Baxter to open despite snow, ice Some roads, trails will be impassable until June

MILLINOCKET ? Snow is still blocking the trails that ascend Mount Katahdin, there’s ice on Chimney Pond, and some campgrounds are inaccessible after heavy spring runoff.

Never mind that. Baxter State Park will open for business, as scheduled, on Sunday.

“I think some of the [recent] rainstorms down here have been snow up there,” park Director Irvin “Buzz” Caverly told members of the Baxter State Park Authority on Friday.

Spring is perhaps a week or 10 days late, forcing the park to open campgrounds at South Branch Pond, Roaring Brook and Nesowdnehunk Field later than scheduled because of impassable roads. And only Abol Trail has the potential to offer a Katahdin climb by Memorial Day weekend, Caverly said.

Park staff have been working to clear roads of debris ? in one case, an entire tree ? and fill the potholes and ditches caused by runoff.

There has been a “very small window of time to get the work done,” said Jensen Bissell, the park’s resource manager.

“I very much doubt we’ll be able to travel completely through the park until June,” said Chief Ranger Chris Drew.

Income from gate fees has declined despite recent raises. In fact, the number of visitors to Baxter State Park has been on a slow, steady decline since the mid-1990s. In the past five years, visitor totals have decreased by 15 percent, said Heather Haskell, of the park’s staff.

Other outdoor destinations, including Acadia National Park, the paper company lands managed by North Maine Woods Inc. and the state’s parks and public lands have seen similar decreases, said audience members from

the various organizations.

Haskell has been researching the trend and points to a combination of factors, including rising gasoline prices, fear of terrorism and a shift toward “soft adventure” trips that combine outdoor activities with luxury

lodging. Maine’s aging population and the nationwide increase in obesity likely also play a role, she said.

Authority members Attorney General G. Steven Rowe, state Inland Fisheries and Wildlife Commissioner Roland “Danny” Martin and Maine Forest Service Chief Alec Giffen also reviewed the park’s 2006 budget this week.

The $3 million plan relies slightly more on the park’s investments than in previous years, due to increasing health care and fuel costs and decreasing revenues.

“It’s conservative, but I think the key word is adequate,” Rowe said of the budget.

Baxter’s cabins and scenic campsites remain in high demand, however. And the rolling reservation system being tested this year is proving to be a good tool to distribute the limited sites fairly, said Paul Labbe of Portland, a member of the Baxter Authority’s advisory group, and leader of the committee that designed the rolling reservation system.

An allotted 20 percent of slots available on the scaled-back opening day, Jan. 18, were easily filled, and the process of reserving a site three months in advance had worked smoothly since then, he said.

“I’ve actually had people stop me down in the Portland area to tell me they were able to mail or call in and get reservations for the first time ever,” Labbe said.

In other business, Charlie Jacobi of Friends of Baxter State Park informed authority members that his group’s effort to consolidate all known documents regarding the creation and management of the park is complete.

The result is a four-volume, 1,400-page book including the deeds of trust written by the late Percival Baxter, founder of the park and former Maine governor, as well as speeches, personal correspondence, legislation and court decisions regarding the park.

Howard Whitcomb, emeritus professor of political science at Lehigh University, spent three years producing the book.

“It doesn’t include every last little bit of what the governor wrote or said, but I think it’s as close as we’re going to come for now,” Jacobi said.

Fourteen copies of the book will be distributed to libraries and archives around the state, and an electronic version may eventually be made available online.

The first copy of the book, titled “Percival P. Baxter’s Vision for Baxter State Park,” will be presented to Gov. John Baldacci in a ceremony scheduled for 1 p.m. Tuesday, May 31, in the State House Hall of Flags in Augusta.