BUCKFIELD — The town is looking for free estimates on thinning the Bessey Field pine grove, after two Maine licensed foresters recommended selective cutting for the weakened stand of trees.

Buckfield selectmen reviewed a letter from Oxford County district forester Merle Ring at their meeting May 19. The 7.5-acre pine grove is behind Bessey Field on Paris Hill Road.

“He did walk the land and did recommend a harvest could happen,” Board of Selectmen Chairwoman Martha Catevenis said.

Ring recommended the town remove between 40 and 50 percent of the volume of trees, which he said are almost all white pine and probably 50 years old, Town Manager Cindy Dunn said. Ring said small- and medium-sized trees should be cut and the larger ones left.

“I found it interesting, too, to take down the newer trees and leave the older ones,” Dunn said. “I never knew that before.” 

Ring explained why he thought the stand was in the shape it is.

“White pine, unlike spruce and fir, expresses dominance early in its life cycle, meaning some trees will naturally outcompete others, growing bigger, with larger crowns, while others will gradually be outcompeted and will die,” Ring wrote in his letter to Dunn.

“The weaker, the smaller and the newer trees are competing against the old ones so the roots are going to have a much bigger root bed for the large ones,” Catevenis said.

There’s also too many trees in the stand, which Ring said should have been thinned between 20 and 30 years ago.

“Mother Nature is trying to correct this, but it will take many years and will leave many dead trees either standing or on the ground,” he wrote.

The forester also suggested leaving a 75-foot buffer strip to act as a windbreak toward the back of the stand.

“Even if we remove 40 to 50 percent, as he’s recommended, the trees are weak, all of them. . . . We have a high percent chance of blow down,” Dunn told the board.

Selectman Cheryl Coffman asked if there was any decisive way the wind blew and if the back of the stand of trees would be the best place for the buffer.

“My interpretation of that . . .  is just basically it will look like a horseshoe of sorts,” Dunn answered.

The health of the pine stand was brought to Dunn’s attention more than a month ago when a local logger came into the Municipal Building, asking if a selective cut had ever been done on the grove. He recommended licensed forester Chris Love assess the trees and Dunn paid Love roughly $113 for the assessment. He said the trees should be thinned and were suffering from a fungal disease that had infiltrated Buckfield, originating from the Ellsworth and Bar Harbor areas.

At last week’s meeting, resident Vivian Wadas asked if Ring made any mention of diseased trees.

“He didn’t,” Dunn answered.

Coffman made a motion for the town to reach out the three local consulting foresters on the list provided by Ring for a free estimate for thinning the stand. They include Steve Gettle of Jay, Bill Newcomb of Norway and Don Feeney of Bryant Pond.

“I think something obviously has to be done for the health for the stand of trees,” she said. “I think we just have to be very careful about what we do.”

Her motion passed unanimously. The issue will be revisited once the estimates are received. Dunn added there is potential for the town to make some money off the selective cut.

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