Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar makes a purposeful trip to Millinocket/Medway, Maine to listen to residents voice their pros and cons regarding the Roxanne Quimby/Restore the North Woods National Park proposal...........He assures folks that the Federal Government would look to work in partnership with the people of Maine on any Park initiative that might evolve out of the on-going discussions going on around the State.............There are many "die-hards" who do not want the Feds messing with their lives in any way regardless of the unemployment situation in this part of the World...........There are others who would like to see both the Park and the Millinocket paper mill spring to life simultaneously........Stay tuned for more on this issue...........Could a new day be dawning in Maine?

By Nick Sambides Jr

MILLINOCKET, Maine — Federal feasibility studies recommend against 50 percent of the proposed parks they study, and thedimensions of Roxanne Quimby’s proposed North Woods National Park would becontrolled by laws and legislatures, not bureaucrats bent on controllingnorthern Maine, the federal government’s top land manager said Thursday. Speaking occasionally and more often listening tomore than 300 people at Stearns High School’s auditorium, U.S. Secretary of theInterior Ken Salazar refuted criticisms that Quimby’s proposal would growbeyond 70,000 acres if it became a reality and that a park feasibility studywould be guaranteed to find in favor of a park.

Salazar promised that Mainers would be the primaryarbiters deciding the shape and size of any park they might opt to pursue.Maine’s federal delegation and other legislators, among others, would not allowit to be otherwise, he said. “We,” he reminded the audience, “are a nation oflaws.”

Quimby’s proposal was the subject of two livelymeetings Thursday. About 70 people attended a town meeting at Medway MiddleSchool about 2½ hours after the Stearns gathering in which residents voted 46-6 to support a feasibility study of Quimby’s proposal Medway residents join their Board of Selectmen,School Committee, and several Katahdin region civic and business organizationsin supporting a study.

 Maine’s two Republican senators, the state Legislature,the Millinocket Town Council, Maine Snowmobile Association, Maine WoodsCoalition and the Millinocket Fin and Feather Club oppose or are skeptica labout Quimby’s plan.

Salazar visited Stearns as part of his multiday tour of Maine and New Englandto discuss and gather feedback on Quimby’s proposed gift to the federal government of70,000 acres she owns adjoining Baxter State Park. He came to town,he said, to hear directly from people who might be affected if a national parkwas created.

The meeting was a feisty give-and-take session,with Salazar and National Park Service Director Jon Jarvis seeking statements and questions from park proponents and opponents alternately. Salazar alsofielded direct challenges from residents, including Town Councilor David Cyr, a leading opponent of the parks initiative.

Cyr told Salazar that he would want “to have thefederal government leave the area,” describing Millinocket “under attack by thethreat of a national park” for 10 years. Cyr said that years ago, a federal agency meddling in Millinocket paper mill operations cost it financing for a rebuild of its No.11 paper machine and eventually led to or contributed to the loss of millowners’ possession of the 19 hydroelectric dams.

Salazar didn’t answer Cyr’s claims about federalagency meddling, but said he came to the meeting out of respect for allopinions, including Cyr’s. “If there is something that we can do inpartnership then I want to take a genuine look at it,” Salazar said, drawing applause from the audience.

Earlier in the meeting, responding to criticismthat he or the federal government had been ignoring Millinocket or loca lresidents, he said: “I invited myself. Nobody invited me.” “It was my decision to come here because I wantedto listen to the people of this area,” Salazar said. “My being here is to be apart of whatever process we ultimately undertake.”“There will be nothing done with this process thatdoes not include the people in this region,” he added.

He said repeatedly that as a member of President Barack Obama’s cabinet and as a private citizen raised in one of Colorado’spoorest communities, local communities, their desires and cultural heritage are very important to him.

The federal government, Salazar said, could do two types of studies of the park proposal. A reconnaissance study would do a basic appreciation of the park landscape and cost $25,000. Salazar could order i thimself. The other, what is referred to as a feasibility study, would require congressional approval and take many years to complete, he said.

Like Salazar, Quimby, who attended the Medwaymeeting, took some direct challenges from residents. She said that she opted tooffer her land to the federal government because the parks service has the besttrack record. “In spite of the fact that they keep taking budgetcuts every year, you still get a great experience,” Quimby said, adding thatthe parks service “has withstood the test of time. It certainly has changed,but you can still get [a good experience] from visits to parks.”

An elderly man who stood up to address her from themiddle school’s gymnasium stands said he simply didn’t trust Quimby to keep thepark at 70,000 acres. “I watch the news, I read the newspapers, and Idon’t know why anybody would want to give anything to the federal government,”the man said.
“I am going to stand up for America,” Quimbyanswered. “We live here and we are the federal government. We are Americans.This is our country and I believe that if there are problems, let’s fix them.Let’s not sit on the sidelines grousing about them.”

Cheryl Russell, president of the Lincoln LakesRegion Chamber of Commerce and a Millinocket native, challenged Salazar’sassertion that a Colorado national park had co-existed well with that state’sforest products industry.A member of a three-generation logging family,Russell described the logging permitting process within national parks as“insurmountable, undependable. To say that a logging community can coexist witha national park, that was not my experience.”“We have the talent to do that with the talent ofthis room without a national park. We just have to work together,” Russelladded.

Many national parks, Salazar said, feature mixeduses, such as hunting, snowmobiling, logging and ATV riding, not seen in thestereotypical park. A feasibility study and subsequent work would allowresidents near the park to shape the park’s offerings to provide theircommunities with the greatest economic benefits, he said.

Several residents at the Medway and Millinocketmeetings said it was ludicrous to not support a feasibility study, as the studywould provide answers to important questions.“What,” said Buzz Caverly, retired director of Baxter State Park, “are you people afraid of?To ask a question, to get an answer that it will be feasible or not?”

They also said that with the area’s unemploymentrate hovering at 21.8 percent and the East Millinocket and Millinocket millsshuttered, Quimby’s gift was priceless and should be seized as an economiclifeline.

State Sen. Doug Thomas, R-Ripley, strode to themicrophone during the Medway meeting and challenged assertions made by Quimbyand her land manager, Mark Leathers. He accused both of vastly underestimatingthe economic impact of taking land out of forestry use. He said of her 70,000acres, “There is nothing special about this land.” “There is no Grand Canyon, no Mount Katahdin onit,” Thomas said, adding that he suspected that the park would draw fewvisitors given the millions of acres around it that private owners alreadyallow residents to use.“I don’t buy the economicbenefits” of a national park, Thomas said. “I think at the very least we shouldwait until we know what is going to happen with the mills in Millinocket.”



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