Maine's Natural Resource-based Industries:
Indicators of Health

A report for the governor researched and authored by Craig Freshley

Click here for a pdf version of the report.

Press Release

December 9, 2004

Governor's Office

AUGUSTA – Governor John Baldacci received a report today that emphasizes the importance of Maine’s traditional natural resource-based. Natural resource-based industries include agriculture, aquaculture, fishing, forestry, and tourism and outdoor recreation. Together, these industries account for one out of every ten dollars flowing through the economy. The Governor explained that the report reflects his administration’s commitment to supporting and enhancing these traditional Maine industries.

“These industries not only make significant economic contributions,” Governor Baldacci told a gathering of state government leaders and representatives of Maine’s natural resource-based industries, “they are vitally important to preserving Maine’s rural communities, Maine’s cultural heritage, and the Maine landscape that we love. In the year since the conference, a lot has been accomplished. We have laid the groundwork for many key policy and program initiatives that will help sustain these industries in the 21st century.”

A study of the status of these industries, Maine’s Natural Resource-based Industries: Indicators of Health, examines the economic contributions of each of these industries and their environmental and community impacts and highlights indicators for twelve specific topics that policy leaders intend to track in coming years to assess industry trends.

The report was prepared by the Maine Development Foundation and the Maine State Planning Office under the guidance of a steering committee comprised of commissioners of the state’s natural resource agencies and industry experts from outside government. Indicators were developed to track such issues as property values in working waterfront communities, net farm income, number of farmers’ markets, acres of productive farmland, biomass of lobsters, capital investment in paper mills, cords of merchantable timber, and the number of overnight marketable trips taken by tourists.