House OKs plans for Baxter, Allagash

AUGUSTA – House lawmakers voted to intervene in the decades-old fight over the Allagash Wilderness Waterway on Tuesday by approving a bill sought by local residents frustrated by limited access points to the scenic river.

Legislators also gave preliminary approval to a compromise that would add Katahdin Lake to Baxter State Park but still permit hunting and snowmobiling in nearby forests.

After weeks of committee work and behind-the-scenes negotiations, the full House got its first chance Tuesday to debate and vote on the two issues that have heated up what some believe is a cultural war over northern Maine’s natural resources.

House members voted 100-43 after considerable debate to approve a bill that rewrites parts of the state’s management plan for the Allagash Wilderness Waterway, a 92-mile corridor of rivers and lakes that is part of the National Wild and Scenic River system.

The bill, which now heads to the Senate for consideration, was the latest skirmish in a battle over management of the Allagash that has flared off and on since the river was designated a protected waterway 40 years ago.

Local residents accused the state of working in concert with conservation groups to stop them from recreating on a river in their backyard.

“I just want to be able to use the water and show my kids the same things my father and grandfather showed me,” said Rep. Troy Jackson, an Allagash Democrat.

Environmentalists and state officials, meanwhile, urged the Legislature not to meddle in management of the river but instead to respect hard-fought compromises negotiated with stakeholder groups.

The bill, LD 2077, requires the state to maintain nearly a dozen access points to the river to enable day use of the waterway. The measure also makes permanent a river crossing near Henderson Brook Bridge.

Rep. John Piotti, a Democrat from Unity who co-chairs the Committee on Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry, said the bill merely clarifies access points and bridge crossings to address legitimate concerns of local residents.

“We don’t like to micromanage, but in this case, sadly, we did not think there was an alternative,” Piotti said.

But critics contend that the legislation will undermine years of negotiations on the Allagash, including an agreement signed in 2003 that supposedly settled some long-standing disputes. Several signatories to the agreement have since withdrawn their support, claiming the state changed terms of the deal.

Rep. Ted Koffman, a Bar Harbor Democrat, said residents of his community do not always agree with management of Acadia National Park. But rather than run to Congress with their complaints and concerns, those residents turn to the local advisory committee, Koffman said.

“We make decisions locally,” he told his House colleagues.

Critics of the bill have said that mandating additional access sites and bridges runs counter to the river’s designation as a wild and scenic waterway and could lead to costly and time-consuming litigation.

House members also began debating the equally controversial proposal to swap more than 7,000 acres of state-owned forests as part of a deal to add Katahdin Lake to Baxter State Park.

In a preliminary vote, House members voted 115-29 in support of a compromise aimed at preserving the fragile land deal with a Lincoln-based timber company while winning the support of hunters and other sportsmen.

The House is expected to continue debating the issue today. The bill requires a two-thirds vote from the Legislature because it involves the sale of state lands.

The compromise splits the 6,015-acre parcel into two unequal parts.

The southern portion encompassing Katahdin Lake and 4,040 acres of largely untouched forestland would be added to Baxter State Park and likely managed as a wildlife sanctuary. Supporters argue that annexing the land into Baxter – and banning hunters from the property – would complete the late Gov. Percival Baxter’s original vision for the park he created around Mount Katahdin.

The remaining 1,975 acres to the north would not become part of Baxter but instead would be transferred to the Bureau of Parks and Lands. Under state management, the land would remain open to hunting, trapping, snowmobiles and ATVs.

A legislative committee settled on the compromise after dozens of hours of public hearings, informational sessions and private negotiations on the issue. The state’s largest hunting organization, the Sportsman’s Alliance of Maine, continues to criticize the bill.

Supporters of the measure have repeatedly called the deal, which is financed with private money, a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to acquire a piece of land that otherwise could be heavily harvested, developed or both.

“We have but one chance to seize the day,” Rep. Herbert Adams, a Portland Democrat who knew Baxter as a child, told his House colleagues. “We will not have a second.”