As I travel around the state and call or email my fellow Mainers about my main current, focus area here at NRCM, the National Park and Recreation Area proposal, I am sometimes met with a question best summarized recently by a friend (who wholeheartedly supports the idea of a park, by the way): “Where is the Read More
Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument
NRCM along with residents of the Katahdin region, and supporters around the state worked on the campaign to to ensure protection of 87,500 acres east of Baxter State Park as the Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument (KWW). This land was gifted to the United States by the landowner, Elliotsville Plantation, a nonprofit foundation founded by Burt’s Bees entrepreneur Roxanne Quimby. EPI also donated $20 million in stewardship funds. On August 24, 2016, President Barack Obama designated this land as the Katahdin Woods & Waters National Monument. Read more about the National Monument in these media stories and blogs.
This Year Could be a Triple Birthday for Our National Parks
By Lisa Pohlmann and W. Kent Olson, Special to the BDN Bangor Daily News op-ed Tuesday, Aug. 25, is the 99th birthday of the National Park Service, and our Acadia celebrated its 99th in July. Take a moment to sing happy birthday to “America’s best idea.” Think of the spectacular places the park service manages Read More
Real Investment in the Katahdin Region? Try a National Park
By Anita Mueller, Special to the BDN Bangor Daily News op-ed Opponents of the proposed national park and recreation area east of Baxter State Park are fear mongering and using several ridiculous and unsubstantiated scare tactics. For example, I am not buying the “black cloud” theory. It goes something like “everything would be wonderful in Read More
Nostalgia Isn’t an Economic Development Plan for the Katahdin Region
By Avern Danforth, Special to the BDN Bangor Daily News op-ed We need a serious conversation about jobs and how we can create more of them, particularly in northern Maine. The numbers speak for themselves. In communities such as East Millinocket, Millinocket, Medway and Stacyville, the unemployment rate is two or three times the state Read More
New Poll Shows ‘Strong’ Support for National Park
By Nick Sambides Jr., BDN Staff Bangor Daily News news story U.S. Sen. Susan Collins’ favorite pollster found in a survey of 500 respondents across the 2nd Congressional District last month that 67 percent favored a proposed 150,000-acre north woods national park and recreation area, officials said Tuesday. Commissioned by leading park proponent Lucas St. Read More
Why Baxter State Park’s Former Director Backs National Park Plan
By Buzz Caverly, Special to the BDN Bangor Daily News op-ed Fifty-five years ago, as a young man shortly out of high school, I was hired as a Baxter State Park ranger and assigned to the Russell Pond campground in the heart of the Wassataquoik Valley, at the eastern edge of the park. For years, Read More
LePage Pens Earth Day Letter to Obama Opposing New National Park
By Mario Moretto, BDN Staff Bangor Daily News news story AUGUSTA, Maine — While proponents continue their efforts to set aside 150,000 acres in northern Maine for a national park and recreation area, Gov. Paul LePage voiced his opposition to the plan in a letter addressed to President Barack Obama. A company called Elliotsville Plantation Read More
Public Opinion Survey Shows Broad Support for New Proposed National Park and National Recreation Area
NRCM news release The Natural Resources Council of Maine today released the results of two public opinion survey questions about a proposal to establish a new National Park and National Recreation Area on 150,000 acres of land east of Baxter State Park. The questions, included in the Spring Critical Insights of Maine Tracking Survey, show Read More
Businesses Show Support for National Park Proposal
By Kayla Binette, WCSH6 Staff WCSH6 news story BANGOR, Maine (NEWS CENTER) — More than 200 businesses in the state are now in strong support of the proposed national park and national recreation area in the Katahdin region. “I’m for this national park, primarily because there is going to be an economic benefit to the Read More
