ORONO – The University of Maine Cooperative Extension has published 2008 editions of two classic field guides, “Conifers of Maine” and “Biodiversity in the Forests of Maine.”

“Conifers of Maine” by the late Fay Hyland was first published in 1946. Hyland’s former student, colleague and friend, Christopher Campbell, has updated this most recent edition. Campbell is the director of the extension’s Fay Hyland Botanical Garden and professor of plant systematics.

Hyland had a teaching and research career at the University of Maine that spanned 60 years. During his long study of Maine’s woody plants, he collected seeds and seedlings from throughout Maine and established them in the botanical garden that carries his name.

“When I was a graduate student in the early 1970s, I became friends with professor Hyland,” Campbell said in a recent press release. “He was an accomplished botanist, enjoyable to talk with, and he routinely made soup from his vegetable garden and shared the soup with others.”

Built around a traditional identification key, “Conifers” also includes detailed illustrations for each species that were prepared under supervision of Hyland as well as A.D. Nutting, former director of the UM School of Forestry, and Howard L. Mendall, former leader of UM’s Cooperative Wildlife Research Unit.

The second guide, “Biodiversity in the Forests of Maine,” was first published in 1999 as the result of several years of collaborative effort among members of the Maine Forest Biodiversity Project – nearly 100 forestland owners and managers, environmentalists, sporting and property-rights advocates, government agencies and the scientific community.

Designed for foresters, biologists, loggers, forestland owners and managers, educators, and land-use planners, the manual focuses on the influences of forest management practices on biological diversity. It also adds a set of broad, landscape-level recommendations that are absent from most previous guidelines.

The 2008 edition of this publication has been produced in response to continuing demand.

To order copies of either field guide, visit www.extension.umaine.edu and click “Publications,” or call 581-3792.