State of Maine's Forests · 2026
Maine's 17.4 million acres of forestland are the state's single most important climate asset. Forestland takes up about 22 million metric tons of CO₂ a year, more than the state's 16 million tons of gross emissions, and after wood products and every other land use are counted the state's net sink still offsets 91% of what Maine emits, while the forest anchors an $8.3 billion economy. Every figure on this dashboard is measured in the field or officially reported, with no projections or forecasts.
Aligned with the Maine Climate Council Scientific & Technical Subcommittee forest indicators (Forest Carbon & Productivity; Forest Health & Diversity, 2026).
Maine's forests are the centerpiece of Maine Won't Wait, the state climate plan. Natural and working lands already offset the large majority of Maine's emissions, putting the state among the closest in the nation to its 2045 carbon-neutrality target.
Annual carbon flows, 2017 to 2021 average, million metric tons CO₂-equivalent. Forestland net uptake (22.2) exceeds gross state emissions (16.1). After wood product emissions and every other land use are counted, the net sink across natural and working lands is 14.7, or 91% of gross emissions.
Source: The State of Maine's Carbon Budget, Version 2 (Hayes et al., CRSF), emissions and removals by sector, 2017 to 2021.
The offset nearly doubled in a decade. Every forested acre lost permanently reduces this capacity.
Palmer Drought Severity Index for Maine, statewide, each August from 1895 to 2025. Negative values are drier than normal. The last two decades have been the wettest on record on average, but the 2001 to 2003, 2020, and 2025 droughts show the swings forests now face between wet years.
Source: NOAA NCEI, Climate at a Glance, Maine statewide PDSI, August (nClimDiv), retrieved September 15, 2026.
What the data tell us. Maine's forests are its number-one climate asset, taking up more CO₂ each year than the state's gross emissions. Sustaining that role through warming, drought, and spreading pests is the central challenge the data on this dashboard are built to measure.
This dashboard shows what has been measured. To explore how Maine's forest carbon could evolve to 2100 under different management and climate scenarios (a multi-model ensemble anchored to the same FIA data), continue to the PERSEUS Forest Intelligence platform.
Maine forests store roughly 1.59 billion metric tons of carbon and keep growing far more wood than is harvested. Maine's forestland takes up more carbon dioxide each year than the state's gross emissions.
Total carbon stored in Maine forests, with 95% confidence band. Up 4.3% since 2003. The vertical axis is truncated to show the change.
Growth-to-harvest ratio. A value above 1.0 means forests grow faster than they are cut. Maine reached 1.72× in 2024.
What the data tell us. Carbon storage is up 4.3% since 2003 and harvest remains well below growth (forests grow 72% more than is cut). Tree mortality fell from 1.27% to 0.82% per year between 2008 and 2018 and has since climbed back to 1.09%, so the recent direction is up. Forests are Maine's number-one climate asset, and every forested acre lost permanently reduces the state's capacity to remove carbon.
Maine's forests are getting denser and, in places, more stressed. Diversity is holding steady, wildfire risk stays very low, but a set of invasive pests is spreading fast.
Relative density (FIA, stand density as a share of the maximum for the species mix) has risen about 10% to 0.57, above the 0.30 to 0.55 range generally associated with full site occupancy before density-driven mortality sets in. Mortality fell from 1.27% per year in 2008 to 0.82% in 2018 and has risen since to 1.09%. Vertical axes are truncated to show the change.
Acres burned per year. Down ~97% from the pre-1950 era. Maine averages roughly 530 acres burned annually, among the lowest nationally.
Number of Maine counties (of 16) affected by each major invasive pest.
Climate warming is expected to increase pest range and overwintering survival. Species and structural diversity remain stable, providing a solid ecological foundation for resilience.
Share of Maine forest conditions recording each disturbance agent (FIA field plots). Together the five agents are recorded on at most 14% of conditions in the latest inventory (human-caused damage is the 2023 value).
Measured structure that shapes carbon, biodiversity, and resilience.
FIA field measurements of stand age, size class, and standing dead wood, 2024. Compiled via the CRSF PERSEUS data pipeline.
What the data tell us. Stand density is approaching concerning levels. Strategic thinning would improve resilience and produce wood products. Beech leaf disease is now statewide; emerald ash borer and hemlock woolly adelgid keep expanding. Wildfire risk is very low, and the drought record still shows sharp dry years between wet ones.
About 8.5 million acres are third-party certified. Maine's forests sustain a $8.3 billion economy while still growing far more wood than is harvested.
Maine's forest products sector generated $8.3B of total output in 2024 and supported nearly 30,000 jobs statewide, counting indirect and induced employment, with about 11,900 of them direct. It leads the nation in forest-sector share of exports.
Direct, indirect, and induced economic output, 2024 ($ millions).
Source: 2024 Statewide Economic Contribution of Maine's Forest Products Sector, UMaine School of Economics and Camoin Associates for the Maine Forest Products Council and Maine DECD (October 2025). Indirect and induced values are input-output model estimates.
Share of the sector's direct output by industry group, 2024. Paper manufacturing still leads, with wood product manufacturing close behind.
Source: 2024 Statewide Economic Contribution of Maine's Forest Products Sector (UMaine School of Economics and Camoin Associates, October 2025), direct output shares. Other forest industries include forestry and logging, biomass energy, wood furniture, and support activities.
In 2023 Maine landowners harvested 10.0 million green tons of wood. About four fifths of the harvest was processed by Maine mills and one fifth left the state as unprocessed logs and chips, while Maine mills also brought in 2.7 million tons from neighboring states and from New Brunswick, Quebec and Ontario. Sawlogs (lumber, studs, veneer and pallets) now account for 39% of the harvest, up from 23% in 2011, as pulpwood's share has fallen from 57% to 44%.
Share of the annual Maine wood harvest by product, in green tons, comparing 2011 with 2023. The harvest itself fell from 13.5 to 10.0 million tons over the same period, so a rising share is not a rising volume.
Source: Maine Forest Service Wood Processor Reports, 2009 to 2023 (2023 report published June 20, 2025). Administrative filings under 12 M.R.S. §8884, so there is no sampling interval, though nonresponse remains. Graphic: CRSF, University of Maine.
Million green tons harvested from Maine forests, split between wood processed in Maine and wood exported without processing.
Source: Maine Forest Service, 2023 Wood Processor Report (June 2025). Administrative reports filed under 12 M.R.S. §8884 by primary processors, firewood dealers and exporters, so there is no sampling interval, though nonresponse remains.
Share of the annual Maine harvest by product (percent of green tons).
Source: Maine Forest Service Wood Processor Reports, 2009–2023. Administrative filings, not a sample, so no sampling interval is shown, though nonresponse remains, as MFS flagged under-reporting in 2013 after pulp mill closures, and firewood was redefined in 2016 to exclude pellet-mill residues.
Annual export value ($ millions, nominal), stacked by wood, pulp, and paper. The 2024 total of $577M is the figure mapped by country in the bioeconomy section.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, USA Trade Online, state-level exports by Harmonized System chapter (44 wood, 47 pulp, 48 paper), origin of movement Maine, 2002 to 2025.
Statewide average stumpage price paid to landowners for sawlogs, dollars per thousand board feet (nominal), for six of Maine's main sawtimber species. Red oak, sugar maple, and ash sawlogs are worth more than they were in 2000, while spruce and fir sawlogs are worth less in nominal dollars.
Source: Maine Forest Service annual Stumpage Price Reports, statewide averages of reported sales, 2000 to 2024. Prices are nominal and are averages of reported transactions, not a sample, so no sampling interval is shown.
The whole picture in one image, built for reprinting. News outlets, teachers, legislative staff and partner organizations are welcome to reproduce these graphics, provided the credit line and the source note at the foot of each one stay legible and are not cropped away. Print resolution files are linked below the graphic.
The harvest by product on the left, and the shifting product mix from 2009 to 2023 on the right. Sawlogs and pulpwood have close to traded places over fifteen years.
Source: Maine Forest Service Wood Processor Reports, 2009 to 2023 (2023 report published June 20, 2025). Graphic: CRSF, University of Maine. Print resolution: two panel graphic (PNG, 300 dpi) · sawlog share slope (PNG, 300 dpi). Terms of reuse are in press/README.txt.
What the data tell us. The sustainable harvest that keeps growth ahead of cutting is the same harvest that sustains mills, jobs, and rural communities. Maine's challenge is measuring the trade-offs of carbon, timber, and habitat, not choosing one over the others.
Maine has a blue economy and a green one. Only one of them is 17.4 million acres.
Maine's marine economy gets the headlines, and it has earned them. Commercial harvesters landed $709M of seafood at the dock in 2024. Maine's forest economy is a different measurement on a different scale, and it is easy to miss because it happens inland. The forest products sector's total output is $8.3B a year, Maine mills process 10.7 million tons of wood, and the state ships forest products to 49 countries. Both sectors matter. Only one of them covers 88% of the state.
Net shipments of logs, wood products, pulp and paper from Maine to other states, 2022 Commodity Flow Survey ($ millions). Circle area is the net value; hollow circles have a survey coefficient of variation above 30%.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau and Bureau of Transportation Statistics, 2022 Commodity Flow Survey, table CF2200A17. Suppressed cells count as zero, so every figure is a floor. Graphic: CRSF, University of Maine.
Maine-origin exports of wood, pulp and paper (HS chapters 44, 47 and 48), 2024. Circle area is the value received, drawn at each country's center. Canada alone takes $385M, 67% of the $577M total.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, USA Trade Online, state-level exports by Harmonized System code, origin of movement Maine, 2024. Graphic: CRSF, University of Maine.
What the data tell us. Maine's forest is growing faster than it is being cut, its mills are running below what the forest can sustainably supply, and its products already sell into 49 countries. That combination, a surplus of raw material and an existing route to market, is what a bioeconomy is built from. The question for the next decade is not whether Maine has the wood. It is what the state chooses to make from it.
Roughly 4.2 million acres, about a fifth of Maine's land, are conserved, keeping the north woods whole, working, and open to the public.
About 88% of Maine is forested. About 4.2 million acres, roughly 21% of the state's land area, are conserved through public ownership, land trust ownership, or conservation easement, and most easement forestland remains in active working-forest management.
Share of forestland by FIA ownership class. Family and individual owners are all private noncorporate holdings, from small woodlots to large family-held tracts, which is why the class is larger than the small-woodlot share reported elsewhere.
Cumulative conserved acres in Maine by year of acquisition.
What the data tell us. Forest cover is 88.2% (FIA, 2024), the highest of any state, and has slipped 1.8 points since 2003. Conservation has accelerated sharply since the 1990s, keeping most of the north woods intact and working.
Ten measured layers make up the forest's ecosystem-services bundle. Color the map by any one, then click a county, or tab to it and press Enter, for its full snapshot: forest sector jobs, forest area, percent forested, carbon, age, old forest, tree diversity, public ownership, conserved land, and current harvest. Forest structure, carbon, and harvest are design-based estimates from USDA FIA field plots; conserved land from the Maine DACF state GIS; jobs from MFPC. Or use "Find my area" to jump to where you are.
Every number on this dashboard comes from field measurement or official reporting, and none of it is a projection. Where an official figure is itself the product of a model, such as the input-output estimates of indirect and induced jobs or the state carbon budget, its source is named beside it. For future projections and scenario modeling, see the multi-model PERSEUS Forest Intelligence platform.
USDA Forest Inventory & Analysis (FIA): 3,500+ permanent field plots. The county map's carbon, age, old-forest, diversity, ownership, and harvest layers are design-based FIA estimates. Vintage: 1999–2003 baseline through 2024.
Maine Forest Service annual pest surveys, wood-processor reports, and the biennial State of the Forest.
The State of Maine's Carbon Budget, Version 2 (Hayes et al., CRSF): emissions and removals by sector and forest carbon pools, 2017–2021 averages. Drought: NOAA nClimDiv statewide PDSI.
NLCD land cover and Hansen Global Forest Change for forest-loss mapping.
2024 Statewide Economic Contribution of Maine's Forest Products Sector (UMaine School of Economics and Camoin Associates for the Maine Forest Products Council and Maine DECD, October 2025), Maine Forest Service stumpage and wood processor reports, and U.S. Census trade data. Vintage: 2024, exports through 2025.
Maine DACF conserved-lands GIS and US Census TIGER county boundaries.
This is an observational record of Maine's forests, released annually as the citable data product for the State of Maine's Forests. It carries no model projections, no scenarios, and no forecasts. For climate-scenario carbon projections and management modeling, that work lives in the CRSF carbon-budget and PERSEUS platforms.
This dashboard is one product of the Center for Research on Sustainable Forests. Explore the wider network of Maine and Northeast forest science.
Center for Research on Sustainable Forests: the home center at UMaine.
Visit →Multi-model forest projections: the modeled companion to this observational dashboard.
Explore →The annual gathering where the State of Maine's Forests is released.
Learn more →Cooperative Forestry Research Unit: an industry-university research partnership.
Visit →Northeast Forest Information Source: regional forest data and tools.
Visit →Forest Climate Change Initiative: adaptation and mitigation research.
Visit →Northeastern States Research Cooperative: cross-state forest science.
Visit →The Scientific & Technical Subcommittee behind the forest indicators.
Visit →
