Newsletter

Executive Director’s Message As the days grow colder and we approach the end of the year, it is a fitting time to reflect on the progress we’ve made over the nearly six months since our staff transition. The coming year will undoubtedly bring its share of challenges, but we are prepared to face them and

Though I am just over a month into my tenure as the new Executive Director, I already feel incredibly lucky to have been chosen to follow in Patrick’s footsteps. As a wise man (Pat Sirois) often said, the Council represents the forest industry, one of the largest heritage industries in our state, in the most

At the end of each session, I always take a moment to consider not only the impacts of the laws passed, but also the message that was sent to the forest industry. Do our goals as a state line up with our laws? What signals were sent to those looking to make investments in Maine?

Each fall, our membership congregates for one of my favorite events – our annual membership meeting. The event presents a great opportunity for members to come together to catch up with old friends, reminisce about the year that’s gone by and, importantly, look to the year ahead. This year, more than 90 members congregated at

It’s been a few months since our last newsletter, and boy oh boy how things have changed. In April, I wrote about how the lack of logging and trucking capacity, paired with a healthy demand from the mills, resulted in high fiber costs. At the time, I wrote that while our trees are plentiful and

Last week, our industry received some discouraging news – the ND Paper mill in Old Town will shutter until conditions on the ground improve. The company made this decision in order to shift focus on strengthening their Rumford operation at a time when, frankly, conditions are tough. The three reasons cited by the company were: