Executive Director's Note: A Forest Summit

Connecting the built and natural environment

towards a more sustainable future.

If you live in a house in the Northeast, it’s likely made of wood. But where did the wood come from? Was it locally grown and harvested, supporting your community? Or was it sourced from thousands of miles away? How did its harvest affect the forest, wildlife, and people? And how did its production and use impact climate change?

Because the construction industry has a huge impact on the environment and our communities, these questions are top of mind at Great Mountain Forest. The challenge of how to design, source, and make wood building materials sustainably and to the benefit of local communities also drives the approach of Tri-Lox, a Brooklyn-based research, design, and fabrication firm.

GMF connected with Tri-Lox through our colleagues at the Yale School of the Environment. After we introduced them to the composition of our forest, our sustainable management practices, and organizational goals, Tri-Lox chose GMF’s Yale Camp as the venue for their second Forest Summit this past September.

As detailed in a recent blog post by Tri-Lox, this forum brought together forest managers, wood suppliers, and product designers to explore how their work can intersect to combat climate change, reduce waste, and establish resilient regional supply chains that benefit communities—from forest to fabrication.

During the forum, GMF’s Matt Gallagher demonstrated how past forest treatments, harvests, and milling strategies can be combined to maximize sustainable wood production while fostering a future forest that is both biodiverse and resilient.



The GMF-Tri-Lox partnership aligns closely with our mission, and we hope this forum marks the first of many such gatherings to advance this sustainable vision for our forests and communities.

Click here if you are interested in participating in or supporting similar initiatives in the future.

Winter's Rest

Our animal relatives have much to teach us about winter as a season of rest and renewal. Some of us might associate hibernation as a retreat from reality and torpor as a state of apathy and laziness.

However, in her memoir Wintering, Katherine May likens difficult times in our lives to winter and writes, “Plants and animals don’t fight the winter; they don’t pretend it’s not happening and attempt to live the same lives that they lived in the summer. They prepare. They adapt. They perform extraordinary acts of metamorphosis to get them through. Winter is a time of withdrawing from the world, maximizing scant resources, carrying out acts of brutal efficiency and vanishing from sight; but that’s where the transformation occurs. Winter is not the death of the life cycle, but its crucible.”

A Torpor Over the Forest

As the temperatures become consistently colder, the forest’s animals begin to slow down and prepare for winter. Deer and moose grow thick coats, decrease movement, and start foraging for food. Squirrels hunt for nuts and seeds to store in a cache while bulking up their nests. Birds begin migrating to their warmer winter destination. Beavers submerge limbs with leaves near their well-insulated lodge so they can feed on them throughout the winter. 

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Photos: Otter tracks, Mike Zarfos (top); Bear track (above), Jody Bronson

Above: Before-and-after photos of leaf removal. Forest Manager Russell Russ blows fall leaves away from the culverts on Chattleton Road with the mounted leaf blower.

Below: Before-and-after photos of Camp Road getting a makeover after a washout.

All photos: Russell Russ

Accessible forest roads are critical to any working forest. This entails ensuring proper drainage so roads don't wash out. Each fall and spring, Property Manager Russell Russ mounts a leaf blower on a GMF tractor and clears fallen leaves from drainage ditches and culverts. In the past, this task was performed by foresters and laborers with pitchforks. This labor-intensive job took weeks to complete. Now, it can be done in days by one person. Russell removes leaves twice in the fall before winter road closures to account for the differing leaf-shedding schedules of maples and oaks.

Severe weather events take a toll on GMF roads, which must be accessible for emergency vehicles, researchers, and foresters. In July 2023, a major storm dumped 6 to 12 inches of rain in less than a day, washing out many of GMF's roads. Foresters and local contractors have worked over two summers to restore and improve the affected roads. In 2024, the #4 Trail alone received about 1,000 tons of new gravel!

Photo: Jody Bronson

To see more scenes behind the forest, follow GMF on social media.

Friend of the Forest: Rissa Currie

Rissa Currie was a GMF summer intern in 2021 and works for the Forest Society of Maine as its Conservation GIS Associate. 

There was never a dull moment while working at GMF. Days spent deep in the woods finding old boundary blazes, opportunities to meet so many individuals across different disciplines, getting covered in paint while laying out a harvest, learning the history of the land by the clues left behind, and simply finding a nice spot to have some lunch after a long hike. Without my summer spent at GMF, I don’t believe I would have stayed with forestry. It exposed me to concepts I had yet to learn about in classes. When they finally did come up, I had a much deeper understanding with firsthand experience. 

My days with Russell doing boundary work were a true highlight. Map and compass in hand, we searched for the traces of our predecessors. Another fond memory was an outing with David Leff. He had a beautiful view of the forest. It was the chance to look, not with scientific theory, but to simply see the beauty. Finally, a day spent with Jody was constantly budding with the possibility of learning something new.

I have completed my bachelor’s degree in forestry from the University of Maine and currently work for the Forest Society of Maine as their Conservation GIS Associate. I’m thankful to be working within the natural resources sector and proud to be a part of a great organization working to help conserve Maine’s forests. I think of the lessons learned while at Great Mountain Forest and try to apply that same love and care to the work I do now. 

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Photo: Tom Blagden

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