Published by the Maine Environmental Policy Institute
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Visit the Low Impact Forestry Project of the Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association (MOFGA). See an article by Mitch Lansky on MOFGA's Low Impact Forestry project.

Articles and essays by Mitch Lansky:

  • (Posted 5/23/2019) Low Impact Forestry: Forestry as if the Future Mattered by Mitch Lansky - book now available for free download. download pdf of the book.

  • (Posted 3/29/2019) Forest Ecosystem Carbon Removal in the Power Line Right of Way for 145 Miles of the New England Clean Energy Connect Corridor. by Mitch Lansky, March 2019. download report.

  • (Posted 2/27/2019) Estimating Carbon in Maine Trees and Forests And Managing Strategies to Increase Carbon Sequestration. Mitch Lansky August, 2018. (download introduction)

    Other files: Maine forest carbon estimator graphs-1.xlsx)
    Maine forest carbon estimator interactive.xlsx)
    Maine tree carbon estimator.xlsx)

  • (Posted 4/12/2016) Double Bottom Line: Managing Maine’s Forests to Increase Carbon Sequestration and Decrease Carbon Emissions. By Mitch Lansky, March 2016 (download report - read summary)

  • Irving Certification Valuation. Submitted to FSC by Mitch Lansky, Reed Plantation, Maine, Nov. 2014 (download doc file)

  • (Posted 5/2/2012)
  • Beyond the Beauty Strip: A 20th Year Retrospective, By Mitch Lansky (download msword file)

  • Old Growth: A New Paradigm for Forestry. A Report on the 6th Eastern Old Growth Forestry Conference. (download msword file)

  • Governor Baldacci's Maine Forest Certification Workshop. Sustainable Forestry: Growing Supply, Growing Demand. (download msword file)

  • A critique of Maine Logging Industry and the Bonded Labor Program: An Economic Analysis Prepared for MDOL hearing, Presque Isle. (download msword file)

  • Big oaks, little acorns: Those who do forestry work are not just doing it for themselves; the consequences of today's actions, good or bad, will be felt for generations to come. (download msword file)

  • Recommendations to FSC-US to Make Forestry Certification More Credible. (download msword file)

  • Not Wilderness. (In the book, On Wilderness: Voices from Maine, published by Tilbury House, 2003) (download msword file)

  • Paying Loggers. Something has been forgotten in the name of productivity of extraction; the productivity of the residual forest. (download msword file)

Demand Reduction: an essay by Mitch Lansky.
Consumption of wood products cannot grow indefinitely, because there are limits to how much the earth can supply. Given that simple reality, the question arises as to whether we will find some sustainable consumption level now, when there are still natural forest options, or later, when options have become severely limited because so much land has been simplified by plantation forestry.

  • Items to be included in a contract between the logger and the landowner
  • A sample logger/landowner contract
  • Logging Cost Calculator for Low-Impact Forestry
  • Profiles of Low-Impact Forestry Practitioners Mel Ames and Sam Brown (html)
  • Profiles of: Bob Matthews: Low-Impact Logger in Baxter State Park and Bill Dauphinee: Low-Impact Logger.

    Praise for Low-Impact Forestry: Forestry as if the Future Mattered .....

    "Informed dialogue is the only way to avoid the all-too-common diappointments that arise after a harvest is completed. There are no do-overs in this business. The information needed to help you make these informed decisions and how to communicate them are right here in this book." - Bob Matthews, Maine professional logger

    "This book is a must read for all who love the forest for all its values and move products from the stump to market. It well written and crafted in a very understandable way for the average landowner. Loggers and foresters will get a lot of useful information and ideas too." - Ron Locke, Maine forester

    "Mitch Lansky has compiled a valuable collection of the latest knowledge available on the subject. If the future really matters, this book may be even more successful than his last." - Wade Prest, Atlantic Forestry Review

    "Even those who have nothing to do directly with forestry but are interested in biology will find the book fascinating. [...] 'Something good' is an understatement for the contribution that Lansky and others have made through this book." - Jean English, The Maine Organic Farmer and Gardener

    "Sustainable forestry is right where organic gardening was a generation ago--at the very beginning of working out the techniques and technologies that will let logging thrive at a scale appropriate to both the human and natural communities that depend on the forest. This book is at--if you will pardon the expression--the absolute cutting edge of that process." - Bill McKibben, author

    "A very useful guide and overview, at just the right breadth and detail for a woodlot owner like me--and there are a lot of us. [The book gives] plenty of sources for those of us who want more. This is just what was needed. Practical and timely." - Bernd Heinrich, professor, author

    "There is a 'New Forestry' today. A few people see it in every state that I have visited--just a few really understand it. Forest owners need to find this! Mitch Lansky is clearly one of the leaders of this movement. I highly recommend this book." - Jim Birkemeier, Timbergreen Forestry

    "This isn't a high-density information reference for the experts nor really a textbook; it's an easy-chair book for people who might be buying a woodlot, or inheriting one. This book is about the re-humanization of forests - and of people - Earthwide. Methinks there are, and will be, other books, from other places; this one graces Lansky and Maine." - David Martin, Ecoforestry Institute

  • Maine Environmental Policy Institute
    210 Water Street, POB 347, Hallowell, Maine 04347. Phone: 207-622-9766