BREWER – Candidates in Maine’s crowded 2nd District congressional race on Thursday panned the idea of a national park in Maine’s North Woods and called for a fair trade agreement with Canadian lumber producers.

“If [the park] is a good idea, the local people have to be supportive of it,” state Sen. Susan Longley, D-Liberty, said at a Thursday forum presented by the Maine Forest Products Council. “If they’re not, there’s something wrong with the results.”

Longley is one of six Democrats vying for the position now held by U.S. Rep. John Baldacci, who opted not to seek a fifth term in Congress in order to run for governor.

At Thursday’s forum, which is the first of what will undoubtedly be many such events before the June primaries, the three GOP candidates were equally cool to the creation of a 3.2 million-acre Maine Woods National Park as proposed by the Massachusetts group, RESTORE: The North Woods.

“If you turn that area into a national park, you can say good-bye to a

local voice for that part of the world,” said former Bangor Mayor Tim Woodcock, who with U.S. Sen. Olympia Snowe’s former chief of staff Kevin Raye and Maine Rep. Stavros Mendros, R-Lewiston, echoed the popular sentiment at the forum sponsored by International Paper.

The candidates’ unanimous objection would do little to change the current delegation’s collective view of the proposed park, an idea that has faced stiff local opposition since its inception. Park proponents say it could aid the region that has seen its lumber industry struggle and its population drop over the past 20 years.

Like Longley, the other Democratic contenders, Maine Senate President Michael Michaud of East Millinocket, state Sen. John Nutting of Leeds, and former state Sen. Sean Faircloth of Bangor, also called for a review of the now expired softwood lumber purchasing agreement with Canada.

U.S. and Canadian lumber industries have battled over prices for decades, with the Bush administration most recently imposing two tariffs on Canadian softwood lumber after finding Canada was dumping its wood on the United States at artificially low prices.

U.S. firms claim Canadian lumber producers enjoy an unfair advantage over American firms because the Canadian government charges its timber harvesters little or nothing to cut trees on land owned by the Canadian government.

Canadian companies, however, counter that they don’t enjoy any advantages over their U.S. counterparts and the imposition of any tariff or surcharge on Canadian goods run counter to the rules of the North American Free Trade Agreement. Canadian lumber is sold more cheaply than U.S. lumber, Canadian officials say, because Canadian mills are more efficient.

At Thursday’s forum, candidates also discussed issues including enhancing transportation routes in the state and studying the Endangered Species Act’s impact on the forestry industry.

The two remaining Democratic contenders, former Lewiston Mayor Kaileigh Tara and former U.S. foreign assistance officer David Costello, were unable to attend the forum, according to a Maine Forest Products Council spokesman.