 Your new post is loading...
Over the past 25 years, millions of Maine taxpayer dollars have been used to conserve more than half a million acres in the Pine Tree State through the state-run Land for Maine’s Future program.
The question of whether public money should be used to purchase or otherwise protect often privately-owned parcels of forest, farms and the waterfront is a big one. And in an era of tight budgets and often-polarizing debate about private enterprise versus the role of the state, the issue can get heated — especially as the program has shifted its sights from conserving acres of forested wilderness to protecting places such as working farms and Maine’s working waterfront.
P&C's 3rd quarter newsletter reviews timber markets and prices in the Northeast, and contains an article on how working forest conservation easements can be a sound strategy for timberland investors.
A Hanover, N.H.-based company that purchased 3,200 acres of forestland on the Schoodic Peninsula last year to help conserve it from development is drafting a plan for how the property might be used. ... According to a prepared statement released by the company, an unidentified philanthropic family foundation has purchased an interest in the “critical” property to ensure it is conserved, that there is permanent public access to it, and to help plan what sort of improvements might be made. The family foundation wishes to remain anonymous, according to the statement.
Representatives from The Nature Conservancy, the Forest Society of Maine and the Plum Creek timber company came together Tuesday to celebrate a new conservation easement that's considered one of the largest ever in the United...
Adjusted EBITDA of $4.8 million for the first quarter was $2.5 million lower than in the first quarter of 2011, and Adjusted EBITDA margin decreased to 26% from 33% in the same period of last year. This decrease in margin is attributed to a lower contribution from the land management services agreement and significantly lower sales of higher margin spruce-fir sawlogs owing to the sale of these volumes being delayed until the second quarter as a result of the [vendor managed inventory program]..
"Operating conditions were excellent during January and February followed by exceptionally warm weather in early March causing an early spring break-up disrupting production and sales" said Reid Carter, Chief Executive Officer of Acadian. Mr. Carter further noted that "we were pleased with the results in our Maine operations during the first quarter as strategies to improve contractor availability resulted in harvest levels meeting targets."
Owners, environmentalists and the forest industry love it.
|
The land, 21,870 acres in and adjacent to the plantation of Grand Lake Stream, is east of West Grand Lake and northwest of Big Lake. It is the “ last big piece” of a decade-long effort by local and state officials, and by Downeast Lakes Land Trust, to protect more than 350,000 acres of undeveloped woods enveloping the lakes of northern Washington County, according to Mark Berry executive director of the land trust.
The land, owned by Lyme Timber Co. of Hanover, N.H., abuts 33,708 acres already owned by the land trust and includes 17 miles of shoreline on West Grand, Big and Lower Oxbrook lakes. It includes frontage on Big Musquash Stream and conserves a quarter-mile section of the west side of Grand Lake Stream above Big Falls, according to a prepared statement about the completed easement. *** Berry said the land trust has a three-year option to buy the land outright from Lyme Timber Co.
New England’s first torrefied wood facility received its final Maine Department of Environmental Protection permit, clearing the way for construction of a $48 million facility, 25 full-time jobs and possibly the birth of a nationwide industry, officials said Thursday.
A type of microwaved wood pellet that burns as hot as coal without coal’s pollutants, torrefied wood burns about 30 percent hotter than typical wood pellets.
The woodlands of central Maine, long dominated by logging and papermaking, are in the midst of a painful shift. Timber firms are abandoning the state, selling off vast tracts of pine and spruce. The disruption raises the question of what should come next: a transition to a tourism-based economy, or an all-out effort to bring in new industries.
The company now wants to use part of the site to manufacture torrefied wood, which is an energy rich pellet similar to biomass. Company officials expect Thermogen, which would be the name of the site, to employ about 25 workers. They say thay are now looking to get the necessary permits from the state to make it a reality.
"The forecast that we see are millions of tons per year of torrefied wood right now," said Dammon Feckler, who is Cate Street's managing director of development activities, "and as different regulations come down on coal fired utilities and as additional incentives for renewable energy come into play...the forecast is that will grow to tens of millions of tons going forward."
Major Katahdin region landowner Katahdin Timberlands LLC will begin selling more than 700 leased lakefront camp lots in unincorporated parts of Penobscot and Piscataquis counties this year, an action likely to... ... The lots will be offered for sale first to the leaseholder of record at fair market value, consistent with Katahdin Timberlands lease agreement provisions and Maine law governing sales of leased premises, said Marcia McKeague, president of Katahdin Timberlands LLC. ... Katahdin Timberlands owns about 1,200 acres in the Katahdin region. The sales will divest the company of most of that acreage, McKeague said. Timberlands’ sister company Katahdin Forest Management LLC owns about 300,000 acres, placing the two companies among the region’s largest landowners, McKeague said. [Editor: Katahdin Timberlands LLC and Katahdin Forest Management LLC are units of Acadian Timber Corp, which trades on the Toronto exchange.]
|
