Lyme Timber Company — What They Really Do
In 2019, the Lyme Timber Company purchased 675,000 acres in the Upper Peninsula (Michigan) and northern Wisconsin. That amounts to approximately 6.4% of the total acreage in the UP.
Their website and publications make ample use of words like “sustainability,” “conservation,” “sustainable forestry” “carbon sequestration,” and “renewable resources,” along with every other ESG buzzword that they could think of. Somehow, they’ve even established partnerships with reputable nonprofits like The Nature Conservancy (shame on you TNC).
The reality is that they acquire massive amounts of forested land (at extremely low prices), clearcut it, and destroy entire ecosystems in the process. These are a few of the properties that they’re “conserving” around the Dead River Storage Basin in the UP.
The land held in their “Fund V,” which includes their UP properties, was acquired for approximately $300 per acre (based on their financial reports and some logical assumptions). Being an Investment Management firm, Lyme…
“raises capital in pooled private equity funds in which it co-invests and serves as the general partner.”
After acquiring entire landscapes, Lyme begins clearcutting. Any areas of the property that they can’t reach or can’t profitably log, they sell to the public for $1,000 per acre.