ECOTOURISM PLANNING

For years, Mainers have been told that ecotourism will play a growing role in the state’s economy. Now, with major development planned around Moosehead Lake, decisions need to be made about what ecotourism is and how it fits with the local and statewide economy.

To clarify the situation, the state needs to quickly assess what resources – lakes, mountains, moose – are the most important in bringing visitors and new residents to the region. It must then decide how best to protect and capitalize on those resources. Some of this work is under way, but it has taken on new urgency after Plum Creek Timber Co. earlier this year announced plans for development, including two resorts, hundreds of house lots, campgrounds and trails, on nearly 500,000 acres it owns in central Maine.

The director of the Land Use Regulation Commission, the planning board for the state’s Unorganized Territories, believes her agency has the massive Plum Creek proposal well in hand. While this is the biggest project LURC has reviewed, Catherine Carroll notes that the agency has evaluated such plans for 30 years. A key aspect of their review is consistency, so a major question that must be answered while the Plum Creek plan is evaluated is whether it is consistent with development that already exists in the area and with what local residents see as the future of their communities.

To better gauge the latter, LURC will hold several meetings in the Moosehead Lake region to collect public input because LURC commissioners want to know what local residents and landowners envision for the future of the area. If Plum Creek’s plan does not mesh what that vision, the company will be asked to change it. Ms. Carroll stresses that this is a usual part of the LURC process and that the Plum Creek project, despite its size, will undergo the same scrutiny as all other such plans.

While this may be reassuring, there is work to be done on a larger scale. The governor has talked about the importance of ecotourism to Maine’s future and conferences have been held on the topic, but the state has no coherent strategy for boosting this not-so-new form of tourism. Private groups have protected forest land and islands from development. State colleges and universities have developed tourism-related curricula. More effort has been made to market Maine as an outdoor destination. These are all good initiatives, but they lack coherence.

Who is Maine trying to attract? Hunters, fishermen, golfers, kayakers, wildlife watchers? All of them? If so, how is that possible? Recent studies and statistics show that outdoor tourism is changing. Maine must make sure it is adapting as well.

Camping, for example, is becoming less popular. In the last decade, the number of people camping at Acadia National Park has dropped 22 percent. Visits to the park also dropped 15 percent between 1999 and 2004. Visits to Baxter State Park, the Allagash Wilderness Waterway and the North Maine Woods have also declined. Those who do come are staying for shorter periods. People are still enjoying the outdoors, but they are staying in nice hotels or using recreational vehicles.

These are changes that Maine must not only be aware of, but plan for.