The timber industry has been a driving force in Maine's economic picture since Colonial times, when early coastal settlers began building transport ships for English merchants in 1607. Since then, the industry has significantly diversified and kept pace with a changing marketplace. Today, the production of everything from toothpicks to custom-built yachts begins with products found in Maine's forests.

Plum Creek supplies logs and pulp
to more than 70 Maine firms

Roughly 89 percent of the state's land area is forested, and Maine is one of the world's leading producers of pulp and paper products.

But in order for the industry to thrive, its primary natural resources must be protected to ensure that future generations will also be able to meet their needs from this vast resource.

Thus, the Sustainable Forestry Initiative SFI — a broad set of environmental guidelines — was created in 1994 by the American Forest and Paper Association. The program was designed to make sure today's forest industry can remain competitive without compromising the resource's inherent natural value for future generations.

The SFI program — one of the world's most rigorous and widely applied standards of sustainable forestry — also provides a method for public monitoring and accountability.

Plum Creek manages all of our timberlands according to the standards established by the SFI, and takes the extra step by pursuing third-party review and auditing of our performance. In 1999, Plum Creek became the first company to undertake an independent, third-party audit of our SFI performance.

Learn more about Plum Creek's commitment to the Sustainable Forestry Initiative.