Board of Directors
Seth Sprague recently retired as the head of Black Point Corporation, the Sprague family office. During his 22-year presidency, he worked to conserve and maintain over 2,000 acres of largely undeveloped property in Cape Elizabeth and Scarborough. The Tree Growth Tax Law has been critical to the Sprague family’s efforts to continue the vision of Phineas W. Sprague, a Boston businessman, ardent outdoorsman, and conservation pioneer.
Jennifer Dann grew up in Aroostook County, earned a degree in Environmental Engineering at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in New York and a Master’s degree in Environmental Policy and Management from the University of Denver. Jennifer spent 25 years in New Mexico primarily working for the civil engineering division at Kirtland Air Force Base on environmental compliance, community and land planning, and energy initiatives. She later worked for New Mexico State Forestry as the Urban and Community Forestry Manager. She and her husband, Chris Apblett, moved to Orono in 2020, and serves as a member of the Orono Tree Board, a board member for the Orono Land Trust, and the steward for the Piney Knoll Conservation Area.
Kyle Burdick is a licensed forester and the Vice President of Baskahegan Company. He is responsible for management policy, forest certification, land acquisitions, carbon offsets, wood sales, and general company administration. He grew up in Southeastern Connecticut and earned a forest management degree from the University of Maine in 2007 which was followed by time as a forest manager in the Adirondacks. In 2009, Kyle came back to Maine to work for Orion Timberlands serving as, among other things, the forester for Downeast Land Trust. In 2014, Kyle became the Land Trust Forester for Downeast Land Trust. He started with Baskahegan in 2016. In 2021 and 2022 he was part of the Maine Woodland Owners’s Forest Carbon Task Force to help investigate the options the organization's land trust had around inventorying forest carbon and selling offsets.
John Melrose and his wife Molly settled in Vassalboro in 1976 and live on about 135 acres of which about a third is rented as hay and corn fields and the remainder is woodlands. He holds a bachelor's degree in Public Administration and a masters in Community Development from the University of Maine. John began his career at the Maine Municipal Association and then for 20 years owned and directed the private consulting firm specializing in government relations, association management and economic and community development. He served eight years as Commissioner of the Maine Department of Transportation in the King Administration. For 16 years John served as steward for the Vassalboro Wildlife Habitat which is owned and managed by Kennebec Land Trust (KLT).
Jeff Williams grew up in Hollis where he started working on a wholesale produce farm which lead to a life-long interest in the outdoors. He earned his BS in forestry at the University of Maine and worked summers as an arborist for the City of Portland. After graduation Jeff started working with the late Everett Towle, Maine Woodland Owners past president. He is the owner and head forester of Maine Forest Management. He and his wife and daughter live in Limington.
Hannah Carter is a native of Caribou, Maine and is dean of University of Maine Cooperative Extension. Carter received her Ph.D and master’s degree in agricultural education and communication, specializing in agricultural leadership and Extension education, from the University of Florida. She is a graduate of the University of Maine at Presque Isle.
Jim Clair is CEO of CSSHealth, a healthcare technology company based in Tampa, FL and Buffalo, NY and also owns or co-owns a number of companies in Maine under the umbrella, Clair Group of Companies. From 1984 to 2001, he served on the nonpartisan staff of the Maine Legislature. Jim holds master’s degrees from Syracuse University and the State University of New York, and a bachelor’s degree from the University of Massachusetts. Clair and his wife Jennifer split their time between China, Maine, where they own 155 acres of woods, and a home in Portland, Maine.
Mark Doty earned his BS degree in Forest Engineering from the University of Maine. His career started as a forester with Scott Paper and he retired in 2018 from Weyerhaeuser as Public Affairs Manager. He now works as a forester. He served as President of the Maine Forest Products Council, as well as Vice President of the New Hampshire Timber Owners Association and Vermont Woodlands Association. He has also served as a board member of the Vermont Forest Products Association, Maine SFI Implementation Committee, Cooperative Forestry Research Unit, and Sportsmen/Forest Landowner Alliance. He and his wife Lilly live in Madison.
David Gould grew up in Maine, graduated from the University of Maine and since 1977 has been involved with several businesses, a majority of which he served as president. David and his wife Anne started purchasing woodland acreage in North Waterboro in 1999, and today they own and actively manage 467 acres. They became Maine Woodland Owners members in the early 2000s.
Jeff McCabe graduated from Unity College and has worked for more than 20 years in Maine’s outdoor economy. He currently serves as director of the Maine Office of Outdoor Recreation. From 2008 to 2016, McCabe served as a member of the Maine House of Representatives. He resides in Skowhegan with his wife and their three children and maintains a 13 acre woodlot adjacent to their home.
Alan Michka grew up in Texas, graduated from Texas A&M University before practicing veterinary medicine. After switching careers nine years later, Alan flew planes until retiring in 2023. Alan and his wife Kay have owned woodland in Maine since 2001 and moved to the state in 2005. They now live in Lexington Twp. and own adjacent woodlots totaling about 420 acres. Alan and Kay joined Maine Woodland Owners in 2004.
Mike Redante is the staff forester for the New England Forestry Foundation (NEFF), where he oversees forest management on 44,000 acres throughout New England. He holds a Master of Forestry degree from the University of Maine. Before NEFF, he worked for Prentiss & Carlisle, working closely with private landowners across the state. Mike lives in Bangor with his wife and two children. When not in the woods, he enjoys playing ice hockey.
Nicole Rogers is the Landowner Outreach Forester with the Maine Forest Service (MFS) and brings a wealth of practical knowledge and experience around forest management and silviculture. She received her bachelor’s degree from the University of Maine and her masters degree from Oregon State University. She holds a doctorate in Natural Resource Management from University of Vermont. She was a professor of forest management and silviculture at the University of Maine in Orono. Before that, Rogers was an assistant professor of forestry at University of Maine Fort Kent for three years. A native of Lincolnville, Nicole lives in Hampden with her husband, who is also a forester, and their young child. They manage their family-owned woodlands in Topsfield and Belfast.
Paul Sampson grew up on a 100-acre farm with a father who was an architectural woodworker. From an early age, he was taught to grow and harvest trees, saw and dry lumber, make cabinets, doors and moldings from that lumber. He and his wife, Jula, have run their millwork business, A.E. Sampson & Son, in Warren since 1987. Always willing to learn, Sampson attended his first Maine Woodland Owners event in the mid-1990s, and has been “hooked on the organization ever since.” After volunteering for the Midcoast chapter leader position, he joined the board of directors.
Jeff Tarling is the Tree Warden for Cape Elizabeth and the Urban Forestry Specialist for Maine Audubon. He is a graduate of the University of Southern Maine and a lifelong lover of trees and forests. Before serving in his current roles, Jeff spent over thirty years caring for community forests and parks in Portland. As City Arborist, Jeff managed the city’s 20,000 street and park trees, town forests, municipal landscapes and community gardens. Jeff has served as a board member with the Maine Arborist Association for over twenty years and is a former member of Maine’s Arborist Review Board. Jeff is a resident of South Portland.