New England Forestry Foundation and Seven Islands Land Company have signed an agreement to defer planned timber harvests on nearly 500 acres of rare, older, natural forest — also known as late-successional and old-growth forest — in Piscataquis County. These forests provide unique habitat to a range of sensitive species and store exceptional amounts of carbon.
This initiative builds on two conservation success stories in the forests managed by Seven Islands Land Company on behalf of the Pingree Family, one of the state’s longest tenured landowners. First, it expands the partnership between SILC, the Pingree Family and NEFF to prohibit development across more than 762,000 acres of working forests through the Pingree Forest Partnership: in March 2001, NEFF and the Pingree Family completed the largest working forestland conservation easement in the history of the United States. Furthermore, the LSOG forests covered by the timber harvest deferral are in the vicinity of the Big Reed Forest Reserve, Maine’s largest protected old growth forest, which SILC and the Pingree Family identified and proactively sold to the Nature Conservancy in 1987 to preserve the forest’s unique characteristics.
This new agreement is part of a broader NEFF effort to conserve some of Maine’s most ecologically unique forestland.
Under the agreement, NEFF will provide funding to Seven Islands Land Company in exchange for deferring planned timber harvests while partners investigate a longer-term conservation solution for the area. As part of the agreement, NEFF is also providing funds to support practices that will increase future timber production in younger forests by thinning dense young stands of commercial species like red spruce, sugar maple and yellow birch.
The area of the deferral covers 488.5 acres of mixed LSOG forests between Baxter State Park and the Allagash Wilderness Waterway. These forests are dominated by trees that are at least 150 years old and show only light evidence of past logging, or in some places none at all. The dominant species include sugar maple, yellow birch, American beech and red spruce. The older forest is ecologically rich and especially valuable for its ability to capture and store carbon, creating ecosystems that are critical in the fight against climate change.
“The Pingree Family and Seven Islands Land Company have long been conservation pioneers in Maine, and we are excited to explore this model for LSOG conservation with NEFF,” Dan LaMontagne, president and CEO of Seven Islands, said. “We continually look for creative ways to conserve the special and unique places on our lands while also maintaining economic viability, local employment and robust markets for a variety of forest products.”
The agreement demonstrates a new model for protecting natural forests through partnerships between conservation organizations and private landowners, while supporting sustainable timber production on the landscape.
“The Pingree timberlands managed by Seven Islands have always been a showcase for sustainable forestry,” Brian Milakovsky, NEFF senior forester, said. “Scattered through them are these LSOG gems that complement all the values of managed forests with their unique habitat features. We look forward to helping SILC conserve the best of them in a way that works for northern Maine’s economy.”
This work is supported by a $4.3 million grant from the U.S. Forest Service. The funding is part of a larger effort to protect the most exceptional old natural forests identified in northern Maine in 2024. The program also helps landowners improve forest health and productivity in other areas, supporting both carbon storage and wood production.
Through the application of its core expertise in conserving forestlands and advancing Exemplary Forestry, the New England Forestry Foundation helps the people of New England to sustain their way of life, protect forest wildlife habitat and ecosystem services and mitigate and adapt to climate change. In partnership with landowners, New England Forestry Foundation has conserved more than 1.2 million acres of forest since its founding in 1944, and owns and manages more than 150 Community Forests across the region. For more information, visit www.newenglandforestry.org.
Founded in 1964, Seven Islands Land Company manages the Pingree Family timberlands in northern and western Maine. Committed to a sustainable forest management mindset, Seven Islands is dedicated to bettering the environment, strengthening the forest industry and supporting the people in the communities in which we live and work. To learn more, visit www.sevenislands.com.