Rufus Putnam\u27s Ghost: An Essay on Maine\u27s Public Lands, 1783-1820

On the plans of towns sold in the District of Maine after 1783, the signature of Rufus Putnam, surveyor, frequently appears. Putnam spent weeks in the wild lands locating corners and mapping lots as a field man for the largest land sales operation in Maine\u27s history. In thirty-seven years he and his associates surveyed and sold a land area twice the size of Connecticut. They struggled with practical problems that still confront later generations of foresters: boundary disputes, political pressures, unruly logging contractors, timber estimates, and map making. The work of Rufus Putnam, not only as an individual but as an agent of the early public lands policies applied to Maine, left durable marks on the state\u27s history. The historian of Maine\u27s public lands faces two major questions in assessing the overall impact of this disposal program: What did the Maine land policy issues faced by Massachusetts and by the United States as a whole have in common, if anything? And what were the key bequests to Maine and U.S. land policy from this period?https://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/mainebicentennial/1049/thumbnail.jp

Maine Lumber Production, 1839-1997: A Statistical Overview

Complementing the qualitative account of forestry\u27s impact provided by Geoffrey Carpenter, Lloyd Irland gives us a broad statistical overview of the industry, its changing economic fortunes, and its impact on the environment of the north woods. The data, while not always precise, reveal the terms upon which the state\u27s decision-makers historically viewed the forest and its future. Mr. Irland is private forestry consultant in Winthrop, Maine, who has written widely on New England forestry topics, including Wildlands and Woodlots: The Story Of New England\u27s Forests (1982)

MP730: Land, Timber, and Recreation in Maine\u27s Northwoods: Essays by Lloyd C. Irland

This work is a collection of essays, all of them previously published but for the Introduction. They are about Maine’s forests, with a strong focus on the “Maine Woods” in Thoreau’s sense—the vast area of unsettled or lightly settled wildlands that stretch across western, northern, and eastern Maine. Much of the state is influenced by these woods—moose have wandered to the backyard of the Governor’s residence in Augusta. For some purposes, however, it is difficult to separate the wildlands for statistical treatment. This work aims to inform the reader about some of the important resource management conditions, issues, and trends in this region. Its focus is mostly on timber and recreational resources, the related economic values, and some of the policy issues related to them.https://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/aes_miscpubs/1035/thumbnail.jp

U.S. Forest Ownership: Historic and Global Perspective

Mainers once enjoyed the sense that the state’s vast forested lands would forevermore be a feature of the state’s landscape and cultural heritage. However, this sensibility has been threatened by fragmentation and sprawl and rapid changes in ownership. According to Lloyd Irland, Maine is not unique. The U.S. is facing a crisis of sustainability in forests and rural communities. Irland provides a brief history of forest ownership in the U.S. and analyzes some global trends to help to explain this crisis. He suggests Mainers look to experiences elsewhere in the nation and world to come up with a new mix of private institutions that can sustain ownership and management of large tracts of forest for the long term

Maine’s Public Estate and Conservation Lands: Brief History and Assessment

In contrast to other northeastern states, the first conservation movement at the turn of the twentieth century passed Maine by. New Deal conservation programs likewise had little impact here, though several seeds were sown. In a state where public access to open rural land and North Woods lakes and rivers was extensively available, there was no perceived need for a public land system. In southern Maine by the 1990s, sprawl and No Trespassing signs became more visible. In the North Woods, large sales of former paper company land shook confidence that public access to land would continue. In a historic burst of activity, state and federal programs, aided by several nongovernmental organizations, made land and easement acquisitions that in a short time brought 21 percent of Maine’s land into its conservation estate. During this period of activity, a number of baffling policy issues were left largely on autopilot; this article closes with a brief and selective list of them

From Wilderness to Timberland to Vacationland to Ecosystem: Maine’s Forests, 1820–2020

The 200 years since Maine statehood span a series of changing metaphors used by people to understand the forest and its values: the forest as wilderness, as timberland, as vacationland, and as ecosystem. These metaphors have succeeded each other over time, but broadly speaking, they all persist to one degree or another. These ways of viewing and using the forest can conflict or can come to uneasy truces, but new developments can revive the tensions. Public policy is always well behind the shifting needs as timberland comes to be seen as vacationland and vacationland as ecosystem. Further, conflicts between different visitors to vacationland can be among the most difficult to solve. As Maine moves into its third century, the momentum of forest regrowth has shifted into reverse gear: for the first time in a century or more, total forest area is beginning to shrink