Plum Creek Timber - Environmental Record

Environmental Record

There is some controversy over the management of Plum Creek's timberland, mostly from environmental groups who decry the recent move from Plum Creek as a timber management company into a developer of its land, taking advantage of the much more profitable land values that have occurred for undeveloped land in the late 1990s until the crash in real estate prices. Plum Creek is engaged in a proposal for a large resort and development tract in the Northern Maine Woods, on Moosehead Lake by Greenville, Maine, one of the largest undeveloped forests east of the Mississippi.

This follows on the heels of their development of managed land in Washington state (Suncadia) and Montana (Moonlight Basin, Yellowstone Club) into costly resorts, bringing golf courses and luxury housing into the deep forests. The debate pits conservation groups trying to balance recreation and protection, and the effects of sprawl and overdevelopment upon wildlife, quality of life, and the employment of local populations who depend in part on the hunting, fishing and tourist trades which may be damaged by the overdevelopment of the area.

Plum Creek states that they follow three principles, Replanting, Protecting Water Quality, and Managing Wildlife Habitat. Every year Plum Creek replants approximately 85 million seedlings and plans for the natural regeneration of millions of trees. Close to 2,000,000 acres (8,100 km2) of land owned by Plum Creek are a part of four habitat conservation plans across the country and in Montana are involved in a conservation agreement for the grizzly bear.

In 2001, Plum Creek at their Medium Density Fiberboard facility completed the installation of a biofilter, a new air emission treatment technology. This technology uses naturally occurring bacteria to destroy air pollutants that are generated in the wood fiber drying and pressing processes. The technology doesn’t burn natural gas like most treatment systems do to destroy pollutants.

They are also currently working on a Plum Creek Moosehead development. According to an environmental group, the Native Forest Network (NFN), if approved by the Land Use Regulation Commission, Plum Creek’s plan would increase Maine’s total carbon emissions by nearly 8%.