Maine needs new ways to balance public and private uses of the forest.Recreation - Maine

Rebecca Zicarelli

English

Research Papers in Economics

photographs by kathleen dooher Regional Review Q3 2003 27
Western Maine’s forestsare com-
mon ground. Though some tracts are
owned by corporations, others by indi-
vidual landowners or the state, these
distinctions are largely invisible to the
recreational travelers who pass through
the woods. They can hike, backpack,
snowshoe,  or  canoe  the  forests  and
rivers with a freedom unknown in most
other states. Yet these shared lands and
wild areas have been largely inac-
cessible except to those rugged ad-
venturers  versed  in  backcountry
survival techniques.
Larry Warren, president of Western
Mountains Foundation, a com-
munity development nonprofit in
Carrabassett Valley, proposes to
change that. He envisions a 180-
carrabassett valley, maine
letter from
Building a trail in the forest
isn’t as easy as it seems
By Rebecca Zicarelli
“No one ever told me I
couldn’t go fishing or
hunting someplace—
there was an open land
policy,” says Larry War-
ren (right) of Western
Mountains Federation.
UNWRITTEN COVENANT28 Regional Review Q3 2003
mile-long path through the woods, tended
and groomed, for extended journeys from
Bethel to Moosehead Lake. Modeled on the
Appalachian Mountain Club huts in New
Hampshire and the 10th Division huts in Col-
orado, the trail would feature rustic lodges
spaced a day’s journey apart, each with beds,
saunas, and home-cooked meals for up to 40
travelers. 
Putting a trail through these woods will not
be easy, however, since the distinction be-
tween private and public use in the Maine
forests is far from simple. In other states, such
a trail would likely traverse publicly owned
lands. But more than three-quarters of Maine—
16 million acres—is working forest. Half the
state, an area larger then Massachusetts, Con-
necticut, and Rhode Island combined, is an
industrial woodland
owned by corporations,
complete with roads,
pulp trucks, and log-
gers armed with chain-
saws. 
Although they may
not own this vast for-
est, Mainers have a
long history of using it,
particularly for recre-
ation. “Nobody ever told me I couldn’t go fish-
ing or hunting someplace—there was an open
land policy,” says Warren. Maine’sprivate land
owners have maintained a rarely formalized
and highly unusual tradition of open lands. In
exchange, they expected stable public policy
for forestry management. It was an unwritten
covenant between Maine’s industrial landown-
ers and the public, a tradition of nearly 200
years.
But by the end of the twentieth century, the
covenant had begun to unravel. 
Maine residents began to worry about their
ability to use the land as huge parcels were
bought and sold at an increasingly rapid rate.
One-quarter  of  the  industrial  forest—
2,500,000 acres—changed hands in 1998. Of-
ten the new owners were large companies
headquartered in the Pacific Northwest or
Canada, without ties to the unusual traditions
of the Maine woods. Would they gate the
roads, people worried? Post No Trespassing
signs? Charge access fees for hunting and
fishing? Prevent snowmobiling on their roads
in the winter? Subdivide favorite scenic places
into house lots?
These  longstanding  arrangements  were
further threatened in the mid-1990s when en-
vironmental groups, to the great concern of
property owners, started questioning how the
working forest was managed. Fears mounted
that industrial landowners were harvesting
more timber each year than the forests could
replenish. Sustainable forestry—management
methods that don’t deplete forest resources—
became a buzzword. Landowners began to
worry that they would no longer be able to
Clearing the way for
Maine Huts and Trails
will take hiking boots
and scythes, but it will
also take easements,
negotiations, and gov-
ernment intervention.
MAKING IT HAPPENRegional Review Q3 2003 29
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earn a return on their forest land investments.
At the same time, recreational use of the
Maine woods was growing and changing.
Hunting, fishing, and camping were still pop-
ular, but a new breed of tourists—ATV rid-
ers, rock climbers, paddlers, and mountain
bikers—took to the woods in record numbers.
Often this meant increasing damage to the
landowners’ properties and increasing conflict
between loggers and tourists. With concerns
escalating from landowners, environmental-
ists, and recreational users alike, Maine need-
ed to rethink the balance between public and
private use of the forest.
Warren’s hut and trail
system is one approach.
He proposes to solve the
easier part of the problem,
increasing public access
to private land, by using
easements to compensate
landowners for allowing
the  public  to  use  their
lands—which would also
legalize long-term public
access and protect covet-
ed  areas  from  develop-
ment.  Landowners  like
easements  because  they
increase the economic re-
turn from river edges and
ridge lines, areas that are
desirable for recreation and that, by regula-
tion, cannot be heavily harvested. The plan
would also funnel adventurers into clearly de-
fined areas where their play wouldn’t interfere
with the business of timber harvesting. Most
important, the plan would protect landowners’
rights  to  continue  managing  their  land.
Though negotiating these arrangements can
be a long process, Warren has encountered lit-
tle resistance from landowners thus far.
The thornier problem has been ensuring
the private use of public land. Eight miles of
Maine Huts and Trails were slated to pass
through the state-owned Bigelow Preserve in
Dead River Township. Nestled on the south
side of Flagstaff Lake, the preserve is the only
plot of Maine’s forest specifically set aside by
voters; it was created by a 1976 referendum
to prevent its development into a ski resort and
protect  its  unspoiled  environment.  The
Bigelow Act also permitted traditional private
uses  such  as  timber  harvesting,  hunting,
camping, cross-country skiing, and snowmo-
biling. No other mechanized traffic is allowed.
As Warren’s plan moved forward, contro-
versy erupted over whether groomed cross-
country ski trails—an amenity that Warren
wants to include and that skiers have come to
expect—would  be  permissible  under  the
Bigelow Act. Many agree with Richard Bar-
ringer, head of the Department of Conserva-
tion at the time the act passed, that groomed
trails would be acceptable and that the act
“clearly contemplated economic activity.” 
But the Friends of Bigelow, the grass-roots
environmental organization that spearheaded
the Preserve’s creation, is opposed. “This de-
velopment would not be consistent with the
spirit of the Bigelow vote, which prevented a
giant downhill ski resort from being built on
the mountain,” argues Richard Fecteau, pres-
ident of the group. It contends that a trail wide
enough to accommodate grooming equip-
ment would be a new road, not only clearly
banned by the Bigelow Act but also an invi-
tation to off-road vehicles and ATVs. 
In May, the state stepped in to resolve the
conflict. Warren’s organization agreed to ac-
tively search for a route around the preserve
through  neighboring  land  owned  by  the
Penobscot Nation. The Friends of Bigelow
agreed not to oppose the hut and trail system.
And the State of Maine agreed to help War-
ren negotiate the easements, thus becoming
an active partner in the effort to make Maine
Huts and Trails a reality. 
It may take some time to work out the de-
tails, but in the end the trail could have a big
impact: Warren expects that within five years
the trail will draw 30,000 user-days per year
to a part of the state that is desperate for new
economic activity. More important, it will
serve as a living example of a new way to bal-
ance public and private land use in western
Maine so that everyone can benefit: the own-
ers, the users, and the forest itself. S
Rebecca Zicarelli is a freelance
writer from Bethel, Maine, who
writes on the forest products in-
dustry, land use, tourism, and the
economy of western Maine.
Maine
needs new
ways to
balance
public and
private
uses of 
the forest

Letter from Carrabassett Valley, Maine: building a trail in the forest isn't as easy as it seems

http://www.bostonfed.org/economic/nerr/rr2003/q3/q303letter.pdf

Letter from Carrabassett Valley, Maine: building a trail in the forest isn't as easy as it seems

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