PDA

View Full Version : Maine Woods National Park?



Cookerhiker
10-06-2005, 09:26
A few days ago I received my National Parks magazine from the National Parks Conservation Association featuring an article on a proposed Maine Woods National Park. The online version just became available:

http://www.npca.org/magazine/2005/fall/maine_woods.asp

Not surprisingly,this has generated some heated discussion in Maine and will likely do so here on WhiteBlaze.

The Solemates
10-06-2005, 09:38
This is not new. It has been discussed for a few years now.

Cookerhiker
10-06-2005, 09:44
This is not new. It has been discussed for a few years now.Yes, I realized the issue wasn't new but the article just came out. NPCA is an advocacy organization for national parks so I wanted to see their take.

TJ aka Teej
10-06-2005, 09:58
“The people who oppose the park because they think it will impede their access to land don’t seem to understand that the alternative to public property is private property,” says Quimby.
-----
I can't blame the locals who oppose preserving the North Woods, they have been mislead by experts. As the ATC discovered in Maine, when preservation efforts are framed as being the work of "people from away", there can be little hope of success.

The Solemates
10-06-2005, 11:44
“The people who oppose the park because they think it will impede their access to land don’t seem to understand that the alternative to public property is private property,” says Quimby.
-----
I can't blame the locals who oppose preserving the North Woods, they have been mislead by experts. As the ATC discovered in Maine, when preservation efforts are framed as being the work of "people from away", there can be little hope of success.

how is Quimby viewed as "people from away" when she grew up in the north woods?

BlackCloud
10-06-2005, 14:12
“The people who oppose the park because they think it will impede their access to land don’t seem to understand that the alternative to public property is private property,” says Quimby.
-----
I can't blame the locals who oppose preserving the North Woods, they have been mislead by experts. As the ATC discovered in Maine, when preservation efforts are framed as being the work of "people from away", there can be little hope of success.
Public property does not = national park. Also, public property does not = guarantee of access denial; look at the No. Maine Woods Coalition......

walkin' wally
10-06-2005, 19:09
“The people who oppose the park because they think it will impede their access to land don’t seem to understand that the alternative to public property is private property,” says Quimby.
-----
I can't blame the locals who oppose preserving the North Woods, they have been mislead by experts. As the ATC discovered in Maine, when preservation efforts are framed as being the work of "people from away", there can be little hope of success.

Hi Teej,

I never thought I would say this but...

I will admit that after seeing what Plum Creek has planned for the Moosehead area a national park looks like a better option, but not by much.
I would not like to have to use the land under her rules. Ugh. I can go freely now to any place within reason. I don't think that will be the case if she gets her way. I wonder if I would still be able to access my section of the AT for maintenance or would I have to walk 20 miles to get there.

A lot of people are upset with Plum Creek too, so it is not just Ms Quimby. Like it or not we are going to see some changes.

Plum Creek is also having some second thoughts about their plan for development and they are going to revise their plan by January.

Ms Quimby, who did not grow up in Maine, has started off on the wrong foot. She also said in Downeast magazine a few months ago that she is having second thoughts too about forming a National Park. She is instead acquiring land for Acadia Nat. Park on the coast near the Schoodic area. That area is threatened by sprawl.

The Solemates
10-07-2005, 09:40
Hi Teej,

Ms Quimby, who did not grow up in Maine,

from the article...

"Before she was a multimillionaire, Quimby chose to live without running water or electricity in a cabin in the Maine woods, raising twins on $3,000 a year, determined to live simply and without compromising her environmental ideals."

...I dont know if she "grew up" in Maine, but she certainly has roots, and a passion, there.

The Scribe
10-07-2005, 10:03
I read that DownEast piece as well. She did live like that but did not grow up here. Hell, I didn't either but even N.H. doesn't count.

She migh have good intentions but her treatment of a large tract of land she purchased up north has rubbed people the wrong way. Limiting access, requiring snowmobile trails to be rerouted, etc.

She a strong opponent to the way Maine works business-wise for what it's worth. She took her Maine business out of state looking for a better business climate.

So she has a lot of the qualities that endear here to the natives. Except the natives don't like to be told where they can't go.

I think it has been 10 years almost since I first heard of "The North Woods National Park." I doubt it will happen.

the Scribe.

Almost a Maine native.

weary
10-07-2005, 11:16
“The people who oppose the park because they think it will impede their access to land don’t seem to understand that the alternative to public property is private property,” says Quimby.
-----
I can't blame the locals who oppose preserving the North Woods, they have been mislead by experts. As the ATC discovered in Maine, when preservation efforts are framed as being the work of "people from away", there can be little hope of success.

Having just returned from a six week, 10,500 mile, camping trip of the National Parks of the United States and Canada, it's my conclusion that a Maine Woods National Park would rank among the greatest national parks in North America -- perhaps the greatest.

All the polls that have been done say a majority of Mainers favor a national park. It is the politicians who are opposed -- mostly I suspect because they dream of the return of the pulp and paper industry. That, however, is not going to happen. Most of the land that provided raw materials for the mills has been sold to developers and land speculators. It was to rescue some of this land that we founded the Maine Appalachian Trail Land Trust. We don't dream of a national park, just a wider corridor to preserve the sense of wildness that most AT hikers experience in this state.

While driving through Ontario, the newspapers were reporting plans for a $133 million subsidy in an effort to salvage what is left of the Ontario paper industry.

"Free" trade has moved the industry out of the eastern states and provinces and it won't return in our lifetimes, though a few specialty mills will always survive, probably.

A national park will require a revolution in political thinking. But expansion of the trail corridor to buffer the coming condo villages is possible -- if trail lovers will unite in offering support. How? Just open

www.matlt.org

Weary

walkin' wally
10-08-2005, 16:14
Weary,

If the polls say that the majority of Mainers favor a National Park then it must surely be the majority of Mainers that are along the Rt. 1 corridor and not the people in the whole state. Also Bangor does not qualify as Northern Maine either. Having gone to meetings here and there concerning the Park I can say there is serious oppositon to the park such as what took place in Greenville a few years ago.

There is going to be a major construction effort for a new state of the art tissue paper machine in Lincoln. Such new constuction is what is needed to bring quality jobs to Maine instead of the service jobs that are so widespread.
One job on that machine creates 6 jobs outside of the mill. There are still plenty of trucks loaded with wood heading to mills despite all this land changing hands.

The living wage in Maine is about $11.70 an hour but we have so many minimum wage ($6.50 ) jobs here it is hard enough for our young people to stay. We need these good paying jobs more than we need a park.

It will be interesting to see how successful Plum Creek will be with their development proposal but after all it is their land and they will get their money one way or the other.

weary
10-08-2005, 21:23
Wally:

To the extent that the polls are accurate, they reflect a majority of Mainers, a majority of which live along the I-95 corridor, which includes Bangor.

But the simple fact remains that most of the paper company land in Maine has been sold to developers -- and lacking a 1929-sized depression -- these lands are very unlikely to ever again be managed primarily for timber production.

Unpleasant as that prospect appears to Maine's politicians and dreamers, it is a fact.

The only thing that could reverse this bleak picture would be a massive grassroots drive to have the federal government buy these lands for a national forest. Since I see absolutely no indication that such an effort is likely, I'm concentrating on, at least, buffering the AT corridor.

All those who can give up dreaming should support this effort, since at the very least it keeps the options open. oNCE the condos are built, they are very likely to remain. My aim is to preserve as much land as possible in its natural state. We would then have decades -- centuries perhaps -- to figure out how to manage these protected lands to best serve the needs of the people of Maine and New England.

But development, even unwise development, sadly, tends to be forever. Those who think the wildness of the trail in Maine is worth preserving can help by opening www.matlt.org.

Weary