Northeast OTFY: Don Newell and Family of Maine
What makes them outstanding?
The Newells, as said by a United States Senator, "epitomize what Tree Farmers do in Maine. They manage the forest sustainably, are generous to future generations, and open the land to public use, which is unusual compared to other parts of the nation." They actively steward their woodlands not only for timber income, but to promote wildlife and overall forest health. They manage in a way that will provide not only for Don and Patricia, who purchased the property in 1978 but for their children and grandchildren. Beyond this, they welcome the public to utilize their forest for enjoyment and recreation. They have installed many signs that educate and assist public users on the property.
The Newell family is incredibly involved in their local community. Don, and his daughter Emily, are real estate agents who always share the benefits of owning a woodlot to their clients. They are eager to share their property with others. Don's most oft used phrase is "come check out my woodlot." They have hosted numerous tours on their property with audiences that range from the general public and family forest owners to international forestry professors. These events culminated in 2019 with the 65th Annual Forestry Field Day sponsored by the Maine Tree Farm Committee and Maine Woodland Owners. During the event, the Newells hosted over 220 people from all around Maine to explore and celebrate the tremendous work they have accomplished, and to assist those interested in following their footsteps.
Tree Farmer Story
Don, along with his wife Patricia, acquired the land in 1978 to save it from fragmenting into smaller wood lots and house lots. They sold the lots with prime farmland soils to farmers and kept the forestland. Don is a professional real estate broker and often quotes from the Realtor Code of Ethics Preamble, "Under all is the land and upon its wise utilization depend on future generations." Having taught the Code to Realtors for over 20 years, Don is very conscious of his obligation to leave the land better than he found it to best serve future generations. His grandfathers were Maine farmers and loggers, and the long-term livelihood of their families depended upon how well they cared for their land. He is proud of so much on his woodlot. How his forest looks, and the increasing number of people who come and enjoy a walk in his woods. The positive impact that his forest has on a wide variety of wildlife, his efforts to help water move gently across the landscape, and the rapidly growing stock of quality timber throughout the lot.
Don has a birth defect, and had he not taken particularly good care of his body, he most likely would not have been able to do what he has in his wood lot - he refers to his wood lot as his health center and relies upon it for his mental and physical health. His exceptional involvement in the hands-on management of his land has resulted in hundreds, if not thousands, of hours of manual labor. Don spends nearly every morning implementing the recommendations from his forest management plan. Recommendations include trail building, thinning to achieve optimum stocking of high-quality stems, and crop tree release to provide room for valued trees to develop robust crowns. They have also built a bridge to provide good forest management access while maintaining the natural flow of clean water, building wildlife structures to encourage the diversity of wildlife, and eliminating diseased beech and invasive species.
Don's path to the American Tree Farm System is like his forest trails, with lots of twists and turns. He studied engineering and business administration at the University of Maine, and while working on his Master's in Business Administration and Operations Research, the dean of the MBA program asked him to stop by his office. Unity College, a small college which had just opened five years earlier in Unity, Maine, had called the dean to ask if he knew someone who could teach business classes for them starting in 2 weeks. He suggested that Don go and interview for the job. Don got the job, taught for a year, and then took on various administrative positions from Director of Financial Aid to Vice President for Administration. During that period, he got his real estate license and worked part-time for his father-in-law. When asked to market forested land, he called upon a consulting forester, who was teaching at Unity College, to cruise the land and write a brief report about what was special about it, which he included in his marketing packages. Those reports talked about wildlife, trails, potential sugarbushes, and quality timber, and were very effective in attracting the right buyers for the property and in piquing their interest.
When Don bought a wood lot of his own, one of his first calls was to the same forester he had called on before. That call resulted in a forest management plan, a Tree Farm Sign, and an understanding of all the things that his forest could be. He always looked forward to the inspections when he could show the things that he had done on the property and get guidance on the next best things that he could do. Two different inspecting foresters along that 40-year journey mentioned that they would nominate him as an Outstanding Tree Farmer, but that didn't happen until another walk in the woods with Maxwell McCormick, professor emeritus at the University of Maine.
After Professor McCormick completed an invited tour of the Newell Family Tree Farm, he said: "I know people who have to see this." The result was yet another tour that included 5 PHDs in forestry (3 of which were from Sweden) and 4 professional foresters. Don describes this as the most fascinating day in his woodlot and believes that this day led him to become Maine's 2019 Outstanding Tree Farmer and to host the annual Maine Tree Farm Field Day that year.
Don is always ready to introduce a new person or group to his Tree Farm. He has hosted numerous tours and events on his property. These events include walks with his local Maine Forest Service District Forester, Project Learning Tree workshops for local educators, and serving as the outdoor classroom for the Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association's Low Impact Forestry Project's "Forestry 101" class for three years running. The Newells have also allowed Unity College students to use the property as research field sites for forest ecology, forest management, and GIS classes. Don's mantra is, "Come check out my woodlot!", a message he shares with nearly everyone he meets.
Along with being a born educator, Don is a lifelong learner. He has attended numerous educational programs regarding invasive species, red oak management, trail-building best practices; forest management; the safe and effective use of herbicides; and scaling wood products.
At the 2019 Annual Forestry Field Day at the Newell Tree Farm, over 220 attendees visited to celebrate the family's achievement of being named the 2019 Maine Outstanding Tree Farmers of the Year. State Forester Patty Cormier told the audience that "Don has been bitten by the bug of woodland stewardship." Senator Susan Collins was there to congratulate the family and said, "The Newells epitomize what Tree Farmers do in Maine. They manage the forest sustainably, are generous to future generations, and open the land to public use, which is unusual compared to other parts of the nation."
Describe any outreach on behalf of sustainable forestry that the Tree Farmer has done
Don is an active member of the Maine Tree Farm Committee. He attended the American Forest Foundation's (AFF) 2019 Fly-In meeting with Maine's Congressional delegation in Washington, DC, and the 2020 National Leadership Community Conference. He has managed the Maine Tree Farm Booth at the Maine Agricultural Trades Show and Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association annual Common Ground Country Fair (CGCF). The CGCF draws 60,000+/- people over three days, and in 2019 he presented a talk about being recognized as Maine's Outstanding Tree Farmer of the Year.
Don has attended various Project Learning Tree programs, including a workshop at a nearby school and an AFF/Project Learning Tree program on organizing and conducting a "Walk In The Woods." He has also attended a program honoring Soil Conservation Service Personnel, hosted a Forestry for Maine Birds Field Tour, a University of Maine's Cooperative Forestry Research Unit & Maine Chapter of SAF beech management workshop, and presented a trail talk to the Town of Winslow Conservation Commission
The Newell family worked with the Maine Tree Farm Committee and Maine Woodland Owners Association to organize and lead woods tours for the 65th Annual Forest Field Day, an event that drew about 220 people.
Don has also worked within his community to plant street trees, create a children's park, and provide firewood to needy people. He has been involved in local, state, and federal legislative issues. Whatever the occasion, Don is always there to promote the Tree Farm program.
For the following areas describe how the landowner's management addresses it
Wood: Don and his family are very pro-active and hands-on when it comes to translating the recommendations in his forest management plan into actions on the ground. These actions include thinning 20 acres to release the highest quality stems and releasing crop trees on 50 acres to provide room for them to develop robust crowns. The biggest challenge they have faced has been the management of beech infected with the nectria canker disease. For many years he cut infected stems by hand in July when the energy stores in the roots were at a minimum, but sprouts kept coming back, and he realized that he had to find a new approach. After extensive research, he decided that he had no choice but to use herbicides. He still hasn't won the battle throughout his woodlot, but he has made significant progress and is confident that eventually he will win and have high-quality trees growing where diseased beech would otherwise have taken over the landscape.
In 2018, Don, with the help of his forester Rob Nelson, planted 2,500 spruce seedlings in a 10-acre patch clearcut, and 150 spruce in a 2-acre patch clearcut in 2019. Each spring for several years, Don has transplanted about a total of 300 spruce seedlings from his woodlot to a small rocky field behind his house, which has provided some Christmas trees, a great wildlife thicket, and some good pole sized timber. While natural regeneration is almost always a sure thing in Maine, getting the desired species composition is sometimes risky. The planting increased the presence of a valuable but under-represented native species on the landscape.
Water: In 2018, the family completed the construction of a wooden-decked bridge, with concrete "waste-block" abutments, over a perennial stream on his land. The bridge provided much-needed access to a remote portion of the Tree Farm, which allowed further forest management while maintaining the natural flow of clean water, and the unimpeded passage of fish and other aquatic organisms. Don's goals this year include installing several geotextile and rock culverts wherever water crosses his trails so that water can move under his trails throughout the year, making the trails accessible more days per year for forest practices and recreation. Don developed a majority of the trails on old logging trails that were hardly noticeable when he purchased the property. He learned from his grandfathers that forestry trails should avoid steep inclines and wet areas. He found this was how they built the old trails when he was developing his own. An advantage of using the old trails was there were no stumps and few rocks. These trails have served very well over the past 40 years for forest practices, recreation, and erosion control.
Wildlife including threatened and endangered species: The Newell's have built 15 wildlife structures [brush piles] to encourage the diversity of wildlife, created patch cuts to encourage early successional habitat, and left thickets for wildlife cover. While packing and grooming his 6 miles of cross-country ski trails one morning during a winter harvest, Don counted 78 deer. To the best of his ability, Don has applied the concepts and principles of the Maine Audubon program "Forestry for Maine Birds" by creating or maintaining a variety of forest habitat elements including small canopy gaps, under-and mid-story layer establishment, and various sizes of woody material left on the ground throughout the woods. During his annual spring walk with Tom Aversa, his neighbor, and avid birder, at the peak of warbler migration, they count an average of 50 different species of birds in a 3-hour tour of Don's forest. To enhance the overall composition of his forest stand and increase the food supply while managing for wildlife, Don started using "combi-tubes" to protect red oak seedlings from deer browse. The tubes have been in place for three years, and seedlings that started at 2-3 feet in a 5-feet tube are now 4-feet above the top of it. Don also maintains several patches of quaking aspen saplings that are welcomed by ruffed grouse and provide just the right amount of competition to grow straight and tall red oak saplings coming in below. They have also girdle cut numerous large hemlock and pine trees to create snags on the property to promote wildlife.
Recreation and Aesthetics including special sites:
Don has built and maintained over 7 miles of multiple-use trails. The public is welcome to use the trail system for hiking, biking, bird watching, skiing, and snowshoeing. Hunting is allowed by those who ask for permission before using the property. In addition, Don has provided a snowmobile trail across his property, which is part of the statewide Interconnected Trail System (ITS), which eventually links with every snowmobile trail in the United States and Canada.
Some of the unique features of this trail network are: view lanes that focus on a particularly attractive tree, rock outcrop, or stream; smooth surfaces that make the trails more appealing for hikers, bikers, and skiers; and the removal of lower limbs, particularly on softwoods, to provide more in-depth views into the woods.
As mentioned above, Don has presented to the Recreation Committee for the Town of Winslow, Maine, at their request, so that they could learn about how he makes his wood lot particularly attractive to visitors; of course, this included a tour so they could see for themselves.
Describe other forestry programs or organizations in which the Tree Farmer participates
Don is a member of the Maine Woodland Owners Association, which co-sponsors the Annual Forestry Field Day each year at the Outstanding Tree Farmer's wood lot. Don participates in the USDA NRCS Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP), which provides financial and technical assistance for many of the practices on the Newell Tree Farm. Don is also active in the Maine Farmland Trust and the Maine Association of Realtors, where he is a passionate voice for woodland conservation, management, and stewardship. As chairman of the local district school board, Don promoted the use of Project Learning Tree in district classrooms. Don is a member of Sebasticook Regional Land Trust, Unity Barn Raisers (a community development organization), and Somerset Woods Trustees. In working with these organizations, Don has been instrumental in creating easements on several wooded properties for trails and, in some cases, for perpetual public access.
