In northern Maine, Troy Jackson made a living cutting down trees. If he’s elected to the Senate in November, Jackson may be looking to save them.
Jackson is a fifth-generation independent logger who, as a state-level politician, pushed woody biomass as a source for biofuel, a stance at odds with many environmental groups. He’s also advocated for protecting old-growth forests and says forests are no place for weed killer glyphosate sprayed from aircraft.
That’s the environmental balance the Democratic nominee will likely strike if he’s able to upset longtime Republican Sen. Susan Collins. These stances have, at times, put him at odds with the logging industry, which is aligned with the state’s current two senators, and gained him support from state unions.
“I’ve watched him evolve from a guy from a very rural corner of Maine who just wanted to make a living, like those before him, by logging in the woods, to an angry man who realized the deck is stacked against the working class,” said Jym St. Pierre, executive director of Restore: The North Woods, a Maine-based nonprofit group opposed to logging on government lands.
Unseating Collins will not be easy; she’s Maine’s longest-serving member of Congress and Jackson entered the race only after Graham Platner withdrew after POLITICO reported that a woman he dated accused him of sexual assault — an allegation he denies.
Jackson boasts a long career in Maine politics. He had an unsuccessful run for governor, spent nearly 20 years in the state Legislature where he rose to become president of the Maine Senate and backed organized labor and other progressive causes.
The former state senator fought to keep high-ethanol fuel made from corn out of gas stations. He likes wind energy; Jackson once proposed a state tax credit for homeowners who build wind turbines.
He’s also proposed a longer moose-hunting season and opposed a state referendum in 2014 to bar the use of dogs, bait or traps in hunting for bears, which failed.
Jackson’s campaign didn’t return requests for an interview.
‘Break that culture’
Maine’s two current senators have been “exceptionally supportive of our industry” on wood to energy and other issues, said Dana Doran, executive director of the Professional Logging Contractors (PLC) of the Northeast, representing independent logging companies.
Sen. Angus King, an independent who caucuses with Democrats, pushed for greater timber harvesting on national forests and sharply criticized the Biden administration for cutting Forest Service funding on capital improvement and maintenance — part of the Great American Outdoors Act that the senator helped write in 2020.
Like Jackson, King has supported using wood for biofuel as part of the nation’s renewable fuel standard.
Collins has also carved out a record of promoting wood for energy. Each year, she backs an amendment on the spending bill for EPA directing the agency to treat woody biomass as “carbon neutral” in regulations, over the objections of environmental groups.
The PLC has had a more complicated relationship with Jackson. In 2012, the organization, then called the Professional Logging Contractors of Maine, gave Jackson its “legislator of year” award for his work on behalf of forest products.
His positions over the years, though, have created a hot-and-cold relationship with the PLC, which in 2023 expanded to cover other Northeast states.
Jackson organized loggers in 1998 to block competing Canadian workers from entering the state for timber jobs — then built a political career from the episode, St. Pierre said. As a result he’s more popular with unionized loggers than with the companies that employ them.
Jackson’s rural roots and middle-class vibe make him a “true Mainer to the core,” said David Sullivan, eastern territory general vice president for the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers — the union representing loggers in Maine.
Jackson explained his approach to forestry in answers to a survey the Maine Audubon Society submitted to gubernatorial candidates.
“It is beyond obvious our state has historically allowed forestry to be dictated by industry and this culture has pervaded in Democratic and Republican administrations alike,” Jackson said, reflecting a sentiment shared on a federal level by some environmental groups.
“It is time to break that culture,” Jackson added.
Jackson’s 1998 blockade at the border addressed a serious issue, the PLC’s Doran told POLITICO. As many as 3,000 foreign loggers may have been working in the U.S. at the time through worker visas, taking jobs from Maine loggers, Doran said.
But by the time Jackson became president of the Maine Senate in 2018, the number had plummeted, Doran said, crediting industry trends and Jackson’s efforts. Only a few dozen remained — yet Jackson was still pushing hard on the issue at odds with the PLC, he said.
“I wouldn’t say it was a combative relationship. It was strained, I’d say that,” Doran said.
Doran’s organization has a list of issues it’s preparing to bring to Congress next year. There’s the Fix Our Forests Act, which would encourage more forest thinning to stave off wildfire and provide material to the wood products industry. Tweaking the renewable fuel standard to encourage the use of woody material to make biofuel is another, Doran said.
Tariffs on logging equipment and sales taxes on trucks and trailers used in the industry are also big targets for next year, Doran said.
PFAS, pesticides, logging
Jackson, if elected, would join Congress as Republicans are pushing against limits on logging in old-growth forests.
The Agriculture Department under the Trump administration has sought to lift logging restrictions in designated roadless areas of national forests whether Congress acts on the issue or not.
The effects of “forever chemicals,” or per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, on farmland, continue to grow as a national issue after hitting Maine hard. Collins, chair of the Appropriations Committee, secured funding for PFAS-related research at the University of Maine, and farm groups would be looking to Jackson to pick up on those efforts.
Jackson has a history of seeking to ban chemicals he sees as harmful. In 2021 he pushed unsuccessfully to ban aerial spraying of the herbicide glyphosate on forests in Maine — a practice used by private timberland owners — citing health and environmental concerns. The International Agency for Research on Cancer has linked glyphosate to cancer, but EPA and other agencies say there’s no proof of a connection.
Glyphosate, better known by its brand name Roundup, promises to remain a polarizing issue next year as Republicans push back against states’ efforts to label it as a cancer risk. Some Democrats and the “Make America Healthy Again” movement advocate for limits or a ban on its use. If Congress punts a five-year farm bill to next year, glyphosate proposals could resurface with that legislation.
Timber companies and the Maine Farm Bureau Association fought Jackson on the issue. The Farm Bureau said in testimony that the measure “would deny farmers and forest landowners the ability to manage their properties utilizing a tool that has already been determined to be safe and effective.”
Jackson’s bill passed, but Gov. Janet Mills, a Democrat, vetoed it.
