Trust to Conserve Northeast Forestlands awards scholarships for Mechanized Logging Operations Program

AUGUSTA, ME - The Trust to Conserve Northeast Forestlands (TCNEF) awarded scholarships to three Maine students enrolled this summer in the Mechanized Logging Operations Program (MLOP).

Ben Carrol of Dixfield, Colton Carlow of Peru, and David Lessard of Jackman each received $1,000 from the Northwoods Logging Association/Trust to Conserve Northeast Forestlands Scholarship Fund. All three are members of the fifth class of students enrolled in the hands-on, 12-week certificate program now underway in the woods north of Old Town.

Students in the program spend weeks harvesting timber using a variety of sophisticated state-of-the-art machines like those they will encounter in the logging industry. The hands-on experience and education they gain is something unavailable anywhere else in Maine and neighboring states.

While the MLOP program is being offered tuition free through a generous grant from the Maine Community College System and the Maine State Legislature, students are responsible for other expenses including transportation and housing, and TCNEF understands these costs can be barriers to success in the program.

“It is the TCNEF’s strong belief that if the organization can provide additional assistance to students with demonstrated need to ensure their success and propel them into the logging industry, this is a cause well worth supporting,” Ted Wright, Executive Director of TCNEF, said. “I’d like to congratulate these students on receiving the scholarships, and I wish them success in the program and their careers.”

The scholarships are supported by funds provided to TCNEF by the Northwoods Logging Association (NWLA), a trust created in the 1970’s to help logging companies manage their workers’ compensation risks. NWLA was effectively dissolved in the early 1990’s, and in 2020, the remaining board members of the NWLA voted to officially dissolve the organization. To do so, they needed to liquidate their remaining assets and provided a grant to TCNEF as part of that process. The funds from that grant must be used toward logger development and education.

The scholarships are both merit and performance based, and the recipients have demonstrated that they have a sincere interest in pursuing a career in logging operations. Scholarships were provided in three installments, upon completion of milestones in the program.

MLOP was jointly developed by the Professional Logging Contractors of Maine (PLC) and Northern Maine Community College (NMCC), Eastern Maine Community College (EMCC), and Washington County Community College (WCCC) with generous support from Milton CAT/CAT Forest Products, Nortrax Inc./John Deere, and other industry partners. The program has been supported since its inception through Maine Quality Centers, an MCCS program to develop and support skilled in-demand and high wage occupations in Maine.

In April of this year, at the tail end of the legislative session, Senator Russell Black presented LD 1407 to the Legislature’s Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry Committee. The bill, “An Act to Provide That a Forestry Operation That Conforms to Accepted Practices May Not Be Declared a Nuisance,” is also known as “The Right to Practice Forestry Act.” A quick look shows that forty-two other states have adopted Right to Practice Forestry (RPF) laws over the years. In Maine, the closest we have are protections for agriculture, or the Maine Agriculture Protection Act, which specifically includes the wording, “Agricultural Products does not include trees grown and harvested for forest products.”

In the 1970’s and 80’s, the family farm seemed threatened. This led to the enactment of farm protection laws across the country to protect farms from ordinances that restricted customary farming activities. The intent of LD 1407 is the same, but for a different kind of farming, i.e. forestry. Anyone in the forestry sector has skin in the game on this one.

The summary of the original bill is: This bill enacts the Right To Practice Forestry Act. The bill provides that a local unit of government that allows a forestry operation to operate in that local unit of government may not regulate that forestry operation in a manner that limits or prohibits any generally accepted forest management practices, which the bill requires the Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry to establish by rule. We are in a constantly changing landscape of values and expectations, especially in the rural working landscape. This is even more evident these days with the increase in real estate transactions, potentially bringing new voices with regards to the use of forests and changes to the image and expectations for the forest; This can often translate to new ordinances that have the potential to limit options for woodland owners and the professionals they hire to work with them. This also could translate to higher costs for loggers and haulers. Examples of this include restrictive ordinances with respect to roads and noise, to name a couple.

During the work session for this bill, twenty-three interested parties testified either on the virtual platform or by written submission. Six testified in favor of the bill, including your Executive Director and others from the forestry community, including the Maine Forest Service. One person from the Maine Municipal Association testified neither for nor against. The rest testified against the bill.

The public hearing and work session for this bill are on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/channel/ UCsJYNRdpDJyRRmtdX8DOLdA; I encourage you to watch these.

The committee amended the bill, replacing the bill with a Resolve. The Resolve requires “The Director of the Maine Forest Service within the Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry to convene a stakeholder group to review and assess the law and corresponding process relating to a municipal proposal to adopt or amend a timber harvesting ordinance. The amendment directs the director to report the findings and recommendations of the stakeholder group to the Joint Standing Committee on Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry and authorizes the joint standing committee to submit a bill relating to the subject matter of the report to the 130th Legislature.”

This stakeholder group has had one meeting, and by the time you read this another will have occurred. The group is diverse, including voices from the logging community such as PLC Executive Director Dana Doran and Will Cole, Co-President, Trees Ltd, who is also 2nd Vice President of the PLC, municipal representatives, representatives from the environmental community, foresters and landowners.

As with the ACF committee hearings, you can find these virtual sessions on YouTube. At all meetings there is an opportunity for public comment, so please, take the time to provide your input. All of us in the forestry sector have skin in the game on this one, and your input is crucial. It is hard to say at this point what the specific outcome will be, but I do know that it is imperative that voices from the field are part of the process. As they say, “If you are not at the table, you might be on the menu.”