Land use in Maine: determinants of past trends and projections of future changes.

About 90 percent of the land in Maine is in forests. We analyzed past land use trends in Maine and developed projections of future land use. Since the 1950s, the area of forest in Maine has increased by almost 400,000 acres; however, the trends differ among ownerships, as the area of nonindustrial private timberland declined by 800,000 acres since 1950, while private industrial area rose by 681,000 acres. We used econometric analyses to identify variables affecting land allocation, such as population density. Estimated equations were used to generate decadal land use projections to 2050. Our projections showed that private timberland area will decline by almost 3 percent by 2050, with urban areas increasing by 56 percent.