The number of acres of trees that are clear-cut and sprayed with herbicides continue to decline, according to reports released Monday by the Maine Forest Service.

In 2000, 13,815 acres were clear-cut. That’s the lowest level since 1982 when the agency began tracking this information and a 26 percent decrease from the year before. The number of acres clear-cut has steadily declined since 1989 when more than 140,000 acres were harvested this way.

At the same time, the use of herbicides declined 61 percent from 2,469 acres sprayed in 1999 to 962 acres last year. Most of the clear-cuts were done and herbicides used on industrial timberland as opposed to land owned by institutional investors, the government or small woodlot owners.

The amount of commercially valuable wood harvested – 5.8 million cords – was also up slightly from the year before. That concerns forest activist Jonathan Carter who was pleased by the drop in clear-cuts and herbicide use.

“They’re still draining the principle out of the bank rather than using the interest,” he said. In other words, trees are being cut faster than they are growing, said Carter, the director of the Forest Ecology Network and the man behind recent referendum efforts to ban and limit clear-cutting.

The recent forest inventory numbers released by the forest service earlier this month reaffirmed this disparity, he said. That report found there was “no significant change” in the net volume of trees used for commercial purposes. The growth in the Maine woods was found in small saplings, the report said.

When the wood starts to run out, there will be increased layoffs in the forest industry and mills will close down, Carter predicted.

Tom Doak, the director of the Maine Forest Service, said such interpretations are incorrect.

He said harvest levels have stabilized after declining since 1995 and that they have simply been “wobbling” around the same level in the last two years. In 1995 the harvest of commercially valuable wood was 6.2 million cords. In 1999 and 2000, 5.5 million cords and 5.8 million cords, respectively, were harvested.

“We have a harvest level that I’m comfortable with,” Doak said.

The declining harvest rate coupled with increasing volumes are positive signs, he said.

“Harvest rates have gone down and stabilized,” he said. “That means positive things in the long term.”

In addition, the state’s forest is now growing well below its potential, Doak said. With better management, such as the hand thinning of young stands that was reported last year, the remaining trees can grow faster and bigger in coming years.

Carter agreed that the declines in the acreage clear-cut and sprayed with herbicides were good things, although he said the number of acres clear-cut was still too high. He said the changes were due to his efforts to pass referendums banning and restricting clear-cuts, all of which failed at the polls. He was also involved with a group that collected signatures to put a referendum limiting pesticide use on this year’s ballot. The group decided to wait at least until next year before pushing the initiative.

“The industry has realized that the people of Maine don’t like clear-cutting and herbiciding,” Carter said.