Craft in Conversation: Sustainable Forestry in Maine | Kalon Studios
Photography by Greta Rybus
“I wish more people understood how dependent we are on natural systems. This understanding comes hard when fewer and fewer people are actually outside very much. Working in the woods is about forming a relationship with those woods (and everything in them), and that sounds weird if you haven’t experienced it by just being outside a while (more than a trip to the car and back). Your attitude matters: Are you connected to or isolated from creation?” — Sam Brown, licensed Maine Forester, landowner, and logger.
Piscataquis County is the most forested county in Maine, and Maine, it turns out, is the most forested state in the entire country. About the size of Connecticut and located at the center of the state, Piscataquis County boasts miles upon miles of forested land with a population density of fewer than six inhabitants per square mile.
Unsurprisingly, forestry is one of the region’s main industries — and over the course of the last decade, there has been a growing turn toward sustainable practices. These are not necessarily organizations or government-run forests, but rather private land holdings, managed and stewarded by individuals who are passionate about the work. These smaller-scale private landholders maintain that the health of the entire forest is of critical importance and that sustainable practices are a win-win. By better caring for the trees and the forests, these ecosystems become more resilient and likely to withstand climate change, and therefore continue to have a monetary value. Communities whose livelihood depends on forestry stand a better chance of weathering economic hardship brought on by an erratic or destructive environment.
This shift is not unique to Maine: Family-run forests make up the majority of forestland in the United States, with more than half of the 751 million acres of forestland in the country privately owned, with holdings of 1,000 acres or less. With the rise of this trend, the US has seen its forests grow year-over-year. While wood was once harvested mostly from federal lands, a shift to private lands has helped preserve vast areas of forest for public benefit while also encouraging landowners to keep forests intact.