Forestry firm donates 860 acres for conservation

A Carmel company has donated more than 800 acres north of Bangor to the Forest Society of Maine for conservation.

Located in the town of Argyle, the 860-acre property supports a working forest as well as deer wintering areas, vernal pools and other wildlife habitat. The property is bounded in part by Route 116 and Hemlock Stream, a tributary to the Penobscot River that the Maine Atlantic Salmon Commission has identified as a salmon-rearing area.

G & D Properties, a land management company based in Carmel, donated the land to the Forest Society of Maine. The Bangor-based land trust has helped protect more than 400,000 acres of productive forestland in the state since 1984.

“This gift is especially significant in that it comes from a forest management business in support of forestland conservation,” Alan Hutchinson, executive director of the land trust, said in a statement. “FSM intends to manage this property in a sustainable manner for forest products, and to use the proceeds to support our work in conserving other, important forestlands in Maine.”

The Forest Society of Maine will continue to manage the property as a working forest. The property, which abuts Penobscot Nation land, will also remain open to hunting, fishing, hiking and other recreational activities.

The owners of G & D Properties, David Woodhead and Gayle and Gary Pomeroy, previously worked with the Forest Society of Maine to conserve land in the Amherst area.

Woodhead said in the statement that the company chose to partner with the land trust again because of the organization’s mission to keep forestlands “open, undeveloped and productive, while also conserving their traditional recreational values.”