Disappointment over federal response to North Woods project

Courtesy / Elliotsville Plantation Inc. Lucas St. Clair, president of Elliotsville Plantation Inc., flyfishes on his land in northern Maine in 2013.

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The Maine congressional delegation says that it’s disappointed with the response they received from the National Park Service following a letter that Sens. Susan Collins and Angus King and Rep. Bruce Poliquin penned to President Obama about the possibility he would use executive power to designate more than 100,000 acres in the Maine North Woods as a national monument.

Collins, King and Poliquin wrote in their original letter that even though bringing new economic development to the economically depressed Katahdin region of the state is important, designating the area as a national monument would further divide local communities. They cited opposition by local residents, despite 60% of Mainers in recent polls and area chambers of commerce supporting the park.

"While we acknowledge the right of private landowners to donate their land, we have serious concerns about the executive branch using its power to unilaterally designate a national monument in our state," they wrote. "Mainers have a long and proud history of private land ownership, independence and local control, and do not take lightly any forced action by the federal government to increase its footprint in our state."

Replying to the letter on Obama’s behalf was National Park Service Director Jonathan B. Jarvis, according to The Portland Press Herald. In addition to not addressing the specific concerns the three members of Maine’s congressional delegation listed in their letter, the delegation also stated that Jarvis failed to address several conditions that should be met if the woods were to be designated a national monument.

According to The Portland Press Herald, Maine Gov. Paul LePage, at a town hall in Farmingdale, Maine, said that he was also against establishing either a national park or national monument in the North Woods.

“We are going to raise holy heck,” LePage said. “I already am. I’ve written to the president. I’ve written to the Interior Secretary. I’ve written to the delegation.”

“It defies logic that we would create a new national park next to Baxter State Park when the federal government is facing a massive deficit,” LePage added in a prepared statement released on Wednesday.

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