Tree Huggers Talk Timber on Recent Episode of Discovery’s American Loggers

Had your fill of white gowns and finery from the British royal wedding? Then check out this video clip for something completely different – chain saws, big trees and brawny woods-folk!

A recent episode of Discovery Channel’s reality TV show, American Loggers visited The Nature Conservancy’s 185,000-acre St. John River Forest on Maine’s border with Quebec.

What is a tree-hugger group like The Nature Conservancy doing on a show that glorifies lumberjacks?

The Bangor Daily News, which tagged along in January to photograph some of the Discovery Channel’s filming, profiled this unlikely collaboration. The newspaper quoted Bill Patterson, The Nature Conservancy’s northern Maine program manager, that hopefully the show will correct some misconceptions.

For one thing, in the Conservancy’s view, not all logging is a bad thing. Protecting forests and their stored carbon is one key to solving climate change – but some forests will need to remain working forests. So, logging selectively – in the right places with fewer impacts to the surrounding forest – is a strategy with lessons for many places.

In fact, the Conservancy has been carefully harvesting areas of the St. John’s River Forest over the past decade. During two minutes of fame on this episode, the Conservancy takes the opportunity to explain how sustainable logging can protect both the wildlife and the people who live in and depend upon the North Maine Woods.

Lisa Hayden is a blogger and feature writer for The Nature Conservancy