BANGOR DAILY NEWS • March 26, 2026
Bryan and Pam Wells bought what they would come to call Wells Demonstration Forest in 2004. The land had been clear-cut, with all the valuable timber taken by logging companies with little regard for best ecological practices. Pam Wells had spent her life dreaming of being a forester, but sexism in the forestry field discouraged her when she was at UMaine in the late 1970s. When she and Bryan bought the woodlot in 2004, it was a chance to build a model for forest restoration that students and the community could learn from. The couple was named the Maine Forest Service’s Tree Farmers of the Year for 2017. Today, the forest has a thriving ecosystem, with an array of mammals and birds making the land their home, and Sunkhaze Stream — the Wells’ forest abuts Sunkhaze Meadows National Wildlife Refuge — running clean through it. A conservation easement on the forest is in the process of being purchased by the Forest Society of Maine, permanently protecting it from development. Pam died in June 2025 after a years-long battle with primary progressive aphasia.