AUGUSTA – Rep. Henry Joy might as well have said “just kidding” Monday to several conservationists who turned out to oppose his bill allowing the state to annex federal land.

The Aroostook County Republican, who is also sponsoring legislation that would divide Maine into two states, is fond of pursuing controversial measures that are sometimes more likely to raise eyebrows than become law.

As some suspected, a segment of Joy’s bill, LD 73, requiring the state to take over the operation of Acadia National Park and other federal properties turned out to be nothing more than a publicity gimmick. During a public hearing on the measure before the Legislature’s State and Local Government Committee, Joy told the panel that even though he had included the language, he did not seriously believe his bill would prompt the state to take over federal properties in Maine.

“I never intended to go through with Section 3 which requires the state to (take back federal lands),” Joy told the committee. “However, it was the only way that I was going to get enough attention focused on this bill to realize the plight of the people who live up in my towns – people who are scheduled to have their towns depopulated.”

In northern and western Maine, those who support Joy’s point of view use phrases such as “rural cleansing” and “depopulated” interchangeably when reacting to discussion of a vast federally regulated northern Maine wilderness park. While Sue Inches, deputy director of the Maine State Planning Office, maintains there are no solid proposals before the state or federal governments aimed at creating a sprawling conservation district encompassing millions of acres, Joy remains less than reassured.

Vigorous discussions of a Maine Woods National Park continue to make headlines, he argued. The plan is advanced by groups such as RESTORE: The North Woods and conservation lightning rods like Roxanne Quimby, the millionaire co-founder of Burt’s Bees who has purchased an entire northern Maine township to protect it from further development or timber harvesting.

Joy is locked in a philosophical fight to the finish with Quimby and others who envision a Maine woods devoid of the roar of chain saws and the crack of hunting rifles. Both sounds are inextricably linked to a way of life cherished by Joy and his neighbors.

“We have a group of people and organizations who are working nonstop to create a national park in northern and western Maine,” Joy told the committee. “This is being done in complete disregard for the feelings and livelihood of the residents of the area and those who live in close proximity to the area being selected for a park.”

Once he had struck from his measure the provision that transferred federal property, excluding military facilities, to the state, all that was essentially left in Joy’s bill was a section requiring legislative consent before a North Woods National Park could be established.

The fact that they were no longer targeted under the proposed legislation did not stop the bill’s opponents from speaking out against the legislation since some had driven long distances to attend the hearing.

“I was actually going to speak a lot about concerns our members have expressed to us about any efforts to reduce protections at special places like Acadia National Park,” said Karen Woodsum, of the Maine chapter of the Sierra Club. “But it sounds to me like that was never intended to be a serious part of this legislation.”

Other opponents included Friends of Acadia, the State Planning Office and the Nature Conservancy. The committee has scheduled a work session on the bill for Jan. 31.