Maine Forests: ONE OF OUR MOST IMPORTANT CARBON-REDUCING SOLUTIONS

BY CRYSTAL SANDS

As states throughout the country work to reduce carbon and find climate change solutions, Maine has an advantage other states do not— our forests.

Maine is the most forested state in the nation, and this serves us well when it comes to sequestering carbon from the atmosphere. According to Karin Tilberg, president of The Forest Society of Maine, “Maine’s forests sequester nearly 70 percent of Maine’s greenhouse gas emissions every year.” She adds, “Our forests are critical in our efforts to get to net zero in the coming years.”

Because trees convert carbon dioxide to oxygen through the process of photosynthesis, our forests here in Maine are actually helping us combat climate change, which, according to The Forest Society of Maine, more than 70 percent of Mainers agree is a serious problem.

The Forest Society of Maine is making great efforts to preserve our forests. After a century of growth in the percentage of Maine that is made up of forests, our state is seeing a slow decline. Tilberg emphasizes that our state is currently losing “about 10,000 acres of natural and working land to development each year.” Currently about 22 percent of our state is forested, but according to Tilberg, the goal is to reverse the trend toward decline and reserve about 30 percent of Maine for forests by 2030.

Tilberg points out that we are beginning to lose ground when it comes to our forests because of development pressure in the state. “Right now, the decline is slow, but there is concern the decline will pick up as more people move to Maine.” As experts predict a sharp growth in Maine’s population due to climate immigration, preserving our forests is a concern. Disasters, such as fires and floods, along with water shortages in the west, make Maine an appealing place

TILBERG EMPHASIZES THAT OUR STATE IS CURRENTLY LOSING “ABOUT 10,000 ACRES OF NATURAL AND WORKING LAND TO DEVELOPMENT EACH YEAR.” to live for many, and the numbers of people moving into our state are expected to grow in coming decades.

With this growth in mind, The Forest Society of Maine is taking great efforts to preserve our forests now. The Forest Society works with landowners to acquire “conservation easements,” which are designed to prohibit new development in forested areas. In some cases, landowners simply donate their forested land to the Forest Society, but in some cases, The Forest Society purchases the development rights to the forested land, which protects the land from future development. According to Tilberg, The Forest Society of Maine currently controls over a million acres of land, protecting it for our future.

In fact, Maine’s North Woods are mostly privately owned, but through agreements and partnerships between landowners and trusts, as well as organizations like The Maine Forest Society, our North Woods are preserved, protected from development. These agreements also typically ensure public access to these areas, something that is also important in helping generations of Mainers connect to the woods and to nature and to understand the importance of these preserved lands.

In “Maine Won’t Wait,” Maine’s four-year plan for climate action published in 2020 by the Maine Climate Council and endorsed by Governor Janet Mills, the authors emphasize the importance of Maine’s forests in helping our state reach our climate goals. Tilberg says, “Forest conservation is identified as an essential strategy” in this report.

Our forests here in Maine cannot be taken for granted, especially as we begin to see population growth due, in part, to climate change. Our forests are a critical part of our solution, so protecting them is important. Our forests are an advantage we don’t want to lose. “The key [to meeting our climate change goals] is to not lose our forests,” says Tilberg.