The work of a recently formed committee on the Allagash Wilderness Waterway has been made more difficult – perhaps impossible – by the actions of two northern Maine lawmakers. Sen. John Martin and Rep. Troy Jackson used a bulldozer to reopen a road on the waterway that was closed as part of an agreement to settle access and management issues on the river. This unnecessarily reignites controversy that the state has long been trying to resolve and sets back any future agreements on the waterway’s future.

In 2003, a group that included lawmakers, northern Maine residents, guides and environmentalists signed the “River Drivers Agreement” that detailed where the waterway could be accessed by vehicle. The agreement says that the road south of Ramsey Ledge, near the northern end of the Allagash, was to be retired, subject to landowner approval.

The signatures of both lawmakers appear at the end of the document although they and other members of the negotiating group from northern Maine say they signed a blank piece of paper and did not agree to all the term of the River Drivers Agreement. The landowner, Irving Woodlands gave the state permission to close the road, known as the Old Michaud Farm Road, and ditches were dug across it.

On July 4, Rep. Jackson and Sen. Martin showed up with a bulldozer and filled in the ditches and cut trees to re-open the road. Irving’s manager gave the pair permission to re-open the road without consulting with waterway management or the Department of Conservation. Because the Allagash is part of the national Wild and Scenic River program, there are restrictions on what can happen on the private land next to the waterway.

Gov. John Baldacci refused to sign legislation sponsored by Sen. Martin and passed by the House and Senate that mandates the state maintain 11 access points to the river and requires legislative review of the waterway’s management; it became law without his signature. He instead set up an advisory committee on the future of the waterway’s management.

Access and the number of roads in the waterway would not doubt be part of the group’s discussion. The committee now appears useless because any of its recommendations can be undone by a lawmaker with heavy machinery.

Sen. Martin, a member of the governor’s committee, says he is concerned that the number of people visiting the Allagash declined 60 percent in four years. This is a good cause for concern, but unilaterally opening roads doesn’t diminish the notion that the waterway is not worth visiting because of the controversy over its management.

The lawmakers have also put the Department of Conservation into an impossible situation. If it finds that Sen. Martin and Rep. Jackson violated waterway rules, their supporters will say this just shows that the rules are made to exclude northern Maine residents from the waterway. If they department does not punish the pair, advocates for a more restrictive waterway will cry foul.

A solution is to create an independent body, like the Baxter State Park Authority, to oversee the Allagash. Using the River Drivers Agreement as a framework, it could write a final, detailed list of access points and bridges that should then be written into statute. Then, there would be no question about what roads should be opened and what ones should remain closed.