BDN cites Crandall in blog post on LePage’s take on Maine forest industry jobs
The Bangor Daily News cited a 2016 study conducted by Mindy Crandall, an assistant professor of forest landscape management at the University of Maine, in the “State & Capitol” blog post, “LePage’s bleak take on Maine forest industry jobs doesn’t add up.” At a recent meeting with U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, Gov. Paul LePage was cited as saying Maine has 500 people “going on the unemployment rolls each week” due to tariffs and the exchange rate, according to the article. But Maine only has about 4,000 loggers and industry watchers say they don’t know how the governor got his figures, the article states. A 2016 study for the Professional Logging Contractors of Maine said the state had 4,600 logging jobs in 2014 and state data says logging jobs have decreased slightly since recovering from the recession. Crandall, who co-authored the study, said the state has lost logging jobs during the past four years, but it’s “pretty hard to disentangle all of the effects” and that mill closures may be a likely culprit.