Certain selected rivers of the Nation which, with their immediate environments, possess outstandingly remarkable values… shall be protected. …The established national policy of dam and other construction… needs to be complemented by a policy that would preserve other selected rivers or sections thereof in their free-flowing condition..”

— National Wild and Scenic Rivers Act of 1968 (P.L. 90-542, 16 USC)

” It is my belief that the Allagash Wilderness Waterway Act of Maine is in full accord with the National (Wild and Scenic Rivers) Act and the guidelines developed by your Department… for permanent admninistration as a Wild River Area… I… hope you can personally be with us… to officially dedicate the Allagash and designate it as a Wild River under P.L. 90-542…”

Maine’s Land Use Regulation Commission (LURC) may be making a serious mistake if it allows the proposed John’s Bridge road-and-boat access, with parking lot, to be developed along the Allagash Wilderness Waterway, where natural conditions are declining.

On July 19, 1970, the state-protected Allagash River became a federally designated wild and scenic river under section 2(a)(ii) of the National Wild and Scenic Rivers Act of 1968. That law classified 92.5 miles of the Allagash as “wild,” meaning “generally inaccessible except by trail…essentially primitive…” The other two classifications are more forgiving: “scenic” (” accessible in places by roads”), and “recreational” (“readily accessible by road”).

Under the act, managers cannot allow a river to be degraded to less than its legal status — wild in this case. They must maintain the Allagash in the condition it was in when the designation occurred: “The existence of… minor structures at the time any river is proposed for inclusion in the national wild and scenic rivers system shall not automatically bar its consideration for such inclusion: Provided that this shall not be construed to authorize, intend or encourage furture construction of such structure.

…Each component of the national wild and scenic river system shall be administered…to protect and enhance the values which caused it to be included in said system. …”

Development of the John’s Bridge road-and-boat access would itself, I believe, down-grade the Allagash from wild to scenic, perhaps to recreational. Such slippage violates the act. When the impacts of this development are added to those of numerous others since the federal designation, they may amount to a separate, more comprehensive law-breaking. Death by a thousand cuts often precedes a coupe de grace. Either way or both ways, the limits of acceptable change are exceeded.

If LURC approves the plans, it and the Department of Conservation may be liable for breaching the act: “The jurisdiction of the States over waters of any… national wild and scenic river shall be unaffected by this Act to the extent such jurisdiction may be exercised without impairing the purposes of this Act or its administration (emphasis added).” The agencies risk intervention by the National Park Service, Washington, D.C., which is responsible for the integrity of the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act.

If, as reports suggest, state agencies have over many years routinely instructed waterway staff that the federal wild standards are irrelevant, the agencies could be sued under the state Administrative Procedures Act (APA). It forbids “arbitrary and capricious” management actions.

Within Maine, the historic downplaying of the wild designation has been effective. Newspapers seem not to have investigated or discussed the designation’s legal meaning. The tern National Wild and Scenic Rivers Act has hardly been mentioned in public debate. Read the act for yourself at www.nps.gov/rivers/wsract/html.

LURC should uphold the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act by denying the development permit on its demerits, and because its issuance may trigger otherwise avoidable litigation over whether federal law trumps the state’s actions. It would be pre-emptively prudent for the Department of Conservation and its Bureau of Parks and Public Lands to withdraw the permit application, so that all the state agencies are, finally, in compliance with the act and thereby avoid possible federal enforcement.

A national precedent was established when the Allagash became the first U.S. river to be granted 2(a)(ii) federal protections. Now 18 rivers, comprising 1,1772.8 river miles, have that status. Conservationists will likely not allow a new precedent that not only downgrades the Allagash, and jeopardizes the other 2(a)(ii) rivers, but also threatens the remaining 138 rivers in the National Wild and Scenic Rivers System which protects 10,931.2 river miles in all.

If the state attempted to designate the Allagash, to oust from the national system, I believe that would unleash nothing less than a national firefight that would dwarf the Big A epic of the 1980s.

My Allagash experience includes five canoe journeys over many years. One was a seven-day solo in late fall that involved a frigid five-lap protage across Mud Pond Carry, a launch atop a pane of ice on Mud Pond the next morning, an upwind contest against frothy Chamberlain Lake and a cold snowfall later.

The challenges, invigoration and relative solitude were worth it all. It was a wild experience. May that forever be the case for all who week the river’s fugitive naturalness.

Ken Olsen is former president and chief executive officer of American Rivers, the nation’s principal river conservation organization, and author of the monograph “Natural Rivers and the Public Trust.” He lives in Bass Harbor.