Maine's old growth forests are disappearing. This program could help save them

MAINE PUBLIC • July 10, 2026

After centuries of farming and logging, only pockets of large, old trees remain in Maine, especially in southern Maine. "If northern Maine has 3% or 3.5% of the landscape in this, than there is less than 1% in southern Maine," said Brian Milakovsky, a senior forester with the New England Forestry Foundation. He said old woods are critical for biodiversity. And they serve an outsized role in trapping climate-warming carbon dioxide. Preserving those trees is a challenge in Maine, where most forests are private. The foundation is using a $4.3 million U.S. Forest Service grant to offer landowners partial value of their timber to defer logging trees. That should give groups time to conserve the parcels through purchase or easement. Or to let carbon credit markets develop that would pay landowners for the carbon storage potential of their living old trees.