Re[8]: [at-l] What do you do...

[Bob Cummings <ellen@clinic.net> (Bob Cummings)]

"...apparently you can't address the issue for what ever the
reason," complains Clifford Haynes, though I'm not sure what issue he wants me to address. It is a fact
that the Supreme Court ruled in 1982 that Maine owned 400,000 acres of land it had preserved in 1830
and then forgot about. I have the decision in a frame on my wall as I speak. One of the state's
lawyers that fought the suit sent it to me for some reason. I tend to keep such mementos.

I think some of this recovered state land is managed quite well. I agree with Cliff that one 16,000
acre parcel is not well managed. I guess we disagree over current priorities. I'm busy doing
other things, but I would welcome any effort Cliff can make towards persuading the state to manage
this parcel more wisely. However, I would be opposed to giving the land back to the paper and lumber
companies who claimed it for more than a century.

As for what is for sale in Maine: 20 percent of the land mass of the state has changed hands in the
north Maine woods in the past three years -- sometimes in blocks as large as 2 million acres.
According to the newspapers much of the balance is also on the market, though Cliff and I both know
you can't trust everything newspapers publish.

BTW this truly is AT related. Much of the recovered land provides wide buffers for important sections
of the trail in Maine. The lakes that Cliff complains now require a $16 a night camping fee are part
of the AT view shed in the Baldpate to Saddleback Region.

Weary