ORONO — Supporters and opponents of the state’s proposed rules on clearcutting and regeneration reiterated their opinions Tuesday during the second of three hearings on the matter.

The rules, mandated by the 1989 Forest Practices Act, would, by Jan. 1, 1991, limit the size of all future clearcuts to 250 acres. Other parts of the proposal would work to ensure that regeneration standards are set, as well as establish other standards.

Officals from the Maine Department of Conservation spent Tuesday afternoon and evening reviewing public sentiment on the proposals, after holding similar forums Monday in Presque Isle. On Wednesday, the review board moves to Portland for the final twice-daily sessions, although the hearing record will remain open for written comment until 5 p.m. Monday, Aug. 27.

About 80 people attended the afternoon session Tuesday, with about 60 attending the hearings Monday in Preque Isle, Meadows said.

Most of the comments heard during the Tuesday session, held at the University of Maine, were echos of previous statements. Before the proposal of the rules were drafted earlier this year, the department held some 15 public hearings, according to C. Edwin Meadows, commissioner of the department.

Meadows said that the department is scheduled to complete the rules proposal in early September before being adopted.

For the most part, Meadows said, comment heard Tuesday was favorable and supportive of the general outline of the rules, although some voiced concern over specific parts of the proposal; Some believed that parts were either to lenient or too stringent. Most of the debate, he said, centered on how the land between the clearcuts is managed.

Steven Slyne of Hampden, representing the Maine Forest Products Council and one of the dozens who lobbied the department Tuesday, said that while the council supported the Forest Practices Act, the proposed rules provide no incentives for long-term management of the forests. The proposed law, while setting standards for clearcutting, does not discourage it, he said.

Also, he said, the rules propose tending to at least one area, mandating types of trees to be grown, which he said is unfair. Under the rule proposal, raspberries, alders, and grey birch would not count for meeting regeneration standards.

“The state has no business denying a landowner the right to plant anything he chooses,” Slyne said.