The latest news about Maine lakes and ponds.

Plum Creek Plan Critics Fear Impact

September 26, 2007 - Maine's largest environmental group says a review of hundreds of pages of testimony from state and federal agencies reveals serious flaws with Plum Creek Timber Co.'s latest plan to create a series of subdivisions and resorts in the Moosehead Lake region.

Cathy Johnson, North Woods project director for the Natural Resources Council of Maine, said the comments show the project has tremendous potential to harm the environment.

"We have been saying for quite some time that Plum Creek's proposal would destroy the character of the Moosehead region and would have negative impacts on recreational opportunities, on fish and wildlife and water quality," Johnson said.

The Natural Resources Council of Maine said half a dozen federal and state conservation and wildlife agencies cited problems with the plan to create Maine's largest subdivision, including habitat loss for a variety of species, loss of wetlands, and no guarantee of public access.

The testimony was submitted to the Land Use Regulation Commission, the planning and zoning agency for the state's organized areas, as it decides whether to approve Plum Creek's proposal, which seeks to rezone roughly 385,000 acres in the Moosehead region in a bid to create two resorts and almost 1,000 housing lots.

This is the third version of Plum Creek's plan for more than 905,000 acres of woodlands it purchased nearly 10 years ago.

This latest revision moves development away from more environmentally-sensitive areas. It would put more than 400,000 acres, including about 385,000 in the Moosehead region, into permanent conservation.

Testimony from various state and federal agencies revealed the following concerns: The plan would adversely affect the habitats of Canada lynx, Roaring Brook mayfly, boreal and pygmy snaketail dragonflies, early hairstreak butterflies, spring salamanders, wood turtles, bald eagles, loons, rusty blackbirds, wood thrush, Blackburnian warblers, Canada warblers, moose and deer.
- Increased risk from illegally stocked invasive fish species.
- Loss of public access.
- Potential to impact surface water quality in Moosehead Lake and tributary streams.
- Soils in certain areas are unsuitable or marginal for development.
- No demonstration of financial capacity for trail development.
- No proposed right for commercial hunting or guiding.
- No right to camping.

The testimony came from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Maine Department of Environmental Protection, Maine Forest Service and Maine Department of Agriculture. Plum Creek representative Kathy Budinick responded to several concerns but deferred the bulk of them to future sessions of public forums.

"We expect that each of these items will be addressed during the upcoming public and technical hearings," she said.

"That is the forum that Plum Creek will use to address them."

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said the concept plan fails to provide for the protection of several species, several of them on protection lists.

"The concept plan falls short of being at least as protective for replacing habitat for migratory birds of management concern," the statement from U.S. Fish and Wildlife testimony says.

The testimony also mentioned that Plum Creek held the distinction of being "the only landowner in Maine to cut down a bald eagle nest tree in a forest harvest operation on Spencer Pond in the mid-1990s."

Budinick acknowledged that Plum Creek did cut down a tree containing an eagle's nest, but said that this was because the state's fish and wildlife agency failed to notify the company of its presence.

"Had we been informed that the nest was there, it would have been mapped and protected like all the rest of the eagle nests on our property," she said.

The plan would "potentially result in the loss of 26,816 acres of wildlife habitat, an unknown acreage of wetlands and vernal pools and 33.5 miles of currently undeveloped shoreline habitat," testimony from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service says.

Inland Fisheries and Wildlife warned of the danger to wood turtles, saying that "the loss of just a few reproducing adults per year (to roadkill or collection) ... can lead to localized population extinction in less than 80 years."

Budinick said Plum Creek is working with state and federal agencies to "address a wide variety of fish and wildlife issues related to the plan and our normal forest management practices in the conservation framework."

Budinick said Plum Creek's plan provides for public access on 386,000 acres, which is more than 95 percent of the total area involved, and another 45,000 acres of land outside of the plan area. Citizens will get the chance to voice their concerns in public hearings on Saturday, Nov. 3, in Greenville; Sunday, Nov. 4, in Augusta; Saturday, Nov. 17, in Portland; and Sunday, Nov. 18, in Greenville, Budnick said.

"Importantly, if our plan is approved, there will be subsequent processes during which time the details of the development projects will be fully addressed," she said.

SOURCE: Kennebec Journal
DATE: 09-24-2007

Lakes:
Regions: Moosehead


Print this story

Email this story

return to Lake News