MAINE

Restoration of Appalachian Mountain Club Lands

The goal of this is planting red spruce (Picea rubens) seedlings on 12 ha of a 16 ha of mixedwood forest. The site was harvested under previous ownership with the assumption natural regeneration would repopulate the area. However, trails within the stand are experiencing regeneration failure.  After site preparation, we propose planting red spruce. We are focusing our reforestation on red spruce because of the species’ ecological and economic importance to the state of Maine.  The northeast United States has largely relied on natural regeneration to populate forests following human or natural disturbances. However, global climate change is altering natural regeneration dynamics. Loss of natural regeneration changes the current makeup of forests and threatens ecological values like forest biodiversity, wildlife habitat, forest health, clean air and water, and climate mitigation.  Red spruce is an ideal species for this climate mitigation work because it is long-lived with the potential to storage carbon for hundreds of years.  Forests dominated by red spruce encourage positive effects on the many birds, mammals, amphibians, and plants that live and use these systems.

Tree Species

Red spruce (Picea rubens), 100%

Planting program information with usage permission provided by One Tree Planted