COLBY COLLEGE • October 22, 2025
As the most heavily forested U.S. state by percentage of land area, Maine has a unique and, in some ways, daunting responsibility to understand, manage, and protect its forests for industry and conservation alike. With this in mind, Justin Becknell, associate professor of environmental studies and chair of Colby’s Environmental Studies Department, has joined a statewide initiative that aims to use science and collaboration to advance the Maine forest economy. Colby’s role in the project, enabled by $1 million of grant funding, will focus on using artificial intelligence to process massive quantities of forest data and make it available—and easily understandable—to forest landowners. Becknell said, “You could click on your parcel on the map, and this website would spit out a bunch of data, like an estimate of habitat quality, carbon stocks, tree species diversity, estimated age, and board feet.”