The Lyme Timber Company has conserved 2,396 acres of forestland in Western Massachusetts in cooperation with W.D. Cowls, Kestrel Land Trust, and the Trustees of Reservations.

Those funds will cover the state’s portion of a nearly $20 million conservation easement for roughly 73,000 acres across Baraga, Iron and Marquette counties; a $15 million grant from the federal Forest Legacy Program and a $1 million grant from nonprofit National Fish & Wildlife Foundation were previously awarded.

Lands preserved under the conservation easement include forests, lakes, streams and wetlands. The collection of forested tracts adjoins the federal McCormick Wilderness Area in the Ottawa National Forest, as well as Michigan’s Craig Lake State Park. The project even includes the state’s highest elevation – Mt. Arvon.

Investment funds managed by The Lyme Timber Company LLC (“Lyme”) have sold one wetland mitigation bank in Virginia and five stream mitigation banks in West Virginia to a fund managed by Texas-based Conservation Equity Management. Mitigation banks are undeveloped properties that had previously suffered environmental degradation but are then restored to their previous ecological function under close regulatory supervision.

The Green Finance Initiative has published two case studies highlighting Lyme’s work to conserve forests and restore degraded wetlands. The case studies are part of a larger database that features mechanisms and models that mobilize private sector finance towards nature.

Affiliates of The Lyme Timber Company sold 1,495 acres to the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy to facilitate permanent protection of the land for hunting, fishing, hiking and other recreational opportunities in Benezette Township, Elk County. The property was immediately transferred to the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources to become open to the public as a new addition to Moshannon State Forest, bolstering the region’s climate resilience.

Announcing a new agreement to advance large-scale U.S. solar development while championing land conservation and supporting local community interests; signed by major solar developers, conservation groups, agricultural organizations, environmental justice groups, and Tribal entities.

The business practices of Lyme Great Lakes Timberlands, which owns more than half a million acres of forested land in the Upper Peninsula, are the result of a series of events surrounding the history of logging in the region.

Jim Hourdequin presented “You Get What You Pay For II: A Timberland Investor’s Evolving Perspective on Forest Carbon Offsets” during the Yale Forest Forum on October 27, 2022. A video of his talk can be found here. and a PDF version is here.    

On October 16, 2022, affiliates of Lyme Timber sold a 140-acre property located along the Clarion River in Jefferson County, Pennsylvania to the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy (WPC). The addition of this property to the 13,000 acres WPC has protected along the Clarion River since the 1970s will help protect the riparian area and water quality of the Clarion River stream, conserve forest resources, and provide for public recreation.

The equipment, a 2022 EMS Tractionline Winch Assist System, is the latest technology to further modernize the region’s forestry industry. The system includes specialized winches that maintain constant tension on cables attached to a machine that fells timber on steep slopes. The system reduces ground pressure, erosion and the need for dangerous hand felling on these same slopes.