WHAT
is so special about the
Maine Woods National Park region?
It encompasses...
• 3.2 million acres in northern Maine
in the heart of the largest
unprotected wildland in the eastern United States
• places that helped inspire Thoreau’s revelation that “In
Wildness
is the Preservation of the World.”
• spectacular expanses of northern hardwood and evergreen forest
• headwaters of five legendary rivers: Allagash, Aroostook, St. John,
Kennebec, and Penobscot
Moosehead, the largest inland water within one state in the East and
the top-rated lake in Maine
• the greatest concentration of remote ponds in the Northeast
• wildlife habitat for moose, black bear, brook trout, and a number
of endangered and sensitive species such as the Canada lynx
• the Hundred Mile Wilderness section of the Appalachian Trail
• significant cultural features, including ancient Native American
and early logging era sites
• the wildest unprotected lands in the Northern Forest, which the
federal-state Northern Forest Lands Study found to be a region
of national significance
WHY
should we worry about the
Maine Woods National Park area?
It is threatened by...
• unsustainable logging to feed the endless demand for short-lived
paper and wood products
• spraying of toxic herbicides and pesticides that are polluting clean
waters
• fragmentation by thousands of miles of logging roads
• subdivision, sprawl, and real-estate development
• loss of habitat for imperiled, deep-woods, and wide-ranging wildlife
• loss of public access as traditional ownerships are broken up
• economic decline: thousands of forest industry jobs slashed in
recent years
• decreasing tax revenues from paper manufacturing
HOW
would the proposed
Maine Woods National Park help?
It would...
• allow the public to acquire lands from willing sellers
• help generate hundreds of millions of dollars in annual retail sales
• support thousands of new jobs
• secure public access for the full range of traditional recreational
uses
• give camp owners on lease lots more security
• phase out unsustainable logging and allow the forest to recover
• restore habitat for the bald eagle, Atlantic salmon, woodland caribou,
Eastern timberwolf and other imperiled and extirpated species
• conserve Native American and early logging era sites, routes traveled
by Thoreau, and other significant cultural features
• protect forest lands that can serve as carbon sinks to slow global
climate change
• serve as an ecological reserve to safeguard functioning ecosystems
and to preserve biodiversity
• buffer important state lands, including Baxter State Park, Kineo,
Nahmakanta, and the Allagash Wilderness Waterway
WHO
is helping the
Maine Woods National Park campaign?
• More than 100,000 individuals from across the nation have signed
a
citizen’s petition to support a public feasibility study of the
proposed park--the next crucial step.
• Hundreds of businesses have thrown their support behind the Maine
Woods National Park because of the park’s economic benefits.
• Better than three-fifths of Maine voters in statewide public opinion
surveys have said they favor the MWNP concept.
• A growing network of conservation activists have been signing up
to
help spread the word.
• Dozens of nonprofit groups already have joined in support.
WHAT can I do to help?
