[at-l] Quick Katahdin Trip

[Snodrog5 at aol.com (Snodrog5@aol.com)]

In a message dated 5/8/04 4:31:33 PM Eastern Daylight Time, ellen@clinic.net 
writes:

> I'm not quite sure where the harvesting is occurring from TJ's description. 
> The
> land to the north of Abol Bridge and continuing 2 or 3 miles to the west is
> owned by Baxter Park. Land to the south has been purchased by the Nature
> Conservancy and is supposed to be managed as a  wilderness.

The large logging operation is going on south of Abol Bridge, via the River 
Road on the south side of the West Branch, on the 40,000 acres The Nature 
Conservancy held the mortgage for. TNC has sold the mortgage on the bulk of the 
Katahdin Forest Project lands to GE Commercial Finance, a subsidiary of 
industrial giant General Electric. (Coastal Enterprises Inc of Wisscasset is involved 
in the financial fun.) TNC aquired the mortgage on the property (which is owned 
by Katahdin Timberlands, a subsidiary of Katahdin Paper Company) in 2002 as 
part of the Katahdin Forest Project, a financial arrangement with the land's 
then-owner, Maine Timberlands (a subsidiary of now-defunct Great Northen Paper.) 
TNC loaned GNP millions in exchange for ownership of 40,000+ acres of 
timberland in the Debsconeag Lakes area and a perpetual conservation easement on the 
remainder of GNP's 200,000+ acres of forestland. TNC also held the mortgage on 
the property covered by the easement. Only the mortgage on the Katahdin 
Forest Project land has changed hands. TNC still owns the parcel around the 
Debscneag Lakes. 
Somehow, through all that megacorp incest, liquidation logging on 'protected' 
land has emerged as the offspring.
Katahdin Timberlands, btw, operates those six rental cabins at the northern 
end of the hundred mile wilderness, and is currently rebuliding the Abol 
Bridge.
TJ