Guides, outfitters know Maine

Peter Hilton’s bashing of guides and outfitters who dare to defend the protection of what’s left of remoteness on the Allagash Wilderness Waterway (BDN, Dec. 29) reveals an attitude of contempt and resentment toward Maine’s tourism businesses. Although it is the second largest industry in the state, tourism has long been the black sheep of Maine’s economy and politics.

Hilton is like many people who express disdain for those who come from elsewhere to enjoy our state’s beauty and resources and those who make their living providing services to them. Mainers who belittle tourism don’t seem to mind the influx of dollars that come into our state’s economy from visitors, dollars that benefit all residents whether directly or indirectly.

If Hilton finds commercial use of the AWW so offensive, I wonder what he thinks of the Maine tradition of guiding, with nearly as long a history as logging in our Maine woods, particularly on the Allagash. In fact, the earliest guides were the original Northern Maine residents, the Penobscots, Passamaquoddys and Micmacs. Most early guides were woodsmen and river drivers, too. They made their living working hard and utilizing the resources, just as guides do today.

Guides have had a long history of promoting and advocating the stewardship and protection of resources their livelihoods depend upon. Protecting the Allagash is the current struggle for some of us, because unless it remains a viable canoe trip, we are out of a job. We have a lot at stake.

Perhaps in Hilton’s mind it is morally reprehensible or at least politically incorrect for stakeholders to speak out for their interests. Maybe we should gracefully retire and let the Allagash Wilderness Waterway succumb to the pressures of a public that demands more and more convenience.

I find it puzzling that Hilton is offended at the outcry of waterway users whose tradition precedes day use, yet he has no problem with incessant back room lobbying of Department of Conservation officials by a couple of individuals who want access at John’s Bridge for their own convenience, because they have a camp closer to it than to the trailerable access at Churchill Dam.

I wonder why he isn’t offended by intimidation tactics from these two toward sporting camp owners who might oppose the authorization of a new boat access. I question why he exhibited no moral outrage at public threats instigated by SAM lobbyist George Smith against the reappointment of a volunteer Land Use Regulation Commission commissioner, threats that may well have caused other commissioners to change their vote on authorizing a new access to the Allagash.

Even if commercial users were the only ones standing firm against providing a new access point to the Allagash, which they are not, Hilton’s suggestion that it is improper for commercial interests to defend their use of a public resource has no precedent in Maine history. For a century and a half, the wood products industry has utilized Maine’s rivers for transportation, power generation or waste disposal.

Maine agricultural businesses have depended on water from rivers for irrigation and processing, and commercial fisheries have relied on sea life in public waters to sustain their livelihoods. Sporting camps, trappers, hunting and fishing guides, game meat processors, and taxidermists are just a few of the traditional businesses that need public resources protected in a sustainable way in order to continue making a living.

In fact, Gov. Angus King has recently gone to bat to protect commercial use of Maine public resources by filing a lawsuit against the federal government over the Atlantic salmon listing. Apparently some jobs and businesses that depend on public resources are worthy of intervention, while others are not. So far, the governor has declined to even meet with guides and outfitters who are concerned with the direction of state management of the Allagash Wilderness Waterway and its effect on their jobs.

Canoe tripping businesses and organizations are not asking for any advantages or special treatment on the Allagash. We share the river with every other user, obey the same rules, and pay the same camping fees.

We do not want to see the Maine woods turn into a national park. Nor do we want to the see the Allagash become “Saco River North.” We are simply asking that the state agency entrusted with managing the Allagash be true to the promise it made 30 some years ago to maintain its “maximum wilderness character.”

I invite Hilton to join us for a trip down the Allagash next summer. Perhaps he’ll regard the Allagash Wilderness Waterway from a different perspective after such an experience. It’s easy to judge others until you have walked in their boots for at least a few miles.

Linda Koski of Greenville is a Registered Maine Guide and a member of the Allagash Advisory Council.