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Plum Creek Timber Company and The Department of Inland
Fisheries and Wildlife have signed an agreement for management of winter
habitat for white-tailed deer. Commissioner Roland D. Martin and Paul
Davis, General Manager of Plum Creek's Northeast Region, signed the
agreement on Thursday, January 4, 2007.
"We are very pleased to have cooperatively developed this partnership
with Plum Creek," said Commissioner Martin, "This is a very important
step forward and a milestone for the long-term winter habitat management
for deer in this region."
The Long-Term Deer Wintering Area Agreement recognizes the importance of
proper forest management to sustainable wildlife populations and ensures
that important deer wintering areas ("deer yards") will be conserved and
cooperatively managed for both sustainable timber resources and critical
deer winter habitat.
This Deer Wintering Area Management Agreement with Plum Creek covers
over 32,000 acres of forested land in Somerset, Franklin and Piscataquis
Counties. The agreement allows Plum Creek to harvest softwood and
hardwood while maintaining coniferous canopy cover for wintering deer.
Areas opened up through timber harvesting will contribute immediate
forage from the tops of felled trees, and sunlit areas for new tree
growth, and yearlong browsing.
"Plum Creek is pleased to participate in this voluntary agreement that
will benefit the deer herd, wildlife enthusiasts and the sporting
community while providing jobs for our employees and a sustainable
supply of timber to the many forest products mills in the area" said
Paul Davis, General Manager for Plum Creek.
Wildlife biologists consider quality deer winter shelter the major
limiting factor in sustaining deer populations in Maine. In addition,
properly managed softwood stands provide habitat for a variety of upland
wildlife species.
Healthy deer populations in Maine depend on wintering areas that provide
shelter and open space at the same time. Evergreen canopies keep snow
depth underneath to a minimum and allow deer easy mobility while they
conserve energy. Open areas within the shelter portions provide winter
forage on which deer depend to survive. Maintaining a strong deer
population over time depends on protecting large stands of mature
hemlocks, spruce and fir to shelter deer from cold, wind, and deep snow.
The agreement allows the company to have a continuous supply of pulp and
sawlogs, while maintaining the stands that provide shelter for wintering
deer. This is ensured by providing that the wintering area complex is
composed of mature, close-canopy softwood stands to provide shelter.
The remainder of the yard can be in younger conifer age-classes to
provide browse for feeding, and eventually future shelter.
"Plum Creek has voluntarily added two very important ingredients to this
agreement that we have not encountered with other major forest
landowners," said Gene Dumont, Wildlife Management Section Supervisor
with IFW, "One, Plum Creek has turned the land management decisions of
the Deer Wintering Areas over to their Biological Staff, and second,
Plum Creek has initiated a plan to transfer this agreement to the next
landowner in the future. These are very significant initiatives, that
highlight Plum Creek's commitment to the agreement."
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