Allagash management compromise proposed

MILLINOCKET – Conservation Commissioner Pat McGowan says he’s brokered a peace deal on management of the Allagash Wilderness Waterway, including a compromise on the contentious proposal to build an official canoe launch at John’s Bridge.

This weekend, 22 “stakeholders,” including residents of Allagash village, canoe guides, fishermen, legislators and environmentalists – a group that claimed 580 collective years of experience on the river – were invited to participate in a two-day retreat.

Though the meeting was technically public, and members of the news media were present, it was not advertised and no uninvited guests participated.

For the first time in recent memory, participants, who seemed unusually in agreement, unanimously supported a detailed list of draft recommendations – a blueprint for the future of the Allagash.

McGowan, however, would not allow the list to be released until it is considered by the Allagash Advisory Council at its meeting Tuesday afternoon.

Last year, the council, a citizen group of governor-appointed members from throughout the state, held its own five-day retreat. Some progress was made, but a great deal of time was spent debating past mistakes.

Early Saturday, the stakeholder group decided to overlook lingering questions about the propriety of the waterway’s creation or the intentions of its creators and focus solely on management.

“We can dig up bones for years, but I think we should move forward,” McGowan said.

Participants shared their fond memories of the waterway, seeking common ground, but finally got down to serious debate and stark honesty on Friday afternoon.

“It’s the people … and the things they take with them that are the perceived blight. It’s not really about access points at all. It’s about people, and how we’re all stepping on each other’s toes,” Dave Soucy, a lawyer from Fort Kent, said

All agreed that the Allagash isn’t true wilderness, not the sort of primeval land imagined in the National Wild and Scenic Rivers Act. Though the Allagash has been designated a wild river, it’s an anachronism, with several dams and a whole lot of cultural history.

Several participants suggested adding this cultural component to the Allagash experience, perhaps by reconstructing some of the historic buildings at the Michaud Farm visitors center.

The participants, however, also agreed on the value of preserving and enhancing what “wild character” the river does have. A memorandum of agreement signed last year between the state and the National Park Service legally binds waterway managers to this objective.

The group spoke of adding new campsites or planting trees to counteract erosion and better screen tents and picnic tables from boats on the river.

They also looked to technology to provide a better accounting of the river’s use, and better management of people based on that data, perhaps with a reservation system or limits on commercial users. A comprehensive survey of the river’s users already is planned for this summer, waterway manager Marilyn Tourtelotte said.

And they finally got down to considering the fate of specific access sites. Last year, the council found that 31 different sites, including tributaries and walking trails, were used to put boats in the river, with seven official, year-round vehicle access points.

Some have advocated as few as two sites, while others believe access should be unlimited. Compromise came in the form of a promise of no net increase in access points. New points, such as John’s Bridge, may be created, but in exchange, others must be given up.

Still, the “River Drivers Agreement” was unanimously supported by the likes of the Natural Resources Council of Maine, the Sportsman’s Alliance of Maine, historian and guide Dean Bennett, and lifetime resident Gary Pelletier.

The Allagash Advisory Council will meet from 1 to 5 p.m. Tuesday, May 13 at the Ramada Inn in Bangor.