Texan buys Maine tract Moosehead lot has 20,000 acres

A wealthy Texas technology company executive has purchased a sizable chunk of timberland along Moosehead Lake in the middle of a large territory being targeted for preservation by the state and private organizations.

Richard H. Brown, chief executive officer of EDS, an information technology company, and his wife, Christine, purchased 20,000 acres of land on the northeast side of the lake “for personal reasons.”

The Browns, who live in Dallas, completed the purchase from Mead Corp., an Ohio-based paper company, on Wednesday. Attorneys for the couple took the unusual action of revealing the purchase in a press release, but refused to divulge the price.

The transaction encompasses nearly all of the East Middlesex Canal Grant above Spencer Bay. The parcel includes 31/2 miles of frontage on Moosehead Lake, the majority of Spencer Pond, Big and Little Duck ponds and Little Spencer and Eagle mountains.

The Browns have summered on Moosehead Lake for 10 years, and own a house on 18-acre Sand Bar Island, which is on the west side of the lake south of Rockwood.

Much of the purchase, including Little Spencer Mountain, is visible across the lake from their house.

The deal is similar to one last year that raised alarm among environmentalists and sportsmen fearing a loss of public access. Billionaire media mogul John Malone of Denver spent $10 million for 7,500 acres to complete his ring of ownership around Spencer Lake, south of Jackman.

Sportsmen and environmentalists decried the purchase for turning a well-stocked lake popular with fishermen into a private playground. Before the transaction, the state had proposed building a public boat launch on Spencer Lake, but that plan was turned down by the Land Use Regulation Commission.

Malone has since issued a public statement that he will continue to allow the public access to the 5-mile-long lake as long as people do not abuse the 15,000 acres of land he owns.

While Malone was very secretive about his land purchases, the Browns’ lawyers put out a press release Wednesday announcing the deal. An attorney for the couple said they simply wanted to get the news out and that the press release was not an effort to forestall the negative publicity that followed Malone’s purchase.

“We don’t want to be secretive,” said Mike Gentile of the Portland firm of Preti, Flaherty. “We’re not playing hide the pea here.”

The state has purchased about 50 acres of shoreline along the east shore of Moosehead near the Browns’ property.

In addition, the Forest Society of Maine is in the process of putting together a proposal to protect 650,000 acres of forestland around the lake and along the West Branch of the Penobscot River with private and public funds. As part of that project, the state has already purchased 10 miles along the north shore of the lake and 4,200 acres around Big Spencer Mountain.

Big Spencer abuts the land purchased by the Browns, and state-owned shoreline is to the south of their property.

Alan Hutchinson, director of the Forest Society, said he would try to talk to the Browns to see if they were interested in adding their land to the West Branch project.

The state previously had discussions with Mead about buying shorefront on part of the land, but did not reach an agreement, said Ralph Knoll of the Bureau of Parks and Lands.

The Browns plan to meet with state officials about public access and other issues when they are in Maine this summer, Gentile said.

Asked if the Browns had considered drawing up a conservation easement to protect the land, Gentile said that was “not off the table.”

The Browns’ purchase highlights the need for more public funding to buy and permanently protect places like Moosehead Lake, said Maureen Drouin of the Northern Forest Alliance.

“This shows that … Maine’s most precious resources are vulnerable to the whim of the market,” she said.

Gentile said the change of ownership should not affect the way the land is managed. The Browns do not intend to develop the property, and they will continue to allow the public to hunt, fish and snowmobile so long as the land is not damaged, he said.

A commercial sporting camp and leased cabin on Moosehead Lake will remain for now, he said.

The Browns will “sporadically” cut timber on the land, Gentile said. No cutting is expected in the next few years, he said.

“We purchased this property for personal reasons,” Brown said in the press release. “We think there is no place quite like it. We intend to protect it through responsible timber management.”

Brown, 52, has been head of EDS, which was founded by H. Ross Perot, since January 1999. Prior to that he was CEO of Cable & Wireless plc for two years and president of H&R Block Inc. for one year.

Last year, Forbes magazine ranked Brown 101st in its annual list of the 500 highest-paid CEOs in the country with compensation of more than $11 million.

Eighteen-acre Sand Bar Island is valued at $214,000, according to the Maine Revenue Services Property Tax Division. The house on the island is valued at $163,000.