Mike Tetreault is executive director of The Nature Conservancy in Maine, headquartered in Brunswick.
— How can Maine deal with the kinds of changes that are coming to our northern forests and still retain what we value most?
One exciting model is found in the proactive and far-reaching conservation now under consideration around Moosehead Lake. It is called the Conservation Framework.
Most readers know that Plum Creek has asked the state of Maine to rezone land near Moosehead Lake for development.
If this proposal is approved, the company would then need to submit actual development plans before any construction could occur. Then, those plans would be subject to further extensive permitting review.
Before all that, however, in return for the zoning change and as balance for the proposed development, the company has offered to place a conservation easement on 90,000 acres of working forest abutting the planned development areas.
Maine's Land Use Regulation Commission has the important task of determining if the concentrated development proposed in the Plum Creek concept plan is appropriate, and if the 90,000 easement acres represent a sufficient balance of public and corporate benefit.
That is the appropriate role of the regulatory body and it requires expertise in a wide variety of disciplines. On those issues, we have placed our trust in the robust public process LURC has designed.
The Nature Conservancy's expertise lies in the conservation of natural areas and large landscapes. After all, we have helped conserve one out of every three acres ever protected in Maine.
The Conservation Framework we have negotiated with Plum Creek builds on their offer of that first easement. Of the 408,000 acres considered under the current proposal, the Conservation Framework covers a full 94 percent.
That means a forest much larger than Androscoggin County would be subject to conservation. In virtually any place in the world, that would be a tremendous accomplishment.
Considering these outcomes is important because, no matter what LURC decides on the pending proposal, existing law already gives the company the ability to develop extensively across those 400,000 acres.
It is no stretch to expect many hundreds of units sprawling across that broad area. So, this is not a question of development versus no development.
Rather it is a choice between a planned development proposal with clearly stated conservation benefits and open to public inspection and comment, versus unplanned development with no agreed-upon game plan and no assurance of comparable conservation.
Under the Conservation Framework, we have legally bound the company to sell a working forest easement on an additional 265,000 acres (contiguous with the other easement) and to sell outright another 70,000 acres that would also be conserved.
Both easements would be permanent; both would require green- certified sustainable forestry; and both would secure forever public access for such things as hiking, fishing and snowmobiling.
The easements are comparable to the West Branch, Katahdin Forest and other large easements that have been hailed by conservationists and supported by the public over recent years.
This total package of 384,000 acres -- 600 square miles -- would be among the largest conservation transactions ever undertaken in the country.
It would solidify a nearly 2 million acre network of conservation lands stretching from the Quebec border to Baxter State Park, and would permanently buffer the remote character of the Unorganized Territory.
We would purchase all this in partnership with the Appalachian Mountain Club and the Forest Society of Maine. And the natural values protected -- such as preserving 60 remote ponds and protecting rare peatlands -- are more than impressive.
Our group is excited about this unique, perhaps once-in-my- lifetime opportunity to do large-scale conservation in northern Maine.
Our staff has done excellent work in crafting a framework that maintains productive forests, prevents fragmentation of this land base and secures for Maine people permanent recreational use of the land.
For those of us who do serious, large-scale conservation work day in and day out, our hope is that the scope of this outstanding conservation opportunity be understood and given the full weight it deserves as all aspects of the zoning changes are considered.
— Special to the Telegram
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