NEWPORT — “Too much of Maine’s wood presently leaves the state as logs,” Vaughn Rasar, coordinator of the Heart of Maine, a Corinna-based resource conservation and development corporation, said Thursday.

“We have the wood that the world wants. The challenge is to turn the wood into products before it leaves the state,” Rasar said.

Heart of Maine’s Maine Forest Products Marketing Project was recently awarded a $125,000 grant from the Rural Development Administration.

The money will be used by the MFPM project to assist wood products industries throughout Maine. It will help create business plans to allow manufacturers to take advantage of expanding wood markets, and make available state-of-the-art computer equipment and business software, maintain a market directory and deliver advisory services.

According to Timothy Washburn of MFPM, the grant will be used to develop business plans for 10 companies, develop marketing plans for 10 companies, provide technical assistance to wood products industries, update a producers’ directory, integrate computers into businesses and publicize the Maine woods’ various products and capabilities.

Washburn met with the Heart of Maine council Thursday afternoon in Newport to outline his grant goals.

A special part of the grant work plan, said Washburn, is to create Multiple Agency Service Teams — a group of professionals and experts that will be brought in as needed to help Maine wood products manufacturers streamline, expand and market their businesses.

He said MAST will be triggered when a company asks for help. After he knows a company’s needs, Washburn will assemble a MAST team. The team could consist of forestry experts, university staff, conservationists or marketing experts, depending on the need. Much like a team of surgeons, each with a speciality, the MAST team will set goals and work closely with the company for eight or nine months, said Washburn.

Washburn has already identified four companies that need help immediately. They are Banton’s of Newport, Coastal Woodworking of Nobleboro, Moosehead Manufacturing in Monson, and Millwork Specialties in Waterboro.