PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • August 15, 2025
An Aug. 11 letter to the editor regarding timber harvesting — between 2016 and 2018 — on the Jamie’s Pond Management Area in Hallowell connected it to to beech leaf disease. Several assumptions need to be corrected. Beech leaf disease is an invasive species, first discovered in Ohio in 2012, that spread to the Northeast about a decade later. Blaming logging practices for its presence is completely unfounded. The timber harvest on Jamie’s Pond took place almost 10 years ago; beech leaf disease was not discovered in Maine until 2021. Forest management is the solution, not the culprit. ~ Dana Doran, Professional Logging Contractors of the Northeast, Augusta