How does Maine balance industry and the environment?

Summary:  In this lesson, you will look at primary sources on the Maine logging industry to investigate the connection between industry and the environment.

Share whatever information from this introduction you feel will help provide context for your students before they investigate the primary sources.

What is Industry?

The Industrial Revolution began in America in the late 19th century. In a short period of time, industries grew as a result of rapid innovation. But what is industry, and why is it important to Maine?

Industry is defined as “an economic activity concerned with the processing of raw materials and manufacture of goods in factories.” But what does this mean? Let’s use the example of one of Maine’s most famous industries: fishing. The Maine coastline provides access to the ocean and its resources, like fish. Fishermen and women work to catch fish.  They sell the fish both to people and to businesses such as restaurants and sardine canning companies. In this example, fishermen catch the raw materials (the sardines) and sell them to a canning company. The factory processes the sardines into canned fish, a product that can be sold all over the world.

This is just one example of an industry in Maine. Other industries include logging, agriculture and farming, quarrying stone, producing textiles, building ships, ice harvesting, and more. All of these involve using raw materials to make a product. Industry creates thousands of jobs for Mainers. It is also important to consider some of the downsides of industry. Many workers have been unnecessarily injured or mistreated, and there are environmental impacts.

Investigating primary sources (artifacts, images, and documents from Maine’s past) will help reveal the complicated history of Maine industry!

Industry and the Environment

Many of Maine’s industries are extractive, meaning that they take from natural resources in the environment. Natural resources are any natural substances, such as plants, animals, metals, gases, water, and more.  In Maine, a few ways we extract resources are by harvesting crops such as blueberries and potatoes, mining for rocks and minerals such as granite, and catching fish. We rely heavily on these natural resources, but taking too much from them can change the environment around us.

This primary source set focuses on the ways that the logging industry in Maine has relied on the environment. Trees are a very important raw material because they can be used to make other products such as lumber and paper. The demand for these products has created many new job opportunities in Maine, but the removal of trees actively affects the environment.

Maine, “The Pine Tree State,” became an important source of lumber in the early 1600s when European explorers settled on Monhegan Island and claimed the forests for timber harvesting.  Sawmills were quickly built along the rivers to supply pine logs for England’s Navy.  Colonists didn’t like sending all the good lumber to England, which was one of the reasons for the Revolutionary War.  After the War, Maine thrived as one of the largest sources of lumber in America, with logging camps operating throughout the deep Maine woods.

Located on the Penobscot River, by 1832, Bangor was the biggest river port in the world.  Thousands of ships could be anchored there at one time to be loaded with timber to sail across the world.  By the 1880s, Maine had used up a lot of the good timber, and the industry moved west.   Cutting trees with machines sped up the process, leading to overharvesting in many places. 

By harvesting trees with machines, the lumber industry could move raw logs to the paper mills that had sprung up all over Maine.   By the 1930s, Maine’s pulp and paper industry was the largest employer in the state.  Facing competition from other forested states, Maine had to encourage tourism as an alternative industry.  By the 1970s, pollution in the rivers from the paper mills led to the passage of the 1972 Clean Water Act.  By the early 2000s, paper was cheaper to make in other parts of the world. Maine continues to struggle with aging mills and high energy costs. 

Additional Industry Information:

Logging and Lumbering

Trees are a very important raw material because they can be used to make other products such as lumber and paper. The demand for these products has created many new job opportunities in Maine, but removing trees actively affects the environment.

What is logging?   Logging means the cutting down of trees to turn them into other products, like paper, houses, and ships.   Maine, “The Pine Tree State,” became an important source of lumber (cut wood) in the early 1600s when European explorers settled on Monhegan Island and claimed the forests for timber harvesting.  Sawmills were quickly built along the rivers to supply pine logs for England’s Navy.  Colonists didn’t like sending all the good lumber to England, which was one of the reasons for the Revolutionary War.  After the War, Maine thrived as one of the largest sources of lumber in America.

Who works in the lumber industry?   Men worked in logging camps throughout the deep Maine woods. Logs cut down in the winter were floated down the major rivers in the spring to be loaded on ships. Many Wabanaki men earned seasonal wages as river drivers.  The log drives, which were dangerous work, were usually finished by early summer. 

The Lesson:

1. Present as much as desired from the introductory information below to your students to give them context for the lesson. Depending on reading level, they could read the introduction as a homework assignment, or you could go over it together as a class.
2. Students choose (or the teacher assigns) one or more of the primary sources to work with.
3. The primary source can be projected/viewed on a big screen by the full class, or printed, so each student has their own copy.
4. This is a mystery-solving activity – students should not know details about the sources in advance. Without first seeing the source label information, students practice their observation and analysis skills. They only see the source and have to use their skills to pull out information about it. 
   • Option 1 – Open inquiry
     • The teacher leads a full-class discussion using the prompts “What do you see?” and “What do you wonder?” The class should be encouraged to look at tiny details and pull out clues from each source. This can also work as a whiteboard or post-it note activity, with students writing their own comments in response to the sources.
   • Option 2 – Guided worksheets
     • Students complete an Analysis Worksheet for each source. They can make educated guesses using whatever information they find in the sources. Note – This can be completed as a class, individually, or in small groups.
5. Present the source label information (the “answers”) to the students. Were you surprised by anything you learned? Have you found more connections between the different sources?
6. Repeat with as many sources as desired.
7. Discuss all the sources together. What sources did you work with? What did you learn from them? What questions do you have? How do the different sources connect to the theme or to each other?
8. Optional: use the recommended activity prompts and reflection questions for further discussion.

Optional Activity:

Reread Suzanne Clune’s letter to Senator Muskie [Source #4].  What is an environmental issue in your hometown today? What has caused the problem, and what can be done to fix it? Research the issue and write a letter to a local representative to ask for change.

Reflection Questions:

• Think about all the industries in Maine that use natural resources.  In what ways are natural resources important to Maine industries?
• What are the benefits of expanding industries? What are the costs and downsides?
• How are Maine industries linked to the natural resources they use?  Write a list of some Maine industries connected to different regions of the state.
• Logging is just one story of industry in Maine. Can you think of 2-3 other industries that have an environmental impact, and how?  List the pros and cons of each.

Maine Industry Primary Source Sets developed in collaboration between the Maine State Archives, Maine State Library, and Maine State Museum.