Our 50th Year
1975 - 2025
Newsletter Flash Back
SWOAM News March 1997
In the March 1997 edition of SWOAM News, Peter Lawrence’s article “Dealing with Timber Theft: Landowner, Logger, and Law” discussed the ideas that emerged during a well-attended panel presentation that the organization hosted in January 1997. This event was one of the many ways SWOAM advocated on behalf of woodland owners about the growing problem of timber theft.
Click HERE to read articles about this issue.
How it Started
Maine Woodland Owners is celebrating 50 years as the only statewide organization dedicated to assist and support small woodland owners with management of their land.
Maine Woodland Owners was established in 1975 based on a simple concept: family woodland owners needed a place to learn, share information, and receive assistance to secure the future of their lands and the forests of Maine. While much has changed in 50 years, that concept still rings true today. We are grateful that a small group of committed woodland owners created a vision for an organization that would serve and prosper through changes, just like our woodlands.
Originally called Small Woodland Owners Association of Maine – or SWOAM, Maine Woodland Owners was started by a group of forest owners led by Duncan Howlett. Duncan was a retired minister from Washington D.C. who had recently moved to Lovell, Maine to live on a farm that happened to have a woodlot. The term “small woodland” was included in the name because it was a time when forestry was largely dominated by large industrial forestland ownerships and facilities. Our founders realized that there was an unmet need for information and technical expertise among amateur woodland owners like themselves to help manage their land. There were plenty of forestry-related programs, but nothing that focused on the “citizen woodland owners,” as Howlett would describe them. Our organization was born.
Click HERE to read Tom Doak’s article about what the 50th anniversary means to him.
The Signs Over the Years
Maine Woodland Owners’s current member sign (purchase HERE).
The original SWOAM member sign provided an opportunity to spread the word about the organization.
A later version of the SWOAM member sign.
Do you have stories about SWOAM/Maine Woodland Owners from the past 50 years? We’d like to collect them for an archive that will be available in early spring. Click on the button below to complete a form or send your submission to jenn@mainewoodlandowners.org
SWOAM members gathering in 1991 celebrating the launch of its land trust with an acquisition of its first forest parcel, the Carroll Memorial Forest in Sweden.
SWOAM/Maine Woodland Owners founder, Duncan Howlett.
50th Anniversary Gear
Stay warm and help celebrate our milestone year!
