Irving Woodlands is Good for Maine
By Tyler Taggett
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Irving Woodlands owns millions of acres of land in Maine and works with small business owners in the region. Overall, Maine is just over 20 million acres and Irving owns 1/20th of the state, which is bigger than all of the state parks combined. Irving provides many people opportunities to work in office settings or in the forest, such as foresters, road maintenance operators, forest equipment operators, and truck drivers. In addition, many small business owners have work because Irving contracts with them to manage their land. It is clear to see that Irving Woodlands is an important part of the industry in Maine and is good for Maine.`
The main operation of Irving Woodlands started in 1947 when they purchased their first 250 thousand acres. This business is now responsible for managing 1.255 million acres of land in the northern part of the state. Irving has a total of 79 full-time employees, of which 49 are truck drivers, operators, mechanics, and approximately 30 are technical specialists, supervisors, and managers. Currently, the company owns ten sawmills, four value-added plants, and one pellet mill. It provides employment in rural communities like Maine. In regards to expansion, the company is always looking to try to make sure the company is balanced across all of its forest product businesses, including its pulp mill.
Maine Irving office in the town of St John, Maine
As a human resources worker, Douglas Cyr’s everyday work involves recruiting people to find talent or developing talent, managing employee-related situations, and ensuring their employees are properly trained, and keeping the employees growing into better workers. With regards to expansion, the company is continuously looking for ways to improve and grow in the markets that they operate in, such as the recent purchase of a sawmill in Masardis, Maine, in 2025. Irving Woodlands is important to the employment of many individuals in this area. Cyr stated, “The most interesting thing is that the business relies on the natural resources of our forest. It is very resilient, and through technology and science, we have been able to adapt our business to be able to grow here in Maine." Cyr explained that the company “started off with 250 thousand acres in 1947, and then in 1999, we purchased another 1 million acres. With the million acres came a saw mill and other small value-added businesses. In 2014, we rebuilt a world-class sawmill in Nashville Plantation."
Map of Irving Land in Maine and Canada
Irving’s challenges include everything from nature to population. “Spruce budworm caused us to harvest some of our wood early so we wouldn’t lose it”, explained Cyr. “With early intervention, Irving was able to mitigate a lot of the loss, but it still required us to go in and harvest early to salvage future losses. With a partnership with the state of Maine and other landowners, we were able to treat our forest to lessen the negative impact of spruce budworm.” Tariffs are a business expense that have reqired the company to pay more money than they expected, which has caused them to look at the overall costs and focus on removing waste in other areas. One of the biggest challenges is a shrinking workforce, which is partly due to outmigration and partly due to an older population that is nearing retirement. These two factors are the reason why technology and recruiting from other areas of the United States and the world are important. Another challenge would be dealing with market swings on various products.
People have their own opinions, but Irving Woodlands is beneficial for the people and forests of Maine. As a good employer, Irving provides health insurance, company vehicles, vacation time, and is very flexible with their workers’ schedules. Without Irving in Aroostook County, a lot more people would have to be self-employed and would not have the safety of a large company to give them benefits. Irving provides growth opportunities for Maine’s people as well as its forests.
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