State exempts J.D. Irving on clear-cutting rules
The state’s largest landowner, J.D. Irving, negotiated a deal last year with the state to exempt its 1.25 million acres of forestland from some of the clear-cutting regulations and harvesting standards of the Forest Practices Act, according to the Portland Press Herald.
The paper reported the company signed a five-year agreement in May which, until a report this month, had not been disclosed to the public. Ked Coffin, a forester with Irving, told the paper the company’s softwood harvest would increase 70% over the next 35 years under the state program and that striking the deal was a factor in the company’s plan to build a $30 million sawmill in Ashland.
The exemptions for the company’s forestland are through an experimental forestry program started in 2001 called Outcome Based Forestry. J.D. Irving is the first participant in the program, which it sought to join after lawmakers opened it to parcels larger than 100,000 acres in 2007 and removed a sunset provision in 2011.
Pete Didisheim, advocacy director for the Natural Resources Council of Maine, told the paper the deal is out of line with the state program’s original intentions. He warned the deal could endanger the state’s approximately 10 million acres of certified forestland, as harvesting agreements under the program are largely confidential and overseen by a regulatory panel appointed by Gov. Paul LePage.
State officials with the Bureau of Parks and Lands told the paper the harvests are managed closely by a panel of experts who provide a scientific rationale for each harvest.
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