The Johns River Basin in northern New Hampshire was recently recognized as a working forest project that provides an excellent example of people and organizations collaborating to support conservation and forest stewardship. In a ceremony that took place in August, the ambitious habitat restoration project led by Wagner Forest Management received the prestigious Two Chiefs' Award, bestowed by the heads of the U.S. Forest Service and the Natural Resources Conservation Service for "the very best partnerships and projects occurring across the country." A joint press release from the two agencies cites key attributes of the Wagner project as "improving dense softwood and aspen-birch habitats" and avoiding "soil erosion and sedimentation of surface waters and wetlands."

According to Ray Berthiaume, a forester with Wagner Forest Management, "Using sustainable logging techniques, we're generating forest products for industry, creating jobs, and earning income for the owners of the land we manage. Thanks to the cutting schedule we've set up, we're also able to help wildlife by renewing the young-forest habitat that a lot of different animals need."

Working closely with WMI biologist John Lanier, along with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and New Hampshire Fish and Game, Wagner is logging on three large tracts containing about 4,600 acres of mainly aspen-and-birch woods. On each tract, Berthiaume and Lanier laid out a grid of 5-acre blocks. Over the next four decades Wagner will oversee the cutting of timber on all of the blocks, both to harvest wood products and to spur the regrowth of aspen, a fast-growing tree that sprouts prolifically from its root system following logging. Aspen is a great species to form the basis of a working forest, since it yields many valuable products from wood chips for generating electricity to pulp for manufacturing paper. It also makes prime wildlife habitat, particularly following a timber harvest when the young trees grow back as a dense thicket on the land.

On the three parcels, different areas are set up on different time rotations. For example, on one of the tracts the timber blocks will be harvested at seven-year-intervals. On another tract, the logging operations ? called "entries" ? will happen at ten-year intervals. The result will be a regrowing forest composed of healthy trees of many different ages, all in proximity to one another. In that ever-regrowing forest, wildlife will find food, such as berries and insects, along with protective cover. Some of the species that will thrive on the Wagner tracts are American woodcock, ruffed grouse, snowshoe hare (and possibly Canada lynx that prey on hares), white-tailed deer, and moose. Dozens of species of songbirds will benefit as well.

Says Wagner forester Berthiaume, "I just love this project. It's one where we get to practice industrial forest management and help animals at the same time. We're managing for wood, water, and wildlife in such a way that we'll have wood, water, and wildlife into the future. This project will just go on and on, bringing benefits to the people and wildlife in northern New Hampshire."

Read a longer account of the habitat work being conducted on Wagner lands in Coos and Grafton counties that appears on YoungForest.org, a new website produced by WMI. (cf)