When people in Maine talk, for good or for ill, about the industrial forests of the state, it is almost always generally. This is not because the practices of the large landowners are interchangable but because legal restrictions prevent the state from releasing information about specific landowners. An overdue bill would change that, to the benefit of the state’s best forestry practitioners and of the public.

LD 1144, expected to be heard today before the Committee on Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry, would improve reporting practices such as numbers of acres harvested, where it was harvested and by what method available to the public. The legislation is limited to landowners with at least 20,000 acres. The bill, presented by Rep. Roland Sampson of Jay, is careful not to force landowners to reveal information that would help their competition, such as price or intended product.

Debates over clearcutting in recent years shows exactly why this bill is needed. In trying to sort out fact from fiction on both sides of the argument, all the public had to go on was a percentage of unidentified land cut by an unknown owner. The vagueness of the information made it impossible to determine what was happening on land that comprises half the state. That, not surprisingly, led to assertions by both sides that probably would prove fanciful if accurate and specific numbers were made available.

Industry has spent quaite a lot of effort and some expense during the last year or so rebuilding its image. It has been a struggle because the public, even if it senses that some landowners do a better job managing the forests than others, has no choice but to assume that some of the worst practices found are carried out industrywide. How much simpler it would be if the public could sort out the good from the bad and, instead of passing statewide regulations, could simply insist that the governing agencies change the habits of the worst offenders.

The public has an economic interest in this information, as well. Because the large tracts of land are under Maine’s Tree Growth tax law, landowners manage the forest so that so that it will remain productive over the long term in exchange for a tax break, with everyone else required to make up the difference. If a landowner is not managing Tree Growth land this way, the public should know about it.

Rep. Sampson’s bill was defeated last year when industry objected to the potential release of proprietary information. That’s been taken care of this time, so committee members should have no difficulty endorsing the bill this session.