Logging in Maine

If you are trooping around Maine for even a few days, you are bound to see one of these ominous logging trucks stacked with tree carcasses charging down the highway. If you look at a map of Maine, you notice that most of the upper portion of Maine has few towns and it looks like just open space; most of this land is owned by paper companies. If you go hiking and get a view, you are likely to see patches of clearcuts checker-boarding the lands below. The rule on clear cutting is that you can clear cut a lot up to ..........in size and one clearcut must be at least ...........feet away from the next clearcut. Consequentially, the land has become fragmented and chewed up!

Another issue concerning the Maine Woods is J.D. Irving, the giant Canadian conglomerate that is the largest landowner in Maine with 1.5 million acres. Irving comes into Maine with Canadian loggers, cuts and takes our trees, and profits off of them. Canada profits, and Maine loses woods and soil from runoff.

Last November the fourth proposal in four years concerning the Maine Woods would have restricted timber harvesting on the 11.2 million acres of forest enrolled in the state tree growth tax program was defeated. The program would have reduced taxes on forest land by assessing the property based on the value of its wood, rather than its value for development.

For a good article on the full situation in the Maine Woods, go to http://www.meepi.org/files/mt102600.htm