnson, E. Montpelier, VTEric Johnson, Old Forge, NYBrendan Kelly, Rome, NYRobert Kimber, Temple, MEBarry Schultz King, Ripton, VTWarren King, Ripton, VTEric Kingsley, Portland, MECharles Levesque, Antrim, NHElisabeth McLane, S. Strafford, VTRoss Morgan, Craftsbury Common, VTH. Nicholas Muller III, Essex NYEliot Orton, Weston, VTRichard Rachals, Lunenburg, NSBruce Schwaegler, Orford, NHPeter Stein, Norwich, VTCharlie Thompson, Pelham, MATig Tillinghast, Thetford, VTDavid Williams, Essex Junction, VTSteve Wright, Craftsbury Common, VTMariko Yamasaki, Durham, NH

A hearty thanks to all of the people listed below who serve as valuable resources to the organization.

Than

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11

Small Woodland Owners Association

of Maine

Serving small woodland owners in Maine since 1975

Monthly 16-page newsletter. Licensed forester on staff

to help answer woodlot questions.Sponsor more than 50 educational

workshops each year. Voice for small woodland owners in

Augusta. Land Trust for working forests. Green Certification of small woodlands.

For More Information Contact:

SWOAM, P.O. Box 836, Augusta, ME 04332 Tel: 1-877-467-9626

E-mail: [email protected]

www.swoam.com

SWOAMSmall Woodland Owners

Association of Maine

MARIE READ


T H E O V E R S T O R Y

Story by Virginia Barlow

Illustrations by Adelaide Tyrol

Smooth Serviceberry and Downy Serviceberry Amelanchier laevis, A. arborea

Our house is in a small clearing, formerly a log

landing, and every time you turn your back,

trees try to reclaim the turf. I fight them

with clippers, loppers, a chainsaw, and by

ramming the poor lawnmower through

blackberry thickets, to try to keep what

little sunlight we’ve got. I hardly look to

see what species I’m hacking away at and by mistake – not

once but twice – I cut down a basswood tree right behind the

beehives. But I haven’t made that mistake with any serviceberries:

my affection for these trees must run deep.

When serviceberries flower early in May, the world is already looking

pretty good. Buds of quite a few tree species have just begun to unfurl and

the gray woods have washes of green: a fuzzy whitish green on big-toothed

aspens, lime green on trembling aspens, and reddish green at the tops of red

maples. The beautiful mix of colors changes every day in May but the scenery hits

a high point when serviceberry flowers come out.

Serviceberries sometimes make it into the canopy in the forest, but they do

best with a little extra light, such as at the edges of openings. The ones in our yard

express their appreciation for being spared every spring, even the young ones,

by blooming profusely. Close up, the white, thin-petaled flowers look like little

five-bladed helicopters; from afar the flowering trees light up the land. Fortunately,

serviceberries are common, especially along roads and streams.

Downy serviceberry, one of the two Amelanchier species that reach tree-size, flowers

about a week before the other (smooth serviceberry), stretching the all-too-brief flowering

time by a few days. They’re in the rose family and, like their relatives, are

pollinated by insects seeking pollen and nectar. The serviceberries

supply this mostly to a few species of small, early-season bees.

One problem with serviceberries is the many names people have

for them, both individually and collectively. I teeter between shadbush and serviceberry

myself, but you’re likely to hear shadblow or juneberry. In some parts of North America

it’s sarvisberry, shadberry, sugar plum, swamp cherry, Indian pear, saskatoon, wild plum,

wild sugar pear, or chuckley pear. Smooth serviceberry is just as often called Alleghany

serviceberry.

The name shadbush came about because its flowering coincides with the arrival of the

American shad. These three- to five-pound fish, the largest in the herring family, ascend

rivers to spawn all along the eastern seaboard when the water temperature reaches about

65°F, about when serviceberry flowers are coaxed from their buds.

Sorting out the many species in the genus Amelanchier challenges botanists who

use Latin names, as well as the rest of us. There are about 10 species in New England,

all quite similar to begin with, and when they hybridize, which they love to do,

identification becomes difficult. And then the fertile hybrids go on to hybridize with one

another, making an indecipherable hodgepodge. You can usually tell the two tree-sized

ones apart. Downy serviceberry is very downy in the spring; the little leaves are covered

in fuzz, as are the twigs and buds. The leaves of smooth serviceberry have no fuzz and

Cedar waxwing


are coppery red when they first open in the spring.

They both have alternate, egg-shaped leaves, from 1½ to 3 inches long, with

toothed edges. All the serviceberries have slender twigs, and in winter all the

slender buds except the terminal one lie tight against the stem. The buds are

like beech buds but smaller. The smooth bark is usually gray to light brown,

with darker vertical stripes. On older trees it develops shallow furrows and small ridges.

Amelanchiers usually are quite healthy, but they are susceptible to a rust fungus

whose alternate host is red cedar. Sometimes the shadbush leafminer insect (Stigmella

amelanchierella) makes broad mines in the leaves.

The wood of these airy, insubstantial-looking trees, at 49 pounds per cubic

foot, is among the heaviest of all North American hardwoods. Both the downy

and smooth species typically grow to only six or eight inches in diameter, so uses

for the wood are confined to small items such as tool handles and fishing rods. When

polished, the reddish-brown wood takes on a satiny finish. It’s hard and tough enough

that the Cree used it for arrow shafts.

As the name juneberry suggests, the fruits ripen very early, at a time when fruits

in general are still scarce. This could explain why they are eaten by so many birds and

mammals, but, as it happens, they are nutritious, rich in vitamins, easy to find, and quite

digestible. Forty bird species are said to eat the fruits, among them the wild turkey, veery,

hermit thrush, gray catbird, cedar waxwing, scarlet tanager, and Baltimore oriole. Beavers,

deer, and moose feed on the bark and twigs, and black bears, skunks, foxes, raccoons,

red squirrels, gray squirrels, flying squirrels, chipmunks, and other rodents eat the fruits.

Grouse eat the buds in winter. Hare eat the whole shebang: leaves, twigs, bark, and fruits.

Long ago, Native Americans mixed serviceberries with meat and fat to make pemmican,

which was eaten as a light nutritious trail food during the winter, as it stores well.

Serviceberry was also an important medicinal plant; various parts were used to treat

a wide range of ailments and some tribes burned areas to promote the growth of

Amelanchiers. For a summer snack, try the fruits of smooth serviceberry, as they

are juicier than those of downy serviceberry. Both kinds can be dried or used for

jam, jelly, or pie. Serviceberry pie is said to rival the best blueberry pie, but I can’t

imagine harvesting enough fruit to fill a pie dish.

Amelanchiers are among the relatively small number of plants that

can reproduce asexually, using a process called apomixis, an ability so

sought after by plant breeders that it has been called the “holy grail”

of plant propagation. The female cell bypasses the usual reduction in

chromosome number, and the egg grows into a clone of the female

parent. Instead of having a half set of chromosomes from the mother and

half from the father, apomictic plants have a full set of chromosomes

from the mother. Except for citrus, apomixis is rare in food crops,

but if scientists could get economically important plants such as

corn, wheat, or rice to reproduce this way reliably, high yielding

hybrids could then replicate themselves indefinitely – bad

news for seed companies, good news for farmers who,

instead of relying on seed companies for hybrid seeds, could

save their own seeds year after year.


FROM FOREST TO FLOOR:THE GYM A COMMUNITY BUILT


Above: The finished gymnasium floor.

Right: Sunday morning work.

his year, when Moderator Ann Wilson raps her

gavel, calling the Craftsbury Town Meeting to order

in the new Craftsbury Academy Gymnasium,

she’ll be standing on a forest of local trees hewn

into a luminous floor.

Last September, Craftsbury Academy hosted a floor-laying

work party, much like an old-fashioned barn raising. Yet instead

of a barn to hold one farmer’s hay and animals, they built a floor

that will support the weight of this town of 1,300, serving as

the foundation for jump shots, diploma handoffs, and residents

trampling on their handiwork to dunk meeting day ballots into

the birdseye maple ballot box.

This project was over a decade in the making, as the bond vote

for the new gym failed five times. Five. Times. The Academy’s

old gymnasium was officially condemned in 1986 as structurally

unsound and unfit to inhabit in winds higher than 30 miles an

hour. Though it was a showpiece when it was built in 1947, it had

deteriorated to the point where Madame Moderator had to pause

during one town meeting when a broken pipe began sputtering

liquid from the ceiling. The cost of replacing the gym, however,

was exorbitant, and many said it was just too much money. The

issue fractured the town and dragged on for more than 12 years

before a 1.6-million-dollar bond finally passed.

Harry Miller, a local builder, father, and school board

member, had an idea that would bring the townspeople back

together. Miller, who helps fourth graders build their own rulers

as a means of teaching them fractions, thought that with a

little hard work, the town could build their own gym floor for

considerably less than the $150,000 that was allotted in the

budget. “I thought that would be a place where we could save

and participate – and we went from there,” he said.

An earlier community project to rebuild the fence around

the town green provided the prototype for this one: “Have

everything laid out ready to go,” Miller said, “and then call in

your labor, give everybody a job. It can be done.”

Story by Julia Shipley

Photos by Harry Miller


August, the lumber was ripped to 2¼ inches, planed to 7/8, and

then sent through the tongue and groove machine. Lathrop’s

favorable rate saved the town about $40,000.

Miller’s excitement at the arriving material was tempered by

anxiety about humidity. “Here we were about to introduce this

bone-dry flooring to an environment with 300 gallons of freshly

applied paint and sheet rock mud,” Miller said. Tom Hayes of

Topnotch Floors in Hardwick told him to “Call Frank.”

An affiliate of the National Wood Floor Association in Reno,

Nevada, Frank Kroupa talked Miller through a strategy for the

next phase. Using a humidity meter loaned by a neighbor, Miller

waited for a spate of haying weather, and then opened the bags

of flooring. Seven days later, when the wood had acclimated, he

and his business partner, Shawn Ecklund, went in, snapped a

chalkline, and that night they laid out a two-foot-wide keystone

strip down the middle of the new gym.

The following morning, upwards of 60 volunteers began

working on either side. A feeder crew brought boards in from

the piles; the racking crew dry-laid them; an installation crew

followed, tucking weed whacker cord temporarily between the

slats to create a 1/16-inch expansion joint; a nail crew brought

up the rear, fixing the floor piece by piece. The floor was

stabilized for the next 100 years at least by $1,000 worth of nails

donated by Donald Blake, a contractor in Morrisville.

By Saturday afternoon, as a small pile of rejects – strips with

knots and defects – amassed near the boiler room, another crew

emerged to tamp bits of tarpaper then dab quick-drying epoxy

into the 363 tapholes in the flooring – a testament to the number

of working sugarbushes in town. When I ask about a blond

section of wood riddled with holes, Miller quizzed me. “What’s

the number one rule of tapping? Never drill within three inches

of last year’s taps, because the cambium around the taps dies.”

“This just goes to show that sometimes sugarmakers break

their own rules,” Harry said with a smile, then added: “It may

have a few imperfections, but it has character.”

By Monday, the stacks of flooring were gone and they still

had a hundred feet of floor to finish. “With a custom run, you

can’t run out and pick up a few more 7/8-inch pieces,” Miller

said, “so, we started raiding the reject pile.” All those not-good-

enough pieces were suddenly vital. Piece by piece, the rejects

were reenlisted, and the floor accrued through the out-of-bound

zone until the last piece fit in place. Of the two tractor loads of

logs – all grown within ten miles of the gymnasium – only half

a trash can of waste was left.

Miller gazed out at the finished 6,400-square-foot floor

the day before the sanders came. “I watched fathers and sons,

stars on the girls’ basketball team, world class skiers from

the Outdoor Center’s racing team, Sterling College students

– people from all over all working together to build this floor.

It’s not just fitting together the pieces of a floor – it’s investment

in community. These kids are going to remember this and show

their kids, saying: ‘I built this.’”

Julia Shipley is an independent journalist whose work often centers on trees, rocks,

dirt, water courses, and a sense of place.

Encouraged by Tom

Lathrop of Lathrop’s

Mill (who offered to

do the millwork for

one dollar per foot),

informed by neighbors

Jim and Steve Moffatt of

Moffatt Tree Farm, and

bolstered by impromptu

coffee conferences in

the Village Store, Miller

waded into the project

by asking, “How many

trees do we need?”

His informal advi-

sory committee said

they’d need around

12,000 board feet. But as

Jim Moffatt explained,

“Of that number, you

have to factor in that a portion is unusable, and then you need to

account for the matching of the lumber. When you start out with

a 3½-inch piece of flooring, then it’s milled down so you’re left

with a 2½-inch-wide piece.” The final verdict: “Two truckloads

oughta do it,” meaning, two 10-wheelers with a pup trailer.

In June 2012, Jim Moffatt, who has been a member of the

Craftsbury Forestry Committee for more than 40 years, began to

coordinate the harvest, skidding, and pick-up of donated trees.

He mapped out the most economical route and then took his

truck around town. Among the 38 scheduled pick-ups, there were

several remarkable trees. Horace Strong offered the best sugar

maple on his property. Bob Davis, who grew up where Bill and

Judy Bevins live now, convinced them to give up their magnificent

yellow birch. Miller recalled, “It was 48 feet to the first branch.”

Moffatt, who attended the Academy, as did his grandmother,

mother, father, brothers, sister, wife, and son, and whose grand-

sons are now in the sixth and eighth grades, also offered up a

special tree. “A favorite of all time,” he said, from back when he

was first sugaring in 1962, with horses and buckets. “This was the

tree we always tapped first, a top producer; it was slowly dying,

and within a year or two the lumber wouldn’t be salvageable.”

After Moffatt rounded up the first load, he got permission

from the town forest to harvest more timber. With the help of

Bob Davis, Rob Libby, and his brother, Andy Moffatt, they cut 30

logs from Hatch Brook Road and the Academy Woodlot. Moffatt

supplemented with his own trees, and a total of 160 sugar maple

and yellow birch logs went to Lathrop’s Mill in June.

Tom Lathrop, a fifth-generation sawyer, oversaw the milling.

Over the late summer months, the lumber was sawn extra

thick (at 1¼ inches), stickered, and allowed to “relax” for a few

months before spending ten days in the kiln. At the beginning of

Andy Moffatt, Craftsbury

Academy class of 1957, and

Earl Kinsey, class of 1970.


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Doing Nothing for Forest RecoveryWhen a stand of trees is blown down in a

storm, the typical practice is to salvage as

many saleable trees as possible. But a 20-

year study in the Harvard Forest found

that if you are just considering the health

of the forest ecosystem, the best practice

is to do nothing.

“When a forest is damaged by hur-

ricane winds, even if it is quite a big

disturbance and looks catastrophic, there

are a lot of surviving structures that allow

the forest to come back and continue

functioning,” said Audrey Barker-Plotkin,

site and research coordinator at Harvard

Forest and lead author of a study pub-

lished in the journal Ecology.

In 1990, a team of scientists recreated

the effects of the 1938 hurricane in a two-

acre patch of mature oak forest. Eighty

percent of the trees were pulled over with

a winch and cable; half the trees died

within three years and were left on the

ground. The scientists closely monitored

the study area for the next 20 years and

found a remarkable story of recovery.

“Leaving a damaged forest intact

means the original conditions return

more readily,” said David Foster, director

of the Harvard Forest. “Forests have been

recovering from natural processes like

windstorms, fire, and ice for millions of

years. What appears to us as devastation

is actually, to a forest, a quite natural and

important state of affairs.”

The abundance of seedlings and sap-

lings that were growing in the forest prior

to the study form the bulk of the forest

canopy today. But the new forest doesn’t

look exactly like the old one. Prior to the

study, the forest was dominated by red

oak and red maple. “We found no red

oak that came in as a seedling or sprout

after the disturbance, but we have a few

scattered surviving gigantic oaks that still

anchor the stand,” said Barker-Plotkin.

“The new cohort is mostly black birch.”

The researchers were surprised that

only a few early successional species made

an appearance as the forest recovered,

and even fewer invasive species. Most of

the shrubs that became established in the

first years after the disturbance died as

the forest aged.

Measurements of soil nutrient levels

before and after the disturbance found

hardly any difference, and the volume

of litterfall – a reasonable proxy for

forest productivity – came back to pre-

disturbance levels by year six. While the

basal area is still lagging behind that of a

control site, it is expected to catch up by

about year 30.

Despite these results, Barker-Plotkin

said there are perfectly good reasons to do

salvage logging. “If you’re growing your

forest for timber and your valuable tim-

ber trees have fallen over, it’s a reasonable

course of action to carefully recoup the

financial value of the forest. But from the

perspective of the health of the forest, it

doesn’t need us to clean up after a disaster

like this. The forest is going to be fine.”

Interiors: Disappearing Fast in a Forest Near YouInventories often report that forested lands

across the U.S. and elsewhere are declin-

ing, but those studies simply look at the

total deforested area. A new analysis of

forests in the lower 48 found that “forest

interior” is disappearing at a much greater

rate than total forest acreage, raising con-

cerns about biodiversity and core habitat.

According to Kurt Riitters, a research

ecologist at the U.S. Department of

Agriculture’s Southern Research Station

and the lead author of a study published

in Scientific Reports, forest interior has par-

ticularly high conservation value because it

is less likely to be affected by human influ-

ences and so provides more natural forest

function than edge forests. Riitters and

his colleague James Wickham examined

national land-cover maps to determine

whether forested pixels were surrounded

by other forested pixels, and they found

that while total forest area declined by 1.1

By Todd McLeish

D I S C O V E R I E S

Audrey Barker-Plotkin (far left) and students conducting a survey of the understory vegetation in a hurricane experiment,

20 years after the manipulation.

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percent from 2001 to 2006, interior forest

declined by 5.8 percent.

“In order to understand the impact of

forest loss, we have to look at the pattern

of where the forest was lost and where it

was gained,” said Riitters. “The pattern

of loss is such that it’s punching holes in

what used to be interior forest; it’s taking

interior pixels away. But the pattern of

forest gain isn’t adding interior forest.”

In a supplemental report, the researchers

examined 60 “eco-provinces” around the

country and found that the three provinces

that cover the Northeast lost interior forest

at lower rates than the national average.

Two of those regions – the northeastern

mixed forest in much of New York and

eastern Maine, and the Adirondack-New

England mixed coniferous forest in the

high elevations of northern New England

– lost interior forest at about twice the rate

of total forest loss, though half of the former

region and two-thirds of the latter are

considered forest interior. Surprisingly, the

Eastern Broadleaf Forest, which extends

from coastal and southern New England

down the Appalachians, lost interior forest

at a lower rate than its loss of total forest,

perhaps because only one-third of this

forest is considered interior.

Noting that rates of decline do not

apply equally, even in individual eco-

provinces, Riitters made a point of high-

lighting the Adirondacks as an area where

virtually no net loss of interior forest was

detected. “There are always forest gains

and losses, but the Adirondacks always

stand out as being a reservoir of inte-

rior forests,” he said. “When you analyze

forest fragmentation, there are few places

that stand out as having a high percentage

of forest and a high percentage of interior

forest, but the Adirondacks is one.”

The researchers’ analysis could not

identify the drivers of forest loss in each

region, though they noted that in the

western U.S. it is primarily caused by

insects, disease, and fire, while forest loss

in the East is usually a result of urbaniza-

tion. The next step in their study is to

collect data that will help them identify

the specific causes of forest fragmentation

in each region.

An interior forest fragmented by a housing development.

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63Northern Woodlands / Spring 2013

More Buzz on Pesticides and BeesThe widespread decline of both wild and

managed bee populations has raised

alarms for more than a decade due to

the importance of bees as pollinators of

both agricultural crops and wild plants.

Pesticide exposure has long been con-

sidered a likely culprit, implicated in

changes in bee behavior and reduced

production by colony queens. A new

study by researchers at the University of

London found that exposure to combi-

nations of pesticides can make worker

bees less efficient at collecting pollen and

reduce a colony’s chances of success.

Richard Gill and Nigel Raine investi-

gated social bumblebee species that rely

on the collective performance of many

worker bees for the colony’s success. They

wrote in the journal Nature that their

study mimicked realistic scenarios in

which 40 early-stage bumblebee colonies

received four-week exposure to two com-

mon pesticides. Imidacloprid, the most

widely used insect neurotoxin in the

world, was provided in a sucrose solution

at levels that could be found in nectar.

Cyhalothrin, a synthetic insecticide that

mimics a chemical in chrysanthemums,

was used according to label directions for

field-spraying applications.

In colonies exposed to a combination

of the pesticides or to only cyhalothrin,

more than a third of the worker bees

died, compared to just nine percent

mortality in unexposed colonies. Two

colonies exposed to both pesticides failed

completely within a week. Using radio

frequency identification tags to track 259

bees on 8,751 trips to collect pollen, the

researchers found that bees exposed to

both pesticides or to Imidacloprid alone

took longer to collect pollen or gathered

less pollen per trip. This lower foraging

efficiency meant that these colonies had

to send out more bees, many of which

did not return. On average, the number

of lost worker bees was 55 percent higher

in colonies exposed to Imidacloprid than

those not exposed to pesticides.

“The novelty of this study is that we

show how sublethal pesticide exposure

affects individual bee behavior, with seri-

ous consequences for the performance of

the colony as a whole,” said Gill.

“Policymakers need to consider the

evidence and work together with regula-

tory bodies to minimize the risk to all bees

caused by pesticides, not just honeybees,”

added Raine. “Currently, pesticide usage

is approved based on tests looking at

single pesticides. However, our evidence

shows that the risk of exposure to multiple

pesticides needs to be considered, as this

can seriously affect colony success.”

A worker bee foraging in the grounds of Royal Holloway

with an RFID tag on its back.


BENJAMIN D.HUDSONLICENSED FORESTER

LYME, NH

• Forest Management

• Woodscape Design & Construction

Hudson ForestrySpecializing in the creation of environ-mentally conscious woodscapes, designed to enhance timber quality, wildlife habitat, recreation, and aesthetics.

603/795-4535 • [email protected]

Cummings & Son Land Clearing

• reclaim fields & views

• habitat management

• invasives removal

The Brontosaurus brush mower cuts and mulches brush and small trees onsite,

at a rate of 3 acres per day

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(802) 247-4633 cell (802) 353-1367

Registered Highland Cattle B R E E D I N G S T O C K

TWINFLOWER FARM

Currier Hill Road, East Topsham, Vermont(802) 439-5143

[email protected]

Classified Ads are available at $62 per column inch, with a one-inch minimum. Only $198 for the

whole year. All ads must be prepaid. Mail your ad to Northern Woodlands,

P.O. Box 471, Corinth, VT 05039, fax it to (802) 368-1053, or email to [email protected].

The Summer 2013 issue deadline is March 26, 2013.

Scott Moreau, Consulting Forester since 1988Complete Forestland Management Services: Natural Resource Inventories Forest Evaluation & Recommendations GIS Collection & Mapping Natural Community Mapping Timbersale Preparations & Mapping Property Management Planning

PO Box 39 Westford, Vermont 05494 802-849-6629 office 802-343-1566 cell [email protected] www.GLForestry.com

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Uproot invasive shrubs and small trees.Move heavy rocks, logs, and people.

Haul large loads of firewood and much more.


Saw Sharpening Tips

By Carl Demrow

TRICKS of the trade

Chainsaws, despite their blunt appearance, are precision tools that need to be

carefully maintained to work properly. The chain is no exception to the rule.

There are two parts to maintain on a saw chain: the depth gauge, which

determines the thickness of the chip that will be produced, and the cutting tooth,

which hooks fiber with the working corner and slices the wood with both top and

side cutting edges. To work properly, these two elements need to be aligned.

Filing a cutting tooth requires having your file in exactly the right place in

three dimensions. If you are off in any way by even a hundredth of an inch,

you will decrease the effectiveness of your chain with each file stroke. You can

freehand it, but all but the most practiced are likely to remove metal that will

make the chain less effective and will reduce the chain’s life. Unless you’re a pro,

use a file guide.

There are two types of filing guides. Roller guides fit over the chain and bar

to keep the file at the right height to file the tooth. To get the right roller guide,

you will need to know your chain pitch. Oregon publishes a maintenance and

safety manual that has the specs on every chain they sell. It is available at www.

oregonproducts.com/maintenance/manual.htm. The flat plate guide is a bit

more forgiving in that it works with a variety of top plate angles. It snaps on to

your file and has reference marks to guide you.

Once you’ve got the appropriate file guide, work on your filing technique. A

good filer is a lot like a good crosscut saw operator, but a filer pushes instead of

pulls. Practice smooth straight strokes that do not wobble up and down or side

to side. Holding both ends of the file will help. Apply light but steady pressure

against the cutting tooth as you file. File all the cutters on one side and then turn

the saw around to do the rest. Try to keep all the teeth the same length, although

this is a bit of a challenge when you’ve got a tooth or two that’s gotten chipped

from hitting a rock.

Since the cutting teeth are higher front to back, each sharpening lowers the

working surfaces slightly. Over time, this will bring the height of the cutter closer

to the height of the depth gauge. Eventually, the saw will not cut no matter how

sharp its teeth because the depth gauge will be too high for the cutting tooth to

take a bite.

A depth-gauge filing plate with the proper setting for your chain will enable

you to take the gauge down with a flat file to the correct depth. A depth gauge

that is too low results in very aggressive cutting.

Northeast Woodland Training, an organization dedicated to teaching safe

logging and forestry practices, produced an excellent DVD on saw sharpening.

You can buy a copy of The Art and Science of Sawchain Sharpening, taught by

safety instructor and professional logger John Adler on their website, www.

woodlandtraining.com.

MEG

HA

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LIVER

From top to bottom: tools of the trade; standard saw chain; filing cutting tooth with file guide; filing depth gauge

with filing plate.

MEG

HA

N O

LIVER

Side plate

Top plate

Cutting corner

Depth gauge

Cutting tooth

Now see sharpening in action. Head to for a video.



watch the show the birds are putting on. In full flight, the tree

swallows pick mayflies out of the air and off the water. Going

full blast, they twist, they dive, they climb, each maneuver quick

as light. Bank, turn, swoop. Now you see the white belly, now the

blue back, then belly, then back and belly again.

Fumbling around among these aerial acrobats are some

grackles, their greenish iridescent heads gleaming in the sun-

light. But what clods they are compared with the swallows. They

fly out over the water and hover there like big, galumphing Huey

helicopters, wings flapping, feet and tail practically in the water,

bills reaching down to pluck spent flies off the surface. Then they

chug aloft and head for shore to rest up for the next sortie.

A few kingbirds get into the act, but next to the swallows,

even these flycatchers look like the Podunk High basketball

team up against the Harlem Globetrotters. Sure, the swallows

are out for a meal, too, but they can clown and play on the job,

they can twirl the ball on their fingertips, roll it down their

backs, and kick it off their heels to a teammate. They hunt

mayflies with such extravagant exuberance, such unity of mind,

nerve, and muscle, genius on the wing.

On the way back home we hit a cloudburst so heavy the

windshield wipers going at full speed can’t keep up, so we pull

off onto the shoulder and wait it out. Another stop to pick up

food for dinner: chicken breasts for us and one for Chloe, of

course, potatoes, salad makings.

We light a small fire in the wood stove to cut the dampness

and slight chill. We open a bottle of red wine, cook, eat,

remember reading Silas Marner in Miss Kerr’s ninth-grade

English class, fishing for bass and pickerel in Birchwood Lake.

John remembers things I don’t; I remember what he doesn’t. We

fill in each other’s blanks.

These last few days have been among the sweetest days of

slow fishing I can remember: Chloe living out her last days in

John’s care; the swallows diving, swooping, soaring; time with

a good friend of 70 years.

Robert Kimber has written often for outdoor and

environmental magazines. He lives in Temple, Maine.

John and I met in kindergarten, and went through school together.

We’ve been friends for 70 years, though not always in close

touch. Our lives have taken us to places as far apart as Italy and

Iowa, Germany and California, but whenever we’ve been within

reach, we do what we’ve always done: go fishing, fool around in

the woods. Two kids with white hair and gray beards.

John has a place in the Catskills now, an eight-hour drive

from my home in Maine. I go down for a few days in May. Just

the week before, John told me, he’d taken three nice browns in

one of his favorite stretches of the Neversink. Prospects, he said,

were good.

The morning after I arrive, we head for the river. John’s dog,

Chloe, a collie-German shepherd mix, comes with us. Chloe is

13. Her bark is hoarse and windy. Sometimes, when she gets up,

her legs collapse under her, but she totters to her feet again. John

feeds her special geriatric dog food, microwaves chicken breasts

for her. We take her for a miniwalk; then John helps her up

into the backseat of the car and settles her on a rug. She’ll sleep

peacefully until we come back. “Chloe gets 1,000-dollar-a-day,

round-the-clock assisted living,” John said.

Down at the river, our prospects don’t look so good after all.

It’s been raining for much of the past week, and the Neversink

is swollen and roily, the water up above our waists before we’ve

waded in more than a few feet. A gentle rain sets in. The morning

passes without so much as a strike. Then the sky opens up for

real. Huge raindrops rattle on the surface like double-O buck-

shot. We retreat to a little streamside picnic shelter.

“This’ll blow over soon,” John said.

We sit there, talking, laughing, reveling in the thunder rolling

long and loud around the hills and the rain pelting down so

hard and fast it bounces back up off the river.

After 45 minutes with no letup, we head back to the car

and drive to the Rock Hill Diner for a lunch of mushroom

soup and fried haddock. When fishing, always eat fish,

even if you haven’t caught any yourself.

An afternoon drive upstream looking for wadeable

and fishable water proves futile, and the deluge we

see roaring over the spillway at the Neversink

Reservoir tells us things are not likely to change

in that river for the next few days.

So the next morning we head for the Beaverkill,

where the river is clear and not brimming

up in its banks. The sky is still overcast; we

get occasional brief showers, but then the sun

breaks through. Some mayflies come off the

water. John catches a plump, 14-inch rainbow

and lets it go.

We sit on the river bank in the sun and

By Robert Kimber

A Visit Down Country

up COUNTRY


A Field Guide to the Ants of New England By Aaron M. Ellison, Nicholas J. Gotelli,

Elizabeth J. Farnsworth, and Gary D. Alpert

Yale University Press, 2012

Authors and publishers of field guides, take

note: the bar has gone up with A Field Guide to the Ants of New England.

Ants?

Ants. Lilliputian ants whose entire colony is

enclosed in an acorn, ants that parasitize other

ant species, ant mimics, and other insects that

find room and board in ant nests. The tiny lives of

New England’s 132 species could be the stuff of

children’s books or action movies.

The Guide includes everything you’ve ever

wished for in a field guide: unforbidding keys with

an illustration whenever you need one, fascinating

natural history information, a macro-photo and

an illustration of each species, a photo of the

species’ typical habitat, a shorthand indication of

distinguishing features, and an occasional laugh.

The structure of the book works extremely

well. Concise, well-written introductory chapters

put ants into a landscape context, discuss their

evolution, ecology, and behavior, and explain how

to identify, observe, collect, draw, and photograph

ants. You’ll need all of these skills because the

book makes you want to do them all. Its only

undesirable characteristic is its weight. However,

since it opens a whole new universe right under

your feet and is a pure pleasure to look at, this

doesn’t seem like an inconvenience.

There are keys to subfamilies (that’s where I’ll

be starting), genera, and species. They are a joy to

use. Almost every trait is illustrated in the margin

(big enough to see, too), and the keys are written

as a sort of reverse glossary. They use simple

English descriptors with technical terms in paren-

theses, so you don’t need to flip to the back of the

book every other minute because you’ve forgotten

exactly what “spatulate” means. In addition to the

standard dichotomous keys, there is a matrix key.

Whoever thought this one up should be designing

car radios. It is a visual key that illustrates the

body shape, color, and relative size of all of the

species in a genus, along with close-ups of their

distinguishing features.

The authors are specialists in entomology

with wide-ranging interests in ecology. Where

expertise could have made them pedantic, they

come across instead as personal and passionate.

Elizabeth Farnsworth’s illustrations are exquisite

and abundant and must be worth a total of a mil-

lion words. Speaking of words, one of the nicest

features is that each Latin name is translated, and

each genus and species is assigned a popular

name based on a distinctive character or behavior.

If you can’t remember Paratrechina, for example,

you may recall The Somewhat Hairy Ant, and when

you find an ant nesting in a boreal bog, you’ll

surely remember The Leptothorax of the Moss,

and so find your way to Leptothorax sphagnicola.

Where have ants been all my life? “The world

is so full of a number of things, I think we should

all be as happy as kings,” said Robert Louis

Stevenson in A Child’s Garden of Verses. He prob-

ably would have liked this book. Oh, yes. E.O.

Wilson liked it too.

Joan Waltermire

Nature Wars: The Incredible Story of How Wildlife Comebacks Turned Backyards into Battlegrounds By Jim Sterba

Crown, 2012

The Northeast has become a hive of ecologi-

cal counter-intuition, at least by the framework

of any living memory. According to Jim Sterba’s

Nature Wars: The Incredible Story of How Wildlife Comebacks Turned Backyards into Battlegrounds,

farm abandonment and the slow growth of trees

are chief culprits, along with the more rapid wean

of people from the natural world, even as they’ve

ebbed from city to exurb. It’s there, where sprawl

meets forest reclamation, that the generations

reared believing that nature had long absconded

tragically “over the horizon, or way up north,”

have been forced to reconsider old assumptions.

While Sterba’s work might rightfully be lumped

with the general fret of American detachment from

the natural world, Nature Wars joins a recent pub-

lishing spate that urges ditching the Disneyesque

ecosentiment. Such well-intended mawkishness,

Sterba implies, was a natural excrescence in the

wake of centuries of crippling agricultural prac-

tices and the febrile slaughter of wildlife and trees,

which left a majority of the North Woods a near

lifeless hay field. Sterba traces the morphology of

vanished fauna into the cuddly avatars of Thumper

and Teddy, and from there the yearn to prohibit any

human encroachment on the land whatsoever. As

a Depression-born farm kid, he watched first with

amusement and then concern as sprawl dwellers

have struggled to accept the wildlife reflooding a

suddenly tree-giddy Northeast.

Rather than the plaintive wards of national parks

and the Canadian outback, then, wildlife and trees

have again become neighbors; even urbanscapes

now host impressive woodlots. Sterba details how

this happened, first with the trees then the animals

they drew. With a journalism background, he deftly

chronicles the history of forest-to-farm-to-forest,

followed by twentieth-century efforts to replenish

wildlife, which according to many whom Sterba

interviews have passed from heartening endeavor

to disastrous success. Focusing on geese, bears,

beavers, deer, and turkeys, the book’s second

section follows each species from pre-European-

contact plentitude to the collective holocaust that

ensues, ending with their current status as sub-

urban apocalyptics. Even those fluent in natural

history will revel in Sterba’s telling, and likely learn

a great deal in the process. The reason why many

Canada geese have stopped migrating, for instance,

or just how close white-tailed deer came to extinc-

tion, is fascinating. Not everyone, of course, wishes

these creatures to revanish, but many people have

become what Sterba coins “species partisans,”

fighting with litigation and death threats the many

movements to manage wildlife reasonably. As a

wood LIT

newspaper man, he maintains a mostly objective

eye on this group, but an occasional farmer’s sneer

sneaks out to tip his bias.

This bias towards rational management is most

prevalent in the final section, “Denatured Life,”

where Sterba recounts the rise of manufacturing

and displacement of farming, leading to the indoor

life that creates present-day anxiety among con-

servationists, exploitative and protectionist alike.

Happily, he dedicates a chapter to roadkill, the clan-

destine berserker in modern wildlife management,

which most people (biologists included) scarcely

think of, only that it’s a “price of transportation,

like gasoline or maintenance.” Feral cats, another

rarely thought upon wildlife catastrophe, receive

rough and vital treatment as well. This is an impor-

tant book. Contrary to the mantras most of us have

grown up with, and contrary to much of what is

occurring across the globe, flora and fauna have

recovered remarkably in the Northeast, reconsti-

tuting many a personal paradigm. In entertaining

fashion, Sterba lays out both the frictions this has

created and compelling ways to quell them.

Mike Freeman

Hunger Mountain: A Field Guide to Mind and Landscape By David Hinton Shambhala, 2012

If you are peering into one of those GPS devices

many people now find indispensable, everything,

anywhere, is shown in relation to your own loca-

tion. With GPS, you’re always at the center of the

world, and maybe that’s what users like about this

technology. By contrast, with a conventional map,

before determining routes to destinations you first

need to find yourself.

The question of where we’re located, not only

on the land but also in the cosmos, is central to

David Hinton’s new book. Hunger Mountain: A

Field Guide to Mind and Landscape is a profound

reconsideration of language and consciousness

and also a series of crisp, alert essays by a

Vermonter who frequently hikes up the mountain

for which the book is named to remind himself

that “the center is elsewhere.”

Hinton is our era’s most prolific translator of

Chinese poetry and prose, the first writer in more

than a century to translate into English the four

key texts of ancient Chinese philosophy – Tao Te

Ching, the Analects of Confucius, and the writings

of Chuang Tzu and Mencius – as well as a dozen

collections of Chinese poetry.

Hunger Mountain is more openly personal than

Hinton’s splendid translations, with an erudite yet

friendly narrator who takes habitual walks that

become meditations. As in Thoreau’s Walden,

there are chapters named by topic, including

“Sincerity,” “Friends,” and “Ritual.” Other chap-

ters have more elliptical titles: “Dragon Bone,”

“Breath-Seed Home,” “Loom of Origins.”

The phrase Hunger Mountain sounds evoca-

tive and figurative: a metaphor for life’s appetites

and struggles. But it’s also the name of a spe-

cific place, a still entirely undeveloped peak near

Waterbury Center in Vermont, and a steady com-

panion in Hinton’s everyday landscape. We climb

a mountain or stand at the seacoast or gaze at

the celestial night sky and feel … smaller, which

somehow feels … great. At those moments, yes,

“The center is elsewhere.” There’s an uncanny

relief in the sensation of being less important, less

pivotal. Less self-involved.

One of Hinton’s fascinations is the artistry of

description. How do humans record actuality

transpiring, in our minds and around us, near

and way beyond? His own guides in this quest

are the poet-sages of China’s faraway past,

legendary chroniclers whose poems and prose

are extremely distilled, with extraordinary brevity

and clarity. In many of the ancient writings he has

translated, there is no narrating “I,” yet the work

has astonishing immediacy.

Hinton wonders whether the pictographic Chinese

language provides more intimate access to the “ten

thousand things” of existence than an alphabetical

language such as English can yield. Based on pho-

netics, languages like English convey the sound of

a voice, but not visual images as directly.

And Hinton asks a reader to consider the

prelinguistic sensibility of our ancestors, before

anyone painted the shape of a running deer on a

cavern wall, or carved some depiction of forest or

lake or star on a stone or a bone, thereby mark-

ing a rupture between human self-awareness

and the entirety of everything else. The word

nature betrays that breach, whereby people and

everything else are sundered by language with its

abstractions and categories.

A prelinguistic mind is difficult to imagine, now

that our very thoughts take form as words. Is it

possible, even for a moment, to shift the mind to

a nonhuman vantage? To be self-forgetful, mean-

while utterly aware?

Long after finishing the book, I found myself

thinking about the Buddhist proposition that pres-

ence (all that we encounter, materially) is no more

real than absence (the boundless pregnant laten-

cy that everything arises from and dissolves into).

In the wind

If you walk the same path every day through the woods

clearing the way in your coming and going

you know when branches have fallen. Each branch downed

has a trace of the wind of descent vibrating through it.

In the time between coming and going,

in the rain of branches from the understory,

you can read the night, the wind, the lack of it,

what has happened back to happening.

The forest is sloughing dead to make room for the sun.

And you, bent there to gather branches,

have always been walking

the dark woods children hurry through

to get where they are going—

yet the forest is the coming and the going.

LEE SHARKEY, previously published in

Maine Arts Magazine; from the book

Calendars of Fire (Tupelo Press, 2013).

Chinese landscaping paintings always have areas

of apparent nothingness, effusions of mist (or

time passing?) that appear to be empty space. For

Hinton, Hunger Mountain is a span between heav-

en and earth, crisscrossed by hawks and continu-

ally in flux, with leaves sprouting or spreading or

falling. He evokes the mountain’s creation as an

upheaval of colliding continents, glacial carving,

and eons of weathering. The mountain is, and its

cataclysmic change over thousands of centuries

also is, a never-ending occurrence.

Can we comprehend time and space as insep-

arable, simultaneous? Not different dimensions in

phenomena but one dwelling? This vision is what

the old Chinese sages offer. This conception is

also what contemporary physicists and cosmolo-

gists are asking us to consider.

Hinton repeatedly questions whether humans

should claim primacy as a species, or place our-

selves at the center of reality. That is too heavy a

burden, and the consequences of our presumptu-

ous actions are too huge. Even so, he wonders

if the cosmos has evolved a special role for us:

we’re the means (in language, in the arts, in

our sciences, too) by which existence expresses

awareness.

These are thoughts aroused by a mountain

hike in the good company of David Hinton.

Jim Schley


Forest information. Professional assistance. And practical advice for your Woodlands.from the Maine Forest Service

1-800-367-0223 toll-free in ME or 207-287-2791www.maineforestservice.gov


These prices are for #1 hardwood logs, at least 8 feet long, with

three clear faces and a minimum 12-inch top diameter. In the

timber world, this is a log of average quality, not a prime sawlog

and not a poor one.

Landowners should remember that the dollar amount here

indicates what is being paid for logs that have been felled, limbed,

skidded, bucked, and delivered to a mill or buyer. The costs of log-

ging and trucking need to be subtracted from these figures to arrive

at the price paid to the landowner. Because every job is different,

these costs vary widely.

These data are compiled from interviews with suppliers and buyers

and from the most recent print and online versions of the Sawlog

Bulletin, and are used by permission. For more information on the

Sawlog Bulletin, call (603) 444-2549 or go to sawlogbulletin.org. Please

note that many of these prices were reported three months prior to our

publication date, and current prices could be higher or lower.

NY VT NH ME DOLLARS PER THOUSAND BOARD FEET

White Ash NA 325 368 350

White Birch 306 250 325 375

Yellow Birch 370 425 433 535

Black Cherry 425 400 525 400

Sugar Maple 492 500 483 540

Red Maple 275 258 375 250

Red Oak 363 450 417 375

MILL prices

Talking Timber

Red Oak’s Rise and Fall

Oak is the most popular U.S. hardwood lumber species, accounting for

about 40 percent of our annual lumber production. And true to the old

axiom, “the bigger they are, the harder they fall,” its decline in the last

decade has been dramatic. According to data from the U.S. Census Bureau,

oak lumber production roughly doubled between 1985 and 1999, but after

1999, production declined, then fell by 50 percent from 2005 to 2010.

Why? The troubles started with the decline of the furniture market, which

is key to many middle- and higher-grade hardwood species – especially

oak. Furniture imports from China increased six-fold from 1997 to 2006,

which had a major effect on U.S. hardwood production.

Starting in 2006, troubles in Europe began to affect oak exports from

the U.S., which from the 1990s to the mid-2000s had been booming – a

symptom of tight high-grade hardwood supplies in Europe and changing

tastes. After rising steadily to 2006, U.S. hardwood lumber exports then

fell 33 percent by 2011.

About the same time, our own housing market tanked. U.S. housing starts

doubled from 1991 to 2005, then, in the most dramatic turn in decades,

fell by 70 percent (not a misprint) in the next six years. When people build

fewer houses, they buy less oak furniture, fewer oak cabinets, less oak

flooring. While the global economic crisis reduced imports of furniture and

other hardwood products, it was not enough to save U.S. production from a

tragic collapse. By the time the import competition had been reduced, many

domestic hardwood producers had gone out of existence altogether.

As we see in this graph, from the late 1940s to the early 1970s there was

little demand for red oak, and inventories in the forest were increasing.

The upswing for the next 30 years was extraordinary. In Maine, stumpage

prices hit a plateau in the early nineties; they peaked in New Hampshire

in 1999 and in New York in 2003. From the peaks, we’ve seen severe

losses. There’s a glimmer of good news: in some states, oak stumpage

prices have begun a slow recovery. — LLOYD C. IRLAND

Lloyd C. Irland is president of The Irland Group, of Wayne, Maine.

Logs scaled with the International 1/4-inch Rule.

Prices compiled February 1, 2013.


$600

$500

$400

$300

$200

$100

Dollars per Mbf

2011

2007

2003

1999

1995

1991

1987

1983

1979

1975

1971

1967

1963

1959

1955

1951

1947

RED OAK STUMPAGE PRICES, 1947-2011

• NH

• NY

• ME

STATE FO

RES

TRY A

GEN

CIES


RelationshipsMatter Most.

Thank you to all our suppliers for providing uswith top quality raw materials. We appreciateyour contributions to Hancock Lumber, theworld’s largest exporter of Eastern White Pineand Maine’s 2011 Exporter of the Year.

HancockLumber.com/Logs

Serving Timberland Investors Since 1968Full Service Forestry Consulting

across New England, New York, and Pennsylvania.Timberland Marketing and Investment Analysis Services

provided throughout the U.S. and Canada.Foresters and Licensed Real Estate Professionals in 14 Regional Offices

Bangor, ME (207) 947-2800Bethel, ME (207) 836-2076Clayton Lake, ME (603) 466-7374Jackman, ME (207) 668-7777W. Stewartstown, NH (603) 246-8800

Concord, NH (603) 228-2020Kane, PA (814) 561-1018Newport, VT (802) 334-8402Americus, GA (229) 924-8400Eugene, OR (541) 790-2105

Portland, ME (207)774-8518St. Aurélie, ME (418) 593-3426Lowville, NY (315) 376-2832Tupper Lake, NY (518) 359-2385


June 7-9 at Northwoods Stewardship Center, East Charleston, VTSeptember 6-8 at Kehoe Conservation Camp, Castleton, VT

For information about this training and other workshop opportunities, contact: Lisa Sausville, Vermont Coverts Executive Director (802) 388-3880; [email protected]; or Vermont Coverts, PO Box 81, Middlebury, VT 05753

Learn how a healthy forest can enhance wildlife habitat, provide recreational and timber benefits! Make connections with resource professionals and other landowners like you. Learn ways to share your acquired knowledge with friends and community members.

vtcoverts.org

VT Coverts 3-day Woodland Owner Training

Northern Woodlands,

Alliance, and anonymous donors have teamed up to

create a one year program to help schools raise money for

schools can sell regularly priced orders of

Northern Woodlandsmagazine, and keep $10 per

Schools interested in

send an email to

or call 802-439-6292

your local school about this opportunity!

A N EW WAY O F LO O K IN G AT T H E F O R E S T

SPRING ’07

A N EW WAY O F LO O K IN G AT T H E F O R E S T

SPRING ’07

Discovering the

Pre-settlement Forest

New Hampshire Homesteaders

The Woodcock’s Spring Show

A Team of Draft Horses

Spring Foliage, Forest Salamanders,

Squirrels with Foresight,

and much more$5.00

Discovering the

Pre-settlement Forest

New Hampshire Homesteaders

The Woodcock’s Spring Show

A Team of Draft Horses

Spring Foliage, Forest Salamanders,

Squirrels with Foresight,

and much more

C1_C4_rto6:10207_WOO

D_SPR_C1_C4 2/15/07 11:21 AM

Page c1

A N E W WAY O F L O OK ING AT THE FORE S T

SPRING ’06

Energy From Wood:

Turning Wood Chips into

Power, Heat, and Ethanol

Apple Ladders for Pickers and Pruners

Forestry Challenge in a Heron Rookery

Wood Shop, Pussy Willows, Coyote

Predation, and much more

Energy From Wood:

Turning Wood Chips into

Power, Heat, and Ethanol

Apple Ladders for Pickers and Pruners

Forestry Challenge in a Heron Rookery

Wood Shop, Pussy Willows, Coyote

Predation, and much more

A NE W WAY O F L O OK ING AT TH E FORE S T

SPRING ’06

10306_WOOD_SPR_C

1_C4 2/16/06 7:56 PM

Page c1


Ad IndexA. Johnson Co. ......................................................................................41

Allard Lumber Company ........................................................................74

American Forest Foundation .................................................................70

Bay State Forestry Services ..................................................................10

Berry, Dunn, McNeil, & Parker ...............................................................55

Britton Lumber Co., Inc. ........................................................................25

Cersosimo Lumber Co., Inc. .................................................................78

Cersosimo Mill .......................................................................................72

Champlain Hardwoods ..........................................................................78

Chief River Nursery ................................................................................10

Chippers, Inc. .........................................................................................73

Classifieds ..............................................................................................64

Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage ................................................28

Columbia Forest Products .....................................................................48

Consulting Foresters ..............................................................................24

Econoburn ..............................................................................................61

Farm Credit ............................................................................................25

Forecon, Inc. ..........................................................................................10

Forest Metrix ................................................................. inside front cover

ForesTech Resource Solutions, LLC .....................................................12

Fountains Forestry .................................................................................12

Fountains Land ......................................................................................29

Gagnon Lumber Inc. ..............................................................................75

Garland Mill Timberframes ....................................................................29

Gutchess Lumber Co. .............................................................................8

Hancock Lumber Co. ............................................................................72

Hull Forest Products ..............................................................................41

Innovative Natural Resource Solutions .................................................61

Itasca Greenhouse .................................................................................49

L.W. Greenwood ....................................................................................12

Land & Mowing Solutions, LLC .............................................................78

LandVest Realty ............................................................inside back cover

LandVest, Inc. ........................................................................................72

Lyme Timber ..........................................................................................28

Maine Forest Service .............................................................................70

Massachusetts Forest Alliance ................................................................8

McNeil Generating .................................................................................29

Meadowsend .........................................................................................72

N.E.W.T.: Northeast Woodland Training ................................................75

NEFF ......................................................................................................40

NENH Conference .................................................................................74

NESAF Maine Meeting ..........................................................................49

New England Forest Products ..............................................................49

New England Wood Pellet .....................................................................61

NJD Publishing .....................................................................................73

Northeastern Logger Assoc. EXPO .......................................................75

Northland Forest Products ...................................................................40

Oesco, Inc. ...............................................................................................8

Ohana Family Camp ..............................................................................40

Sustainable Forestry Initiative ................................................................41

SWOAM .................................................................................................55

Syd Lea: A North Country Life ..............................................................25

Tarm USA, Inc. .......................................................................................78

The Taylor-Palmer Agency, Inc. .............................................................66

Timberhomes, LLC ................................................................................66

University of Maine ............................................................... back cover

Vermont Coverts ....................................................................................73

Vermont Coverts Welcome Buckets .....................................................12

Vermont Woodlands Association ..........................................................28

VWACCF ................................................................................................66

Watershed Fine Furniture ......................................................................12

Wells River Savings Bank ......................................................................70

West Branch Pond Camps ....................................................................10

Woodwise Land, Inc. .............................................................................54

Find all of our advertisers easily online at Northern Woodlands’ current

advertisers: northernwoodlands.org/issues/advertising/advertisers

Allard Lumber Company

Tel: (802) 254-4939Fax: (802) 254-8492

[email protected]

Main Office & Sawmill 354 Old Ferry Road

Brattleboro, VT 05301-9175

Celebrating over 39 Years—1974-2013—

Serving VT, NH, MA, and NY with:• Forest Management

• Purchasing Standing Timber• Sawlogs and Veneer

“Caring for your timberland like our own”

Standing Timber & Land Division DAVE CLEMENTS Bradford, VT (802) 222-5367 (home)

STEVE PECKHAM Bennington, VT (802) 379-0395

Family-owned and Operated by 6th Generation Vermonters

Allard Lumber Supports Many Civic, School, Forest Industry, Social and Environmental Organizations

CELEBRATING OVER 39 YEARS OF SAWMILL EXCELLENCE


Learn from the Pros!

229 Christmas Tree Farm Road Chester, VT 05143

[email protected]

Northeast WoodlandTraining,Inc.

Call (802) 681-8249

Professional & Homeowner Game of Logging classes held

throughout New EnglandHands-on safety training for forestry-related equipment. •Chain saw •Skidder•Brush saw •Forwarder •Farm tractor •Harvester

www.woodlandtraining.com

THE AWARD-WINNING NORTHEASTERNFOREST PRODUCTS EQUIPMENT EXPOHAMBURG, NEW YORK

The region’s best Expo for the hardworking folks in the wood business – loggers and land clearers, tree care professionals and firewood dealers, sawmillers, truckers,and land owners.

Hundreds of exhibitors will be in Hamburg, New Yorkto display the products, tools, and equipment thatmake hard work more productive and more profitable.

For information about attending or exhibitingat the 2013 Hamburg Expo visit us atwww.northernlogger.com or call toll-free800-318-7561 or 315-369-3078.

2013 HAMBURG EXPO, MAY 3–4, 2013THE EVENT CENTER AT THE HAMBURGFAIRGROUNDS – HAMBURG, NEW YORK


Issues 1–18: Digital Download Only

Issue 19: Winter 1998Clearcutting and Habitat Management Reforesting Lyndon State ForestZero Cut ControversyLong Trail Cleanup Favorite Places on Public Land


Issue 24: Spring 2000Hubbard Brook Experimental ForestLearning to Love LichensTree GirdlingRoadless DesignationAppalachian Trail in Canada

Issue 25: Summer 2000Adirondack Guide-BoatsFlying SquirrelsTree Biologist Alex ShigoLook Who’s Wearing the ChapsLearning in the Landscape

Issue 26: Autumn 2000A Buck Sheds his VelvetMaine’s Forestry ReferendumForestry at Paul Smith’s CollegeForests, Carbon, and Climate ChangeLandowners Learn About Habitat


Issue 33: Summer 2002Markets for Low Grade WoodThe Gifts of a ForestFire and GraniteMaine Teacher ToursReturn of the Trout?

Issue 34: Digital Download Only

Issue 35: Winter 2002The Forest at Quabbin ReservoirViolins from Spruce and MapleLiquidation Harvesting in MaineMapping Soils


Issue 37: Summer 2003New England Sawmill Bucks the TrendEeek! 370 Species of MiceThe Northern Woodlands StorySecret Life of SoilThe Flow of Wood in the Region

Issue 38: Autumn 2003Nature Conservancy’s New DirectionAdirondack Baseball BatsEfficient LoggingOwl PelletsA Different Kind of Diesel

Issue 57: Summer 2008Forest RelicsMarking a Timber SaleNoel Perrin’s Rural VisaIdentifying Woodland Grasses

Issue 58: Autumn 2008Doing Battle with Invasive SpeciesCircling ScavengersA Fall Feast for WildlifeNorth Woods Hunting Camps

Issue 59: Winter 2008Does Changing Climate Mean a

Changing Forest?The Deep, Dark WoodsThe Value of BiomassWinter Camping in the Maine Woods

Issue 60: Spring 2009Certification Comes to Family ForestsGrowing Your Own MushroomsSpringtime in the Turkey WoodsCan the American Chestnut Come Back?

Issue 61: Summer 2009Wild Bees in Your WoodlotCanoeing from the Adirondacks to MaineA Guide to Plants You Shouldn’t TouchNatural Disturbances and Forestry

Issue 62: Autumn 2009Colorful Dyes from the ForestSilviculture in Vermont’s National ParkBucks and Bulls in VelvetThe Beaver’s Felling Techniques

Issue 63: Winter 2009Which Bird Made That Nest?A Bygone Industry: Chemicals from WoodHow to Make a Holiday WreathSnow Fleas, Deer Yards, Scotch Pine

Issue 64: Spring 2010Spring Flower Show in the WoodsWhy Trees Grow Where They DoOn the Job with a Biomass BuyerForgotten Stump Fences

Issue 65: Summer 2010Old-Fashioned Bee Lining Tending a Woodlands GardenIncome Sources from Your ForestlandWhich Caterpillar Becomes Which

Butterfly?

Issue 66: Autumn 2010Biomass Debate Heats Up Native Invasives on Your WoodlotHabitat for WoodcockMaking a Windsor Chair

Issue 67: Winter 2010Goodbye to an ElmHow Many White Tails?A Maine Logging Camp in 1912Learning Lumberjack Skills

Complete your collection of Northern WoodlandsIssue 68: Spring 2011The Hope IssueBobcats on the ComebackRebuilding a Trout StreamA Place for Wolf Trees

Issue 69: Summer 2011House Hunting with HoneybeesMike Greason and the Gospel of SilvicultureTrends in Maine’s Log PricesHemlock Tanneries in Old New York

Issues 70 & 71: Digital Download Only

Issue 72: Spring 2012The Lowdown on GlyphosateGhost Moose and Winter TicksClouds Up CloseCrop Tree Release

Issue 73: Summer 2012Making Sense of Scientific NamesA Paper Mill RememberedNo Dry Matter: The Wood-Moisture RelationshipBioluminescent FungiBalsam Fir Pillows

Issue 74: Autumn 2012Warming Up with Wood PelletsA History of Fire Towers in the NortheastLessons from Last Year’s FoliageTrapping in the 21st Century

Issue 75: Winter 2012Cree Tradition & Transition in Northern CanadaChristmas on the Tree FarmThe Man Who Freed a GiantBeech Party on Your WoodlotA Harlequin (Duck) Romance

Every issue provides a fascinating

array of stories about all aspects of

life in the forests of the Northeast.

Issue 39: Winter 2003The Cedar Family TreeA New Look at Gifford PinchotThe Fisher DiasporaWhen the Company Moves to China

Issues 40 & 41: Digital Download Only

Issue 42: Autumn 2004Bear Hunting ReferendumWind Power PrimerNative LumberA Tale of 21 Tails


Issue 44: Spring 2005Investing in a WoodlotGiant Silk MothsSpring WildflowersTamarack and Ships’ Knees

Issue 45: Summer 2005Growing and Selling VeneerLoons on the ReboundMedicinal Goldthread

Issue 46: Autumn 2005Timber TheftMoose RutHunters for the HungryRare Plants Rediscovered

Issue 47: Winter 2005Coexisting with WolvesBlue JaysExcellent ForestryScouting Cameras

Issue 48: Spring 2006Energy from Wood: Chips and BioethanolApple LaddersLogging in a Heron Rookery


Issue 50: Autumn 2006Maine’s Last Log DriveBooms and Busts in Grouse PopulationsNH Sawmill Uses Every Bit of SawdustBaffling Beavers


Issue 52: Spring 2007Discovering the Presettlement ForestNew Hampshire HomesteadersA Woodcock’s Spring ShowA Team of Draft Horses


Issue 56: Spring 2008Lyme Disease Marches NorthOutdoor Wood Boilers Under FireVisit a Water-Powered SawmillGrowing up Outdoors

We’ve got ALL of our archived content online in print format and/or digital downloads (as well as neat merchandise) at our shop: www.northernwoodlands.org/shop or use the mail-in order form below for print copies.

Check out our books!NEW: More Than a Woodlot, a Northern Woodlands publication,

a comprehensive guide to stewardship for the forest landowner in

the Northeast. Includes information on successful timber harvests,

wildlife management, consideration of your land’s future, and silvi-

culture, demystified ..................................................... PAPER $19.95

NORTHERN WOODLANDS’ BOOK The Outside Story: Local Writers Explore the Nature of New Hampshire and Vermont, gives

readers the inside scoop on local ecology. Local writers, including

Northern Woodlands’ staff and regular contributors, explore a broad

range of topics, from acid rain to garter snake mating. While the

subject is Vermont and New Hampshire, the book appeals to nature

enthusiasts across the Northeast................................ PAPER $19.95

The Tree Identification Book, by George W. D. Symonds. Tree

leaves, bark, buds, thorns, flowers, and fruit each have a separate

section in this book. This book was first published in 1958 and has

stood the test of time. Over 1500 black-and-white photographs

make the trees of the eastern U.S. easy to nail down. ..PAPER $20.00

The Shrub Identification Book, by George W. D. Symonds. The

companion to The Tree Identification Book (above). A complete

guide to the shrubs and other small woody plants... PAPER $20.00

SPECIAL: Buy the Tree Identification Book and The Shrub

Identification Book together for $36.00!

Mammal Tracks and Scat: Life-Size Tracking Guide, by Lynn

Levine & Martha Mitchell, is a handy waterproof field guide

designed to be carried through brush, bramble, and snow banks,

and emerge unscathed. It uses a novel three-step process to

identify tracks & scat of 29 different animals that are commonly

encountered in the field. ...........................................PAPER $19.95

Trees of New England, by Charles Fergus. Trees are listed alphabet-

ically by common name, and Fergus gives a description along with

range and ecology facts for each one. Information on how wildlife

and people use every listed tree is also included....... PAPER $16.95

Reading the Forested Landscape, by Tom Wessels. Bill McKibben

wrote, “What a fascinating book. Equal parts Sherlock Holmes and

Aldo Leopold, it will help thousands of New Englanders answer the

questions that come to mind as they wander this landscape of stone

walls, stunted apple trees, and towering hemlocks.” ...PAPER $18.95

Working with your Woodland: A Landowners’ Guide, by Mollie

Beattie, Lynn Levine, and Charles Thompson. Assessing your

woodland for various goals, creating a management plan, under-

standing management techniques, and harvesting – from deciding

on a schedule to handling the proceeds – are all covered thoroughly,

with an overall emphasis on carefully tending a forest for the very

long term. ................................................................... PAPER $23.50

Order books by title, using the magazine’s insert, or check out these and many other books, including kids’ selections: www.northernwoodlands.org/shop.

Please use the order form from the most recent issue:

NAME

ADDRESS

CITY

STATE ZIP

Method of payment (check one)

Check MasterCard Visa

CREDIT CARD NUMBER

EXPIRATION DATE 3 DIGIT SECURITY CODE

SIGNATURE

Back issues are $6.00 each

19 24 25 26 33 35 37

38 39 42 44 45 46 47

48 50 52 56 57 58 59

60 61 62 63 64 65 66

67 68 69 72 73 74 75

Total number of Issues

(Vermont residents add 6% sales tax) TOTAL $

Please include $5.50 for each domestic shipment of books and merchandise,

excluding back issues. Call our office for international shipping rates: (800) 290-5232

Please send to: Northern Woodlands Back Issues, P.O. Box 471, Corinth, VT 05039

Prints and posters of select photos are available for purchase. To order, call toll-free (866) 962-1191 or visit www.northernwoodlandsprints.org.


Family owned and operated for 61 years!Our experienced Woodlands Staff is available to assist you

in achieving your goals in managing your woodlot.

Contact our Woodlands office in Brattleboro, VT today for more information.

1103 Vernon Street, Brattleboro, VT 05301

Tel: (802) 254-4508 Fax: (802) 257-1784

Email: [email protected]

ersosimo Lumber Co., Inc.

How easy is it to subscribe?

Mail: Use the envelope in this magazinePhone: 800-290-5232, M-F, 8-5 EST

Web: northernwoodlands.org

POB 471; 1776 Center Road, Corinth, Vermont 05039

—As easy as mailing a letter, making a call, or going online

Importers of the highly advanced

Fröling and HS Tarm wood gasification

and automatic wood pellet boilers

Solo Plus FHGSolo Innova

®We Have the Right Wood Boiler for Your Home

Tarm Biomass | 800-782-9927 | www.woodboilers.com

Call for entries: Send us your Outdoor Palette submissions. Contact Adelaide Tyrol at (802) 454-7841 or [email protected] for details.

Rebecca A. Merrilees, Untitled, 23” x 44”, casein on masonite, mid-1960s.

the outdoor PALETTE

Many of us are familiar with Rebecca Merrilees’ work from

the indispensable field guide Trees of North America, which

she illustrated 34 years ago. It is probably on all of our book-

shelves, dog-eared and soft with age. During her 75-year career,

Merrilees was a book illustrator, art teacher, and fine artist. Her

illustrations are scientifically correct and highly realistic, while

her fine art often plays with surrealism.

Both of these approaches are on display in her untitled

painting of the Berlin Mountains behind her Vermont home,

in which she captured the light, depth, and topography of this

grand and rugged vista. The small tundra plants in the fore-

ground are meticulously rendered and regionally accurate; the

boulder convincingly anchors the vast expanse with its massive

weight. At first glance, it is a faithful and objective depiction of

an existing landscape.

But there is a surrealistic flavor to this piece as well. The

boulder is odd here – where did it come from? It looks uncannily

like a head lying on its side, with two eyes, a nose, and a chin.

Has it been here since the last ice age, witnessing this sweeping

scene? Louis Agassiz, the renowned eighteenth century natural

historian, suggested that, geologically, New England was the

oldest spot on the Earth’s surface. This painting certainly helps

us contemplate the long, slow passage of time.

Merrilees was a pioneer in commercial art, and she was the

first woman to illustrate the cover of Reader’s Digest, in 1961.

Her contributions to the natural sciences, to education, and to

the fine arts are many and lasting. Merrilees died in November,

2012, at the age of 90, a few months after a 75-year retrospective

of her work – her first solo show. — Adelaide Tyrol

Rebecca Merrilees was educated at The American School of Design, Pratt Institute, and

Skowhegan School of Painting. She was a member of the American Society of Botanical

Artists. Her work can be seen at the The Waskowmium in Burlington, Vermont, and in

Northfield, Vermont, at the Brown Public Library and Norwich University.



My five-year-old grandsons, Leo and Dylan, have been reading Holling C. Holling’s Paddle-to-the-Sea with

me this winter. They’re entranced by its story of an Ojibwe boy who carves a foot-long canoe with a little

paddler in it, then launches it through the circulation of the Great Lakes and out the St. Lawrence to the

Atlantic. We’ve started making our own canoe – slightly longer at 15 inches, in order to allow room for twin

paddlers. I have to confess that I’m wondering whether it might be just as good to glue in a couple of their

beloved Playmobil figures, but we have until spring to settle that detail.

We enjoy poring over the book’s highly detailed illustrations and maps. But there’s one image that espe-

cially speaks to me, depicting the moment when the boy leaves the completed canoe and its passenger atop

a thickly drifted bluff to await winter’s end. When the season-ending thaw finally arrives, that snowy slope

north of Nipigon will slough down into a vernal brook, carrying the bravely painted craft in and out of a

beaver pond and on to a frozen river where it will again wait patiently until ice-out. Leo, Dylan, and I are

in no hurry either, as we laminate a couple of clear pine boards together and begin to shape the hull of our

own canoe. After all, we’ve got till spring.

Ours has been a New England family for 44 years now. Having grown up in northern California, my

wife Rita and I have always been amazed by the spectacles of fall and winter around our adopted home. As

we have settled more deeply into the rhythms of this landscape, the less resounding transition into spring

has become equally galvanizing for us. This is partly so because, over the past 14 years, we’ve been sugar-

ing in the hills of Starksboro, Vermont, with our three grown children and their families, Leo and Dylan

now representing the rising generation of sugarmakers. Making maple syrup discloses that the seemingly

congealed stasis of mud season is, in truth, a period of continuous fluctuations in the temperature. When

the air is above freezing during the daytime, the sap sequestered in each tree will flow down through all the

tributaries of the twigs into the river of the trunk. We imagine that tidal turning all winter, gazing up into

the leafless woods from beside our sugarhouse.

Even as we wait quietly to be pulled out from shore by the currents of spring, we recognize signs of the

coming change around us. One of these is the fact that, before the coldest nights have yet arrived, the days

have already begun to grow longer. Dwellers in northerly regions have long celebrated the solstice with fire

and songs. It marks a watershed of the spirit, flowing on into the golden February light that will bathe the

snowy slopes and call forth the spring calls of chickadees and jays.

An even earlier harbinger of spring is the appearance of new buds in the fall. The millions of elegant

sugar maple leaves that, come April, will unfold in the hills of Starksboro are already fully formed and ready

to expand. When they do open, it marks the end of sugaring season, since the sap will simultaneously take

on a funky tinge. These small, plump buds thus enfold not only the maples’ leaves but also the larger pro-

gression from winter through early spring. Such predictable and overlapping aspects of our seasonal cycle

are, as Robert Frost might say, something for hope.

Meanwhile, my grandsons and I anticipate the spring with each deliberate phase of our shared project.

When we’ve finished carving out and bracing the interior of the canoe, we’ll emulate our forerunner’s

design by weighting the bottom of the hull so that it will remain upright in rough water. We’ll affix a small

tin rudder at the stern to help it forge straight ahead in a current. With so many locks and such heavy ship-

ping on the major waterways now, I think we may call our own project Paddle-to-the-Lake. The three of

us will launch this craft and its two paddlers in the Otter Creek just north of the falls in Vergennes. With

the benefit of a few lucky escapes and some friendly interventions like the ones in the book, our canoe may

be able to navigate all the way through the Slang and Dead Creek, then float out into the grand mystery of

Lake Champlain.

John and Rita Elder live in the village of Bristol, Vermont (when not sugaring in Starksboro), with their sons and their families. Since retiring from

Middlebury College in 2010, John has remained active as a writer, a participant in the activities of Vermont Family Forests, and a member of

the Bristol Planning Commission.


A PLACE in mind

John Elder

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