Legislators to hear Baxter debate Monday

State lawmakers will hear debate Monday on a proposed land deal to add Katahdin Lake and the surrounding 6,000 acres to Baxter State Park and whether the pristine property should be off-limits to hunters and snowmobilers.

The Legislature’s Committee on Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry probably won’t hear too many arguments against annexing the land to the park.

Most of Maine’s major organizations that have anything to do with the outdoors – whether its members are hikers, hunters, ATV riders or foresters – have come out in support of finally achieving former Gov. Percival Baxter’s dream of including the lake property in the park that he created.

Committee members will, however, hear passionate arguments for whether the land should be managed similar to Baxter State Park, which prohibits hunting and mechanized recreation in most areas, or should remain open to all activities.

“I think all of us want to support this, but there are absolutely no compelling reasons out there to deny the traditional uses that are taking place on this land,” said Bob Meyers, executive director of the Maine Snowmobile Association.

Monday’s public hearing, which will begin at 9:30 a.m. in the Capital Pine Tree Room of the Augusta Civic Center, focuses on a bill, LD 2015, authorizing the Bureau of Parks and Lands to sell off roughly 7,400 acres of state-managed forests.

Two-thirds of the Legislature must approve the sale of the various public lots as the first step in a series of land transactions negotiated with the Trust for Public Land and a Lincoln-based timber company, Gardner Land Co.

The Gardner family has agreed to trade the 6,015-acre Katahdin Lake parcel for roughly 21,400 acres of working forest elsewhere in the state. The land trust, in turn, is seeking to raise $14 million to purchase the 21,000 acres, acting as a “middleman” between the state and the Gardners.

But in the month since state officials announced the land deal, a number of groups have criticized the proposal to prohibit hunting, trapping, snowmobiles and ATVs on the land.

The Sportsman’s Alliance of Maine and Meyer’s snowmobile group have been lobbying committee members to amend the bill to require such “traditional uses” be allowed near Katahdin Lake. Both groups are lining up members to attend Monday’s hearing.

Millinocket officials also expressed concern earlier this week about the loss of hunting and snowmobiling land, although they voted to support the land transaction.

Groups hoping to keep the land deal as-is are also expected to be well represented.

Charlie Jacobi, president of Friends of Baxter State Park, said Maine has millions of acres of forests where hunting, trapping and snowmobiling are permitted. Members of his group want to see Katahdin Lake preserved as a place where people can find peace and quiet, he said.

Jacobi is also concerned that some donors to the Trust for Public Land’s campaign will back out if hunting and trapping are required on the property.

“Six thousand acres is a small piece of the Maine woods,” Jacobi said Friday.

Those sentiments were echoed earlier this week by Patrick McGowan, the commissioner of the Maine Department of Conservation.

While a guest lecturer at the University of Maine, McGowan called the Katahdin Lake property “pretty lousy” hunting land. He predicted that hunters would actually benefit from the deal because the state will use the $5.5 million it will receive from the public lots to purchase additional land, which will remain open to traditional uses.

“What we want is to give the Baxter State Park Authority a clean deed without any provisions on it so that they can make a decision” on uses of the land, McGowan said.

One of the co-chairmen of the legislative committee, Rep. John Piotti, said he was optimistic that the lawmakers could reach a compromise agreeable to most parties. Piotti, a Democrat from Unity, said he expected a full house at Monday’s meeting.

“I think this is a situation where a lot of the details have to be worked out,” Piotti said. “Any time you deal with issues in the North Woods, you have history, there’s emotion, there are personalities and it’s going to take a while for the committee to sort that out.”