Project Area
The Nature Conservancy owns and manages more than 160,000 acres of forest land in the Upper St. John River watershed in northwestern Maine, bordering Quebec. Of this forest, 81,000 acres is sustainably-managed as timberland and the other 84,900 acres is dedicated to forest reserves that provide mature forest habitat for species such as pine marten. This property is located in the center of more than 32 million acres of relatively contiguous forest stretching from the Adirondack Mountains to the Gaspe Peninsula on the Atlantic coast—the largest expanse of uninterrupted forest in eastern North America. Timber management of the St. John River Forest is part of a much broader strategy to conserve forest habitats at a landscape scale.
Management Goals
Prior to the Conservancy’s ownership in 1999, the land was owned and managed by large timber companies. Decades of industrial timber management dramatically altered forest composition and structure, with one of the effects being that the species composition and structural diversity of the forest were greatly reduced. For example, stands that typically contained a 25%-75% softwood (spruce, fir, pine and cedar) component have often been reduced to less than 10%, with little softwood regeneration present. Coupled with extreme levels of moose browse on hardwood species, the overall growth of young forest stands has been severely compromised across the ownership.
Current management across this large ownership includes:
- Protecting a vast landscape of plant and animal communities, including several rare species
- Sustainably managing forests to provide important habitats and contribute to the region’s economy
- Providing a location for research on important species like the Canada lynx and American marten
Climate Change Impacts
Over the long-term, climate change is expected to cause the decline of more northern species, while increasing potential habitat for species that currently have more southerly distributions. While the St. John River Forest is located extremely far north in the United States and may be buffered from substantial changes for some time, managers of the forest are beginning to consider how to adapt the forest to uncertain future conditions.
Adaptation Actions
The Nature Conservancy received a grant from the Wildlife Conservation Society's Climate Adaptation Fund to improve the ability of the St. John River Forest to adapt to changing conditions. The Adaptation Workbook was used to identify restoration and adaptation activities across several hundred acres (see table below).
Beginning in 2015, The Nature Conservancy and management partners worked to plant approximately 200,000 trees across 500 acres of forest. Species that were planted included black spruce, white pine, and northern white-cedar. These native tree species were selected to restore a greater conifer component to these ecosystems as a way to improve forest diversity and habitat quality. The potential risks from climate change on each species was considered; as a result, the forest managers worked to increase eastern white pine, a species that was not historically abundant in this region, but is projected to be better-suited to the future climate.
2.1. Maintain or improve the ability of forests to resist pests and pathogens.
9.1. Favor or restore native species that are expected to be adapted to future conditions.
Monitoring
Initial monitoring results showed high mortality overall, possibly due to site selection issues, planting practices, and site preparation needs in areas with heavy grasses and forbs. However, cedar survival was very good, which is beneficial due to its slow growth rate and merchantability. These results highlight that site selection and site preparation can be critical to seedling success, especially in areas where advanced herbaceous, shrub, and tree growth is present.
In addition, softwoods persisted in many cutover stands to a surprisingly high degree, possibly due to the retention of sub-merchantable softwood stems that eventually attained seed production age, in combination with the sunlight and shelter mix created by the harvesting.