What’s the big rush with Allagash access?

Smack dab in the middle of the process to revise the state’s management plan for the Allagash Wilderness Waterway in order to bring it into compliance with state and federal law, the outgoing Gov. King administration has decided to submit an application for a new access point at John’s Bridge. The state’s plan to move forward unilaterally threatens the entire management plan review process.

Last February, as a result of building a concrete dam in the Allagash Wilderness Waterway without applying for, or obtaining, a permit, the state agreed to a two-year review of the Allagash Wilderness Waterway management plan. The purpose of the review is to incorporate the intent of the federal Wild and Scenic Rivers Act into the plan. The most important issue to address is the number of motor vehicle access points.

In order to be consistent with the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act, the Allagash must be “generally inaccessible except by trail.” The law protecting the Allagash 30 years ago provided that there could be two or possibly three motor vehicle access points. Today there are more like a dozen.

Last year, the state promised that the review process to bring the river back into compliance with the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act would involve both the Allagash Advisory Council and the public. The council has met several times to discuss access in the waterway.

I serve on that council. We have agreed on a few proposed changes. But we haven’t finished our work. There are additional ideas that have not been fully explored. And the Council needs to go out on the waterway to see how some of the proposed ideas would work on the ground. The council has not agreed on a full access plan for the waterway. Perhaps most importantly, we have not yet even considered whether the proposed changes would bring the access plan for the Allagash into compliance with the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act. That, after all, was our charge.

So, the Allagash Advisory Council’s work is only partly completed. And so far, the public has had no chance whatsoever to comment on the Council’s work or to offer its comments on what changes are needed to bring the Allagash back into compliance with the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act. Yet, with the council’s work only partly done, and the public still frozen out of the process, the administration wants to short circuit a process that is expected to last another year and three months.

By moving forward now, to propose a new access point at John’s Bridge without agreement among Council members, the administration is polarizing the entire management plan review process and setting the debate on the Allagash back three years. Instead of fully exploring whether there is an access plan that will bring the river into compliance with the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act, the state is once again ignoring the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act and inviting further controversy over management of the river.

By moving forward with an application for a new access point, the Bureau of Parks and Lands is trying to force the Land Use Regulation Commission, the agency responsible for granting or denying the application, to look at access in the Allagash Wilderness Waterway piecemeal, without knowing what the full access plan is. No one has provided a compelling reason why the state can not complete the management plan review process and incorporate the intent of the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act as laid out in the agreement it signed just nine months ago before proposing a new access point. What is the big rush?

Catherine B. Johnson is North Woods Projects Director for the Natural Resources Council of Maine.