Now through Monday, October 26, we invite you to explore and photograph your favorite Public Reserved Lands—and to enter your photos in our “I Love Our Maine Lands” photo contest.
public lands
Heavier Logging of Maine Public Lands Focus of New Commission
by Christine Parrish Free Press news story A new commission has just been formed by the state legislature to study the impacts of a shift away from a conservation forestry focus on Maine Public Lands to the commercial timber approach it embraced in 2013 — and the possible uses of those new timber dollars. The Read More
Maine Can’t Cut More Trees from Its Public Forests on a Whim
By The BDN Editorial Board Bangor Daily News editorial As lawmakers departed Augusta last month, they left a debate unsettled about how much wood to cut from Maine’s public forests, how to use the revenue from those logging operations, and what will become of $11.5 million in voter-approved, land-protection bonds. In the coming weeks, a Read More
Increased Logging and Oversight on Maine Public Lands Passed into Law
by Christine Parrish Free Press news story In spite of increasing questions about whether Maine’s Public Lands are being treated more like commercial forests than the multiple-use forests they were established by law to be, logging targets increased from 141,000 to 160,000 cords per year when the new biennial budget was signed into law in Read More
LePage Violating State Responsibility with Public Reserved Lands Harvest Plan
By Catherine B. Johnson, Special to the BDN Bangor Daily News op-ed Gov. Paul LePage threatens to increase logging on Maine’s Public Reserved Lands beyond sustainable levels and divert the revenues to unrelated purposes. But his plans run contrary to the origins, unique characteristics and purpose of these Lands. Maine has about 600,000 acres of Read More
Saving Canada’s Boreal Forest
by Scott Weidensaul and Jeffrey V. Wells New York Times op-ed STRETCHING from interior Alaska across Canada to Newfoundland, and sandwiched between the prairies and the Arctic, North America’s boreal forest is a mind-boggling 1.5 billion acres in size — bigger even than the vast rain forests of the Brazilian Amazon or the Congo. And Read More
LePage Administration’s Timber Harvest Proposal Meets Resistance
Environmental and conservation groups caution that the governor’s plan to fund heating assistance could lead to intensive logging on public lands and create a dangerous budget precedent. By Kevin Miller, Staff Writer Portland Press Herald news story AUGUSTA — The LePage administration made its case Wednesday for funneling money from logging on state-owned lands into Read More
Legislative Panel Rejects LePage Department of Conservation Overhaul
by Scott Thistle, State Politics Editor Sun Journal news story AUGUSTA — A key legislative committee has rejected a proposal by the administration of Republican Gov. Paul LePage that sought to dissolve the state’s Bureau of Public Lands and fold its functions into two other agencies within the state’s Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry. As part Read More
Committee Rejects Plan to Split Bureau of Parks and Lands
by Nakell Williams WABI-TV news story The Joint Standing Committee on Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry rejected a part of the governor’s budget plan. It involves splitting the Bureau of Parks and Lands and placing public lands under forestry. Committee members say they didn’t get any supporting calls or e-mails from constituents. They also say they Read More
