BANGOR DAILY NEWS • April 15, 2024
Loggers behind one of Maine’s heritage industries claim the state and its biggest landowners are sharing confidential information about them through a forest certification program. The loggers say the state and forest products group use a certification program to exchange information about them — such as names, locations and potential violations — if they face investigations but have not yet been notified of the probes. Tension between logging contractors and the state forest service along with the influential Maine Forest Products Council has existed for years but flared more publicly in Augusta this month through a bill from Senate President Troy Jackson, D-Allagash, a fifth-generation logger.