Community Forests of Maine
Summary of Maine Foundation Forests Back to Main Directory (view other states)
 Allen-Whitney Memorial Forest
Manchester, Maine /700 acres
- Portions of this land were settled by the Allen family during colonial times. The Allen family was active in the publishing business and owned considerable commercial property in downtown Augusta. Mr. Edward A.Whitney was on the faculty of Harvard University, where he met John Hemenway and became acquainted with NEFF. He deeded the first parcel of this forest to NEFF in 1955.
The property has been under continuous management by NEFF since 1950 when a forest management plan was prepared by forester A.W. Neff. The first timber sale was made in 1950 when 225,000 board feet of marked timber were sold for the stumpage price of $9.07/mbf. Additional timber sales have been made regularly since 1950.
Tree planting on the abandoned fields was begun by Mr. Whitney in the 1940s and continued until 1961. Sixty-one thousand trees were planted under the Soil Bank program. All of the plantations have been thinned except for a few acres south of the former summer house. An internal road system was constructed in the early 1960s, providing access to all portions of the property.
Map Available
The forest was severely damaged in the ice storm of January, 1998.
Directions: At Manchester Corner at the junction of Routes 202 and 17, take Route 17 northwest about 1.6 miles to Worthing Rd. on right. Take Worthing Rd. about 1.1 miles to Scribner Hill Rd., which runs through the center of the property.
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- Arnold Family Forest
Freeport, Maine /67 acres
- NEFF has become the recipient of a beautiful 67 acre property in Freeport Maine. Barbara H. Arnold and her family made a gift of this wooded property at the end of December 2002. The property has The land had been in the Arnold family for three generations with extensive frontage on Fogg Point and Staples Point Roads as well as on the Redding Creek feeding into Casco Bay. The family once owned over 200 acres on a point overlooking Casco Bay north of Portland, ME.
The property consists of two major forest types, an oak/pine forest type that is very prevalent in this region of the southern Maine coast and a red pine plantation. According to Mrs. Arnold, the plantation was established in the mid 60’s to fill in the runway of an airstrip which her husband, Duncan Arnold, had built in the 50’s. Mrs. Arnold’s husband owned the Caterpillar Tractor Dealership for Maine and flew for both business and pleasure.
Map Available
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- Bliss Woods
Freeport, Maine /86 acres
- Bliss Woods in Freeport, Maine is one of the few properties that were not donated to NEFF. It was an island of forestland in the middle of suburban house lots that was slated for subdivision and development itself in the late 1990’s. A group of conservation groups including the Freeport Conservation Trust, Norcross Wildlife Foundation, the Citizens of Freeport, and the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation helped NEFF acquire the property to halt the development and preserve a little bit of nature in the rapidly developing town.
The 86-acre woodlot is about a mile and a half from the shores of the Harraseeket River and Casco Bay. The woods are dominated by red oak, white pine, and red spruce. The property provides a variety of habitats for wildlife including mast-producing hardwood stands, mixed softwood stands for winter cover, flooded wetlands, and grassy openings. Bliss Woods also offers excellent recreational opportunities with the existing trail network and scenic qualities of the woods
Map Available
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- Dennett Memorial Forest
Sebago, ME /42 acres
- Forty-two acres of woodland overlooking Sebago Lake in Maine were given to NEFF in 1980 by Miss Bertha M. Yerrinton of Arlington, Massachusetts. The forest is on the northerly slope of Wind Mountain and is named in honor of Dr. Charles A. Dennett, who acquired the land and built the summer house on the property. Miss Yerrinton reserved the summer cottage and 8.3 acres of land which is nearly surrounded by NEFF land. There is a vista of the western Maine mountains from the ledges near the southwestern corner of the property.
This property has been under NEFF’s management since 1959 when a woodland examination report was prepared for the Yerrinton sisters. A timber sale was made in 1960 when softwood stumpage sold for $19 per thousand board feet (mbf) and hardwoods for $15 per mbf. Another harvest in 1976 yielded pine which sold for $45 per mbf and spruce for $30 per mbf. A February, 1997 harvest of 107 thousand board feet and 140 cords, mostly pine, brought a price of $130.00 per mbf and $10.00 per cord.
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- Edgecomb Forest
Hiram, Maine /66 acres
- Justin G. Sharaf made the generous contribution of this forest in 1993. NEFF began work on this land in 1963, when an appraisal was completed. A timber sale in 1982 brought a stumpage price of $70 per mbf for white pine and $100 per mbf for oak. NEFF has conducted extensive pruning on the white pine in this forest.
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- Horace A. Hurd Memorial Forest
Berwick, Maine /165 acres
- This property was conveyed to NEFF by the estate of Alston Hurd Chase of Berwick, Maine in 1994. Mr. Chase planted red pines in the abandoned fields adjacent to the farm house in 1965. A grass fire which spread from the adjacent property destroyed the eastern portion of the plantations. The burned land was later replanted to red pine and pitch pine.
At the time NEFF acquired the property, no timber had been cut since the 1950s when a portable sawmill had been set up south of Worster Brook.
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- Keene-Whitman Forest
Hebron and Turner, Maine /120 acres
- This forest was donated in 1996 by George Martin of Martha's Vineyard in memory of his grandparents, Henry Whitman and Mable Keene Whitman. The land had been in Mr. Martin's family since 1840. The headwaters for the Auburn/Lewiston water supply originate on this property, which has been managed by NEFF since the mid-1980s
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- Luce Memorial Forest
Readfield, Maine /78 acres
- This property was conveyed to NEFF by James M. Smith and Julia H.M. Smith Solmssen in 1991. The property consists of three contiguous parcels of land which have been under NEFF management since 1951 when a woodland examination report was prepared. Six timber sales were carried out by NEFF between 1954 and 1989.
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- M-N-Ocie Memorial Forest
Montville, Maine /44 acres
- This property was conveyed to NEFF by Elden B. and Ocie S. Maddocks in 1987. The name M-N-Ocie comes from the first letter in the last names of five women Mr. Maddocks wished to memorialize, plus his wife's first name. Those persons were Claudie Grinnell Maddocks (his mother), Bessie Thurston Norwood Maddocks (his stepmother), Maude Jones Merrifield (his high school teacher), E. Christine Norwood (her daughter), and Ocie Saunders Fitzgerald Maddocks (his wife).
The Maddocks learned about NEFF through a referral from The Nature Conservancy. Mr. Maddocks was concerned that his land be managed in perpetuity as a working forest. A 1994 timber sale salvaged 70 thousand board feet of sawlogs and 300 cords of pulpwood, primarily overmature and dead larch.
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- Sortwell Memorial Forest
Wiscasset, ME /90 acres
- This property was given to NEFF by Mr. Daniel R. Sortwell in 1955. The forest has been managed by NEFF for many years and is heavily stocked with mature white pine. In 1973 and 1975, Mrs. Marion S. Warland of Wiscasset, a sister of the late Daniel Sortwell, gave two small parcels of land to even out boundaries and bring the area of the magnificent Sortwell Memorial Forest to a total of 90 acres.
Map Available
Directions: At the intersection of Routes 1 and 27 in Wiscasset take Route 27 north about 4/10 mile. Turn left, left again and right onto Old Dresden Road. Property is about 1/2 mile on right.
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- Lieutenant Clair Hall Thurston, Jr. Memorial Forest
Montville and Knox, Maine /378 acres
- This property was conveyed to NEFF by Agnes M. Thurston in 1988 in memory of her son and only child, a West Point graduate who was killed in Vietnam. The land offers a superb view to the east of rolling farmland and forests.
There were approximately 100 acres of hay fields when NEFF acquired the land. In 1990, 7,500 red pines were planted in two fields and some abandoned pasture land on Route 220 in Montville. In 1992, 38 thousand board feet and 312 cords, mostly mature fir, were harvested. In 1994, another 9 thousand board feet and 72 cords were harvested from the lowland on the eastern portion of the property. Eight nesting boxes were set in the fields in 1993 in hopes of attracting bluebirds.
The forest was heavily damaged in the ice storm of January, 1998.
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- True Farm Forest
Mechanic Falls, Maine /150 acres
- This property was donated to NEFF between 1988 and 1993 by Herbert W. Pratt, longtime NEFF board member, and his wife, Patricia R. Pratt. The land is a portion of the True Farm which had been owned by various members of the True Family since the 1850s. All of the land was formerly in field, pasture or orchard.
The forest has been managed by NEFF since 1971 and supports a well-stocked white pine forest, with lesser amounts of hardwood. It protects a long stretch of road frontage in Mechanic Falls. Four timber sales have been conducted on the property, with total volume sold of 180 thousand board feet and 1,300 cords. In 1978, 500 white pine trees were pruned in the old orchard stand just east of the old county road.
Map Available
Directions: The forest is on Route 26, one mile north of the intersection of Routes 11 and 26. Entrance is abandoned road on right opposite Edwards Rd. Go northeast on abandoned road about 400 feet and turn left on logging road which runs through the property.
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