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| SAVE MOOSEHEAD PLUM CREEK DEVELOPMENT PLAN IS WILDLANDS SPRAWL The increasing rate of development in the Maine Woods is alarming.Over seven million acres of forestland in Maine were sold from 1998 to 2006. More and more of those lands are being carved up. However, the proposal by the Plum Creek corporation for 421,000 acres in the Moosehead region represents the biggest single threat to maintaining the wild character of the Maine Woods for the future. On April 5, 2005, Plum Creek submitted an application to the Land Use Regulation Commission (LURC) for the largest residential and commercial real estate development ever proposed in Maine. The company resubmitted the plan with some changes on April 27, 2006. This huge project will still sprawl throughout the wildlands of the Moosehead region. Plum Creek is running an extensive public relations marketing campaign to build support for their new proposal, based largely on conservation, which is not part of the mitigation they are proposing to meet the requirement to balance the development with conservation in the plan. The major parts of the proposal are summarized below. SUMMARY OF PROPOSED DEVELOPMENT – 2006 • 11,000 total acres zoned for development • 975 house lots in 55+ subdivisions • 480 shorefront house lots on - Moosehead Lake - Long Pond - Upper Wilson Pond - Prong Pond - Brassua Lake - Indian Pond - Burnham Pond • 495 backland house lots • 2,600-acre resort on Big Moose Mountain • 500-acre resort on the shore of Moosehead Lake at Lily Bay • 90 acres of industrial/commercial zone • 25,000+ acres reserved for future development after 30 years • 36 miles of new roads plus many miles of existing woods roads needed to access the subdivision lots • miles of new utility lines SUMMARY OF PROPOSED MITIGATION – 2006 • 61,000 acres of “working forest” conservation easement, with very little shoreline (Moosehead – Roach River area) • 500-foot wide conservation easements on 54 ponds • 500-foot wide easements on undeveloped portions of subdivided ponds, contingent upon subdivision approval and phased in as development permits are granted • Easements for 74 miles of existing snowmobile trail, 58 miles of proposed hiking trail, and 12 miles for a proposed “hut and trail” system, contingent on approval of all elements of the rezoning • Lands in a so-called “conservation framework” are NOT part of the mitigation in the plan WHAT YOU CAN DO Sign up to be on RESTORE's Plum Creek Activist List. We will send you a new summary when our review is complete, keep you up-to-date, and alert you when action is needed. Contact: Ken Spalding at RESTORE, 9 Union St., Hallowell, ME 04347, 207-626-5635, ken@restore.org. Write letters to the editor of your local newspaper. Support conservation. Support the proposed Maine Woods National Park & Preserve and other conservation ideas for the area. Contact RESTORE to find out how to join others who want to Save Moosehead. © RESTORE: The North Woods • 9 Union Street, Hallowell, Maine 04347 • 207-626-5635 mainewoods@restore.org • www.restore.org 6/14/06
SUMMARY UPDATE (revisions), April 10, 2007. Plum Creek says it expects to submit a revised application to the Land Use Regulation Commission in the last week of April. The best information available suggests that Plum Creek will:
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