BANGOR DAILY NEWS • February 27, 2026
Woodland Pulp has been trying to surrender its 30-year Forest City Dam Project license for nearly a decade. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission approved the request in late January, and once the order is finalized, ownership will be transferred to a nonprofit. Later this year, Woodland Pulp LLC will no longer own the dam or control the international waters on the East Branch of the St. Croix River. Additionally, its downstream hydropower production will cease as ownership transfers to the St. Croix International Waterway Commission. The decision affects East Grand Lake, North Lake, the connecting throughway and the more than 2,000 cottages and camps around the lake because the dam is central to the identity, ecology and economy of the region, according to Anna Levitsky, the executive director of the Woodie Wheaton Land Trust in Forest City.