A bid by a land trust to broker a deal between a paper company and the federal government is on skids after local officials effectively nixed the plan last Wednesday.
Three out of five Somerset County commissioners voted on June 4 not to sign a letter of no objection to the $2.1 million sale of a 1,845 acre tract of wilderness between Moxie Pond and Bald Mountain by the Weyerhaeuser Corporation to the Trust for Public Land, which intends to finance the purchase largely with a federal grant.
“I’m not comfortable with turning over the sovereignty of Maine land to the federal government,” Commissioner Joel Stetkis declared at the commissioners second meeting on the subject. Commissioners Cyprien Johnson and Scott Seekins.
While privately owned until now, the land in question has been accessible both to hunters and snowmobile drivers who use a trail that runs through it.
Nearly a decade ago, Burt’s Bees heiress Roxanne Quimby donated a substantial tract of 87,500 acres east of Baxter State Park to the federal government and the memory of that expansion of the National Park Service then may seed the distrust and concern to which the Somerset County commissioners believe they’re giving voice to now.
“Yellowstone, it’s a zoo. I’ve been to Glacier National Park, it’s a zoo, not as bad as Yellowstone. They can’t fund and take care of the parks they got now because they’re in debt. They couldn’t keep an ant farm running. Just keep the hell, the government out of this state. Let the state run the things!” Ragged Lake resident Sam Huston said at a meeting with the National Park Service then.
Today in Somerset county, the prospect of the smaller area in question has residents cautious about what some see as another prospective case of the federal government taking over land locals have been able to use and restricting it.
“There is great concern over yet another federal land grab of large tracts of Maine land, not to mention the loss of the traditional use of hunting. I support efforts to ensure that the transfer of ownership maintains recreational trail usage as well as hunting. This result is critical to preserve the local economy, wildlife conservation, and the values Maine people hold dear,” State Representative Elizabeth Caruso (R-Caratunk) told The Maine Wire on Monday.
In a communication to the county commissioners early last week, the Trust for Public Land (TPL) confirmed they would give the state an easement for the snowmobile trail but could only go so far as to say they would ask the National Park Service about hunting rights and convey community sentiments. This was not enough the allay the concerns of the majority on the commission.
Dissenting Commissioner John Alsop told The Maine Wire that he was disheartened by the outcome.
“What if some tech bro comes along and buys up the land for what he sees as relatively small sum and then puts a fence around it so no one can use it?” Alsop questioned. “I think the vote was really driven more by fear of federal regulations than by consideration of other, worse possibilities.”
Mark Leathers, whose family has owned a camp on Moxie Pond since 1929, told the commissioners:
“I’m not a liberal from out of state. I’m from here. And I’ve wanted this (the land to become a park) all my life — and I love to hunt.”
With the deadline attached to the federal money running out, it is likely the TPL’s purchase deal will now fall through. The question remains what Weyerhaeuser will do next, given its inclination to sell the property. Ideally for outdoorsmen in the region another buyer will come along who will not only preserve use of the trail, but also allow hunting. With over a mile of frontage on Moxie Pond, the asking price appears within real of an affluent buyer who shares local values.
