PurposeThe people of Maine have long recognized the importance and value of their forests. Maine has the highest percentage of forest land in the country, nearly 90%, equating to over 17 million acres. Maine also has the highest percentage of forest being held by private citizens. The forest is the single largest contributor to Maine's economy; totaling 5.7 billion dollars of direct annual product value, employing nearly 32,000 people, and providing the largest source of exports for the state economy. This same forest also provides tremendous aesthetic, recreational, ecological and spiritual value to Maine's citizens.
Over the last five years there has been substantial public debate over the health of the Maine woods due to a series of citizen ballot initiatives. Often the information produced by the various sides is contradictory and confusing. As all Maine residents benefit directly or indirectly from our forests, it is imperative that the best information available is an accessible source to all. "The State of the Maine Forest-An informational CD-ROM and Web Site" is a means of achieving this goal. It allows citizens the opportunity to explore information and data on a range of forestry issues from a variety of sources, including the University of Maine, US Forest Service, Maine Forest Service, non-governmental organizations, and private industry. Also we have a complete set of vegetation and land cover maps (1993) for the entire state of Maine. It is hoped that this CD and web site will provide a comprehensive source of information for the general public that will facilitate informed decision-making as we enter the next chapter in the history of the Maine woods.
How to use CD
This CD is designed to be used with either Macintosh or IBM compatible computers and will perform best with Internet access. However, most of the pages will work without it except external links to other web sites. Adobe Acrobat is needed to read PDF files and a free download of Acrobat is available from the CD with Internet access. Most of the pages have a back button at the bottom of each page to return to the previous page, however the "x" in the upper right hand corner must be used in order to close documents in PDF format.
Acknowledgments
Funding for the development of the CD was provided by the Maine Agricultural and Forest Experiment Station and the NASA-Maine Forest Project (NAG 13-98008) awarded to the Department of Forest Management, University of Maine. The CD project was directed by Steve Sader, Professor of Forest Resources and supervised by Sean Murphy, Graduate Research Assistant and Matt Bertrand, Associate Scientist. The lead research assistant responsible for development of the CD was Renee St. Amand, who was assisted by Ben Herzog and Jake Metzler; all are undergraduate students in the Department of Forest Management at the University of Maine, Orono, ME 04469-5755. The authors of this CD are grateful for the assistance provided by Terry Gildred and Andrei Strukov of the Faculty Development Center, University of Maine. For more information about this CD and the companion web site go to www.ume.maine.edu/~MIAL
