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STATEMENT OF JYM ST. PIERRE
DIRECTOR, RESTORE: THE NORTH WOODS
CONCERNING PLUM CREEK’S REVISED
MOOSEHEAD LAKE REGION PLAN
May 25, 2006
There has been an outpouring of public concern in recent years in Maine
about our forests. Misplaced development, unsustainable forest practices,
and unstable ownerships threaten the ecological integrity, traditional
recreational access, economic viability, and scenic beauty of Maine's
North Woods wilderness.
Now, Plum Creek, a corporation that has transformed from a forestry company
into a real estate behemoth right before our eyes, has put one of our
most cherished areas—the Moosehead region—into jeopardy.
Last year, Plum Creek proposed the largest residential-commercial real
estate development in Maine history. It included 975 house lots, a 3,000-acre
destination resort at Brassua Lake, a 500-acre resort at Lily Bay on Moosehead
Lake, and other developments. After more than 1,000 Mainers turned out
at public meetings to voice their concerns about the ramifications of
such sprawling development, Plum Creek said they listened and reworked
their plan.
We have their new plan. It raises even more concerns than the first version.
The truth about Plum Creek’s “new” plan and the company’s
recent actions can now be revealed. What is wrong? First, the proposed
development is still overwhelming. Second, the proposed conservation is
still way too thin. Third, Plum Creek is trying to mislead us with a confusing
public relations campaign. Fourth, Plum Creek is lobbying to get around
the Endangered Species Act because it might interfere with profitmaking.
Here are the details.
PLUM CREEK’S PROPOSED DEVELOPMENT IS STILL OVERWHELMING
Compared to Plum Creek’s plan last year, a few throwaway components
have been discarded and some development pieces have been shifted off-line
to conceal them. However, the substance of the plan is little changed.
It still includes more than 55 subdivisions with 975 house lots, two resorts,
and associated development. Specifically:
· 975 house lots
•
480 shorefront house lots on Moosehead and 6 other lakes
•
495 backland house lots
· 2,600-acre resort
on Big Moose Mountain
· 500-acre resort on
Moosehead Lake at Lily Bay
· 36 miles of new roads
· miles of new utility
lines
· 32,000 acres reserved
for future development
In addition, while Plum Creek is pretending some developments are not
part of the plan, the company still wants
·
90 acres of commercial/industrial development
·
RV campground at Kokadjo
In short, Plum Creek’s plan still represents the largest residential-commercial
real estate development in Maine history. It is still the wrong kind of
development in the wrong place.
PLUM CREEK’S PROPOSED CONSERVATION STILL FAILS TO PASS THE
TEST
Since last year Plum Creek has undertaken three actions to try to shore
up the conservation part of its proposal. A 61,000-acre easement has been
added, a “conservation framework,” has been negotiated, and
an extensive PR campaign has been launched. Each of these raises serious
concerns.
I question whether the 61,000-acre easement adds substantial conservation
value to the Moosehead region. First, virtually all the lake and pond
shorelands in that area are already protected. Second, it encompasses
cutover lands where the forest ecosystems will never recover as long as
the cycle of industrial logging continues, which will be perpetuated under
the “working forest” easements. Third, these lands need to
be rescued from logging, not from development; they are not under immediate
development pressure.
The other conservation components in Plum Creek’s plan are easements
on 54 ponds and within and around subdivision development lots. The pond
easements are on waters that are mostly undevelopable anyway. The easements
interspersed in the subdivisions would mostly benefit house owners, not
wildlife or the public.
Even with the working forest easement thrown in, based on my 11 years
at LURC, I believe that the conservation components of Plum Creek’s
proposal fail to meet LURC's legal test of striking a reasonable publicly
beneficial balance with the proposed development. There would be more
than 4,100 acres of wildlands developed in the near term (11,000 acres
are in development envelopes) with the likelihood of more development
on tens of thousands of acres in the future. Plus, the “shadow’”
effect of development means that large additional areas will be indirectly
adversely affected by Plum Creek’s sprawling development.
The second new conservation piece is a so-called “conservation framework.”
Plum Creek says, if its development rezoning is approved by the Land Use
Regulation Commission (LURC), the company will give a five-year option
to conservation groups to purchase development rights. How is a chance
to raise a lot of public and private conservation money to pay a landowner
to continue to do what it can already do (industrial logging) meaningful
conservation? If the idea of conservation of the lands in the framework
has value, then Plum Creek can and should negotiate such a deal totally
apart from the plan before LURC.
The conservation framework is not part of Plum Creek’s proposal
before LURC and has no place in the rezoning application. Suggesting that
this represents additional conservation mitigation that will happen only
if LURC gives Plum Creek everything it wants is close to blackmail. The
conservation framework is irrelevant to the proposal before LURC and should
not be allowed to preempt the regulatory process or to hold it hostage.
LURC should not even continue to process Plum Creek’s proposal unless
all references to the conservation framework are removed.
The third new action Plum Creek has undertaken related to conservation
is an extensive public relations campaign. Running television commercials,
underwriting promos on public radio, sprinkling grants to local groups
in Greenville and Rockwood, and similar efforts to purchase support have
nothing to do with the merits of Plum Creek’s proposal. Yet, the
company's application and its ads imply that it is saving hundreds of
thousands of acres of forest for the people of Maine. Not so. As pointed
out above, the lands in the so-called "conservation framework"
have nothing to do with its rezoning application to LURC. Plum Creek is
deliberately blurring the lines with its slick PR campaign to confuse
the people of Maine.
PLUM CREEK IS TRYING TO SKIRT THE RULES
Under a court order, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has proposed designation
of critical habitat for Canada lynx, which is listed under the national
Endangered Species Act. Maine has the only lynx population in the entire
eastern United States. The USFWS habitat proposal includes lands in northwestern
Maine that are essential to the survival of lynx in this part of our country.
We have learned that Plum Creek is seeking exemption from the critical
habitat designation for its lands in Maine even before a decision has
been made by the USFWS about whether the designation will be applied.
Plum Creek has reportedly been in Washington, D.C., recently lobbying
senior officials in the U.S. Department of the Interior and representatives
of Maine’s congressional delegation.
The Endangered Species Act says that “The Secretary [of Interior]
may exclude any area from critical habitat if he determines that the benefits
of such exclusion outweigh the benefits of specifying such area as part
of the critical habitat, unless he determines, based on the best scientific
and commercial data available, that the failure to designate such area
as critical habitat will result in the extinction of the species concerned.”
[16 USC 1533(b)(2)] There is no reason Plum Creek should be exempted from
the Endangered Species Act. It is embarrassing that they are trying to
use their lobbying reach to get special treatment.
WE STILL NEED MEANINGFUL CONSERVATION OF THE MOOSEHEAD REGION
In the heart of the Maine Woods, we need bigger and better conservation
actions to hold habitats together, not wildlands sprawl that fragments
the homes of our native wildlife with invasive houses, roads and powerlines.
We need sustainable development phased into gateway communities to support
local jobs for the long term, not the boom-bust business of constructing
trophy second homes in the outback, which will hurt our growing eco-tourism
businesses. We need to nurture an economics that brings solid prosperity,
not a skewed economics where a few people make a bundle and the local
towns get little more than solid waste from suburbanites heading home.
We need the Land Use Regulation Commission to act as though it can see
the big picture and not be fooled into saying yes to cockeyed, get-rich-quick
schemes.
Despite gains in recent years, Maine is still near the bottom of the list
of states with one of the smallest proportions of publicly protected land.
We cannot rely on private groups to do the job our public agencies should
be doing. Even at their best their scale will always be too small. Nor
does the State alone have the financial or technical ability to protect
and restore big wilderness. We have seen that demonstrated with the Allagash
Wilderness Waterway.
It is time to seriously evaluate our options, including the proposed Maine
Woods National Park and Preserve, and to act on a grand scale befitting
the grandeur of our wildlands. The Moosehead region is unquestionably
of national significance. The threats it faces are of national concern.
It will take national action to preserve the pubic interest at risk. But
it must start here. That is why we are working on our Save Moosehead campaign
in Maine.
Plum Creek’s revised concept plan is being pitched through a seriously
distorted public relations campaign, which inflates the weak conservation
aspects and downplays the devastating development aspects. We
still need meaningful, large-scale conservation in the Moosehead region.
But Plum Creek’s plan is not it.
RESTORE: The North Woods is a regional, nonprofit conservation
organization based in Hallowell, Maine
RESTORE: The North Woods
9 Union St.
Hallowell, Maine 04347
207-626-5635 * mainewoods@restore.org*
www.restore.org
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