The Changing Nature of the Maine Woods

Preface

Preface Maine is the most forested state in the country. Nearly half of its total land area falls within the boundaries of the Unorganized Territories, a region with no formal municipalities, covered in forest, broken mainly by logging roads. Forests are Maine’s chief commodity, supporting a tourism economy and a receding but still substantial forest products industry. Maine is one of the few states where forest issues are front-page news. Forests and nature are at the very heart of the self-identity of Mainers. We set out to synthesize what is known about these vast and important forests, which at least since Thoreau have been referred to in aggregate as the“MaineWoods.”Forestsareexceedinglycomplex,heterogeneousacross the landscape, and changing over time. No book can hope to capture these attributes in any comprehensive way. And so it is with ours. We take on an ambitiousambit,examiningMaine’sforestsovermillenniaandfromborder to border, but our view is necessarily circumscribed by time, book space, andourownbiasesasecologistswhopayattentionmainlytotreesinterrestrial habitats. When trying to understand forests, focusing on trees makes sense, for they provide the structure and resources upon which nearly all other organisms depend. Scientists also know a lot about trees, because they are large, abundant, important economically, and possess parts (pollen , wood) that can resist decay over long periods of time, leaving behind a trace of their distant past. Despite our bias, we embrace the equal standing of all organisms, and have included a wide range of nature’s characters in additiontotrees.Thisbookisnotaimeddirectlyatthefullarrayof current issues,somecontroversial,thatconfrontthemanagementandconservation of Maine’s forests. Our highest hope, however, is that our work, in addition to educating and entertaining readers, will contribute to the scientific basis for debates and decisions about how to sustainably use and conserve the ecological diversity of the Maine Woods. We fully recognize that it is difficult to avoid writing about nature without implying certain perspectives and perhaps even management directions. We hope that the patterns and principles discussed in this book speak largely for themselves. The book presents new scientific contributions, including an expanded presettlement land survey analysis of Maine, the collation of attributes xii pr eface for old-growth remnants, updated calculations of disturbance rates for presettlement old-growth, and a revised chronology of deglaciation— contributions that have not been fully presented elsewhere at the time of this book’s completion. But the book is largely a synthesis of work that has already been published in journals, books, websites, and the “gray literature .” Some of that research is our own, but the vast majority is the product of others. Our review of that literature has given us deep respect for the years of hard work and the successes of these many scientists, historians, landmanagers,andconservationists.Wearehonoredtopresenttheirresults here. We also greatly appreciate the generosity of many friends and colleagues who have critically evaluated the writing and ideas in many drafts of the book; their contribution has been immense, and some of the words and perspectives you will read are theirs. We have no doubt made mistakes, for which we take full responsibility and offer our sincerest apology. We owe many deeply felt thanks. For permission to use unpublished material:BillLivingston,WoodyThompson,CeesvanStaal,JeffreyBain,and Molly O’Guinness Carlson. For help with the creation of illustrations: Woody Thompson, Dan Coker (and The Nature Conservancy in Maine), Sarah O’Blenes, Matt McCourt, and Community GIS (Ken Gross and Stephen Engle). For going out of their way to contribute their art or illustration : Catherine V. Schmitt, Gary Hoyle, Woody Thompson, Dana Moos, Cees van Staal, Robert Hatcher, Jr., Molly O’Guinness Carlson, The Nature Conservancy in Maine, Eric Zelz, the USDA Forest Service Northern Research Station (Anantha Prasad, L. R. Iverson, S. Matthews, M. Peters), Laura Conkey, David Cappaert, Eric White, Don Bassett, Trevor Persons, Maryellen Chiasson (for the late Bill Silliker), Guoping Tang and Brian Beckage, Parker Shuerman, and Dan Grenier, For assistance in finding information: University of Maine at Farmington Mantor Library, Peter Goodwin at the Sagadahoc History & Genealogy Room (Patten Free Library, Bath), the Maine State Archives, the Maine Historical Society, and the many, many registry of deed offices around the state visited by Charles V. Cogbill. For critical reading of parts of the book: Dean Bennett ,BillRoorbach,AnnDieffenbacher-Krall,AndreaNurse,TomCharles, Bill Haslam, Doug Reusch, Julia Daly, David Struble, Ann Gibbs, Allison Kanoti,HerbWilson,BillLivingston,JanetMcMahon,DanGrenier,Nancy Sferra, Barbara Vickery, Andy Cutko, Woody Thompson, Richard Judd, Jeffrey Bain, and the 2011 UMF Forest Ecology and Conservation class. A very special thanks to those who read...