In 1999, the Maine Forest Service (MFS) and USDA Forest Service's Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) program implemented a new system for inventorying and monitoring Maine's forests. A salient feature of the new inventory process is a nearly threefold improvement in timeliness as full inventories are completed every 5 years. The 2003 results represent the first full set of annual inventory and growth data since the end of the extreme spruce-budworm epidemic (SBE) of the 1970's and 1980's. The effects of the SBE continue to affect the composition, structure, and distribution of Maine's forested ecosystems. Insight into current forest dynamics will help stakeholders plan for potential future disturbances like SBE. The area of forest land in Maine has remained stable since the 1970's. Although relatively small acreages of forest are converted to other land uses these conversions often remove highly valued forests such as white pine. The total inventory volume of live trees increased slightly, indicating the beginning of a response of Maine's forest to the tremendous devastation from SBE. The spatial distribution of sapling-size spruce and fir across the State reveals a general abundance of regeneration, foretelling waves of merchantable wood in coming years.
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