Safety Keep the focus on Safety!

Members who are part of the PLC Safety Group Dividend Program, As you know, the PLC working in partnership withAcadia Insurance has made great strides in improving safety and reducing losses for our members in recent years. Since 1999,Acadia Insurance has returned over $11 million in premium dividends to members, which is a great testament to your efforts to mitigate risk in your businesses.

As we head into the final weeks of 2020, we are focused on having another successful year for the program. We encourage you all to redouble your efforts on safety! another successful year for the program if members pull together on this issue!

Please feel free to contact PLC Safety Coordinator Donald Burr or PLC Executive Director Dana Doran if you have questions or to explore options for additional safety training for your employees.

Trust to Conserve Northeast Forestlands Executive Director named to FSC U.S. Board of Directors

AUGUSTA, ME - Trust to Conserve Northeast Forestlands (TCNEF) Executive Director Ted Wright has been elected to serve a three-year term on the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) U.S. Board of Directors, effective Sept. 1, 2020.

Wright is a Maine native and Executive Director of both the TCNEF and the Northeast Master Logger Certification Program, which the Trust oversees.

In 2019 under Wright’s leadership, the TCNEF received an FSC Leadership Award.

“I’m honored at the opportunity to serve on the FSC U.S. Board and represent the interests and perspectives of professional loggers who are committed to the responsible management of forests for all as well as the protection of small rural communities that they reside and work in near FSC-certified forests,” Wright said.

The FSC U.S. Board of Directors is the organization’s highest governing authority and consists of up to fifteen individuals, all of whom are U.S.-based FSC members.

Each of the three FSC chambers (Social, Economic and Environmental) has three representatives which are elected by US-based FSC members and serve for a threeyear term. An additional two individuals may be appointed in each chamber by the Board, typically to ensure a full range of perspectives and expertise.

The Board leads the development of national strategy, oversees the chief executive, ensures effective financial oversight, and approves the National Forest Stewardship Standard and Controlled Wood National Risk Assessment. In addition, the Board plays an important role in FSC globally, working on issues affecting the broader FSC community. Wright will serve on the Social Chamber of the Board.

Steve Hanington, President of Hanington Brothers, a Macwahoc Maine Master Logger company, noted this is the first time a representative of the logging industry has served on the FSC U.S. Board and said this is significant for both FSC and the industry.

“It is very important for the ones who are actually implementing the outcomes of certification in the forest to have a say,” Hanington said. “A representative who can provide the board with our knowledge and experience of the on-the-ground performance of continued improvement policies will have a great impact, and this is a good thing for both certification and the companies working in the woods.”

Wright grew up in Aroostook County on a potato farm in Littleton, ME and began harvesting wood from the farm and discovered he really enjoyed the work. He attended the University of Maine at Fort Kent and graduated in 2005 with an Associate’s degree in Applied Forest Management and a Bachelor’s degree in Environmental Studies, then went to work at Louisiana-Pacific in Houlton for a year. He then took a job at the Region Two School of Applied Technology in Houlton teaching in their Wood Harvesting/ Forestry program for seven years before accepting the TCNEF Director’s job in the fall of 2015. He and his wife, Maggie, and children, Madigan and Ben, live in Brunswick, Maine.

The Northeast Master Logger Certification Program was created in 2000 by the Professional Logging Contractors of Maine (PLC) as the first in the world point-of-harvest certification program, offering third party independent certification of logging companies’ harvesting practices. In 2003, PLC created TCNEF to administer the program with the broader goal of “enhancing the health of working forest ecosystems through exceptional accountability” throughout the Northern Forest region.

TCNEF administers an FSC®-certified group of family forest landowners throughout New England and New York. Under this arrangement forest landowners can inexpensively gain access to FSC® group certification.

TCNEF is the administrative body that holds the FSC certificate and has overall responsibility for compliance with the FSC® Northeast Regional Standard. TCNEF also administers an FSC®-certified group of Chain of Custody that provides an information trail, established and audited according to rules set by FSC, for Master Loggers and wood products companies to ensure that wood comes from certified forests.

For more information on the Master Logger program or TCNEF, contact Ted Wright at (207) 688-8195 opt. 2 or executivedirector@tcnef.org.

AWordFrom PattyCormier

MaineForest Service Director

Fall is upon us, and we know what follows even in a year that doesn’t want to follow any rules. Fieldwork at the Maine Forest Service never skipped a beat this past summer. Here is a quick summary of what folks have been busy with:

The forest inventory and analysis crews are a week ahead of schedule, on the way to complete this year’s 600 inventory plots. The information gathered is critical for all those who benefit from our forests and provides the basis for good forest policy.

As I write this, we are getting very close to having the highest number of forest acres burned in 20 years, almost 1000 acres. This is double the average of 500 acres per year. The top three reasons for fires this year are 1. Debris fires, 2. Equipment fires and 3. Escaped campfires.

As of mid-September, we have two wildland crews out west, each with one of our type 6 engines. One crew of four rangers is in Willow springs CA, the other crew of 10 (4 rangers and 6 civilian firefighters) is in CO. These mobilizations provide the opportunity to not only assist other states as they would us, but also to gain valuable experience that only strengthens our abilities to respond to fires and other large incidents back here in Maine. The rangers also recently worked with game wardens on a collaborative effort for “Landowner Appreciation Day” to clean up reported sites of dumped trash on private property. They cleaned up over 700 tires plus much more trash!

The forest health folks have been very busy with browntail moth issues and spruce budworm monitoring along with a suite of other insect and disease issues. One of our most important roles among the three divisions though, is the number of field assists that have occurred for loggers and landowners, at their request, by our district foresters and rangers along with the forest health staff. This is a key role we play. Let me use this as an opportunity to encourage the PLC membership to please get in touch with us if you could use a little guidance, or maybe just a second opinion on forestry challenges you might face. The best contact route is our website: www.maineforestservice.gov or call 207-287-2791.

Your Executive Director has been working tirelessly with the delegation and others to push for COVID relief for loggers and truckers. I and the administration fully support those efforts. This can be an often-frustrating effort; but let us hope that our voices are heard and represented and these efforts are successful. These efforts are also supported by the National Association of State Foresters, as this is a nationwide need. I speak with my counterparts often, and they are doing what they can to get this relief going.

Here in Maine two small business relief programs have been offered through the Department of Economic Development(DECD). While not specific to forestry-related businesses, a number of such businesses did apply. Another program will soon be offered through DECD. We will be getting word out about that program and other opportunities through our various social media outlets as well as on our MFS logger listserve. If you are not signed up for our listserve, please contact us to get added. I realize that it might not seem like it sometimes, but there are many folks pushing for relief on your behalf, locally and nationally.

As always, I wish you all well during these tough times, I encourage you to reach out to me or any of the three divisions of the Maine Forest Service. We remain lean and are used to that, but are committed to the goal of assisting and supporting the forestry sector.