NAPLES, Maine — A small but increasingly important conservation tool is helping keep pockets of Maine’s rare old-growth and late-successional forest out of the timber market.
Landowners weigh short-term income against long-term legacy
On a 23-acre parcel of family timberland near Naples, Caleb Chaplin pointed to a stand of hemlock, yellow birch, oak and basswood whose largest trees date back nearly two centuries. The Chaplin family had planned to harvest the tract this year, drawn by strong timber prices and a heritage of working the woods for four generations. Instead, they accepted an offer from the New England Forestry Foundation to delay cutting and work toward a permanent conservation plan.
"You can tell it's never been plowed or made into fields and came back up, it's really unique with the diversity that it has,"
The family agreed to a 10-year delay on harvesting. For them, the decision combined stewardship and financial calculation: forgo an immediate, lucrative sale of timber in order to preserve a distinctive ecological asset and potentially increase the long-term value of their land for future generations.
Why these stands matter in Maine
Maine is the most forested state in the country, but true old-growth and late-successional forests are now limited to fragments after centuries of clearing for agriculture and logging. These stands:
- store significant amounts of carbon;
- provide specialized habitat for species that depend on large-diameter trees and complex forest structure;
- represent rare ecological conditions that have been lost across much of southern Maine.
Experts say the distribution is uneven: northern Maine may retain roughly 3 to 3.5 percent of the landscape in this condition, while southern Maine likely has less than 1 percent.
What the program offers and local impact
The conservation approach used with the Chaplins pays landowners to postpone harvests and to collaborate on long-term protection plans. For families reliant on timber income, offers like this present a difficult choice between immediate revenue and preserving ecological and familial legacies.
| Item | Detail |
|---|---|
| Parcel size (Chaplin example) | 23 acres |
| Tree ages | Up to 200 years |
| Conservation delay | 10 years |
| Estimated old-growth in northern Maine | 3–3.5% |
| Estimated old-growth in southern Maine | <1% |
Conservation payments do not erase the economic pressures that make logging attractive. But they give landowners a tangible alternative at a moment when high timber prices make holding back trees especially difficult. In some cases, landowners like the Chaplins view the choice as a way to diversify how their property contributes to family wellbeing over time.
As Maine grapples with how to balance working forests, climate goals and biodiversity, programs that compensate owners for delaying harvest may become an increasingly common tool. For communities where forest products form a portion of local economy, the challenge will be scaling incentives while respecting private land rights and the economic needs of timber-dependent families.
