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SKOWHEGAN — The long-neglected Yankee Woodlot is seeing activity, including wood harvesting and workshops for landowners and students, Maine Forest Service District Forester Patty Cormier and the Somerset Soil and Water Conservation District announced.
The Maine Forest Service and the SWCD started actively managing the 300-acre parcel, owned by the Bureau of Parks and Lands, this year. Under a memorandum of understanding that dates to 1982, the water district is responsible for managing the lot, and harvest revenue is to be reinvested in its management, but a harvest recommended several years ago never took place, according to a news release from the organizations.
Cormier and the district this year took the initiative to harvest the lot, and the result was 750 cords of wood delivered to the paper mill, up from the projected 500 cords (from a 10-year old inventory). The same yield is projected for harvest next winter.
Cormier and the water district also hosted harvest education events, including three landowner workshops attended by 62 people and a college wood science class and two groups of Skowhegan High School students.
Cormier and the district plan to hold several more workshops this year, the news release said, the first of which will be a workshop/cleanup day beginning at 9 a.m., Saturday May 20. It will include a morning discussion focusing on what happens with the parcel after the harvest. Lunch will be provided, and then they group will be invited to help with trail cleanup, hay and seed application and other maintenance projects.
The local chapter of Maine Woodland Owners and the Skowhegan Conservation Commission will also take part.
A soil workshop will be held June 29 and a workshop on post-havest inventory and continuous inventory plots will be scheduled for July.
For more information, contact Cormier at 592-2238 or patty.cormier@maine.gov.
