DON’T LOSE KATAHDIN LAKE

A great opportunity to fulfill Gov. Percival Baxter’s vision by adding a key parcel to the park he created appears to be unraveling in Augusta. While it is unfortunate that sportsmen have convinced many lawmakers to oppose the deal, further compromise may be necessary to complete the complex land transaction.

State officials announced in January that they had reached agreement with a logging company to buy and swap land to add Katahdin Lake and surrounding land to Baxter State Park. The 6,000 acres, including the lake which offers stunning views of Mount Katahdin, was the last parcel that Gov. Baxter intended to add to the park he created.

The deal is complex because the company that owns the Katahdin Lake parcel does not want money for the land. Instead, the company wants other land – with good quality trees – so that its woods and mill employees can keep working.

But this means the state must sell some of its holdings, something that requires two-thirds approval of the Legislature. The Trust for Public Land has already spent $7.5 million to buy land that will be given to the Gardner Land Co. and it will spend another $5.5 million buying state-owned land that will also be given to the Lincoln company in exchange for the Katahdin Lake parcel. The California group is raising private funds to cover these expenses.

The state must buy other land in the same counties to make up for what was sold. The Department of Conservation has already worked with hunters, pledging to seek out land that is good for hunting because the Baxter State Park Authority has said that the Katahdin Lake parcel will be managed as sanctuary land, which means hunting and motorized access will be banned. They say this is in accordance with Gov. Baxter’s plans.

Because lawmakers must approve the public land sale, sportsmen have unusual leverage over the deal. They have convinced several lawmakers to oppose the deal if hunting, snowmobiling and ATV use are not allowed around Katahdin Lake.

Adding the lake parcel to Baxter State Park is a rare opportunity to forever protect valuable land and to fulfill Gov. Baxter’s vision. That opportunity cannot be lost to a small, but powerful, group. A possible compromise would be to allow hunting on a quarter of the Katahdin Lake parcel since hunting is allowed in a quarter of the park.

Even better would be for the state to buy easily accessible land close by hunting and motorized vehicle use. Local residents could help pick the land to buy. Katahdin Lake is not easily accessible so few people go there now. Allowing hunting on land that is easier to get to in the same area should satisfy local concerns.

Sportsmen should accept such a compromise – rather than holding out for unlimited access to the entire Katahdin Lake parcel – just as conservationists accepted that state land containing old growth timber is part of the land swap and that an existing sporting camp will be given an unusually long lease to remain on the land.

The Department of Conservation negotiated a good deal that already includes special provisions for hunters. If lawmakers believe this is not enough, they must improve, not kill, the package. If this transaction doesn’t happen, it is only a matter of time before the land is sold for development. There will be no hunting access then.