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Mainer wants park

Tom Hennessey and others feel that a North Woods National Park would restrict access and not allow hunting or fishing. Yellowstone National Park allows fishing, snowmobiles, and has become accessible from the four points of the compass. Hunting is not allowed. My point is that designating an area as a national park does not automatically restrict all activities which people have traditionally done in the area.

The Sierra Club poll does reflect the ideals of many Mainers. I’m 65 years old, was born and brought up in Maine, have lived here most of my life, have canoed the Allagash since 1975, and believe the time has come for a North Woods National Park to include all of Baxter State Park and all of the Allagash Wilderness Waterway.

Mainers need a piece of the North Woods which the paper companies don’t control since they have not been good stewards of the North Woods. For example, the environmentalists had to drag the paper companies kicking and squealing away from clear-cutting, a very sick way to manage a forest. The paper companies should have exerted leadership and stopped clear-cutting on their own when they saw the enviromental damage which it does.

Drive through any town near a paper mill, such as Bradley, and breathe the air. Makes you want to upchuck, doesn’t it? Eat the fish from the Penobscot River, then take a swim – I dare you!

Even the fishing law books warn against eating fish from the Penobscot and other rivers. The toxic waste products which the paper mills dump into our rivers and air every day are nothing short of criminal. The paper mills do provide jobs, but the environmental cost is too high. Also, as time goes by, fewer and fewer people work for the paper mills because the paper companies are using more and more machines in the woods and mills instead of people.

A North Woods National Park in Maine would entice people from all over the world to spend money in Maine to visit the park. More people would stay in sporting camps outside the park and buy fishing and camping gear, gasoline, food, and other items from Maine people.

The park would create jobs to replace those lost by the paper industry. The people in Maine would again have clean air and clean water in their rivers.

So, when you read or hear people talk about all of the bad things about a national park in Maine’s North Woods, take a more balanced approach and look at the good things a national park would bring.

Lastly, I’ve been to a number of national parks and they’re not government-controlled Disneylands. They are wonderful areas which our country has saved from the onslaught of our mechanized civilization which is bent on exploiting and taming every last wild area on the planet.

Paul Shanley

Eddington

UMaine earns thanks

On Aug. 2 my husband and I attended a WNBA game between the Sacramento Monarchs and the Miami Sol at ARCO Arena. We had been there last year to watch Cindy Blodgett, which was great, but this year’s game was very special.

A couple of minutes into the second half, Cindy was called to play. As she checked in and waited to enter the game, Jamie Cassidy was also checking in again. They held hands a moment or two on the sidelines. In the game they would smile broadly as each defended her position against the other.

It’s wonderful to see the respect of two former teammates for each other. Thank you, UMaine, for enhancing the opportunities for Maine women.

Cindy Wood

Orland