Logging Operation Causes Concern in Berlin

Kevin and Julie Evans’ house sits high on a hill north of Berlin.

A picture window in back takes full advantage of the sweeping view of the mountains.

JULIE EVANS 003 24 theres the presidentials, and if you look to the left you can see some ski trails on wildcat. and then up over here is the mahoosucs in maine.

But that’s not all Julie Evans can see.

Creeping across the landscape is a series of what look like snowy
patches in the forest.

They’re open spaces where most of the trees have been cut.

JULIE EVANS those are all recent openings, just in the last two years.
they’ve shown up this winter as the snow came. and theyr’e starting to
hook together so they’re more visible.

Julie Evans is not opposed to logging.

In fact, she and her husband are both licensed loggers.

They’re reluctant to criticize the work of other
foresters.

But they’re concerned about what they see out their windows.

Kevin Evans is worried heavy-handed logging now will leave a much less
productive forest for future decades.

KEVIN EVANS 007 400 its kinda like your bank acct. if you take a little
out of the bank, you don’t get as much interest. and you have to build
back up to get that interest. how you cut has a major effect on what you
can sustain in the future.

They also wonder what will happen to the land.

Large clear-cut areas make it easier to break the property into house
lots and sell them for development.

The Evanses aren’t the only ones who are worried.

Recently the Coos County Planning Board met to gather information about
heavy logging in the North Country.

They focused particularly on the unincorporated area of Success,
northeast of Berlin.

Longtime state legislator Fred King chaired the
gathering.

He emphasized at the outset that the Board was there to learn, not to
slap restrictions on the timber industry.

KING if theres anything we believe in coos county, it’s people have a
right to do what they want with their land. the problem is, the future.

But some loggers and allies of the industry reacted angrily to the
suggestion that they’re mortgaging the forest’s future.

Ted Tichy is a forester for TR Dillon, a company at the center of the
controversy.

Tichy insisted Dillon has a longterm plan to hang onto its properties in
the Berlin area and keep them productive.

He charged his company’s critics were paying more attention to rumor
than facts.

TICHY 20 55 wild accusations about how much woods’ being cut, land being
stripped, everything being clearcut from border to border, I mean it’s just outrageous and it just irks me.

Don Tardie is in charge of timber purchasing for the paper mill complex
in Berlin and Gorham.

Tardie says if there’s a glut of wood being harvested in the North
Country, no-one’s told him about it.

TARDIE 28 312 with all the overcutting going on, I have to ask myself
where’s the fiber? if in fact we’re overcutting this much, how come
we’re not seeing our woodlot full in berlin?

In fact, Tardie said, the mills are beginning to wonder whether there’s
enough wood in the area to support them.

Comments like those strike fear into the hearts of officials from Berlin.

They see the mills and their 500-plus jobs as central to the region’s
economy.

Berlin Mayor Bob Danderson argued keeping the mills open now is as
important as worrying about the impacts of logging.

He said the companies who’ve come under fire are helping Berlin’s
economic interests.

DANDERSON I’d rather deal with Dillon than the national forest. if I had
my way we wouldn’t have a national forest in berlin. because you can’t
do a damn thing with ‘em. you can’t put an atv on it. but it’s funny.
some of these private landowners like Dillon are allowing these trails
to grow through their property.

The Dillon company is in discussions with the state to put an ATV park
in Berlin.

The company has offered to sell 7000 acres and make another 3000
accessible for ATV trails.

Underlying the debate is a concern over changes to the way land is owned
in the north country.

Traditionally timber companies owned large swathes of the forest and
held onto them for decades.

Lately those companies have been selling out.

The land is getting broken into smaller parcels
and bought and sold more frequently.

As longtime logger Brad Wyman pointed out, every sale increases the
pressure to make a profit.

WYMAN 30 10 when the land gets sold it seems v frequently to get sold to
the very highest bidder at prices that leave very little option than to
cut heavily.

There’s little agreement on how to counteract those financial pressures.

Some attendees at the meeting expressed hope that industry and
government could sit down together to work out a solution.

But given the palpable anger and distrust in the room, getting to a
compromise doesn’t look easy.

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