5,000 petitions submitted against Plum Creek plan

One of Maine’s largest environmental advocacy groups submitted 5,000 petitions to the Land Use Regulation Commission on Wednesday opposing Plum Creek Timber Co.’s plans for the Moosehead Lake region.

The petitions – the largest batch ever submitted to LURC on a single issue – were in response to mailings sent out by the Natural Resources Council of Maine. About three-fourths of the comments were from Maine residents.

During a news conference in LURC’s office building in Augusta, NRCM executive director Brownie Carson delivered the piles of petitions to LURC staff and called on Plum Creek to be more forthcoming about its latest development plans around Moosehead.

The Seattle-based timber and land holdings company is seeking to rezone 426,000 acres around the lake, roughly 9,000 of which would be developed for resorts, house lots, sporting camps and campgrounds. Of the total, at least 382,000 acres would be set aside to prevent development for 30 years.

Plum Creek is revising those plans in response to concerns raised by citizens, government officials and interest groups. Carson said he knows “absolutely no details” of the revisions but said the petitions underscore concerns about the general proposal.

“I think giving the petitions to LURC today is putting an exclamation point on the opinions being expressed throughout Maine,” Carson said.

Jim Lehner, general manager of Plum Creek’s northeast division, said the company hopes to present the revisions to LURC by early to mid-March.

He declined to provide specifics on the revisions, but said the company is looking to cluster more of the house lots closer to Greenville or existing development and place more land in permanent conservation. He said the company is also considering relocating one resort to Moose Mountain.

Lehner said the petitions presented Wednesday were in response to the company’s old plan, which he called “no longer relevant.”

“We have listened to the opinions of Maine people and have listened to a variety of different Maine groups, not just NRCM but a lot of different groups,” Lehner said.