AUGUSTA – The forest products industry, which is fighting to defeat Question 2 on the November ballot, has raised more than 50 times more money than the environmental group behind the contentious referendum question.

The vast majority of the $1.3 million raised since mid-July by Maine’s Forest Heritage Coalition, the political action committee advocating defeat of Question 2, comes from large timber companies, according to campaign finance reports filed with the secretary of state’s office Tuesday.

The largest donation during the period was $331,000 from International Paper Co., which owns more than 900,000 acres of timberland and two large paper mills in the state. The company is also listed as giving nearly $50,000 in “in-kind contributions,” including employee time, meals and lodging costs incurred when company personnel traveled to fairs and other places to talk about the referendum.

Also among the largest opposition donors were S.D. Warren Co., which gave $200,000, Georgia-Pacific Corp., which gave $150,000, Fort James Corp., which gave $125,000 and different entities within J.D. Irving, Ltd., which gave a total of $111,000.

Several U.S. paper companies that don’t own land or mills in Maine gave nearly $15,000, and $36,000 came from forest-products companies and individuals in Quebec, where a lot of Maine wood is processed. The coalition has raised nearly $1.9 million since it began collecting last winter.

In contrast, the Forests for the Future Campaign, the PAC supporting the referendum, raised only $28,000 between July 19 and Sept. 30 and has raised a total of only $34,000 during the campaign. More than half that money came from a Phillips couple, George and Laura Appell, who gave $20,000. They were described Wednesday by Jonathan Carter, organizer of the referendum drive, as small woodlot owners.

The referendum would require landowners enrolled in the state’s Tree Growth Tax Program to get a permit to do any clear-cut larger than 5 acres. It stipulates that landowners each year would be able to cut only as many trees as the average annual growth rate over the prior 10 years. It would also establish a sustainability council, to be appointed by the governor, to make rules to ensure the referendum’s two harvesting objectives are met.

Opponents have said the referendum will cause many small landowners to take their land out of tree growth and develop it, and this will lead to sprawl.

The latest campaign finance reports show that it isn’t small landowners who are financing the opposition to Question 2, however. Rather it’s large timber companies that want to continue doing business as usual, said Carter, who is treasurer of the Forests for the Future Campaign.

“This is a clear example of multinational corporations clear-cutting and overcutting … and through Madison Avenue trying to get the people of Maine to vote against the most reasonable and sensible forest policy,” Carter said.

A separate political action committee formed by the state’s small woodland owners has raised $11,000.

“It’s clearly a David and Goliath situation,” Carter said of the funding disparities.

But, Abby Holman, campaign director for Maine’s Forest Heritage Coalition, said the public should not be fooled by the Carter group’s apparent lack of money.

When Carter worked to defeat the Compact for Maine’s Forests, a proposal supported by the timber industry, Gov. Angus King and mainstream environmental groups, he also said he had no money. Then just weeks before the 1997 election, a Connecticut financier shelled out more than $500,000 to defeat the Compact. Asked if Donald Sussman would step forward again this year to help finance his efforts, Carter said: “I don’t have a lead on that.”

Both sides took credit for raising the most money from “average Mainers.” While Carter’s group did not itemize donations less than $50, opponents of the referendum listed hundreds of donations of $10, $5 and even just $1.

So far, opponents of the referendum have spent $1.6 million compared to Carter’s $6,000. Much of the opponents’ spending – more than $1 million – has been on media ads, including television and radio.

Opponents have spent more than $9,000 just on balloons, helium and string.

Carter said his group is saving its nickels and dimes in hopes of buying television ads before the Nov. 7 vote.