NEWS RELEASE
 
 
RELEASE:  August 17, 2006
CONTACT: Ken Spalding or Jym St. Pierre, RESTORE: The North Woods, 207-626-5635
 
NEW MAP EXPOSES PLUM CREEK’S MOOSEHEAD DEVELOPMENT PLANS
                                                                                                     
On Thursday evening, RESTORE: The North Woods, one of the leading conservation organizations in Maine, will release a new map highlighting areas proposed by Plum Creek corporation for development zoning around Moosehead Lake.
 
Plum Creek, the largest corporate landowner in the United States, is seeking approval for the biggest real-estate development in Maine history. The company has filed a massive application with the Maine Land Use Regulation Commission (LURC). The application contains many maps, but according to RESTORE, the maps conceal more than they reveal about Plum Creek’s development plans.
 
“The new map was prepared to show what Plum Creek is asking LURC to approve more clearly than any of the maps the company has provided,” according to Ken Spalding, Maine Woods Project Coordinator for RESTORE.
 
Key differences between the new map produced by RESTORE and Plum Creek’s summary map include:
 
. The RESTORE map depicts all the areas Plum Creek is seeking to develop. By contrast, Plum Creek’s widely used summary map does not show the proposed development zoning. It only shows conceptual blocks of the estimated footprint of development if each housing subdivision and resort development had all development lumped together. Without the RESTORE map you need to use fourteen different large-scale maps within the more than 1,000-page application to determine what lands are proposed for development zoning.
 
.  The RESTORE map shows lands that would remain zoned for forest management. By contrast, like its intensive advertising campaign, Plum Creek’s map emphasizes lands where the company may sell “working forest” easements if its development is approved by LURC. However, Plum Creek is not asking LURC to approve this private deal as part of the rezoning. In fact, Plum Creek has refused to provide LURC with copies of the documents related to this private transaction. If the rezoning is approved by LURC, this land will continue to be zoned for forest management activities, whether or not Plum Creek is able to sell the easements.

•  Areas that Plum Creek wants to reserve for development after 30 years. These areas are shown by Plum Creek on its summary map as green, characterizing them as conservation land.
 
•  Areas proposed for the required conservation balance, including a “working forest” easement area east of Moosehead Lake. Plum Creek calls this the “Moosehead-Roach River” easement. However, it includes no shoreline on Moosehead Lake or the Roach River, nor even on First Roach Pond. The State already owns this shoreline area on Moosehead Lake as well as an easement on the Roach River, and Plum Creek has already sold its land on First Roach Pond for development.
 
The RESTORE map also shows:
 
•  Trail easements proposed by Plum Creek
•  Existing conservation land
•  Other lands owned by Plum Creek immediately adjacent to the area proposed for rezoning
•  Labels showing the number of housing lots in groupings of the 55+ subdivisions and the identified development for the resorts
 
The RESTORE map of the Moosehead region can be viewed in pdf format on the RESTORE website at:    http://www.restore.org/Maine/plumcreek_watch.html
 
It will be officially released tonight at a “Citizens Hearing” sponsored by Environment Maine at the University of Southern Maine in Portland at 7:00 PM.
 
The RESTORE: The North Woods map may be published for public distribution provided it is not altered in any way and credit is given to RESTORE: The North Woods for producing the map.