I often wonder why people like Lynn Cloutier (Letters, BDN, Dec. 30) believe with all the zeal of religious converts that establishing a national park in northern Maine would be the answer to all our problems.

Bagley writes of the need to “save a part of Maine from over-development.” What over-development? My family spends several weeks throughout the year in the northern woods. There has been little development, let alone what any rational person could call “over-development.”

She also states that federal control over what are now privately-owned lands would “guarantee free access to public land forever.” Nothing run by the federal government is ever “free.” We and all the “future generations” for whom Cloutier expresses such deep concern will never cease paying for it because we will be abrogating our rights and responsibilities in favor of an increasingly bloated and intrusive bureaucracy.

The federal government cannot properly manage the parks for which it is currently responsible. Why, then, would any intelligent, responsible citizen sign a petition demanding that it take over even more property?

Private land management will always be superior to bureaucratic control because the business sector encourages innovation and attracts the best minds, whereas the federal government makes virtues of mediocrity and inefficiency.

As for Cloutier’s assertion that “petitions signed by 100,000 people demonstrate the need for a Maine Woods national park feasibility study,” nothing could be more wrong. Such a petition merely demonstrates that 100,000 people are misinformed as to the situation in the northern forest.

Their eagerness to claim someone else’s property is shameful and disgusting. By Cloutier’s own logic, the mere fact that millions of people smoke must mean that cigarettes are beneficial.

She then goes on to castigate our congressional delegation for not properly serving the wishes of Maine people in this matter. I have written to our senators and congressmen about this issue, as I have about many others.

I am convinced that in speaking out against the park proposal they have at heart the interests of all Mainers, rather than a small but vocal minority who believe that a petition represents a mandate for action.

And by the way, the last time I visited Cloutier’s own town of Lincolnville, it stuck me that several buildings and businesses along Route 1 were terribly close to the water. I’m no expert, but it looked like a clear case of “over-development” and greatly detracted from my enjoyment of the mid-coast region. In fact, it spoiled my entire “coastal experience.”

I believe we should put together a petition and hold a rally to convince Washington of the need to act soon in order to save this precious area from the ravages of private ownership. Preserving everything between Camden and the Ducktrap River would be, to use Cloutier’s own words, “a wonderful gift to present and future generations.” Who’s with me on this?

Patrick S. Bagley lives in Madison.