[at-l] North Maine Woods

[ellen at clinic.net (Bob)]

As a resident of Massachusetts, TJ can, perhaps, be excused for not knowing=
 what is happening in the Maine woods. But the simple fact is that major ch=
anges are underway.

Since October of 1998, six million acres in the north woods have changed ha=
nds. This is 30 percent of the 20 million acre land mass of the state and a=
n area larger than Massachusetts.

Here's a broad outline of the major changes. In October of 1998, Plum Creek=
 Company, a west coast land developer, purchased 905,000 acres from South A=
frican Pulp and Paper International, which had purchased the land a few yea=
rs earlier from Scott Paper Company. Plum Creek . Plumb Creek since has sev=
eloped land on Roach Pond, one of the major lakes visible from the summit o=
f Whitecap Mountain.

Later the same month, J. D. Irving Co., a Canadian conglomerate, purchased =
911,000 acres from Bowater, the paper company that had purchased Great Nort=
hern Paper Co. a few years earlier.

Two weeks later, Bowater sold most of the rest of the giant Great Northern =
holdings to McDonald Investment Co. of Birmingham, AL.

In December of 1998, The Nature Conservancy purchased 185,000 acres on the =
headwaters of the St. John River from International Paper Company.

In 1999, three other Alabama land investment companies   New River, Frankli=
n and Buckfield Timber purchased 91,000 acres, mostly around Tumbledown Mou=
ntain in western Maine.

That year also, Georgia Pacific sold 446,000 acres in Washington County to =
unidentified investors, and  International Paper sold 245,000 acres to Clay=
ton Lake Woodlands.

In 2,000 International Paper purchases 913,000 acres in Downeast Maine.

In 2001 IP sold 150,000 acres of its new lands.

In 2002, IP began selling off its Downeast holding in relatively small lots=
 to private developers. =


Also that year media mogul John Malone purchased 53,000 acres to add to the=
 15,000 acres he already owned..

I know this is getting boring so I will summarize. Since then Mead Westvaco=
 paper company has sold 500,000 Maine acres in western Maine to Wagner Timb=
erlands, an investment company, who mostly sells to developers and conserva=
tion buyers. Rumors said the purchase funds were raised in 30 days to inves=
tors promised 20-30 percent profits.

Carrier Brothers from Canada, an outfit with a record of clearcutting the l=
and and selling the remnants for development, bought 40,000 acres that AMC =
and partners had bid on, but lost.

The Nature Conservancy re-entered the market and purchased 41,000 acres sou=
th of Baxter, which it pledges to manage as wilderness, plus easements that=
 forbid development on another 250,000 acres, thus providing important buff=
ers to the western side of Baxter State Park.

AMC finally got to play a role, purchasing 37,000 acres, and continuing to =
eye additional thousands of acres..

Roxanne Quimby, a former "back-to-the-land" hippie, who in a bit more than =
a decade went from carrying water to her electricity-less house to CEO of a=
 national cosmetics and health care company she grew from scratch, and rece=
ntly sold 80% for a reported $150 million. Roxanne has acquired 50,000-60,0=
00 acres, mostly bordering on Baxter and in the 100-mile-wilderness.

I'm writing this from memory, so I'm sure I've left out other important dev=
elopments. But this is surely the pattern that's underway, whether TJ wants=
 to believe it or not.

Anyway, the Maine Appalachian Trail Land Trust this month finally completed=
 negotiations with Meade Westvaco, setting a price for around 5,000 acres o=
n the slopes of Saddleback and on the summit ridge of adjacent Abraham.

A few of you who have expressed an interest, will be getting letters soon o=
utlining how you can help with this effort and several vastly larger projec=
ts we are working on.

What's triggering all this activity? The Maine woods economy is changing an=
d fast. Logging jobs in the state dropped from 3,200 in 1990 to 2,400 in 20=
02, the last year for which official statistics are available.

Paper-making jobs dropped from 17,300 in 1990 to 11,700 in 2002.

Things have gotten worse since. In the past two years, two companies with f=
our paper mills in the Penobscot Valley went bankrupt. Georgia Pacific laid=
 off hundreds of workers and said it would have closed completely had not t=
he state agreed to purchase its land fill dump and its multi-million liabil=
ities for $26 million. =


The north maine woods are in flux. Groups like AMC, The Nature Conservancy,=
 and others are working to preserve some of the wildness. =


A few of us have created the Maine Appalachian Trail Land Trust to make sur=
e that the trail is a consideration in these vast changes.

If anyone wants to help our address is MAT Land Trust, PO Box 325, Yarmouth=
, ME 04096,

Weary



> ------------Original Message------------
> From: Snodrog5@aol.com
> To: at-l@backcountry.net
> Date: Tue, May-25-2004 10:07 PM
> Subject: Re: [at-l] North Maine Woods
> =

> =

> =


>   Weary, you need to seperate the "sales pitch" from the facts if you eve=
r =

> want to be taken seriously. I know the majority of list readers are from =
away, =

> but they're not as stupid as you think they are. Stop talking down to you=
r =

> audience. I keep hoping you're just confused, but the more you type the m=
ore it =

> looks like you enjoy intentionally misleading people for some reason know=
n only =

> to yourself. =

>   The need to actually conserve the Maine North Woods is very real, it =

> doesn't need dressing up in manufactured facts and hyperbole, and it cert=
ainly needs =

> more than the half-measures that are currently popular.
> hope this helps,
> TJ
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