RESTORE: Maine Woods National Park: Updates

News & Updates

Recipients of Restoration Leadership Awards, presented by RESTORE:
The North Woods, Dec 7, 2006:
l. to r.: Howard Whitcomb, Diane Guethlen, Bob Guethlen, Buzz Caverly (for
Maine Department of Conservation,
Baxter State Park Authority, and Trust for Public Land), Roxanne Quimby.
Photo by Linwood Riggs

2006 RESTORATION LEADERSHIP AWARDS

Presented by RESTORE: The North Woods
at Freeport, Maine, December 7, 2006

Bob & Diane Guethlen

Bob & Diane Guethlen retired to a house they built on the north end of Moosehead Lake years ago after falling in love with Maine’s wildlands. But when they found themselves in the midst of historic changes in the Maine Woods, their life there became anything but retiring.

Together, Diane and Bob are immersed in at least five, sometimes overlapping, conservation initiatives working diligently with more than seven different groups.

First, they are working on Moosehead issues. In the late 1990s, they got involved in advocating for conservation through Friends of Moosehead. That led to their more recent volunteer work with the Moosehead Region Future’s Committee, which last winter joined us in successfully opposing a misplaced subdivision on Burnt Jacket peninsula on Moosehead Lake. Now Bob and Diane are working with the Moosehead Region Future’s Committee, RESTORE and NRCM on the Plum Creek Moosehead concept plan.

Second, they are working to promote wilderness management of the West Branch project lands and the Big Spencer Mountain ecoreserve in conjunction with the Forest Society of Maine.

Third, they have been helping with Sierra Club’s Wilderness Project, especially in the 100-Mile Wilderness Area along the Appalachian Trail.

Fourth, Bob has been advocating for maximum wilderness character in the Allagash Wilderness Waterway through his service on the board of the Allagash Alliance and representing that group in the Citizens to Protect the Allagash coalition.

Fifth, they are helping to guide our advocacy on the Maine Woods National Park and our other campaigns and this fall Bob joined RESTORE’s committee of Maine advisors. Additionally, Diane was just elected to the board of directors of the Natural Resources Council of Maine.

Diane and Bob Guethlen have chosen to make a difference by being outspoken leaders for thoughtful, bold conservation on issues that will set the course of wilderness conservation in Maine for a generation or more. We are happy to present them with one of our 2006 Restoration Leadership Awards.

Howard Whitcomb

Howard Whitcomb earned an undergraduate degree in history at Brown University, a master’s in political science at Lehigh University, and a Ph.D. at the University at Albany. He taught at Colgate University in the mid 1960s and at Lehigh University from 1967 to 1999, distinguishing his academic career before retiring.

Howard has written several books on judicial and public administration. He held a fellowship in the Office of the Administrative Assistant to the Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court. He has received many honors, including from Lehigh University and the University at Albany.

For more than half a century Howard has climbed Katahdin every decade. In one of his early visits to Baxter State Park he met Governor Baxter. He has also been an avid wilderness canoeist, paddling the Allagash beginning in the 1950s.

Several years ago the Friends of Baxter State Park asked Howard to embark on a major effort to compile all the significant documents related to the creation of Baxter State Park. Last year the Friends published Howard’s landmark four-volume set entitled Percival P. Baxter's Vision for Baxter State Park: Annotated Compilation of Original Sources.

Based on the knowledge he gained from working on this project, his familiarity with the documents and his willingness to share his knowledge, he has become the state’s leading resource on historical and legal documentation for Baxter State Park. He has joined the board of Friends of Baxter State Park and has provided significant leadership for that group. He also serves on the board of the Midcoast Senior College.

Howard has been giving presentations around the state this year about the history of Baxter Park and the importance of bringing Katahdin Lake into the park. He has played a seminal role in educating key decision makers in the legislature, the Park Authority and Park staff, and members of the public about Baxter’s deeds of trust and the need to maintain the wilderness of Baxter State Park. For this and for his tireless efforts to help protect the Katahdin Lake lands, we present Howard Whitcomb with one of our 2006 Restoration Leadership Awards.

Roxanne Quimby

Roxanne Quimby has family roots in Maine that reach back several generations. In the 1970s, while raising two young children and living a subsistence lifestyle on the edge of the Maine Woods, Roxanne founded Burt’s Bees with Burt Shavitz, a local beekeeper. She turned the business into one of the country’s most successful natural skin care companies before selling most of her interest so she could focus on conservation and other ventures.

Several years ago we gave Roxanne an award for her leadership on Maine Woods restoration. At the time she had purchased two parcels totaling 8,200 acres abutting existing conservation areas. She had also helped The Nature Conservancy’s effort to acquire 185,000 acres in the St. John watershed.

Since then she has acquired additional parcels in the Maine Woods, totaling 70,000 acres. Her land steward, Bart DeWolf, worked with us for several years as adjunct staff. He now is busy inventorying and managing for restoration lands that reach from Monson to T8R11.

Roxanne has also helped in the past with RESTORE’s outreach, with the Americans for a Maine Woods National Park committee, and as a founder of Maine Woods Forever.

In recent years Roxanne has focused her Maine Woods acquisitions on lands in the watershed of the Penobscot River East Branch. Her foundation, Elliotsville Plantation Inc., has four parcels totaling nearly 54,000 acres in the East Branch region. This year alone she purchased 23,000 acres bordering Baxter State Park. She has tremendously accelerated the long-standing vision of protecting all the lands between Baxter Park and the East Branch Penobscot.
Roxanne has said that she is open to a variety of options to ensure that her lands are permanently protected. But she was also quoted recently in The New York Times, saying that the idea of a national park “floats my boat.” We hope that someday her lands will become a part of a beautiful Maine Woods National Park big enough to float all of our boats.

For her conservation of lands in the East Branch watershed, Roxanne has earned another Restoration Leadership Award this year.

Katahdin Lake Project

In many ways, this was the year of Katahdin Lake. In January, the Katahdin Lake project was announced at a news conference in the State House. Next week, if all goes well, the project will come to a climax when the deeds are transferred. In between, it has been a rollercoaster year for the Katahdin Lake project and for all of us who have been involved.

When the future of the Katahdin Lake lands first came into question, Charles FitzGerald, a RESTORE director, bought the Katahdin Lake Wilderness Camps to preserve them and to begin the process of protecting the surrounding lands. Jym St. Pierre posted the first essay calling for permanent protection of the Katahdin Lake lands on the web more than three years ago and has donated some of his award-winning photos to help with fundraising. As a board member of the Friends of Baxter State Park, Ken Spalding worked toward passage of the required legislation and on the fundraising campaign. RESTORE members and activists responded to action alerts a number of times to support the legislation, members of our Maine advisory group have been intimately involved in the campaign, and many of you here tonight have played roles in the success of the effort. So RESTORE people have been involved with Katahdin Lake in many ways for many years.

Additionally, Roxanne Quimby, a former RESTORE director, has been central to the effort to acquire the Katahdin Lake and other East Branch lands since the former owner, Irving Timberlands, first put its lands east of Baxter State Park on the market.

Three groups deserve special recognition for the Katahdin Lake project. At the direction of Governor Baldacci, the Maine Department of Conservation led on the practical front, assembling an intricately complex puzzle to make the deal possible. The Baxter State Park Authority played a crucial role on the political front. Authority Chair Steve Rowe personally attended nearly every work session on a legislative bill that authorized the exchange of key lands and courageously defended the sanctuary aspects of the acquisition and the autonomy of the Authority. The Trust for Public Lands was critical to all aspects of the effort and led the fundraising campaign.
Even though he retired last year as park director, Buzz Caverly and Baxter State Park are still inseparable. As co-chair of the Katahdin Lake campaign, Buzz has been tireless in working this year to fulfill Percival Baxter’s dream of bringing Katahdin Lake into the park he gave to the people of Maine.

Buzz was here a year ago to receive an award for his own good work. He has graciously agreed to join us again this year to receive a Restoration Leadership Award on behalf of the Katahdin Lake Partners—the Maine Department of Conservation, Baxter State Park Authority and Trust for Public Lands.