Relationships
The Essence of Low Impact Forestry
Editor’s Note: “Low-impact forestry is a way of managing the forest as if the future of both the forest and society mattered.” Since 1995 and my first reading of these words in The Northern Forest Forum, I have been intrigued to learn more about Mitch Lansky’s new approach to forestry in the industrial woods of northern Maine. Mitch wrote the bible on the subject in 2002 and laid out the principles that guide the vibrant Low-Impact Forestry (LIF) program at MOFGA (Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association). Yet, since the beginning, whenever Mitch is asked to explain the concept and practice of LIF, he has always responded “go visit Sam Brown.” We did, and we benefited greatly. - David Foster
Low-Impact Forestry (LIF) has a problem: We know how to do good, long-term, durable work in the woods, but we can’t afford to do it. This is our biggest challenge, and it affects how we view our role as humans in relationship with the rest of the planet’s species.
LIF, in general, seeks to grow and keep big trees. In order to grow big trees, many practical things have to occur. Soils must be protected; canopies need to be deep and wide enough to support layers of plants and absorb precipitation; roots and trunks can’t be bruised, bent, and torn; the crowns of individual crop trees need to have room to expand appropriately; and growing space must not be taken up by too many woods roads and access trails. These are not controversial practices among foresters; they simply require more care, time, and patience than “conventional” logging.
A controversy arises, however, when trying to keep big trees. A big tree has more dollar value than a small tree, as well as more ecological, emotional, spiritual, and social value. How do we decide which of these values is the most important? This decision affects woodland management, from maximizing dollars on one hand to enhancing the myriad relationships among all forest creatures on the other.
“The economic system we live in was invented by humans, and not that long ago. Based on material wealth as the highest value, it has been responsible for emphasizing competition over cooperation and has imagined humans as separate from nature. Evolution hasn’t ended; consciousness keeps changing and spreading.”
LIF got started in the late 1980s when a small, informal group of central Maine foresters, landowners, and loggers, concerned about the increasing ecological damage caused by contemporary logging practices, began to converse about different ways to produce forest products without destroying the forest. We hoped to find a way to minimize destructive behaviors by learning and encouraging new logging techniques. Initially, we focused on our own woodlots to see how various harvesting and silvicultural methods worked or didn’t work, discovering eventually that the most important element was the attitude of the logger, not so much what type of technology was used. Obviously, smaller machines and draft animals can potentially have less impact on soils and residual stems than larger ones, but any tool is only as effective as its operator.
LIF harvesting demonstration at the Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association (MOFGA) woodlot in Unity, Maine. Trees are cut to length by chainsaw operators in the woods, moved from the stump to harvest roads by draft animals, and then loaded onto a small forwarder-trailer for transport to the main yard. Photo © Jean English
We determined that to best implement the long-term silvicultural practices that we wanted to promote, short wood logging systems (ones that cut logs in the woods and then move them to a central landing) caused significantly less damage than whole-tree logging. But, they also produced less wood per hour. In addition, most of the trees that we wanted to remove were of low economic value (to give more growing room for those of higher value). This combination of low production rates and low-value products is the main obstacle for LIF loggers. The future value of an improved forest is not represented anywhere in current market prices, at least as far as the logger is concerned. Some sort of subsidy must be supplied.
“Low-Impact Forestry (LIF) has a problem: We know how to do good, long-term, durable work in the woods, but we can’t afford to do it.”
LIF public workshops began in the mid-1990s in Hancock County, where the Planning Commission recognized that many small woodland owners wanted to do good long-term forestry but did not know how to find loggers willing and able to do the work because of the economics involved. Scaling up to reduce costs and gain market clout was a logical but unsuccessful venture, in large part due to the difficulty of centrally organizing numerous independent landowners, loggers, truckers, and foresters to compete in the commodity marketplace. (A key word in the preceding sentence is “independent,” because we are socially and economically conditioned to think of ourselves as separate individuals fending for ourselves much more than recognizing our contributions to and dependency on community.)
Popular LIF chainsaw safety and felling demonstration at the Common Ground Country Fair. Tim Libby takes fairgoers to the forest to explain the steps involved for accurately and safely directing where trees fall in order to reduce damage to residual stems. Photo © Sam Brown
In the late 1990s, LIF began holding a four-day hands-on workshop each fall at the Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association (MOFGA) woodlot in Unity, with the intent of training inexperienced but enthusiastic learners in the skills of low-impact logging. Management and operation of draft animals, chainsaws, and small machines (i.e., farm tractors) as well as elemental forestry practices were taught by experienced volunteers. Initially we thought to produce a cadre of loggers around the state that could perform this logging for small landowners who wanted this type of work in their woods. But soon enough we recognized that most participants were not interested in logging as a career; landowners primarily wanted the skills to safely and wisely harvest their own woodlots.
“Any tool is only as effective as its operator.”
As the workshops progressed and evolved, the importance of relationships began to emerge—relationships among people, trees, soil, animals, machines, roots, water, etc. Logging is not just getting some logs out of the woods. The spirit with which a task is performed is at least as important as its function. We now acknowledge that a landowner’s personal investment of time and energy into forest management and harvesting is an excellent way to reduce the economic costs of LIF without subsidy, not to mention increasing awareness of how everything is related to everything else. No one is going to care for your forest more than you do.
Some of the logging crew enjoying the results of winter LIF harvest week at the MOFGA woodlot in Unity, Maine, 2010. Multiple choppers and teamsters combined with one small forwarder to remove mostly low-value pine pulp from the overstocked forest, paying workers by the hour instead of by the piece. Photo © Sam Brown
As a result of these many workshops and member requests, MOFGA now supports a full-time staff person to continue the educational aspects of LIF, attempting to keep the core principles intact, as many commercial interests now apply the term “low-impact” to almost any logging practice. While LIF was originally concerned about improving logging methods, it now also recognizes the need for multigenerational management tools and attitudes that transcend the purely economic “ownership” models of market capitalism.
The economic system we live in was invented by humans, and not that long ago. Based on material wealth as the highest value, it has been responsible for emphasizing competition over cooperation and has imagined humans as separate from nature. Evolution hasn’t ended; consciousness keeps changing and spreading, and the rate of that spread is also increasing. We will continue to experiment with ways to reconnect with our place in the world.
Sam Brown came to Maine in 1972 as a back-to-the-lander whose interest in logging eventually led to a Maine forester’s license and a deep concern about how all the pieces of a rural community fit together. He currently serves on the Piscataquis County Soil and Water Conservation District board, and, when the weather is nice, still logs on family land in Parkman and Cambridge.