The Upper Paugussett –

Managing The Ecology And Economy Of A State Forest

By Andrew Gorosko

As several conservationists walked through the oak, birch, and hickory of a moist, verdant Upper Paugussett State Forest last week, they came upon a taut maze of multicolored plastic tubing girdling a stand of maples within a “sugarbush,” or grove of sugar maples, near Alberts Hill Road.

Each February, a Woodbury maple sugar maker, who leases the use of those trees from the state, collects maple sap from the serpentine arboreal plumbing system, amassing the viscous raw material from which he makes maple syrup.

State foresters have cultivated the maples in that six-acre sugarbush, having tested them for the sweetness of their sap. The foresters have thinned out the area to produce maples with the deep, wide crowns needed for maximum sweet sap production. About 70 of the 300 sugar maples in the sugarbush are tapped for sap collection.

State forester Gerard Milne explained the mechanics of the sugarbush to town Conservation Commission members whom he guided through the hilly, ledge-strewn 794-acre state forest, describing its varied features. Mr Milne explained the state Department of Environmental Protection’s (DEP) decennial forest management plan for the property, one aspect of which is maple sugaring.

As a state forester, Mr Milne is responsible for managing about 10,000 acres of state-owned woodlands in western Connecticut, including the upper and lower Paugussett forests.

As he spoke, the small band of hikers followed a sometimes strenuous course up and over sharp slopes girded with jagged rock outcroppings. They then walked across a lowland and darted over the boulders in a rain-swollen brook before encountering a broad mound on a rise.

Stooping down to a bed of rich leaf litter compressed on the forest floor, Mr Milne scooped up a handful of decomposing leaves and humus, picking out flecks of jet-black charcoal which had been manufactured there on the charcoal mound in the 19th century as an industrial fuel.

The forester described how workers more than a century ago amassed huge piles of hardwoods, especially chestnut, at the site and ignited the trees, producing the prized charcoal, a slow-burning fuel which provided the steady, even heat required for brass manufacturing, brick making, and glass production in area factories.

Standing atop the charcoal mound, Mr Milne pointed out a group of broad trails nearby.

“You can still see the old wagon roads. This was a working forest,” he told the hikers.

“This is not that old of a forest,” he said. “This forest is not virgin forest. It’s been cut repeatedly since the white man’s been here,” he said. “It’s not a park, not a preserve. State forests are not meant to be that,” he noted.

In use for private agriculture before the state acquired it, the forest today is managed by DEP for sawtimber, cordwood, wildlife habitat, its recreational value, environmental education, and scientific research. A network of old stone fences criss-crosses the undulating forest floor, delineating what were fields where farmers kept their cattle.

State Acquisition

In the 1960s, the town’s Conservation Commission wanted to prevent development on the forested tract in northeastern Newtown along Lake Lillinonah. It lobbied the state to purchase the property, which is covered with mixed broadleaf trees, plus stands of hemlock, white pine, and cedar.

In 1969, the state acquired the land, designating it “Upper” Paugussett State Forest, making it an addition to its 1,100-acre forested tract situated several miles to the south along Lake Zoar, which then became known as “Lower” Paugussett State Forest.

As Mr Milne and town conservation officials walked on the rolling paths through the woods, he explained how timber cutting is done in the forest where the oldest trees date back to about 1900.

“Every tree that’s taken out [by cutting] is marked by a forester,” he said, noting that state foresters individually mark each tree to be cut for forest thinning or timber harvesting. The dominant tree in the overstory of the forest is now red oak, with black birch and red maple now the dominant trees in the understory. The state is working to increase the supply of oak in the forest, Mr Milne said.

As timber harvesting continues through the coming decade, the state does not plan to make any big clearings in the forest, he said. The state is conservative in the number of trees it allows to be cut by loggers, he notes.

Timber harvesting must coexist with hunting, hiking, and bird watching in the forest, Mr Milne said. Camping is not allowed.

DEP plans to have loggers harvest timber on about 140 acres of the upper forest during the coming decade. That harvesting likely will be done in five stages, with oak, maple, birch, beech, and hickory taken from the forest in the process. Diseased ash trees will be removed from the forest this fall.

The logs taken in timber harvests will be sawn into lumber and used to make furniture, flooring, railroad ties, and pallets. After timber harvesting is done, any cut scrap wood that is left on the ground is sold to the public for firewood through a lottery system. Wood sells for $20 per cord.

The sections of the Lillinonah Trail running alongside Lake Lillinonah will not be logged. Those trail sections are closed from December 15 to March 15 to reduce human disturbance to wintering bald eagles. 

Mr Milne predicts that the stands of hemlock in the forest will succumb to infestation by the hemlock woody adelgid, an insect pest that has been desiccating hemlock trees in western Connecticut for the past 15 years.

Mr Milne said he will be developing a forest management plan for Lower Paugussett State Forest.