Plum Creek News & Updates

OP-ED: Here's hope for saving the treasure of Maine
By Pat LaMarche

Moosehead Lake’s got a problem. It’s too darn big.

I mean huge!

In fact, according to the place mats at the Black Frog restaurant in Greenville, it’s the largest undeveloped lake east of the Mississippi.

You might think that sounds like a good thing, but you’re wrong. While it’s an absolute treasure and my heart sags when I think that there are people who haven’t experienced this aqua gem surrounded by wilderness and endangered species, it’s clearly too big to worry about.

Oh, you didn’t know about the endangered species? You know, Maine’s small businesses and the neighboring quaint villages that make up this habitat perched on the edge of extinction.

Back to the lake: Its enormity makes it hard for folks to see it as fragile, vulnerable and very possibly fleeting.

Think about it. It’s 74,840 acres in size holding about 30 billion gallons of clean fresh water. That’s enough water for every human being on the earth to have about 5 gallons each!

Now if the lake were smaller — much smaller — let’s say the size of, oh, the Hope diamond, people might have a better idea of just how much protection this treasure needs.

I looked up the budget for the Smithsonian Institution. Its Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C., houses the diamond. They have round-the-clock guards and vaults and alarm systems. The secured jewel is encircled by flawless white diamonds in an effort to showcase its rare blue brilliance. While I couldn’t find the price of guarding and keeping the stone itself, I found that it costs the American public about $25 million a year to maintain the museum. That’s quite an investment.

See what I’m saying about it being too big? I mean we can’t put the lake in a museum or rim it with diamonds. Oh, sure, other natural beauty surrounds the lake. Like Mount Kineo: about a dozen species of trees, all manner of critters, and it’s the source of the Kennebec River, but let’s face it, we just don’t see them having the same value as diamonds.

It’s funny, too, because our natural gems really show off how blue the lake is; just like those diamonds show how blue the Hope is.

So, have you had the chance to read about Plum Creek’s plans for Moosehead Lake? Maybe you’ve been thinking its development plan isn’t such a big deal. Do you know the development area is roughly the size of Portland? And do you know that it is proposing more housing and resort units than all of the housing currently available in border towns of Greenville and Rockwood combined? Do you know that Plum Creek, according to the Natural Resources Council of Maine Web site, paid about $200 an acre for the land around Moosehead because it was timberland, and now it wants to sell it as real estate?

What a deal! Buy a national treasure at a bargain price because it’s zoned as forestland, pay reduced taxes for the same reason, then develop and convert it, and make a killing.

Where’s "our" Smithsonian Institution guarding this pristine treasure?

Well that’s currently the big question. A seven-member board of the Land Use Regulation Commission had been charged with protecting this genuine and yet unspoiled gem. So Plum Creek applied to LURC to have the area rezoned so it could carve up Moosehead and start selling lots. But a couple of weeks ago two of the interveners in the discussion [RESTORE: The North Woods and Forest Ecology Network] brought forth a motion to dismiss Plum Creek’s application. They claim that LURC is not allowed to grant such sweeping rezoning statutes.

The interveners say that only the Legislature can give that kind of power away and they’d like to see a decision this big in the hands of at least a few elected officials.

A hearing about the proposal scheduled for Aug. 3 in Augusta was scrapped after the interveners filed.

Did you know that greed allowed the Hope diamond to be cut into pieces too? Once cut it could never be restored. And everyone who touched it after that was cursed; that is, until the treasure was protected. That seems to have lifted the curse.

Pat LaMarche of Yarmouth is the author of "Left Out In America: The State Of Homelessness In The United States." She may be contacted at PatLaMarche@hotmail.com .

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