PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • February 6, 2021
In a letter this past week to the acting chief of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resources Conservation Service, Maine’s congressional delegation pressed the agency to change a proposed a 45,000-acre threshold as part of the definition of a nonindustrial private forest. The proposal could reduce federal funding and the ability to pull in matching funds for the Appalachian Mountain Club, which owns and manages 75,000 acres of forest in Piscataquis County. The club has received more than $500,000 in federal funding from agency programs under the current definition, and has used the money to hire loggers and logging equipment to install stream restoration material and restore habitat for brook trout and Atlantic salmon.