By PAULA TRACY, InDepthNH.org
WEST STEWARTSTOWN – Coos County Administrator Mark Brady noticed it’s been the perfect winter for logging.
Hard ground. Cold. Snow.
For a state that is 84 percent forested, this winter couldn’t be better for felling and hauling trees to market, he said.
But the sound of chainsaws are few and far between in these parts now, due in part, to a change in the way owners are getting paid for their land, he said.
For Aurora Sustainable Lands, the biggest landowner in the state, which holds the 146,000-acre Connecticut Lakes Headwaters tract at the northern tip of the state in its portfolio, the company can get paid to not cut. And it can also get paid to cut.
When it bought the land a few years ago, it assumed a 100-year deal struck on the land by the previous owner in 2013 which enrolled the land in the California Air Resource Board https://ww2.arb.ca.gov/about carbon market. It allows companies to meet their legal obligations for reduced carbon to pay for credits to offset their carbon footprint. The land owner gets a lump sum payment and then annual checks for carbon compliance.
But like several other properties held by the company, this parcel also has an easement with the state that holds the owner to cutting trees to sustain the local economy and remain open for recreation.
While the company has come to a long-term agreement with the state on maintaining recreation uses, such as hunting and snowmobiling, a separate, new 10-year cutting stewardship plan is due but is in limbo.
The state rejected Aurora’s first plan in April, 2024 and is currently in negotiations, including with Attorney General John Formella and the state Department of Natural and Cultural Resources.
While he did not go into detail, Formella told InDepthNH.org this week that, “The goal should be a model of land management that preserves the health of our forests, supports economic development, and serves the people who depend on it. The management of these lands must reflect the original intent of the easement, prioritizing both sustainable forestry practices and the economic needs of our state.”
This forest grows more than 60,000 cords of new wood a year, according to foresters.
When it was used as industrial logging land, it was cut harder than that in some years, but the easement calls for a sustainable yield and the current one allows for 35,000 cords a year.
But Aurora in 2022 cut fewer than 20,000 cords and in 2023 about 28,000. No figures are available for 2024.
A chart of logging provided by Aurora since 2003 when the easement began shows that for the first ten years under owner Lyme Timber annual cuts were in the 40,000 cord range per year. Some years were even higher in 2008 and 2009. Since then closer to 30,000 cords a year have been taken and in 2022 about 15,000 cords were drawn from the land to feed mills and families who log and ship lumber.
Aurora came in with a plan to cut 10,000 to 20,000 cords a year and to “accelerate” efforts to promote carbon. But opponents noted that that would be a reduction of between 30 and 60 percent.
Looking out on the snowy landscape this week, Coos County Administrator Brady couldn’t help but lament that this sort of weather is perfect for timber tax revenues, but like maple sap, they are dripping in rather than gushing in.
He noted the 10 percent timber tax from any cut used to be close to 50 percent of county revenue for all the unincorporated places but now it is down dramatically.
Pittsburg used to get 10 percent of its tax revenue from the tract, and though it has an agreement from Aurora to now help them out, it is not a permanent arrangement.
A loss of timber tax could mean an increase in property taxes, a decrease in services or a combination.
A bill that would allow for taxing of standing timber for tracts enrolled in carbon sequester, House Bill 123, is being floated.
Brady said if the state doesn’t fix this tax loophole, every large landowner in the state will jump on the carbon bandwagon where the state does not get revenue right now to grow trees.
And on the separate subject of a stewardship agreement, he said, “Every day that goes by is a win for Aurora and a loss for the taxpayers.”
An op-ed piece published last Friday by former state Resources Commissioner George Bald calling for the state to take leadership and enforce the easement stirred up both sides of the issue on carbon sequester forests and the easement, including Brady and Aurora. https://indepthnh.org/2025/02/21/op-ed-state-leadership-needed-on-conn-lakes-headwaters-trust-easement/
“Excellent piece. We are all grateful,” Brady said of Bald’s op-ed that was published in InDepthNH.org.
Bald wrote: “Today, the 146,000-acre CT Lakes Headwaters Trust easement, once a balanced model of working forest and conservation, is now being mismanaged by the current owner. The business is prioritizing its company’s carbon-first approach to land management which completely disregards the original intent of the easement.
“Going counter to the easement, Carbon-first forest management, which focused on maximizing carbon sequestration, sacrifices other essential values. It will severely curtail logging operations, affecting the community’s revenues, reducing the revenue to the Parks system effort to keep access for recreation, and providing lumber for regional sawmills. The carbon credits that stop logging on the property will be sold in California.
“..The Attorney General, the Commissioner of the Department of Cultural and Natural Resources and the Director of Forest and Lands need to enforce the original intent of the easement,” Bald wrote.
Aurora officials said a charge by Bald and Brady that the property is being mismanaged is not correct.
Brady said the North Country is “waiting to see what the new governor does,” noting that they got “nothing” from former Gov. Chris Sununu on the issue, but they are hopeful about the new Republican Gov. Kelly Ayotte.
In her inaugural address, Ayotte said the state will abide by contract and ensure logging and noted that besides New Hampshire people, one of its greatest assets is its landscape.
The easement on the land, which was paid for by more than $33 million in public and private funds, “ensures that this beautiful tract of land remains open for recreation and local timbering for the people of New Hampshire.”
As for Aurora,”They are absolutely in violation of the current easement,” Brady said.
Aurora disagrees.
Concord attorney Bill Ardinger represents Aurora.
He said carbon and logging are not mutually exclusive.
“Any suggestion that enrollment in a carbon program is inconsistent with the easement is incorrect. This property has been enrolled in a carbon program since 2013 and the current stewardship plan accepted by the state has acknowledged the carbon enrollment for over a decade. We look forward to continuing to work with the state and local parties to complete the stewardship plan as soon as possible,” Ardinger said.
He said there is current logging on the property, and though there have been issues like road damage from storms, they have been able to keep loggers logging.
Blake Stansell, chief operating officer and president of Aurora Sustainable Lands, said the company’s approach to the land since acquiring it in late 2022 has been “based on professional forest management practices that will strengthen the forest, bolster the North Country economy, and preserve and protect the region’s legacy for future generations.
“Our property has been and continues to be open for timber harvesting activities, subject to short-term issues like washed out roads and warmer winters. We aim to ensure long-term forest health, which will sustain timber years over a longer period. Healthy forests contribute to resilient ecosystems, consistent timber supply, and sustainable economic opportunities for future generations,” Stansell said.
Meanwhile at the State House, House Bill 123, which would allow for taxing standing timber in an enrolled carbon credit forest, is making its way toward the House floor with some opposition from those who consider it a new tax, and others who say amendments would limit some property owners from enrolling their land in carbon sequestering programs.
A meeting Thursday was scheduled between the House Speaker and Executive Councilor for the North Country Joe Kenney, R-Wakefield, who has been supportive of the Coos County delegation on this matter.
Kenney said he read the op-ed last week by George Bald, former resources commissioner under three governors, which asserts that the state needs to compel Aurora to cut.
Kenney did not elaborate when asked to comment.
Ardinger noted Aurora’s predecessor, the Forestland Group, placed the tract in the California carbon compliance program in 2013 for 100 years. This encumbers the land with a huge penalty to pay if it is not enrolled. And that ties the land up until 2113.
But it does not mean that the property cannot be logged.
Ardinger noted the current stewardship plan with the state and the landowner, which the state accepted 10 years ago, acknowledged the carbon program’s existence on the property.
He said carbon programs do not prohibit owners from harvesting timber consistent with good forestry practices.
“Aurora has and will continue to conduct quality timber harvesting,” Ardinger said.
He added that Aurora opposes the imposition of “any new tax on income from participating in a carbon program. Aurora already pays business profits tax and business enterprise tax on that income, so any new tax would constitute unconstitutional double taxation,” Ardinger said.
Brady said Monday that he was grateful to read the support from George Bald asking the state for leadership on the Headwaters long-term logging contract.
He said he is now waiting for the new governor to respond, but he is hopeful based on part of her inaugural speech which dealt with the issue.
He said Bald was at the helm of the state department that crafted the transformation from a huge logging tract for sale to one that is privately owned and with an easement to protect for logging and recreation.
Brady said he was heartened by Bald’s words.
“It was an excellent piece and we are all grateful to have the historical perspective of not only someone who was there and worked on the easement but also the support of (former U.S. Senator Judd) Gregg and (former Gov. Jeanne) Shaheen, now a U.S. Senator who wrote together an opinion editorial of the need for the state to require enforcement of the easement which cost $33 million to protect the land for recreation and logging.
Brady explained that Coos County acts as the de facto board of selectman for all the county’s many unincorporated places and in 2009, the timber tax for those places represented 48 percent of the budget revenue where in 2024 it was only 28 percent of the budget revenue.
Brady fears that without legislative action to tax standing timber on tracts enrolled in carbon programs, all those large property owners in unincorporated places will enroll their tracts in carbon programs.
“If you do not close that loophole you’re incentivizing everyone else,” to join those markets and avoid timber tax.
He said the Coos County Commissioners have tried to remain “agnostic” and are not opposed to carbon enrollment if the loophole is closed.
Brady said it is really a statewide problem, not just for the North Country to deal with.
Others responding to Bald’s op-ed included Charles Levesque of Innovative Natural Resource Solutions LLC in Antrim, who crafted the easement more than 20 years ago when the land went up for sale and the state scrambled to find a way to save it for recreation and logging.
Levesque said he agreed with Brady that Aurora Sustainable Lands is violating the terms of the current easement with a lack of cutting right now.
“They have since severely reduced timber harvesting in August 2023,” he said.
“George Bald basically has it right,” Levesque said. And while Levesque added he is not privy to the closed-door negotiations with the Attorney General’s Office and the state Department of Cultural and Natural Resources, the process is continuing with no resolution.
Brady said he was delighted to hear Ayotte in her inaugural address call for Aurora to live by the easement terms and to help preserve a way of life in the state’s far north.
“She gets it,” Brady said, but he said as long as the state “strings it out, that’s a win for Aurora.”