AUGUSTA — Environmental activists howled Wednesday when a group of large landowners tried to persuade the Land Use Regulation Commission to make last-minute changes to the draft of a comprehensive plan that would govern timber harvesting and development in the unorganized territories.

Environmentalists said the move was a bold display of political muscle that subverts the open public process for rewriting the plan, which will affect 10.5 million acres in northern and eastern Maine.

“This is exactly the kind of heavy-handed, behind-the-scenes manipulation that has caused Maine people’s longstanding and deep distrust of the paper industry,” said Judy Berk, spokeswoman for the Natural Resources Council of Maine.

The attempt came to light at the start of a LURC meeting Wednesday in Augusta. Stephen Wight, chairman of the commission, revealed that he was presented with a five-page list of requests Tuesday night by Sidney Balch, chief forester for Boise Cascade Corp.

Commissioner Steven Mason said Dan Corcoran of Great Northern Paper Co. gave him a copy of the same document, while Commissioner Malachai Anderson obtained the list from Robert Cope of Champion International Corp.

Assistant Attorney General Jeffrey Pidot, who provides legal council to LURC, said the attempt to influence commissioners was illegal.

“This type of input was obviously orchestrated,” he said. “It is not informal, on-the-street comments [that commissioners often hear].”

The problem, according to Pidot, is that average Maine residents have no way to know what the landowners recommended to LURC. If any of the suggestions influenced commissioners, they should reopen the hearing record and allow the public to offer comment, he said.

Balch, however, downplayed the significance of the landowners’ action. Since public hearings were held on the plan earlier this year, the document has been substantially reworked, he said.

“Whole new sections have been added [by the commission] that have not been through the public hearing process,” said the Boise forester. “… As responsible landowners, we thought it was important for commissioners [to hear our concerns].”

After the meeting, Wight acknowledged that the attempt could reinforce perceptions that LURC listens far more carefully to the timber industry than to others who live, work or play in the unorganized territories.

“I can understand how this incident can be viewed that way, but it’s not the case,” said Wight, who has served on the commission for nine years. “… We did not take up anything on that list.”

That was hotly disputed by Catherine Johnson, an attorney for NRCM. Johnson said the board voted 5-1 on Wednesday to apply a zone called Management-Natural Character to land only when it is nominated by the owner. Although it has never been applied, the zone is intended to preserve large undeveloped areas by allowing only timber harvesting, remote camps and primitive recreation.

The commission’s action Wednesday was consistent with the request of large landowners, according to Johnson. It overturned an identical 5-1 vote taken last March, she said, in which commisioners reserved the right to create such zones without landowner consent.

“You have to wonder why the vote was completely reversed,” said Johnson. “The natural character zone is LURC’s best tool to create large areas that are off-limits to development.”

NRCM said the attempt also raises questions about the commitment of large landowners to other efforts that could have an impact on timber harvesting, in particular a recently announced alternative to a November referendum that would ban clear-cutting and impose other restrictions on logging in the North Woods.

“This is precisely why the alternative must be locked into law by the Legislature,” said Berk.

Gov. Angus King, representatives of 15 large landowners and the heads of four mainstream environmental groups pledged last month to undertake a series of actions designed to restore public confidence that logging practices in Maine are indefinitely sustainable and environmentally benign. NRCM is pushing for a special session of the Legislature to endorse the deal prior to November.