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Windham Considers Harvesting Lowell Preserve Timber

October 10, 2011 - Windham - With budgets tight, the town of Windham is contemplating a move that could net the town thousands of dollars from an unlikely source of revenue: forest timber.

In 1999, the town was given a 308-acre parcel from Virginia Lowell, who, along with her father, the late Roscoe Lowell, farmed the acreage in back of the East Windham Fire Station off Falmouth Road, according to a relative of the Lowell family, Julia Cheney of Windham. The town's historian, Kay Soldier, said the Lowell family, who owned the property for at least 75 years, would bring the produce they harvested to market in Portland each week.

After the parcel was granted to the town in 1999, which Soldier said was done to abide by Roscoe Lowell's wish to never see development on the property, the acreage became the protected forest known as the Lowell Preserve and, according to Windham's Parks and Recreation Department Director Brian Ross, is now home to about nine miles of hiking, ATV and mountain biking trails.

Working with local forester Michael Maines of Gray-based Maines Tree Works, Inc., the town is exploring the possibility of managing the forest, both for the general health of the forest and as a way to generate revenue.

It's "a very nice piece of land," Maines told councilors during an hour-long discussion at last Tuesday's council meeting.

Maines spent part of the spring and summer surveying the property as part of a $2,900 forest management plan, half of which was paid for with grant funding from the state's Project Canopy program.

Culling, Maines said, would yield about 5,500 cords of wood "and about 1 million board feet of that is good quality lumber," he said. The remaining 3,600 cords of wood could be suitable for firewood or pulp.

Harvesting of the 220 usable acres, Maines added, "could begin any time," possibly this winter and be done in 25- or 50-acre segments over the course of about four years, with much of the work being done in the wintertime when snow cover would reduce the impact of equipment.

According to Maines, the forest was logged about 30 years ago. Tree removal, he said, would allow smaller trees, now being crowded out, to grow more rapidly. To prove how a logging operation would benefit the forest's health, Maines showed a wood core sample he removed from an older tree on the property. Growth rings were narrow prior to the 1980 logging, widened in the years after 1980 and then narrowed again in recent years.

The average tree in the forest, which consists of mostly hemlock, maple and beech, is 6.7 inches in diameter, he added.

"One of the goals of harvesting ... will be to increase that average diameter," Maines told councilors. "You'd get rid of some of the small, overcrowded trees, some of the mature ones, but we're looking to, overall, increase the quality of the trees out there, the species compositions (so) we have less of the lower-grade tree species and more of the valuable tree species like the red oaks, maples and yellow birches.

"And hopefully, after doing some management, that 6.7 inch-diameter tree size, we'll start to see that increasing, as the trees grow and are thinned out more."

Councilors seemed receptive to the idea of managing the forest, especially if costs to perform the work are covered by revenue earned from selling the wood. Before acting, the council will discuss the management proposal again, likely at its Oct. 11 meeting.

Council Chairman Scott Hayman was adamant that costs to perform the work not exceed Maines' projected revenue of between $20,000 and $30,000. Hayman was also concerned the drawn-out time frame of four years may lower profit margins for the town.

"If we could do it in a condensed time frame, would the revenue be higher, lower, and would it be better for the forest?" Hayman said. "In the big scheme of things, the objective for this whole project would be to do what's best for the forest, what's best for the land, and what's best for the people who use it. ... I think that revenue-wise - and obviously that isn't our No. 1 goal but it is a goal - we don't want to have this cut cost the taxpayer money. That would be absolutely bad."

Maines was hesitant to estimate the exact value of the wood, saying revenue would depend on market prices at the time of harvest.

"The market is so volatile right now ... so I made a conscious effort to put in numbers that don't look too rosy and then find the market down in three years," Maines said. He added that the town could try to time the wood market, which mirrors the housing market. "But who knows when that's going to turn around?," he said.

The property is also home to significant hemlock stands, which provide summer and wintering habitat for deer. Councilor John MacKinnon asked Maines if a significant logging operation would negatively impact wildlife living on the property. Maines said deer would benefit in the short-term by tree removal, with food sources increasing with the logging operation.

"It's like a free meal for them in winter," he said. "Harvesting operations are like deer magnets, it just draws them in because ... there are tops and brush scattered about and that'll be their prime feeding area."

While the preserve's 12 significant hemlock stands are in "perfect condition now," they will eventually start to die off and provide less ideal sheltering for deer, Maines said.

"The problem is, all those stands are even-aged, about 70 years old, and they'll all mature at the same rate and then they'll all start to deteriorate and fall apart at the same time." By doing some management, Maines added, "we'll be able to create some younger areas to replace those that are dying off."

John Balentine, Keep Maine Current, October 2011


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