MAINE PUBLIC • September 23, 2022
For more than 200 years, Maine's North Woods, in excess of 10 million acres, have supported a timber-based economy along with wildlife and outdoor recreation. This is the largest undeveloped forest east of the Mississippi River and it's almost entirely privately owned, which makes it vulnerable to fragmentation and development. But there's something else these woods could provide for the future: climate mitigation along with a robust rural economy. According to the Maine governor's Forest Carbon Task Force, the North Woods already remove at least 60% of the state's annual carbon emissions through photosynthesis. But the figure gets larger when the storage of carbon in forest products such as building and shipping materials and furniture are added to the mix. Then it's 75%. Research from the New England Forestry Foundation suggests there is the potential to sequester and store even more with improved forest management, conservation and expanded markets for wood.