We invest some of our land into the production of both annual and perennial flowers designed to provide ample food supply for the numerous native pollinator species as well as honey bees found in Central Aroostook County. This project also serves as an opportunity to observe and collect population data on our native pollinator species as well as introducing younger populations to pollinator awareness.

Photo: A Pollinator Habitat Located at the Top of Our Farm Filled with Perennial Flowers

American Chestnuts (Castanea dentata) are large, native nut-bearing trees that used to thrive along the eastern seaboard of the United States. In the early 1900’s, chestnut blight was introduced to our native populations, and by 1910 nearly 4 billion chestnuts were killed by the disease. We are curerntly working with The University of New England to clone a transgenic chestnut that is 99.9% resistant to blight. Our goal is to grow and provide young chestnuts not only to the state of Maine but to the forests of the United States.

Photo: Our Executive Director Randy Martin and one of his Adult Chestnut Trees

We work closely with the greater Presque Isle area to provide an outlet for its community members to learn and participate in composting. We offer a take-home composting service in which participants bring home a twist-top bucket and, throughout the week, fill it with food scraps and other compostables. Every weekend we are situated at the Presque Isle Farmers Market to collect and pass out new buckets to our participants. In 2024, we will be expanding this program to Waste Solutions (Formally Tri-Community Landfill) in Fort Fairfield, ME.

Photo: District Composting Technician Benjamin Flannery next to the Summer 2023 Compost Pile

We are working on re-establishing nut-bearing tree populations in the Northeastern United States. Numerous wildlife species rely on the nuts of mast species in our forests and our native Beech species (Fagus grandifolia) has been decimated and will likely disappear from our forests due to Beech Bark Disease. Our district has been seeking Beech trees that are resistant to Beech Bark Disease, however, the introduction of Beech Leaf Disease has slowed us down due to its virulent nature. Beech trees are the legacy tree of Aroostook County and their loss is severely detrimental to our local wild animal species. Currently, we are growing the following trees for re-establishment in our forests to curb the loss of Beech trees: Red Oak, White Oak, Pin Oak, Black Walnut, Amerian Chestnut and Butternut.

Photo: Many Tree Species Started from Seed to Plant in U.S. forests

On our research farm in Presque Isle, we are currently conducting research on a number of topics concerning agriculture in the State of Maine. These projects include PFAS absorption in Brassicas and Potatoes, Increasing Pollinator Habitats, Improving Soil Structure through Crop Rotation, and Carbon Sequestration for Crop Health and Atmospheric Carbon Reduction.

Photo: Large and Small Research Plots Located on our Research Farm in Presque Isle