As printed in FSM’s newsletter, Forest View, Spring 2018.

Forest habitat is working to make your quality of life better 24/7 whether you live near woods or hundreds of miles away. If you live near the woods you may see firsthand how forests are beneficial, but if you live in a city you may find yourself wondering how forestland, particularly forestland hours away, benefits you. Perhaps you aren’t an avid hiker, fisherman, nature-watcher, or outdoor enthusiast, and that’s okay.

It is widely recognized that everyone benefits from undeveloped habitat, like forests or wetlands. These benefits, whether direct or indirect, are referred to as ecosystem services. Ecosystem services are services provided by nature essentially for free that we would otherwise have to pay for. Clean water is one example. Forests filter out pollutants and particulates so that citizens pay less to treat their drinking water. Another way tree-covered landscapes help is by soaking up rainwater, releasing it slowly over time and reducing the amount of runoff that causes rivers and streams to flood. The forest upstream from you may be keeping your cellar dry.

Forestland everywhere provides carbon storage, temperature moderation and cleaner air, maintenance of productive soils, wildlife habitat, and a renewable source of fuel and fiber. These benefits are local and regional, and even global.

There are many tangible products we use daily that come from forests. Toothpicks, for instance, toilet paper, rolling pins, baseball bats, furniture, and Popsicle sticks, are made from trees. Many people heat their homes with wood–either firewood or pellets. Most of us use paper on a regular basis, even in the computer era. Millions of forested acres in Maine mean some products are grown, harvested, and produced right in our own backyard providing local jobs for our fellow Mainers.

We rely on forestland for a healthier environment, jobs, resources (like wood products), wildlife habitat, and a place to recreate and relax. Forests play an important role in many aspects of our lives and thanks to our supporters the Forest Society of Maine has helped conserve more than one million acres of Maine’s forestland that continues to provide these benefits for all of us.

One of FSM’s friends spent much of her childhood in Greenville, Maine as a young girl in the 1940s. Our friend was kind enough to share some stories with us. Here is an excerpt about a winter trip to Moosehead Lake.

Dear Mary,

I bet you’ll have an Easter egg hunt this Easter. I want to tell you about one I had when I was ten years old. It was not Easter, but April. I had been invited to spend a few days with a friend at their camp—just three of us girls. We rode to Lily Bay with the mailman, who also had a lot of food to take to a logging camp up that way. We met a logging truck on a curve just as we hit a patch of ice causing us to slide into a snow bank. The truck tipped onto its side, but we were not hurt, only shaken up. Walter, our driver, was able to open his door and help us climb out into the soft, deep snow. Everything had fallen out of the truck—big sides of beef, heads of cabbage, and 57 dozen eggs, as well as the mail enclosed in four large bags. The logging truck had not seen our mishap, so had gone on.

Walter told us we would have to help him. Somehow we got the truck back right side up. The old trucks were not heavy, so we could push and Walter was strong. He did tell us to be careful as we struggled with the large pieces of beef and veggies. The mail was okay in the bags, but the eggs? They had fallen out of the cartons and had to be found!

It was some hunt to find as many eggs as we could. The snow was soft and deep and we formed a line, moving together as we dug for eggs. Many were close together and unbroken, but others had been tossed about as the truck rolled onto its side. We found 30 dozen easily, but it was harder finding the next 27 dozen. We looked at each hole in the snow as we spread out hunting. It was not a cold day and we were dressed warmly. It was not a bad time for us girls, but Walter knew the loggers and the cook needed those eggs. We had their food for a week!

We spent quite a lot of time hunting and placing the eggs in unbroken cartons as we found them. Would you believe we found only a few broken eggs? We knew that from the shells and yellow snow. We had spent most of that morning looking, and no car had passed. Walter stopped at Lily Bay to let us out and then went on to meet a man with a sled and horse to take the food to their camp. We knew we had missed finding a little over a dozen eggs in all that snow! It was a great camping trip.

Read the rest of the story here.