The timber resources of Maine

Abstract

Under the authority of the McSweeney-McNary Forest Research Act of May 22, 1928, and subsequent amendments, the Forest Service, U. S. Department of Agriculture, conducts a series of continuing forest surveys of all states to provide up-to-date information about the forest resources of the Nation. The first forest survey of Maine was made in 1954-58 by the Northeastern Forest Experiment Station, with cooperation from many individuals, forest industries, and state agencies. A resurvey of the timber resources of Maine was made in 1968-70, again with the cooperation of many persons and agencies. The Maine State Legislature, the forest industries, and the United States Department of Commerce contributed funds for aerial photography and purchase of the aerial photographs that were used for the resurvey. The Maine Forestry Department provided air transport to otherwise inaccessible areas, quarters for the Forest Survey crews, financial assistance, aerial photographs and information on forest-land ownership and output of timber products. The State of Maine Bureau of Taxation, Seven Islands Land Company, Great Northern Paper Company, Scott Paper Company, and Diamond International Corporation lent aerial photographs for field-plot locations. The forest industries that provided assistance and quarters for field crews were Great Northern Paper Company, International Paper Company, and Oxford Paper Company. The Seven Islands Land Company also provided assistance and quarters for the field crews. The entire operation received excellent help and cooperation. The resurvey of the State was directed by Carl E. Mayer, leader of the Forest Survey project. He was assisted by John R. Peters, who supervised many field crews over the 3-year period. Joseph E. Barnard was responsible for applying the general sampling procedures used by the Forest Survey to meet the specific requirements for the Maine inventory. This involved considerations of sampling accuracy desired, sampling procedures to be used, and final data requirements. He and David R. Dickson augmented the generalized computer system FINSYS for the specific data requirements of the Maine inventory. This included the processing of nearly 100,000 records of plot and tree data on a large high-speed computer system. The authors and Barnard checked the consistency of the new inventory with the previous inventory. They made frequent use of the TRAS model in this phase of the data analysis. James T. Bones, with the cooperation of the Maine Forestry Department, collected and compiled data on timber-products output and plant residues. Teresa M. Bowers assisted in computing information pertinent to the sampling design and compiling the data tables included in this report. Carmela M. Hyland assisted with administrative services for the field crews and typed the manuscript and tables of this report. The last field plot in Maine was taken in December 1970; photo interpretation was completed in April 1971; and the fina1 computer output of the resource data was available in May 1971.

Citation

Ferguson, Roland H.; Kingsley, Neal P. 1972. The timber resources of Maine. Resour. Bull. NE-26. Upper Darby, PA: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Northeastern Forest Experiment Station. 129p.