Maine Forest Service offers e-mail newsletter

    AUGUSTA — The Maine Forest Service is offering a unique opportunity for the public to stay informed about forestry issues and events by subscribing to its “Woods Wise Wire” e-mail newsletter.
     The newsletter, which is distributed weekly, details numerous events, such as workshops and seminars, and resource opportunities for those people with an interest in Maine’s forest and forest-products industries.
    “The Maine Forest Service strives to be an important source of information regarding our great Maine forests for all the people of the state,” Alec Giffen, Maine Forest Service director, said.
    “The MFS takes this responsibility very seriously and approaches it from several directions,” he continued, “whether it’s helping woodlot owners on a one-to-one basis, working with harvesters in the field, providing important scientific information to the general public, or offering this unique weekly newsletter.”
    The informative newsletter, which is free, is sent out every Tuesday by e-mail.
    “Our ‘Woods Wise Wire’ newsletter covers all aspects of the Maine forest and gives a dynamic picture of what’s happening in the woods,” Giffen said.
    Readers will learn about upcoming workshops, the availability of new resources, forest health concerns, forest management information and forest protection activities throughout the state. Some federal activities also are covered.
    In the past, subscribers have learned about such events as:
•    Wooden Skidder Bridge Mat Construction and Installation Workshops (in Madison, Jonesboro, Augusta, Ashland);
•    The availability of  a U.S. Forest Service publication on the attributes of standing dead trees;
•    Saw Mill Days 2009 in Brunswick;
•    A Wildlife Habitat Improvement Seminar in New Gloucester;
•    Community Forest Workshop in Bangor and Bath;
•    News about Maine’s forestry-related quarantines;
•    The Asian Longhorned Beetle alert;
•    Upland Invasive Plant Species Identification and Control Workshops in Freeport, Hebron and Jay;
•    Protect Your Woodlot From Timber Trespass and Theft, a program held in Gray; and
•    The availability of the 2009-2010 Maine Register of Big Trees.
    Anyone who would like to be up-to-date on all things “Woods Wise” in Maine’s forests can send an e-mail to Greg Lord at gregory.r.lord@maine.gov and request to be added to the “Woods Wise Wire” mailing list.
    For more information about the Maine Forest Service, visit: www.maine.gov/doc/mfs/index.shtml.