Two of Maine’s largest forestry companies have been cited for violating the state’s Forest Practices Act, the Maine Forest Service announced Wednesday.

Both Irving Woodlands LLC and SP Forests LLC, a subsidiary company of International Paper, were cited for violating clear-cutting provisions of the act with civil fines totaling $27,550.

In both cases, the only violations with an environmental impact were related to excess cutting within the barrier, known as a “separation area,” that is required between individual clear-cuts, said Roger Ryder, who oversees the service’s northern region from his Old Town office.

Though logging within a separation area is legal, the barrier must retain a minimum density of trees to meet Forest Practices Act standards. However, that density can be measured in several different ways, so the rule isn’t as clear as it first appears, and record-keeping problems can lead to violations, he said.

In Irving’s case, separation areas were thinned in excess of the law in several Aroostook County townships, whereas IP was cited for excess logging in one portion of a barrier located in WELS T1 R5 and WELS T2 R4, Ryder said.

Separation areas have been a major concern for the Forest Service since the Forest Practices Act was amended in 1999.

Overall, the Forest Service’s enforcement staff spends about a third of its time dealing with issues related to separation areas, said Tim Post, who oversees the central region of Maine from his Old Town office.

Staff spend a great deal of time advising companies and answering questions, in addition to enforcement, Post said.

“To enforce the rules, you have to find a way of sorting out these words on the ground,” Ryder said.

Blake Brundson, chief forester for Irving Woodlands LLC issued a statement Wednesday stating the violations were a result of poor paperwork, calling state requirements “very detailed.”

“We accept full responsibility and are determined to make the necessary improvements to our documentation so that it more accurately reflects our good environmental performance on the ground,” he wrote.

Both companies have signed settlement agreements that set the fines as well as a number of conditions stricter than the Forest Practices Act which they must follow for two to five years.

“Conditions are extremely expensive for the company to deal with,” Ryder said. “It will outweigh 10 to thirtyfold, the cost of the penalties themselves.”

In this case, Irving will pay $18,050 because its violations occurred while the company was still under a previous settlement agreement that stemmed from clear-cutting violations in 2002.

This is IP’s second violation of the Forest Practices Act as well, but since the company was not under any conditions at the time of the most recent violation, its fine is less, at $9,500.

“Our goal is to improve the management of Maine’s forests,” Maine Forest Service Director Alec Giffen said in a statement released Wednesday. “Our agency focuses on educating and informing landowners to reduce the possibility of such violations. But when violations occur, we are committed to enforcing the Forest Practices Act.”