Several Maine communities have been chosen to participate in a Maine Audubon project designed to protect the state's wildlife by promoting sustainable forestry.
The objective of the project is to create forest management plans that protect wildlife while providing for timber, recreation, natural areas, clean water or other benefits.
"The timing was absolutely perfect," Orono Land Trust President Gail White said Monday. "We had been talking for a while about how the open spaces that we own and that we manage were getting a little sickly."
White said the group is particularly focused on its Marsh Island trust land off Park Street, but intends to see if the plan works and then possibly implement in other trust land areas. The town also is interested in seeing what the outcome of the project is for possible future use on town lands.
Throughout the project, Maine Audubon will involve foresters, loggers and other professionals to share principles of Focus Species Forestry with owners and other private and community forests.
Focus Species Forestry is an approach to sustainable forestry developed by Maine Audubon and its partners. The program focuses on a representative group of wildlife found in sensitive habitats to help guide forest management for timber or other resources.
"If we put this into effect and all goes well and our forest gets healthier, then we're going to put the same plan in effect at the other properties that we have," White said.
A $500 grant comes with being chosen to participate in the project, and Orono already has used the money to help with the cost of hiring forester David Wardrop. Wardrop is the chairman of the Veazie Land Association, which is a chapter of the Orono Land Trust.
Other area towns and land trusts, including Bangor and Sangerville, also have been invited to participate in the Maine Audubon program.
The town of Sangerville already has a forest management plan that addresses the harvesting of wood products for 530 acres of town land, but with help from Maine Audubon will add an ecological plan that will address preserving wildlife in the area.
"The town is very interested in preserving as much as we can," Sangerville Town Manager Dick Drummond said Monday. He noted that the acreage includes a variety of wildlife habitats and vernal pools.
Lucy Quimby, president of the Bangor Land Trust, said she's excited about the project because one of its objectives is to involve and educate the community.
"We're using the opportunity to consult with Maine Audubon to create a management plan for Walden Parke Preserve," Quimby said.
The preserve consists of 410 acres that is being gifted over a period of time. The land, 205 acres of which already has been donated, is contiguous to the Bangor City Forest.
"For us it is an absolutely perfect time because we were just starting to work on our management plan," Quimby said. "We want to get the community involved. I think I would say that community stewardship is really the key and that this [program] will help us achieve that."
The project is funded in part by grants from The Home Depot Foundation and the Wendling Foundation.
The other community forests chosen to participate in the project represent an assortment of regions, forest types and parcel sizes throughout the state.
Project partners are: Bangor Land Trust, Blue Hill Heritage Trust, Downeast Lakes Land Trust, the city of Bath, Downeast Salmon Federation, Friends of Unity Wetlands, Good Will-Hinkley, Greater Lovell Land Trust, Orono Land Trust, Somerset Woods Trustees and the town of Readfield.Bangor Daily News
