What is the Low Impact Forestry Project
The Low Impact Forestry (LIF) Project at MOFGA is a group of loggers, foresters, landowners, farmers, and interested persons educating about, practicing, and advocating for ecologically based and economically sound forest practices. We practice and endorse forestry that seeks to reduce the known harmful impacts of logging, and promote the social and ecological benefits. The LIF Project hosts annual forestry workshops covering all sorts of forestry related topics from draft animals in the woods to introduction to silviculture. The LIF staff also participates in collaborative logging projects that explore creative forest management and contracts that benefit both landowner and logger.
Workshops and Events
The Low Impact Forestry Project hosts workshops and events throughout the year to meet the needs of all kinds of interested parties. Each year in November we host our annual LIF Level I: Introduction to Low Impact Forestry Practices. At other times in the year we offer more specific and advanced courses that allow students to get more hands-on time with plenty of instruction. Topics include: woodland ecology, logging with draft animals, operating small machinery in the woods, home firewood management, equipment fabrication, and more. Also, you can see and meet the LIF members at the Common Ground Fair each year in Unity, ME. During the Fair the LIF group offers countless sessions and demonstrations for all age groups and interest levels.
Commercial Logging at MOFGA
The LIF Project is concerned with the ecological and environmental impacts of forestry activities, but also the social ramifications. The LIF group explores contracts and financial arrangements that provide loggers and foresters with livable wages, but also compensate the landowner accurately for the value of their woodlot. Members of the LIF Project, professionals and volunteers alike, have been experimenting with different logging relationships as they harvest wood that has been used in many of the buildings at the Common Ground Education Center. Most of our lumber has been used on site, but some material has been sold and donated to other individuals in the community.
Additional Resources
Directory of Low Impact Forestry Service Providers, including foresters, loggers, sawyers, and others committed to the principles of Low-Impact Forestry. (PDF file)
Low-Impact Forestry and MOFGA: A Program in the Making, about the MOFGA LIF program's goals and history, by Mitch Lansky
Forestry as Ecosystem Management (7 page PDF) and The Living Soil (2 page PDF), two conversations between Barbara Alexander, a Vermont forester, and David Perry, professor emeritus of ecosystem science at Oregon State University
Excerpts from Mitch Lansky's Low-Impact Forestry: Forestry as if the Future Mattered
(PDF files -- some are very large!!)
For more information about MOFGA's LIF programs, contact:
Andrew Marshall, MOFGA Education Director
Sam Brown or Peter Hagerty, LIF committee chairs