🌲🌎 Happy Earth Day from Forest Society of Maine!

Globally, Forests provide tens of millions of jobs, are a vital part of the food chain, and over 28,000 species of forest plants are used in medicines. With approximately 89% of its land covered by forests, Maine is the most forested state in the U.S.

With your help, FSM can continue working to keep it that way. Today, we will receive $1,000 if we make it to 22 gifts, thanks to a generous match from an anonymous donor. We’re already halfway there! We hope you will consider making an Earth Day gift to FSM today to help us reach 22 gifts to unlock our match. Your generosity today helps us conserve forestlands in Maine to ensure that they can be enjoyed by current and future generations.

Can’t give today? Here are some other meaningful ways to take action for Earth Day.

🌎 Find an Earth Day event near you! Community cleanups, tree planting, town hall meetings, community organizing, and much more. Find a map of events at EarthDay.org.

♻️ Commit to one eco-friendly habit this month. Commit to using reusable bags only, taking shorter showers, or cleaning up litter when you take a walk.

🌱 Share our mission! Share our posts or tell someone why our work to conserve Maine’s forestlands matters.

Your support helps sustain the movement for a healthier planet. We’re truly grateful for your help. Thank you for celebrating Earth Day with us in such a meaningful way.

Give today: https://www.fsmaine.org/give

Great News!! Last week, FSM closed on a conservation easement on 600 acres just outside of Bangor. A former landowner, whose family had owned the land for more than 100 years, sat down with us and told us his family’s history with the land.

According to him, his father and relatives built the last kiln to work in Glenburn in 1935. They did the brick work themselves and the resulting kiln looked like a brick beehive with two metal doors and a smoke hole on the top, with vent holes all the way around. It was 20 feet across, stood 18 feet high, and held 10 cords of wood. This wood came from trees on the nearby land that were cut by hand, then sawed into four-foot length logs.

The kiln was closed when family members were drafted into WWII. After the war, the demand for charcoal had lessened to the point that there was no longer a need for these local kilns. Today, only remnants remain.

FSM’s work to conserve Maine’s forestlands permanently prevents development, helping to ensure that historic landscapes and structures like these remain. A tremendous thank you to everyone who helped make this project a success.

UPCOMING EVENT
April 22, 2026
6 -7 PM
Bangor Public Library
Norman Minsky Lecture Hall

Join us on Earth Day as Bob Duchesne will present “Maine is Weird,” a detailed explanation of why Maine and its forest look the way they do. The Top Ten Reasons Maine is Weird will surprise even most Mainers.

The state’s geology, geography, and history are vastly different from those of other states, which explains why so many birds come here. In fact, due to these historical quirks, Maine remains the most-forested state in the nation.

Duchesne is a former state legislator and radio show host who started his own bird guiding business, Maine Birding Trail. He served on environment-oriented committees while serving the state and writes a birding column for the Bangor Daily News.

We hope to see you there! Learn more about the event at the Bangor Public Library’s website.

We’re hiring! FSM is seeking to add a Forestland Steward to our team.

Join FSM at the Maine Science Festival, March 28th, 2026 for Forests: Sanctuaries for Dark!
Many of us have marveled at the glittering view of the cosmos from our favorite isolated spot. But one local man took his passion for stargazing to the next level and constructed an astrophotography lab to observe and record deep space objects. Forests: Sanctuaries for Dark is a celebration of his breathtaking images and a reflection on why Maine, with its millions of acres of undeveloped, unlit forests, remains a haven for dark skies on the East Coast.

Presented by Bryan Wells maineforest – find more of his work here: https://wellsforest.com/

The Maine Science Festival will take place March 25-29 at the Cross Insurance Center in Bangor, ME. The presentation on how the images are created will begin at 1:30 PM, but the images will be on view all day. See you there!

📷 Photo by Bryan Wells, Embryo Nebula