peakbagger
In Rembrance , July 2024
https://forestsociety.org/project/m...220324677&mc_cid=d12fee0585&mc_eid=adc54da1fc
This land was formerly all Brown Company land including the AT. When James RIver bought Brown Company, they sold all the Brown Company land in Maine to the mill in Rumford and importantly all the land south of the ridge line in Shelburne while James River kept everything to the north. Mead Paper the Rumford Mill owners at the time sold all their land to Bayroot (owned by the Yale endowment). The majority of the lands had no conservaton or development easements on them as that concept really was not used in the area. Papermll land by traditional was never sold and never developed but once that paradigm shifted as the industry collapsed, protecting the highlands from development became a priority. AMC was working with town officials in Shelburne decades ago to protect these lands via zoning. Rumford still has a long term wood supply contract with Bayroot and Bayroot had a contractor build a large chipping plant in Shelburne to send chips to Rumford. Therefore Bayroot had been cutting the timber very hard in the Shelburne area for 30 plus years. There was and still is quite a demand for conservation protection in the Mahoosucs and the Androscoggin River corridor as the decades of pollution by the mills up stream kept the Androscoggin River frontage relatively undeveloped. What Bayroot is doing is selling a combination of development easements and outright sales of land along the south side of the Mahoosuc ridge while they have been active buyers of land along the Success Pond road on the north side of the ridge with the AT protected in between. When all the land easements are added up they protect quite a bit of land in Shelburne for development. SPNHF typically is far less agressive with timber management but they will still cut trees ont he easement lands. Unlike the Randolph and Gorham approach that protects lands via town forests controlled by a local management organization, the Shelburne approach is somewaht more patchwork but sill accomplished the goal.
I have also heard that the town of Gorham is actively negotiating for a parcel that contains the privately owned section of the Carter Moriah trail and looking at relocating the trailhead away from the end of the street. Bayroot recently did a major cut up on that lot. Its outside the declaration boundary of the WMNF so it would be difficult for the NF to buy it.
This land was formerly all Brown Company land including the AT. When James RIver bought Brown Company, they sold all the Brown Company land in Maine to the mill in Rumford and importantly all the land south of the ridge line in Shelburne while James River kept everything to the north. Mead Paper the Rumford Mill owners at the time sold all their land to Bayroot (owned by the Yale endowment). The majority of the lands had no conservaton or development easements on them as that concept really was not used in the area. Papermll land by traditional was never sold and never developed but once that paradigm shifted as the industry collapsed, protecting the highlands from development became a priority. AMC was working with town officials in Shelburne decades ago to protect these lands via zoning. Rumford still has a long term wood supply contract with Bayroot and Bayroot had a contractor build a large chipping plant in Shelburne to send chips to Rumford. Therefore Bayroot had been cutting the timber very hard in the Shelburne area for 30 plus years. There was and still is quite a demand for conservation protection in the Mahoosucs and the Androscoggin River corridor as the decades of pollution by the mills up stream kept the Androscoggin River frontage relatively undeveloped. What Bayroot is doing is selling a combination of development easements and outright sales of land along the south side of the Mahoosuc ridge while they have been active buyers of land along the Success Pond road on the north side of the ridge with the AT protected in between. When all the land easements are added up they protect quite a bit of land in Shelburne for development. SPNHF typically is far less agressive with timber management but they will still cut trees ont he easement lands. Unlike the Randolph and Gorham approach that protects lands via town forests controlled by a local management organization, the Shelburne approach is somewaht more patchwork but sill accomplished the goal.
I have also heard that the town of Gorham is actively negotiating for a parcel that contains the privately owned section of the Carter Moriah trail and looking at relocating the trailhead away from the end of the street. Bayroot recently did a major cut up on that lot. Its outside the declaration boundary of the WMNF so it would be difficult for the NF to buy it.