Department of Conservation

Augusta, Maine – (January 23, 2001) The National Association of Interpretation (NAI) presented the Media Award today to the Forest Policy and Management Division of the Department of Conservation's Maine Forest Service. The award recognized the division's recent publication, "The Woods in Your Back Yard," a forest activity guide for homeowners. The publication was judged at NAI's Annual National Conference last November where more than 30 applicants competed for the prestigious national recognition.

The 90-page resource guide "The Woods in Your Back Yard" provides easy-to-read information on how the woods work. The guide's intended audience includes homeowners with just a few trees or smaller woodlots, although teachers, resource professionals and students will find items of interest in it.

"'The Woods in Your Back Yard'" publication is a dynamite curriculum that reaches an audience typically ignored by many state agencies," remarked Tom Mullin, speaking on behalf of the NAI. "Woodlot owners who own less than 10 aces represent over half the forest landowners in Maine, and I applaud the Maine Forest Service for fulfilling this educational need."

The NAI is dedicated to the advancement of the profession of interpretation and currently serves 4,200 members in the United States, Canada, and twenty other nations. Tom Mullin presented the award to Donald Mansius, Director of the Maine Forest Service's Forest Policy and Management Division.

The Forest Policy and Management Division is part of the Department of Conservation's Maine Forest Service. FPM promotes informed decisions about Maine"s forests by providing technical assistance and information and education services to Maine citizens, forest landowners, forest managers, and policy makers.