• Conkling, Philip W.
  Yale School of Forestry
  

Maine is proportionately the most heavily forested state in the country; of a total of 19.8 million acres, 17.7 million or 89% is covered by woods. (Ferguson and Kingsley 1972). The spruce-fir type covers over one half of the sate's commercial forest land, more than double that of the next most extensive type-maple, beech, birch. The present discussion of these spruce-fir forests is is divided into 2 parts. In the first, the various ecological parameters which determine the structure of the forest are described. In the second part, these site factors are discussed in terms of their effect on the various silvicultural systems which have been employed in managing these forests.