Vandals strike Plum Creek headquarters

FAIRFIELD – Vandals targeted the offices of a land management company that is proposing the largest development ever in the North Woods hours before 20 demonstrators gathered Tuesday to show their opposition to the proposal.

Workers arrived at Plum Creek’s state headquarters to discover someone had cut down the large sign in front of the building. Also, there were spray-painted messages including “Leave Our Land” and “Maine Is Not For Sale.”

Seattle-based Plum Creek announced its development intentions for the Moosehead Lake region in December. As outlined in April, the project would include 975 house lots, four sporting camps, two resorts and a golf course.

About 20 demonstrators who gathered outside the building Tuesday morning denied having anything to do with the vandalism. But they had plenty to say about the development on one of the last wilderness areas in the Northeast.

The group displayed a giant check made out to Earth First!, mocking the development they think will become a retreat for wealthy out-of-staters, said Hillary Lister, editor of The Maine Commons quarterly, speaking for the protesters.

“We see Greenville being more of a Kennebunkport or a Boothbay Harbor in the future if this happens,” Jim Freeman of Earth First! told WLBZ-TV in Bangor.

The project is the largest subdivision ever proposed in the 10.5 million acres of unorganized territory that the Maine Land Use Regulation Commission oversees.

Paul Davis, Plum Creek’s senior resource manager for the northeast region, said the plans for the company’s Gateway Lands limits development in the state’s pristine woods and lakes.

As part of the plan, Plum Creek proposed setting aside roughly 382,000 of the 426,000 acres as working forestland. The land will be zoned for forest management, creating a working forest without development, Davis said.

As for Tuesday’s demonstration and acts of vandalism, Fairfield Police Chief John Emery said an investigator was assigned to the case.

“There are no arrests; we don’t know who did it,” Emery said. “It was obviously done sometime during the night, and it apparently was very well planned.”