I live in the heart of Vacationland – Lincolnville. Have you been here? Halfway up the coast, next door to pretty Camden, and on the way to Acadia National Park, Lincolnville has everything – sandy beaches and rocky coves, deep, dark forests, lovely ponds, rolling hills and Ducktrap River where wild salmon spawn. In fact, we think this is the most beautiful town in Maine, and we’ve been busy enjoying it this summer.

So imagine the reaction a couple of weeks ago when we learned that Central Maine Power has big plans for us, and somehow had neglected to tell us. When a CMP tree-cutting crew showed up in town, word spread quickly. Now, in a place like Lincolnville a gathering of two or three – people or pickups – signifies “something’s happening.” Before long, the tree-cutters were surrounded by a swarm of angry citizens, being bombarded with questions about what they were doing.

I should mention, we’re a cranky lot as well. Having so much waterfront means we’ve had our share of lawsuits and just plain nastiness over shoreland zoning. Our town is in Waldo County, one of the fastest growing counties in the state. Five town committees work year-round on planning, trying to stay ahead of development pressures, while at the same time retaining our rural character.

Preparing for Lincolnville’s Bicentennial celebration next June has been occupying many this summer. People try to steal time to go out in the boat, or take off for a week-end at Baxter. But while gardeners are busy pickling and freezing all those beans, corn, carrots and cucumbers they planted last spring, this is what CMP has in store for us:

It turns out, a 34,500-volt line is coming right through our town. Riding on an 8-foot crossbar atop 40-foot poles the line is designed to go through the middle of three 150-year old oaks, past the 1821 meeting house, and down Main Street, Lincolnville Center. The huge sugar maples that form a canopy there are slated to have their crowns butchered. There’s more. The line then proceeds a total of eight miles along a road lined for much of its route with tall oaks, ash, pine and maples. Smaller trees, pin cherries and shadbush, form a delicate haze of blossom in the spring. In the fall, this road is the reason people come to New England by the busload.

The line, as designed, will require a 24-foot wide corridor through the trees. Of course, after the big Ice Storm when much of the electrical grid was damaged, CMP is naturally cautious. Yet we love our trees.

Right off the bat there was talk of climbing trees and camping out “five hours, five days, five months if I have too!” one guy promised the stunned tree cutters. Next came the yellow tape, as we banded the doomed trees all along the route in the summer dusk. Some of us hadn’t had so much fun since the ’60s.

But that’s just it. It isn’t the sixties and some of us almost are – 60, I mean. So we’re cool and rational. We know we’re not going to stop this new power line through the heart of our town, even if we think CMP could have picked a better route with fewer old trees. Our Conservation Commission might have helped if they’d been consulted.

Our first reaction was indignation at CMP’s tactic of approaching landowners one at a time for permission to cut without first notifying the town as a whole. It turns out Maine statute requires 30-day notification to give landowners a chance to ask for a personal consultation about their own trees. And that gave us our only chance, when, following meetings with our selectmen and the Public Utilities Commission, CMP offered to hold off work on the line.

Now, thanks to their failure to notify us, they and we have this little hiatus from cutting and putting up the line. Perhaps the company’s engineers can come up with some innovative ideas to avoid the trees. Surely, somewhere in this country, or outside it, a utility company has devised ways to run a power line without destroying a town’s tree canopy.

We are specifically asking Central Maine Power to do the right thing in Lincolnville, and bring that line through with a minimum of damage to our trees. Just to help along their impulse to do it right, we’re urging shareholders, property owners and everyone who loves our beautiful town, to write the company’s headquarters in Augusta, stating their opposition to the tree slaughter. (It wouldn’t hurt to write if you’ve never heard of Lincolnville – it could happen in your town next.) Our town fathers (and mothers) and a good majority of our townspeople, are waiting and watching. We expect to work with CMP to make this a MODEL power line.

Now, remember, I said we’re cranky. This is, after all, Lincolnville, so there is also a small group of people who would just as soon see CMP cut the trees; the roads would melt faster in the winter, they say, with the sun on them. They have a point. Still, most of us feel sick as we drive the route and imagine a barren, clear-cut roadside, without the “wonder” of the trees as one resident said.

So, come see us sometime. There are many lovely inns and B&Bs in our area; leaf-peeping season is just around the corner. Hopefully, there will be some leaves to see.

Diane Roesing O’Brien has lived in Lincolnville for 30 years.