Natural Resource Education Center officials learned Tuesday that their Project Canopy Grant of $2,967 was funded.

"No one is as thrilled as I am," Steve Law of Dover-Foxcroft said Wednesday. "I first had the idea of getting school kids on a project like this about 15 years ago, and it seems like I have been waiting for this opportunity since then."

The grant has a local match of $6,680, which will be mostly in-kind contributions and $500 cash, Law said.

The educational forest will be located on property that Law first donated to Foxcroft Academy in 1987. Law gave the 115-acre parcel to the academy with the stipulation that it must be used to practice multiple-use forest management. Law's concept for the property, however, did not fit well with Foxcroft's established curriculum, so the private academy deeded the property to NREC, an organization with which Law is affiliated.

Under NREC, the 35 acres of field and 80 acres of woodland will be used to educate area school children about forest management through the implementation of a tree-growth program that is being partnered by Hall's Christmas Tree Farm in Sangerville. Cynthia and Toby Hall, owners of the farm, have offered to provide technical guidance for site preparation and instructions to students on planting.

Other assistance will be provided by local Boy Scouts, who will harvest the fir and spruce left over from previous Christmas tree operations.

Law said his dream is to offer third-grade pupils in five school districts an opportunity to plant Christmas trees on the parcel under the supervision of a forester and to take care of the trees until they graduate from high school. At graduation, the students could decide how to use the proceeds from the sale of the Christmas trees. Eventually, Law would like to expand the program so that each class in each school district has about one-half acre of Christmas trees. The idea is to get students involved in all aspects of the program, from seed gathering, soil testing, planting, to record keeping, according to Law.

In addition, Law and NREC officials envision using the woodlot on the property as an outdoor laboratory by establishing a trail system where people can observe wildlife and see the various kinds of softwood of all ages.

"There is a lot of work to be done, but I'm looking forward to it," Law said. "At 76 years young, it is as if I were just starting out on a new career. Having spent most of my life in a forest environment, I would like to give young people in the area the chance to experience a little of that back to nature feeling."
"This content originally appeared as a copyrighted article in the Friday, October 10, 2003 edition of the Bangor Daily NEWS and is used here with permission."