"A Maine Woodpecker Would Have To Pack A Lunch To Fly Across That Land."

A comical way to describe a woodlot in Maine, land that has been hammered, cut so hard that a woodpecker would consider it a self inflicted "no fly zone".

We get Maine real estate land buyers who call and ask for a virgin woodlot, one that has never been cut. Ever.

Whoa...I remind them about the garden out behind the home each summer, and vegetable over crowding. When the radishes get too close, so do the onion sets one of the kids poked in the earth and all the plants are struggling for space. Like folks in urban, surburban centers where eight out of ten folks in the real estate market live.

Hemmed in, jammed tightly and getting squeezed closer.

The explanation that the little trees underneath have to live in a permanent solar eclipse with the over story, crown of the trees already out of the gate early. That had a long head start on the tree seedlings on the land you are thinking about buying. I have sold land in Maine back in the early 1980's that was cut hard, mostly for the softwood, not hardwood stands. Because that was the market that was hot at the time, to haul to whereever the closest, lumber yard or mill was. But when I relist one I head over to check it out, with memories about no Maine woodpeckers over head, the no fly zone situation.

It is amazing if some small seedlings were left, some saplings to take hold and shoot skyward that without the overstory, whoa. There is healthy timber growth. As long as the wood skidder that yarded our the timber did not bruise it, trampled it in the process of the chainsaw cutting rodeo round up of the downed trees.

Like a surgeon that makes it impossible for a lady to wear a two piece bathing suit or not.

Woodcutting is a skill to maneuver around the lot, land in Maine to carefully, surgically remove the mature timber.  Not rut up the landscape. Virgin woodlots would be falling over and clustered with dead trees and growth can come to a screeching halt I explain to that Maine real estate land caller who we hear from quite regularly.

What they are really searching for, asking is do you have a wood lot loaded with timber, lumber that I can get back the entire purchase price from a cutting operation?

You could do that back in the 1980's with $250 an acre Maine land. The price is still attractive for Maine wooded acreage, but has gone up a tad.

Selective wood cutting a forested tract of Maine land is just good practice to maximize the growth. Forestry reports with land in Maine's tree growth program to reduce property taxes spells out the physical health of the acreage. What needs to be thinned, maybe what needs to be planted. To make the woodlot balance, healthy, growing so that a Maine woodpecker would not have to pack a lunch to fly across it. Maine, big state, less people, brighter stars, cleaner water and air. Get here quick as you can. Own some Maine land of your own. All price ranges, locations, sizes. How big do you want, can your Maine land buying wallet stand to open and say "AAAAhhhhhh" or "Oooooh la la"?

I'm Maine REALTOR Andrew Mooers, Broker