Katahdin Lake Compromise

Lawmakers have come up with a good way to complete a deal that will add prime land to Baxter State Park while also allowing hunting in the area. The best compromise being considered today by the Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry Committee is to divide the parcel in two with the area around Katahdin Lake to be managed as a wildlife sanctuary and the land farther north open to hunting.

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 original deal encompassed 6,000 acres, all of which the park authority intended to manage as sanctuary.

The deal is complex because the Gardner Land Co., the Lincoln company that owns the Katahdin Lake parcel, wants other land, not money, in exchange so its woods and mill employees can keep working. This means the state must sell some of its holdings, something that requires two-thirds approval of the Legislature.

Because lawmakers must approve the public land sale, sportsmen have unusual leverage over the deal and are holding out for more. The Sportsman’s Alliance of Maine convinced several lawmakers to oppose the deal if hunting, snowmobiling and ATV use are not allowed everywhere on the parcel.

Although the original deal, which includes $14 million in private fundraising, was a good one, it didn’t have enough legislative support. The best way to ensure it now moves forward is to divide the parcel in two, as eight members of the ACF committee supported last week. Gov. Percival Baxter intended to add about 4,000 acres around the lake, which offers stunning views of Mount Katahdin, to the park he created. This land should be added to the park and be managed as a sanctuary, as Gov. Baxter envisioned.

The remaining 2,000 acres, which stretches north to Wassataquoik Stream, could then be open to hunting. The debate then focuses on whether this parcel should be owned and managed by Baxter State Park or the Department of Conservation. The department has too few resources to manage the land it already owns, so adding to its burden is not a good choice. The park authority is also reluctant to take the land if it is open to hunting because the other areas of the park where hunting is allowed are far removed from Katahdin Lake. If the park owns the land, its prohibitions against moose hunting and bear baiting would also be in effect. The park authority and conservation department have talked about the possibility of the department owning the land and the authority managing it.

These are details that can be worked out as long as the larger deal moves forward.

Sportsmen, conservationists and state officials all say they agree that this parcel needs to be protected. Splitting the parcel in two, with stricter rules for the core Katahdin Lake parcel, while allowing hunting north of the lake is a reasonable compromise that achieves that larger goal.