Forest-land owners of Maine, 1982

Abstract

Information about the attitudes and objectives of the private forest-land owners is essential to understanding Maine's forest resources. Ninety-six percent of Maine's 17 million acres of timberland is in 180,900 private ownerships. Ninety-two percent of these ownerships are individual and joint ownerships. A majority, 66 percent of the owners, live within a mile of their nearest tract, and 72 percent own only one tract. Benefits other than timber production are most important to a majority of Maine's landowners, but 61 percent of the timberland is in ownerships that have timber production as the primary reason for owning forest land. Fifty-three percent of the private owners have harvested trees from their land, they own 92 percent of the private forest land. Fifty-three percent of the private owners with almost 14 million acres of forest land allow public use of their forest land for recreation.