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Major magazine publishers, such as Hearst, which publishes O, the Oprah magazine, and Time Inc., and catalog businesses such as L.L. Bean, have sent the message that they will buy only paper that comes from forests meeting environmental standards.

Did the ad help persuade L.L. Bean to drop its long-term catalog paper supplier in Maine for a mill in Wisconsin?

Bean says there wasn't a direct cause and effect. But the outdoors retailer acknowledged that its decision was influenced by threats that it could be targeted by environmental activists with unflattering national publicity.

This loss of a major contract highlights a behind-the-scenes story about the mounting pressure on Maine's paper industry to use more wood grown through sustainable forestry practices. At stake is millions of dollars of business that could be lost to papermakers in other states, if Maine ignores warnings being sent by activists and some of the country's largest publishers.

"I think Bean's decision was a real wake-up call for the mills in Maine," said Alec Giffen, head of the Maine Forest Service. "This is real serious business."

Giffen is among the state officials working with mills and landowners to boost the percentage of forestland managed and harvested in ways that don't deplete stocks, harm the environment or destroy habitat.

These standards are measured through a handful of competing certification programs. The programs are designed to assure paper buyers -- and ultimately consumers who demand environmental accountability -- that their purchases come from sustainable forests.

Maine has 17.8 million acres of woodland. Roughly 7 million acres, or 40 percent, are certified. That's less than the 10 million acres state government hoped to certify by the end of 2007, and short of where major publishers want Maine to be.

"People do feel there's pressure," Giffen said. "It's friendly, but there's pressure. They're saying, 'If you want to continue to be our paper supplier, you need to step up to the plate.'"

Paper contracts are confidential, and most of the parties involved in this issue aren't eager for publicity. But discussions with Bean, environmentalists and Bean's outgoing supplier, Verso Paper, show how pressure can be exerted.

ForestEthics is a San Francisco-based activist group fighting what it considers destructive timber harvesting in the United States and Canada. It's waging a campaign against catalog publishers, meant to persuade them to use more recycled paper and buy from sustainable sources.

In 2005, ForestEthics targeted Limited Brands, the parent company of Victoria's Secret. Under the headline "Victoria's Dirty Secret," the Times ad charged that catalogs were printed on paper made from endangered boreal forests in Canada.

In late 2006, Limited Brands agreed to stop buying paper from a mill in Alberta tied to those forests. Following the announcement, the head of ForestEthics said the group would soon go after other catalog companies, and named L.L. Bean as a possible target.

The threat wasn't lost on Bean, which was renegotiating paper supply for 2008.

Bean ships 250 million catalogs a year. For more than 20 years, it has bought paper from mills in Jay and Bucksport, which currently are owned by Verso, a holding company based in Memphis. The mills produce 1 million tons of paper a year and have 1,600 employees.

Verso won't discuss contract details. But Bill Cohen, a company spokesman, said Verso tried to keep Bean's business.

"We knew they had some specifications and we responded," he said. "But they chose someone else."

Verso recently has set new sustainability goals. Last year it got 57 percent of its fiber from certified forest and is increasing the amount. It also plans to be certified by year's end for the Forest Stewardship Council's chain of custody process, a highly regarded standard that tracks fiber from the tree to the customer.

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