1 00:00:03,120 --> 00:00:06,600 So, this is the talk about how we're trying 2 00:00:06,600 --> 00:00:09,630 to practically implement a lot of the stuff 3 00:00:09,630 --> 00:00:11,820 that's been talked about today. 4 00:00:11,820 --> 00:00:14,010 So, as we said, I'm a Senior Staff Scientist 5 00:00:14,010 --> 00:00:15,210 with the Appalachian Mountain Club, 6 00:00:15,210 --> 00:00:18,060 based out of Pinkham Notch in New Hampshire. 7 00:00:18,060 --> 00:00:19,650 So we're talking about Maine. 8 00:00:19,650 --> 00:00:22,530 If you don't know, the AMC is the nation's 9 00:00:22,530 --> 00:00:25,396 oldest conservation and recreation organization 10 00:00:25,396 --> 00:00:27,900 founded in 1876. 11 00:00:27,900 --> 00:00:30,150 Headquartered in Boston. 12 00:00:30,150 --> 00:00:33,929 Our focus area is primarily the Northern Appalachian region. 13 00:00:33,929 --> 00:00:36,360 What became our Maine Woods Initiative 14 00:00:36,360 --> 00:00:38,880 began over 20 years ago with the primary focus 15 00:00:38,880 --> 00:00:42,120 of creating a new backcountry recreational destination. 16 00:00:42,120 --> 00:00:44,700 We're probably most widely known for our trail work 17 00:00:44,700 --> 00:00:47,280 and our series of White Mountain huts. 18 00:00:47,280 --> 00:00:51,090 We have not been a large landowner in the past, 19 00:00:51,090 --> 00:00:52,560 and we did not go into this intending 20 00:00:52,560 --> 00:00:55,410 to be a large landowner, but that's the way it's worked out 21 00:00:55,410 --> 00:00:57,930 and it's been a lot of fun. 22 00:00:57,930 --> 00:00:59,880 So we had, again, our goals were 23 00:00:59,880 --> 00:01:02,340 to have a backcountry recreational destination, 24 00:01:02,340 --> 00:01:04,290 establish large ecologic reserves, 25 00:01:04,290 --> 00:01:06,300 practice sustainable forestry, 26 00:01:06,300 --> 00:01:08,280 and strong community partnerships 27 00:01:08,280 --> 00:01:09,270 with the surrounding towns, 28 00:01:09,270 --> 00:01:13,620 most notably Greenville and that area. 29 00:01:13,620 --> 00:01:16,170 So over the last 20 years, 30 00:01:16,170 --> 00:01:18,510 our ownership in the 100-Mile Wilderness region 31 00:01:18,510 --> 00:01:20,610 east of Moosehead Lake and south of Baxter, 32 00:01:20,610 --> 00:01:24,690 has grown to 114,000 acres in seven different parcels. 33 00:01:24,690 --> 00:01:27,360 It was 20 years ago this month that we acquired... 34 00:01:27,360 --> 00:01:29,430 Whoops, whoops, back here. 35 00:01:29,430 --> 00:01:32,190 Acquired our first parcel out of Iron Works. 36 00:01:32,190 --> 00:01:35,130 Our most recent parcel, Barnard North, 37 00:01:35,130 --> 00:01:36,730 was just a couple of months ago. 38 00:01:37,590 --> 00:01:39,780 So we have continued to add lands 39 00:01:39,780 --> 00:01:43,800 and we have another 15,000 acres under agreement 40 00:01:43,800 --> 00:01:45,050 while we raise the money. 41 00:01:46,530 --> 00:01:49,020 So, and again, the regional context 42 00:01:49,020 --> 00:01:51,600 we're the southern anchor of a 60 mile long corridor 43 00:01:51,600 --> 00:01:54,720 of a fee owned land extending up to Baxter State Park 44 00:01:54,720 --> 00:01:58,290 and Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument. 45 00:01:58,290 --> 00:02:03,210 Over half of this land is managed as reserve wilderness. 46 00:02:03,210 --> 00:02:07,383 Okay, now this was heavily harvested industrial land, 47 00:02:08,370 --> 00:02:11,100 but we did acquire some nice places. 48 00:02:11,100 --> 00:02:13,320 We acquired a lot more that looked like this. 49 00:02:13,320 --> 00:02:17,040 We acquired a lot of baby forest, a lot of degraded, 50 00:02:17,040 --> 00:02:19,920 hydrated, heavily cut over forest. 51 00:02:19,920 --> 00:02:22,620 Some of it had been treated well, a lot of it had not. 52 00:02:23,670 --> 00:02:27,770 So we are involved in a long-term restoration project 53 00:02:27,770 --> 00:02:30,540 on these, again, these lands. 54 00:02:30,540 --> 00:02:34,950 And our goal is aimed at the long-term restoration 55 00:02:34,950 --> 00:02:39,340 of this landscape to a more natural, mature, high carbon 56 00:02:40,320 --> 00:02:44,280 and resilient forest through a combination of reserves 57 00:02:44,280 --> 00:02:46,140 and conservative management. 58 00:02:46,140 --> 00:02:49,470 And this is our, essentially our management zoning map. 59 00:02:49,470 --> 00:02:50,303 But we don't have, 60 00:02:50,303 --> 00:02:52,800 we're just starting planning on the Barnard forest, 61 00:02:52,800 --> 00:02:55,350 but about 28% is in reserve. 62 00:02:55,350 --> 00:02:59,730 About 54% is open for timber management. 63 00:02:59,730 --> 00:03:01,560 And we have been doing harvesting every year 64 00:03:01,560 --> 00:03:06,300 since we first acquired the property in 2003. 65 00:03:06,300 --> 00:03:08,520 Most of the harvesting has been concentrated 66 00:03:08,520 --> 00:03:12,480 on the KIW property, the Roach Ponds, 67 00:03:12,480 --> 00:03:14,819 which was very heavily harvested by 68 00:03:14,819 --> 00:03:17,730 previous owners on creek. 69 00:03:17,730 --> 00:03:18,903 I'll say no names. 70 00:03:20,130 --> 00:03:23,520 So we've just really started there about six years ago 71 00:03:23,520 --> 00:03:25,860 and we're just getting started on 72 00:03:25,860 --> 00:03:27,423 the Pleasant Rivers Forest. 73 00:03:31,560 --> 00:03:33,190 So, there's been a lot of materials have come out recently. 74 00:03:35,400 --> 00:03:36,600 We've heard talk about this. 75 00:03:36,600 --> 00:03:38,580 Some of the people at this conference have been involved in 76 00:03:38,580 --> 00:03:40,560 writing some of this guidelines 77 00:03:40,560 --> 00:03:44,070 for how you practice climate friendly 78 00:03:44,070 --> 00:03:47,970 or climate resilient forestry. 79 00:03:47,970 --> 00:03:49,890 And lot of these recommendations, 80 00:03:49,890 --> 00:03:52,530 to me, are really just the latest iteration 81 00:03:52,530 --> 00:03:55,133 of ecological forestry of tradition that goes back, 82 00:03:55,133 --> 00:03:58,560 behold and beyond, 83 00:03:58,560 --> 00:04:02,700 older trees, big trees, dead wood, structural complexity, 84 00:04:02,700 --> 00:04:05,880 species diversity, and the like. 85 00:04:05,880 --> 00:04:08,520 So, you know, what we're doing is nothing new. 86 00:04:08,520 --> 00:04:10,260 We are following the footsteps 87 00:04:10,260 --> 00:04:13,394 of a long tradition of ecological forestry. 88 00:04:13,394 --> 00:04:14,820 And I like to say it's amazing 89 00:04:14,820 --> 00:04:17,523 what you can do when you take profit motive out of it. 90 00:04:19,590 --> 00:04:22,350 Okay, so in our early years, our priority, 91 00:04:22,350 --> 00:04:25,260 we had a lot of degraded stands heavy to beech 92 00:04:25,260 --> 00:04:27,063 heavy to beech bark disease. 93 00:04:28,500 --> 00:04:31,560 Typical, so a lot of these were salvage harvests 94 00:04:31,560 --> 00:04:33,270 and the typical commercial regime 95 00:04:33,270 --> 00:04:35,460 would be a complete overstory removal. 96 00:04:35,460 --> 00:04:38,970 We did not wanna create more young, even age stands, 97 00:04:38,970 --> 00:04:42,003 so we put a high priority on restoration. 98 00:04:42,870 --> 00:04:47,220 And again, higher value or long-live species. 99 00:04:47,220 --> 00:04:49,260 We generally do not harvest white pine. 100 00:04:49,260 --> 00:04:52,590 It's a limited component that we wanna increase. 101 00:04:52,590 --> 00:04:55,170 You know what limited good growing stock was there, 102 00:04:55,170 --> 00:04:58,260 barge trees and you know, the typical 103 00:04:58,260 --> 00:05:00,840 snags and wildlife trees. 104 00:05:00,840 --> 00:05:03,990 Okay, this is an early harvest 105 00:05:03,990 --> 00:05:07,080 where we pretty much did a complete overstory removal, 106 00:05:07,080 --> 00:05:08,370 but left all the yellow birch, 107 00:05:08,370 --> 00:05:10,950 which was about 10% of the overstory. 108 00:05:10,950 --> 00:05:14,340 Again, to start to create some vertical diversity 109 00:05:14,340 --> 00:05:18,720 and a long-term source of future large trees and density. 110 00:05:18,720 --> 00:05:22,260 Again, another harvest where yellow birch 111 00:05:22,260 --> 00:05:24,600 and red spruce were retained. 112 00:05:24,600 --> 00:05:28,050 Again, some of these will be harvested in future harvests. 113 00:05:28,050 --> 00:05:30,540 Some of 'em will be, you know, left to live out a long 114 00:05:30,540 --> 00:05:32,940 and hopefully happy life. 115 00:05:32,940 --> 00:05:36,210 Okay, because of our focus on improving quality 116 00:05:36,210 --> 00:05:38,550 and restoring these degraded stands. 117 00:05:38,550 --> 00:05:40,890 In our early years about 90% of what we harvested 118 00:05:40,890 --> 00:05:42,510 was hardwood pulp. 119 00:05:42,510 --> 00:05:44,850 And we're very fortunate that still having access 120 00:05:44,850 --> 00:05:46,230 to pulpwood markets. 121 00:05:46,230 --> 00:05:48,390 I know a lot of places in New England 122 00:05:48,390 --> 00:05:49,470 don't have that luxury 123 00:05:49,470 --> 00:05:51,030 and doing this type of forestry 124 00:05:51,030 --> 00:05:53,550 becomes economically much more challenging 125 00:05:53,550 --> 00:05:55,087 'cause you have no way to get rid of, 126 00:05:55,087 --> 00:05:56,655 you know, the dead wood, 127 00:05:56,655 --> 00:05:58,320 I mean the low grade wood 128 00:05:58,320 --> 00:06:01,290 in any kind of economically reasonable way. 129 00:06:01,290 --> 00:06:06,290 Okay, we have a smaller component of good quality stands. 130 00:06:06,600 --> 00:06:09,850 And when we get in these, our goal is to maintain them 131 00:06:11,280 --> 00:06:14,580 as mature stands through primarily a deferred 132 00:06:14,580 --> 00:06:16,650 or continuous cover shelterwood approach. 133 00:06:16,650 --> 00:06:19,710 We never want to do complete overstory removals. 134 00:06:19,710 --> 00:06:22,560 This is an initial shelterwood entry or thinning, 135 00:06:22,560 --> 00:06:23,490 whatever you wanna call it. 136 00:06:23,490 --> 00:06:26,040 And that's a high quality hardwood stand. 137 00:06:26,040 --> 00:06:28,230 And again, the goal is to, you know, 138 00:06:28,230 --> 00:06:29,910 promote and release regeneration 139 00:06:29,910 --> 00:06:34,910 while maintaining a more mature forest condition. 140 00:06:35,190 --> 00:06:37,950 Again, another stand that had a good component of white pine 141 00:06:37,950 --> 00:06:41,880 and it had good multiple age class structure, 142 00:06:41,880 --> 00:06:45,330 was thinned out, promote some regeneration and openings, 143 00:06:45,330 --> 00:06:47,820 promote the development of larger trees. 144 00:06:47,820 --> 00:06:50,610 And again, but when we have these, 145 00:06:50,610 --> 00:06:53,220 these stands that are closer to where we want them to be, 146 00:06:53,220 --> 00:06:56,130 we wanna maintain them in that condition. 147 00:06:56,130 --> 00:06:57,660 But again, even when we're operating 148 00:06:57,660 --> 00:06:59,490 in these high quality stands, 149 00:06:59,490 --> 00:07:01,920 still probably 2/3 of what we harvested 150 00:07:01,920 --> 00:07:03,333 was low grade material. 151 00:07:04,170 --> 00:07:06,030 Very much a leave the best 152 00:07:06,030 --> 00:07:08,610 and take the rest kind of strategy. 153 00:07:08,610 --> 00:07:09,660 Nothing new, I learned that 154 00:07:09,660 --> 00:07:11,260 in forestry school 40 years ago. 155 00:07:13,980 --> 00:07:16,950 Also doing some different kinds of restoration. 156 00:07:16,950 --> 00:07:18,300 On one of our properties, 157 00:07:18,300 --> 00:07:22,110 the Roach Ponds property, the highest value species, 158 00:07:22,110 --> 00:07:24,750 I mean the highest volume species with red pine, 159 00:07:24,750 --> 00:07:26,550 which was all in plantations, 160 00:07:26,550 --> 00:07:29,220 35, 40 years old, low quality. 161 00:07:29,220 --> 00:07:31,530 So we're working to remove these 162 00:07:31,530 --> 00:07:34,690 in like either two or three stage harvests 163 00:07:35,910 --> 00:07:38,190 and allow natural regeneration 164 00:07:38,190 --> 00:07:39,810 to restore a more natural species 165 00:07:39,810 --> 00:07:41,993 composition in these areas. 166 00:07:43,102 --> 00:07:44,890 [Student] What do you get for regen? 167 00:07:44,890 --> 00:07:46,590 [Instructor] These are mostly hardwood sites, 168 00:07:46,590 --> 00:07:49,500 so typical northern hardwoods, probably all are beech. 169 00:07:49,500 --> 00:07:50,555 [Student] What's your strategy 170 00:07:50,555 --> 00:07:52,305 for getting rid of the beech? 171 00:07:52,305 --> 00:07:54,493 [Instructor] Well, we talked a little bit about that. 172 00:07:54,493 --> 00:07:56,040 We don't have a strategy for getting rid of it. 173 00:07:56,040 --> 00:07:57,270 We're not gonna get rid of it. 174 00:07:57,270 --> 00:07:59,400 The question is, can we minimize it 175 00:07:59,400 --> 00:08:00,750 and promote other species? 176 00:08:00,750 --> 00:08:03,060 And that's what we're trying to do a lot 177 00:08:03,060 --> 00:08:05,640 of now is this early intervention silviculture. 178 00:08:05,640 --> 00:08:08,970 Again, we have lots of even age sapling 179 00:08:08,970 --> 00:08:11,310 and small pole stands 180 00:08:11,310 --> 00:08:13,380 and we're trying to get in and treat these stands 181 00:08:13,380 --> 00:08:16,530 as quickly, you know, as early as we can 182 00:08:16,530 --> 00:08:21,530 both to start to create some more vertical diversity, 183 00:08:22,740 --> 00:08:25,290 but also to start concentrating growth 184 00:08:25,290 --> 00:08:28,860 on the best trees as early as we can. 185 00:08:28,860 --> 00:08:30,540 You know, these are the trees that will, you know, 186 00:08:30,540 --> 00:08:32,160 more likely to form saw logs, 187 00:08:32,160 --> 00:08:35,400 which are more likely to have long-term carbon storage 188 00:08:35,400 --> 00:08:37,113 and harvested wood products. 189 00:08:38,610 --> 00:08:41,730 So, and again, minimizing, you know, 190 00:08:41,730 --> 00:08:44,700 mortality and carbon loss from self thinning. 191 00:08:44,700 --> 00:08:46,170 You know, if you've got a three inch tree 192 00:08:46,170 --> 00:08:48,750 that's gonna die when it's six inches and fall over 193 00:08:48,750 --> 00:08:51,000 and we release pretty quickly, might as well get it out 194 00:08:51,000 --> 00:08:54,330 of there now and get that additional growth 195 00:08:54,330 --> 00:08:57,030 that would've died onto better trees. 196 00:08:57,030 --> 00:08:59,070 Okay, so pre-commercial 197 00:08:59,070 --> 00:09:01,440 and early commercial thinning of spruce-fir stands. 198 00:09:01,440 --> 00:09:04,623 We have a lot of even-age, post budworm stands 199 00:09:04,623 --> 00:09:06,240 that we're getting into. 200 00:09:06,240 --> 00:09:10,023 This is nothing atypical about this. 201 00:09:10,023 --> 00:09:11,850 A lot of the commercial landowners 202 00:09:11,850 --> 00:09:13,743 do this similar type of management. 203 00:09:15,180 --> 00:09:17,430 But we're also doing a lot of early, 204 00:09:17,430 --> 00:09:19,440 starting to get into early intervention 205 00:09:19,440 --> 00:09:21,810 in a lot of hardwood stands. 206 00:09:21,810 --> 00:09:24,240 Again, these are stands that are heavy to beech 207 00:09:24,240 --> 00:09:29,240 but may have a component of sugar maple, yellow birch. 208 00:09:29,280 --> 00:09:30,970 So we're doing crop tree releases in these. 209 00:09:30,970 --> 00:09:32,550 We're not trying to thin, you know, 210 00:09:32,550 --> 00:09:33,600 we don't want to thin out, 211 00:09:33,600 --> 00:09:36,120 you know, areas that are mostly beech, 212 00:09:36,120 --> 00:09:40,650 but try to identify those scattered crop trees 213 00:09:40,650 --> 00:09:44,310 and get the growth going on those. 214 00:09:44,310 --> 00:09:45,930 We've been very fortunate to be able to get a lot 215 00:09:45,930 --> 00:09:48,270 of natural resources, conservation service funding 216 00:09:48,270 --> 00:09:51,093 to do this type of improvement work. 217 00:09:52,650 --> 00:09:54,210 Oh, and actually before I get there, 218 00:09:54,210 --> 00:09:55,980 one other thing I don't have a slide for, 219 00:09:55,980 --> 00:09:59,790 we're also starting to get into some restoration planting, 220 00:09:59,790 --> 00:10:02,220 degraded, sustained understock stands 221 00:10:02,220 --> 00:10:04,710 where regeneration has been inhibited by, 222 00:10:04,710 --> 00:10:06,690 you know, grass understories. 223 00:10:06,690 --> 00:10:09,450 So we're starting to do some scarification 224 00:10:09,450 --> 00:10:11,550 and enrichment planting and those stands. 225 00:10:11,550 --> 00:10:13,293 That's kind of a new initiative. 226 00:10:14,160 --> 00:10:16,560 So we do have some results 227 00:10:16,560 --> 00:10:19,710 for our two earliest properties, KIW and Roach Ponds. 228 00:10:19,710 --> 00:10:24,450 We have timber inventories from both 2010 and 2020. 229 00:10:24,450 --> 00:10:27,090 And they're showing some pretty good progress 230 00:10:27,090 --> 00:10:30,750 in things like 27% increase in basal area, 231 00:10:30,750 --> 00:10:33,270 30% increase in timber volume. 232 00:10:33,270 --> 00:10:34,103 These are misleading 233 00:10:34,103 --> 00:10:36,960 'cause a lot of this is due in growth into the pole 234 00:10:36,960 --> 00:10:38,280 from saplings into poles, 235 00:10:38,280 --> 00:10:39,994 so it's not pure growth. 236 00:10:39,994 --> 00:10:43,830 This is the interesting one, larger diameter trees. 237 00:10:43,830 --> 00:10:45,960 Again, even on the KIW tract 238 00:10:45,960 --> 00:10:47,973 where we've been harvesting every year, 239 00:10:49,440 --> 00:10:52,110 pretty good increase in large diameter trees 240 00:10:52,110 --> 00:10:54,510 because those are the ones we're leaving alone. 241 00:10:54,510 --> 00:10:56,700 Overall, again, just in 10 years, 242 00:10:56,700 --> 00:11:00,090 we've had a 25% increase in large diameter trees 243 00:11:00,090 --> 00:11:01,743 in our timber management area. 244 00:11:04,620 --> 00:11:07,440 The carbon stocking we estimate 245 00:11:07,440 --> 00:11:09,660 in our timber management area in just 10 years 246 00:11:09,660 --> 00:11:12,120 has increased 17%. 247 00:11:12,120 --> 00:11:15,040 The carbon stocking in one of our reserves 248 00:11:15,900 --> 00:11:18,420 based on two inventories across the same place, 249 00:11:18,420 --> 00:11:21,450 has increased 19% in just 10 years. 250 00:11:21,450 --> 00:11:23,430 These are stands that are, 251 00:11:23,430 --> 00:11:27,000 for the most part, in the really rapid growth phase. 252 00:11:27,000 --> 00:11:29,010 So they will continue this level of growth 253 00:11:29,010 --> 00:11:30,153 for quite some time. 254 00:11:32,070 --> 00:11:34,440 In terms of the future, you know, we have modeling, 255 00:11:34,440 --> 00:11:37,230 we work with Huber Resources, okay. 256 00:11:37,230 --> 00:11:38,880 -Thank you. -Huber Resources 257 00:11:38,880 --> 00:11:40,110 is our consulting manager. 258 00:11:40,110 --> 00:11:43,020 They do our our timber modeling, 259 00:11:43,020 --> 00:11:46,170 Right now, we're harvesting about 40% 260 00:11:46,170 --> 00:11:48,750 of growth within our timber management area. 261 00:11:48,750 --> 00:11:50,160 And that's gonna, 262 00:11:50,160 --> 00:11:52,800 we're gonna continue harvesting less than growth 263 00:11:52,800 --> 00:11:54,677 for probably the next 40 years. 264 00:11:54,677 --> 00:11:57,210 Again, we are sort of in the first decade 265 00:11:57,210 --> 00:11:59,380 of a 50 year transition 266 00:12:01,200 --> 00:12:06,200 from a low carbon, low volume forest 267 00:12:06,420 --> 00:12:08,853 to a high carbon, high volume forest. 268 00:12:09,870 --> 00:12:12,723 So again, we'll begin harvesting continual, 269 00:12:13,830 --> 00:12:17,130 much less than growth for the next half century, 270 00:12:17,130 --> 00:12:18,930 resulting in an expected 271 00:12:18,930 --> 00:12:21,330 or projected increase in stocking 272 00:12:21,330 --> 00:12:26,040 from about the current 17 quarts an acre to about 25, 27, 273 00:12:26,040 --> 00:12:27,917 which is the level we'd like to maintain it at. 274 00:12:27,917 --> 00:12:29,730 That's a level that's more consistent 275 00:12:29,730 --> 00:12:30,710 with a lot of public lands, 276 00:12:30,710 --> 00:12:33,150 Maine state and it's national forest, 277 00:12:33,150 --> 00:12:34,800 maybe even more than that. 278 00:12:34,800 --> 00:12:37,740 The interesting thing is, over this half century, 279 00:12:37,740 --> 00:12:41,580 our allowable harvest also doubles, you know, 280 00:12:41,580 --> 00:12:43,500 in terms of deferred gratification. 281 00:12:43,500 --> 00:12:45,240 Higher volume forest 282 00:12:45,240 --> 00:12:47,400 be able to support a higher level of harvest. 283 00:12:47,400 --> 00:12:50,580 Whether we'll actually harvest at that level in the future, 284 00:12:50,580 --> 00:12:52,413 you know, is unclear. 285 00:12:53,430 --> 00:12:56,370 But again, I think this shows some of the benefits 286 00:12:56,370 --> 00:13:00,660 of a conservative management approach that creates 287 00:13:00,660 --> 00:13:04,920 a more ecologic, I would say more natural forest, 288 00:13:04,920 --> 00:13:07,653 a more resilient forest, a higher carbon forest, 289 00:13:08,820 --> 00:13:10,950 but also a forest that can continue 290 00:13:10,950 --> 00:13:15,360 to support the production of higher quality wood products 291 00:13:15,360 --> 00:13:17,430 that lead to long-term carbon storage 292 00:13:17,430 --> 00:13:19,353 and manufactured projects. 293 00:13:20,580 --> 00:13:24,540 To get close, we also have four carbon projects, 294 00:13:24,540 --> 00:13:26,430 four forest carbon projects on our land. 295 00:13:26,430 --> 00:13:30,000 Two of them we initiated, two of em were in progress 296 00:13:30,000 --> 00:13:32,373 or finished on lands we acquired. 297 00:13:34,260 --> 00:13:36,723 These provide an important source of revenue. 298 00:13:38,010 --> 00:13:39,510 Given our conservative approach, 299 00:13:39,510 --> 00:13:41,880 harvesting much less in growth, 300 00:13:41,880 --> 00:13:43,680 omit, that's okay, 301 00:13:43,680 --> 00:13:46,590 you know, this is of significant financial sacrifice 302 00:13:46,590 --> 00:13:48,300 in terms of the revenue, timber revenue 303 00:13:48,300 --> 00:13:52,530 that could have potentially been obtained off these lands. 304 00:13:52,530 --> 00:13:56,850 The carbon revenues help to subsidize that transition. 305 00:13:56,850 --> 00:13:58,920 They make up for some of our lost revenue 306 00:13:58,920 --> 00:14:01,230 from this conservative harvesting regime. 307 00:14:01,230 --> 00:14:03,480 That's exactly what they were supposed to do. 308 00:14:04,620 --> 00:14:06,570 Some of our revenues have been put into 309 00:14:06,570 --> 00:14:08,220 additional land acquisitions, 310 00:14:08,220 --> 00:14:11,700 you know, have help support some of these land acquisitions. 311 00:14:11,700 --> 00:14:13,620 But in the future we'll be putting the revenue 312 00:14:13,620 --> 00:14:16,800 from our carbon projects into a dedicated fund 313 00:14:16,800 --> 00:14:19,050 to support both land acquisition 314 00:14:19,050 --> 00:14:23,070 and organizational emissions reductions activities 315 00:14:23,070 --> 00:14:24,145 at our facilities. 316 00:14:24,145 --> 00:14:26,250 If anyone's ever been to the Highland Center 317 00:14:26,250 --> 00:14:27,540 in Crawford Notch, 318 00:14:27,540 --> 00:14:30,300 that is our biggest carbon emitting facility. 319 00:14:30,300 --> 00:14:33,390 So trying to make some improvements there 320 00:14:33,390 --> 00:14:34,620 to reduce those emissions. 321 00:14:34,620 --> 00:14:37,230 And you get by there, we just put in a new solar, 322 00:14:37,230 --> 00:14:40,116 our new solar array out on the (indistinct). 323 00:14:40,116 --> 00:14:42,900 So, and again, we will also be retiring 324 00:14:42,900 --> 00:14:45,120 some of these credits as internal offsets 325 00:14:45,120 --> 00:14:48,330 to offset our own organizational carbon footprint. 326 00:14:48,330 --> 00:14:50,850 So, you know, it's almost like a full circle type of thing 327 00:14:50,850 --> 00:14:53,010 where conservative management, you know, 328 00:14:53,010 --> 00:14:56,340 creates not only an ecologically more sustainable forest, 329 00:14:56,340 --> 00:14:59,370 but provides revenue to improve, you know, 330 00:14:59,370 --> 00:15:03,360 sort of the climate change impacts of our own organization. 331 00:15:03,360 --> 00:15:06,450 So, and that's it. 332 00:15:06,450 --> 00:15:08,253 I think I just about made my time. 333 00:15:15,840 --> 00:15:16,673 Question? 334 00:15:17,717 --> 00:15:20,700 [Student] Do you think the absence of those carbon credits 335 00:15:20,700 --> 00:15:23,340 that you could use as revenue to offset the cost 336 00:15:23,340 --> 00:15:26,610 of the activities, the stewardship activities 337 00:15:26,610 --> 00:15:27,443 you're engaged in, 338 00:15:27,443 --> 00:15:29,306 would you be able to do that financially? 339 00:15:29,306 --> 00:15:30,139 We would. 340 00:15:30,139 --> 00:15:33,420 In fact, the carbon carbon projects did not lead 341 00:15:33,420 --> 00:15:35,340 to any change in management. 342 00:15:35,340 --> 00:15:38,430 They are basically consistent with what we are doing. 343 00:15:38,430 --> 00:15:43,140 So it would be, it would be feasible, 344 00:15:43,140 --> 00:15:46,350 but it would diminish a lot of the other things we could do. 345 00:15:46,350 --> 00:15:49,230 It might diminish our ability to acquire additional lands. 346 00:15:49,230 --> 00:15:51,964 We obviously couldn't put revenues into some of these, 347 00:15:51,964 --> 00:15:53,760 you know, organizational projects. 348 00:15:53,760 --> 00:15:56,158 But I think our management would be the same. 349 00:15:56,158 --> 00:15:57,290 [Student] So it would cover like 350 00:15:57,290 --> 00:16:00,180 the big commercial treatments, the plantings. 351 00:16:00,180 --> 00:16:04,143 Well those things are being funded primarily by NRCS. 352 00:16:04,143 --> 00:16:07,233 -As a cost share or? -Well, yeah, as a cost share. 353 00:16:08,070 --> 00:16:10,500 You know, it might be that some of those things, 354 00:16:10,500 --> 00:16:13,410 some of those less economically feasible things 355 00:16:13,410 --> 00:16:15,423 we might have to scale back on, so. 356 00:16:16,560 --> 00:16:18,270 [Student] May I just ask a follow up question on that? 357 00:16:18,270 --> 00:16:19,140 -Sure. -Do you know, 358 00:16:19,140 --> 00:16:21,930 do you sense that there's a workforce shortage 359 00:16:21,930 --> 00:16:25,080 for some of those pre-commercial treatments, the plantings? 360 00:16:25,080 --> 00:16:27,390 Or, I don't know if Hubbert does, you know, 361 00:16:27,390 --> 00:16:29,190 has contractors that they work with. 362 00:16:30,270 --> 00:16:33,000 So far we've, you know, we haven't run into that. 363 00:16:33,000 --> 00:16:35,190 I'm actually not on the operations side, 364 00:16:35,190 --> 00:16:36,810 so I'm not hiring the contractors 365 00:16:36,810 --> 00:16:38,580 or dealing with those issues. 366 00:16:38,580 --> 00:16:42,330 Steve Tatko, normally the manager up, would be the one. 367 00:16:42,330 --> 00:16:43,440 I haven't heard anything that 368 00:16:43,440 --> 00:16:45,063 that's been an issue for us yet. 369 00:16:47,280 --> 00:16:48,210 [Student 2] In your management plans, 370 00:16:48,210 --> 00:16:49,590 do you have contingency plans 371 00:16:49,590 --> 00:16:54,423 for mass die off of each due to beech leaf disease? 372 00:16:55,315 --> 00:16:56,490 We're aware of it. 373 00:16:56,490 --> 00:17:00,030 I don't know if it's hit us yet or that we've noticed it. 374 00:17:00,030 --> 00:17:01,923 Do we have contingency plans? 375 00:17:03,180 --> 00:17:05,640 I mean our basic approach is, you know, 376 00:17:05,640 --> 00:17:09,090 if for whatever reason beech dies out, 377 00:17:09,090 --> 00:17:10,830 I mean we're gonna lose ash. 378 00:17:10,830 --> 00:17:12,930 We don't have emerald ash borer yet. 379 00:17:12,930 --> 00:17:15,270 You know, it's a minor, but you know, 380 00:17:15,270 --> 00:17:16,980 few percent of our stocking. 381 00:17:16,980 --> 00:17:19,110 We're gonna lose that at some point in the not too, 382 00:17:19,110 --> 00:17:20,940 we don't have any contingency plans 383 00:17:20,940 --> 00:17:22,200 necessarily to release that. 384 00:17:22,200 --> 00:17:25,980 We're basically going to deal with the forest 385 00:17:25,980 --> 00:17:29,250 that nature gives us and manage it as best we can. 386 00:17:29,250 --> 00:17:31,950 So again, some enhancement activities, 387 00:17:31,950 --> 00:17:34,230 some enhancement planting of degraded stands. 388 00:17:34,230 --> 00:17:37,500 But I don't know, I'm not sure what we have 389 00:17:37,500 --> 00:17:39,300 for contingency plans in terms 390 00:17:39,300 --> 00:17:41,010 of like planting some other species 391 00:17:41,010 --> 00:17:42,813 to replace, you know, ash. 392 00:17:43,743 --> 00:17:45,390 [Assistant] I do think we have some online, 393 00:17:45,390 --> 00:17:47,280 -an online question for you. -Okay. 394 00:17:47,280 --> 00:17:49,580 [Helper] This is coming from Kelsey McBlush. 395 00:17:51,150 --> 00:17:53,940 This seems like a lot of management over a large area. 396 00:17:53,940 --> 00:17:56,490 How do you prioritize your different activities, 397 00:17:56,490 --> 00:17:59,520 plantation restoration, early intervention, 398 00:17:59,520 --> 00:18:01,230 pre-commercial thinning? 399 00:18:01,230 --> 00:18:03,900 Is it based on working in one particular parcel 400 00:18:03,900 --> 00:18:08,040 or work that foresters, contractors are interested in? 401 00:18:08,040 --> 00:18:10,740 Well, no, we work with Huber on our, 402 00:18:10,740 --> 00:18:14,820 you know, the company to implement our managed plan. 403 00:18:14,820 --> 00:18:19,530 And early on it was clear that salvaging beech mortality 404 00:18:19,530 --> 00:18:21,360 was the priority. 405 00:18:21,360 --> 00:18:22,770 So those were the first, 406 00:18:22,770 --> 00:18:24,690 the first stands for the first decade, 407 00:18:24,690 --> 00:18:27,750 we were pretty much in degraded hardwood stands. 408 00:18:27,750 --> 00:18:29,500 We've worked through most of those. 409 00:18:30,660 --> 00:18:33,060 You know, we're getting into some higher quality stands, 410 00:18:33,060 --> 00:18:36,540 but now we have a large number of these young, 411 00:18:36,540 --> 00:18:37,373 even age stands. 412 00:18:37,373 --> 00:18:39,720 Budworm areas, spruce-fir stands 413 00:18:39,720 --> 00:18:41,370 or some hardwood stands that were created 414 00:18:41,370 --> 00:18:42,960 by previous clear cuts. 415 00:18:42,960 --> 00:18:44,520 So we're shifting, you know, 416 00:18:44,520 --> 00:18:48,900 the priority is shifting to, you know, to try to get in 417 00:18:48,900 --> 00:18:50,580 and treat those as early as possible. 418 00:18:50,580 --> 00:18:53,340 So our priorities have been set primarily by the condition 419 00:18:53,340 --> 00:18:58,340 of the forest and what types of stands need treatment, 420 00:18:58,470 --> 00:18:59,823 you know, without delay, 421 00:19:00,840 --> 00:19:03,750 you know, and which stands could you know, 422 00:19:03,750 --> 00:19:05,820 could we leave alone for another 10 or 15 years 423 00:19:05,820 --> 00:19:06,653 before we began. 424 00:19:11,106 --> 00:19:13,350 [Student] In the plots or areas that you're managing 425 00:19:13,350 --> 00:19:15,690 more for regeneration, 426 00:19:15,690 --> 00:19:18,000 are you seeing when you're opening up the canopy 427 00:19:18,000 --> 00:19:20,550 any invasive species coming in and taking over? 428 00:19:20,550 --> 00:19:22,803 Or are you having problems with deer browse? 429 00:19:23,670 --> 00:19:24,930 We are lucky that neither 430 00:19:24,930 --> 00:19:27,420 of those issues are major problems. 431 00:19:27,420 --> 00:19:31,020 Invasive species have not become a major issue 432 00:19:31,020 --> 00:19:35,010 in that part of, you know, northern New England. 433 00:19:35,010 --> 00:19:36,810 Within the forest, you know, we keep an eye out 434 00:19:36,810 --> 00:19:39,090 for knotweed, Japanese knotweed 435 00:19:39,090 --> 00:19:40,980 and things like that. 436 00:19:40,980 --> 00:19:43,530 But we don't have problems with like oriental bittersweet 437 00:19:43,530 --> 00:19:45,030 or buckthorn or those kinds of things 438 00:19:45,030 --> 00:19:46,710 that you have in southern New Hampshire. 439 00:19:46,710 --> 00:19:48,990 And also the deer densities are not high enough 440 00:19:48,990 --> 00:19:50,160 to create the kinds of problems 441 00:19:50,160 --> 00:19:51,360 that you have in other places. 442 00:19:51,360 --> 00:19:53,210 So we're very lucky in that capacity. 443 00:19:55,680 --> 00:19:58,470 [Student 2] If the pulpwood market were to shrink 444 00:19:58,470 --> 00:20:00,660 or disappear, how would that change 445 00:20:00,660 --> 00:20:03,090 -your management approaches? -Well, they would, 446 00:20:03,090 --> 00:20:05,310 it would limit it a lot 447 00:20:05,310 --> 00:20:08,160 because obviously getting rid of this low grade wood 448 00:20:08,160 --> 00:20:10,770 is critical to what we're trying to do. 449 00:20:10,770 --> 00:20:12,720 That's one thing about the carbon projects 450 00:20:12,720 --> 00:20:14,610 is that they're kind of a hedge, 451 00:20:14,610 --> 00:20:15,930 you know, they're counter cyclic. 452 00:20:15,930 --> 00:20:17,490 If the pulpwood markets go away, 453 00:20:17,490 --> 00:20:21,437 we harvest less, but we accumulate and sell more carbon. 454 00:20:21,437 --> 00:20:23,190 You know, carbon prices are still too low 455 00:20:23,190 --> 00:20:25,860 to make totally make up the difference. 456 00:20:25,860 --> 00:20:28,745 But yeah, if all the pulpwood market went away, 457 00:20:28,745 --> 00:20:32,433 we'd have some serious issues, as you know many people do. 458 00:20:35,310 --> 00:20:37,680 [Student] I guess if or if and how, 459 00:20:37,680 --> 00:20:40,600 like have you taken into consideration 460 00:20:41,910 --> 00:20:43,800 individual pre-species vulnerability 461 00:20:43,800 --> 00:20:46,140 to climate change in your management approach? 462 00:20:46,140 --> 00:20:48,330 Thinking like certain species are gonna do well, 463 00:20:48,330 --> 00:20:49,620 others not so much. 464 00:20:49,620 --> 00:20:51,270 Well we do certainly, 465 00:20:51,270 --> 00:20:52,813 like white pine being the example. 466 00:20:52,813 --> 00:20:56,490 That's one we project to be a climate change winner. 467 00:20:56,490 --> 00:20:57,990 Where we have it, we wanna keep it. 468 00:20:57,990 --> 00:21:01,050 I call it our climate adaptation seed source. 469 00:21:01,050 --> 00:21:03,030 So we try to maintain that. 470 00:21:03,030 --> 00:21:05,310 Red oak is very limited on our property. 471 00:21:05,310 --> 00:21:07,050 It's a little more common on some of our new ones. 472 00:21:07,050 --> 00:21:09,360 That's ones we'll probably treat the same way. 473 00:21:09,360 --> 00:21:11,160 I asked a question of Cody D. 474 00:21:11,160 --> 00:21:13,770 in the last one about planting red spruce 475 00:21:13,770 --> 00:21:16,410 'cause that's supposed to be a climate change loser, 476 00:21:16,410 --> 00:21:18,420 but he's more optimistic about that. 477 00:21:18,420 --> 00:21:19,920 We're actually, when I talked about 478 00:21:19,920 --> 00:21:21,060 that restoration planting, 479 00:21:21,060 --> 00:21:23,730 it's primarily gonna be red spruce and pine. 480 00:21:23,730 --> 00:21:26,283 Hardwood species, you know, 481 00:21:27,420 --> 00:21:28,770 what will happen, what will happen, 482 00:21:28,770 --> 00:21:31,713 and we will deal with the species we have. 483 00:21:33,720 --> 00:21:36,555 We haven't been targeting, I mean we haven't been, 484 00:21:36,555 --> 00:21:39,270 when we get into a stand with a lot of mature ash, 485 00:21:39,270 --> 00:21:40,920 we probably will take that out, 486 00:21:40,920 --> 00:21:43,582 rather than let it see a die in five or 10 years. 487 00:21:43,582 --> 00:21:47,249 (multiple people speaking)