Surviving Scrutiny

Among all the congratulatory speeches yesterday about the completion of part of the West Branch land preservation project, there wasn’t much talk about the change in mindsets necessary to complete the deal to protect land stretching from the West Branch of the Penobscot River to the Canadian border.

Most important, there was the change in attitude among local residents. In the early days of the project – it has been under way for nearly four years – a forum was held in Greenville to discuss land conservation. Participants, including the commissioner of conservation and a representative of the Forest Society of Maine, the group behind the West Branch project, were peppered with criticism for wanting to put land out of reach to local loggers and recreation enthusiasts. Despite protests from the speakers that this was not their intent, the audience was not convinced.

So, it seems surprising that years later, the town manager of Greenville, an organizer of the lively forum, is quoted in a Forest Society press release with nothing but high praise for the West Branch deal. “This is a great day for Greenville, where nearly all the businesses depend upon timber harvesting and recreational activities enjoyed on the West Branch to survive,” said John Simko, the town manager. “Conservation of these lands will go far to protect the economic and cultural interests of our community.”

This conversion came about because groups such as the Forest Society showed that preserving land for recreational uses can be compatible with continued timber harvesting (this shouldn’t be surprising because that is the current situation in the north woods). Now such deals are commonplace and often praised by local residents and officials.

The second, and not as complete, conversion came on the side of those negotiating this deal, which includes the state purchase of 47,000 acres of land surrounding Seboomook Lake, Baker Lake and the St. John River headwater ponds. Early on, the Forest Society, the land’s managers and owners (one of which was reported to be Yale University) fought to keep every aspect of the deal secret, despite the fact that more than $20 million in public funds have been devoted to it. It took the filing of numerous Freedom of Information Act requests by Jym St. Pierre of RESTORE: The North Woods before aspects of the massive deal became public. One of the documents that became public was a scathing memo from an assistant attorney general who wrote that the easement, among its many weaknesses, favored the landowners’ interest over those of the state, which at that time was going to hold the easement.

The positive fallout from the memo was that the easement was strengthened, such as by requiring a forest management plan for the next 30 years and making provisions for easement monitoring. However, the entire deal was then restructured so that the easement would now be held by a private entity, the Forest Society, and no longer subject to public scrutiny.

Many have pointed to the deal as a model of conservation, involving public and private entities to preserve working forests, favored recreation areas and important landscapes. If it is truly a model, there are important lessons to be learned about sharing the details of such endeavors with the public, especially if it is paying part of the bill. Such scrutiny is not only necessary but beneficial.