There seems to be a big thaw taking place in northern Maine.

Oh, the air is still plenty nippy north of Bangor. It’s the chilly relationship between the warring parties of the North Woods that’s warming up.

In fact, an announcement issued last weekend about a creative land deal near Millinocket sounds like an honest-to-goodness breakthrough in the biblical struggle between recreation, commerce and wilderness preservation in the region.

First, Millinocket Town Manager Eugene Conlogue gives credit to Roxanne Quimby, northern Maine’s most notorious preservationist. And Quimby says kind things about Conlogue and the negotiators who represented snowmobilers and hunters, many of whom drive around with “Ban Roxanne” bumper stickers on their cars and pickups.

“They were very nice people,” Quimby said this week. “We saw, especially after the first couple meetings, that we had a lot in common.”

What they essentially agreed on is that the North Woods are big enough for conservation, recreation and wood production, and that they have to stop fighting over those priorities before the land gets sold and divided so that none of them can happen.