MADAWASKA (AP) – Fraser Papers Inc. is in the early stages of divesting about 760,000 acres of New Brunswick woodlands.

Ben Vaughan, spokesman at Fraser headquarters in Toronto, said the company is selling some assets because it wants to reinvest in the business of making paper. He would not say whether any Maine lands would be affected.

“We’ve initiated the process to find the surface value of our timberlands,” Vaughan said. “That is, to the extent that something can be done to reinvest in our core business.”

Fraser has cutting rights on thousands of acres of Crown land, which is owned by the province of New Brunswick. Lumber from the company’s woodlands has been used to supply its pulp mill in Edmundston and a sawmill in Plaster Rock.

Vaughan also said the company was selling its golf course and its hydroelectric dam at Edmundston. He would not comment on reports that the company was selling a helicopter used in the woodlands and a corporate jet.

The company, which had corporate headquarters in Stamford, Conn., moved to Toronto last year. In the past 18 months, the company has streamlined its manpower needs at mills in Edmundston and Madawaska.

Earlier this month Fraser announced layoffs at its Madawaska-Edmundston complex. The cuts were the second within 18 months and brought the work force down to fewer than 1,200 employees. The complex employed 1,591 people in December 2002.

The Madawaska-Edundston complex that straddles the border is the flagship of the Canadian-based papermaking company.

The Madawaska paper mill cut 36 positions; its sister facility in Edmundston cut 42 jobs. The company’s mill in Thurso, Quebec, also cut 60 jobs from its pulp mill operation.