Bath Community Forestry Committee

Reminder— our favorite Thorne Head Preserve is closed Tuesday through Thursday this week so the stewardship crew + contractors can complete important hazard tree work!

Did you know KELT has thirteen public preserves with trails? Why not use Thorne Head’s temporary closure as an excuse to visit a new one?! Center Point Preserve in Bowdoinham offers a gentle, 1.5 mile walk to a beautiful view of Merrymeeting Bay. Bonyun Preserve on Westport Island leads you on a beautiful Oceanside loop hike to an interesting historical area. Morse Pond in Georgetown takes you through a moss-covered wonderland to a large, undeveloped pond with lots of impressive beaver activity. The list goes on— visit our website to see the complete list! And thank you for respecting our temporary closure. 🌲 🌊 🦫

Members of the Bath Community Forestry Committee were out monitoring amphibians moving to their breeding pool at Butler Head. We moved 46 spotted salamanders and 4 American toads off Butler Head road and had fun playing in the rain.

Join the Bath Community Forestry Committee and Maine Forest Service for a talk on hemlock wooly adelgid.

‘The thinner tree was cut years ago and the big one has been holding and feeding it since then. They "wake up" together in the spring and "go to sleep" together in the autumn’

Inosculation is a natural phenomenon in which parts of two different trees, commonly but not exclusively the same species, grow together, self grafting and sharing nutrients

The term emanates from latin- ōsculārī, to kiss

📸 Rebecca Herbert - Environmental Journalist, Tired Earth

Oak Grove Cemetery Annex

Join the Bath Community Forestry Committee on September 26, 4 - 6 pm, at Butler Head for an introduction to mushrooms and mushroom foraging. We’ll start with a short introduction to mushroom collecting before we head into the woods to collect specimens for identification. Mushrooms collected will be laid out on a table for everyone to inspect and hopefully identify. Bring paper bags or a small basket for collecting, a small folding knife (optional), and any mushroom field guides you may have. Our team of “experts” will have identification books on hand. Meet at the lower parking lot.

CANCELED DUE TO WEATHER. Want to help with some maintenance tasks at the Bath Middle School orchard. There will be a volunteer workday on Saturday, September 16 from 10 - noon. We need help harvesting apples and mulching the trees. Shovels and wheelbarrows will be helpful. hope to see you there.

Want to help with some maintenance tasks at the Bath Middle School orchard. There will be a volunteer workday on Saturday, September 16 from 10 - noon. We need help harvesting apples and mulching the trees. Shovels and wheelbarrows will be helpful. hope to see you there.

https://www.cityofbathmaine.gov/news/post/6378/

City of Bath, Maine - Official Website - Forestry Committee Intro to Foraging Join the Bath Community Forestry Committee at Butler Head for an introduction to mushrooms and mushroom foraging. We’ll start with a short introduction to mushroom collecting before we head into the woods to collect specimens for identification. Mushrooms collected will be laid out on a table for ...

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Fun Fact Friday! Maine’s Record Trees!

Maine has the tallest, record setting, Chestnut Tree in North America! The behemoth towers 115 feet in height and dominates the landscape with twenty feet more over its closest national challenger.

The Chestnut tree is only one of a handful that had survived blight in the early 20th century, which wiped-out the Chestnut trees all along the Eastern Seaboard of the United States.

This Champion Chestnut exists in the town of Lovell, in Western Maine, and it still thrives on land now owned by the University of Maine.

And, in the town of Sumner, there still grows the 2020 Champion Eastern White Pine, which towers approximately 108 feet above the forest floor. The crown of the tree is approximately, 1,512 feet in circumference, and has a trunk that boasts a perimeter of nearly 21.5 feet.

And, in 2022, the Largest Norway Spruce in Maine lives on the Old Dyer Farm, in Lewiston. Ed Buschmann’s tree takes the record at 103 feet in height, 15.5 feet in circumference, with a 13 foot crown.

Proof positive that Maine still grows huge trees; similar to the ones the first Maine loggers saw when they honed their axes and set-off into the frontier of Maine, to start one of the greatest Pine Tree State Industries in Maine’s history and also created some of best and most legendary of our Stories From Maine.

**SFM NOTE:** While posting this Fun Fact Friday, our lovely Facebook froze up just as soon I added the first photo. Then, it would not allow me to edit the post, add more images, or do anything else. So, you are enjoying this post in mid-edit. No. The photo is not a chestnut. Yes, it is a Spruce. I get to look like a fool today. Thank you Facebook!