Carter is best known in Maine for his work on forestry issues. He directed the 1996 ban clear-cutting campaign, "No on the Compact" (1997) and the "Forest for the Future Campaign" (2000). Both referendum campaigns were unsuccessful.[4] He serves as director of the Forest Ecology Network.[5] the largest grassroots forest activist network in Maine.
Gubernatorial campaigns
In 1994, Carter made his first run for governor of Maine. His campaign received 32,695 votes for 6.4% of the vote, which was enough for the Maine Green Party to be recognized as a political party by the state.[6][7]
In 2002, Carter again ran for governor. In that campaign, he promoted himself as the first and only candidate to that time to run for governor as a publicly-financed candidate due to the Maine Clean Elections Act.[8] Carter received 46,903 votes for 9.3% of the vote.[9] At the time his campaign, there were only 9,000 registered Green Independent voters in Maine. The Library of Congress recorded and stored a web archive of his campaigns website.[10] His campaign also retained and extended the ballot status of the Maine Green Independent Party through 2006.[7]
Personal life
Carter moved to Maine in 1978 and lives in a nineteenth-century farmhouse in Lexington, Maine, which is located in the unorganized territory of Central Somerset, Maine. He grows organic food on his farm, as well as maintaining a woodlot. He and his wife, Dorothy, have two children.[3]