University of Maine Foundation

UMaine students working with faculty and other university forestry experts are involved in tract inventories and mapping, stand improvement, tree planting and other silviculture activities.

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Sustainable Growth

For more than a decade, the forests managed by the University of Maine have grown in size and value with the help of the Green Endowment.

The Green Endowment of Forest Land, established by the University of Maine Foundation, offers individuals and industry the opportunity to donate forest lands to UMaine. The gifted lands, titled to the foundation, are managed by some of the leading forest experts in the Northeast.

The woodlands are used for research and education, and managed for sustainability. Proceeds from timber harvests in University Forests benefit UMaine's forest resource programs by funding student activities in the College of Natural Sciences, Forestry, and Agriculture.

Ten-year management plans are written for each woodlands tract managed by the university, addressing such areas as timber, soil, water and stand diversity.

Since 1992, 7,500 acres of woodlands throughout the state — half of the total acreage of the University Forests — have been donated through the Green Endowment. The university now manages inland and coastal forest tracts from Whitneyville to Carthage and from Gray to Cary Plantation.

"Since the start of its forestry program in 1903, the University of Maine has been recognized as having some of the best forest resource programs in the country," says Bill Livingston, who coordinates the distribution of the Green Endowment funds for the college.

"The Green Endowment is an innovation that is helping us to improve on our excellent reputation. Revenues from the endowment have benefited over 300 students in the last four years by helping to fund special fieldtrips, new equipment, student travel to meetings and seminars, and student research projects. Clearly, students have greatly benefited from these generous gifts of land and the educational experiences our forest resources provide."