HUNTING FOR ACCESS

The state’s effort to acquire land around Katahdin Lake, specifically a parcel north of the lake for hunters, has hit a snag, and hunting and snowmobiling advocates are suggesting that the whole arrangement should be reconsidered, even scuttled. This is premature and ill advised.

Early this year, the state reached agreement with a logging company to add land surrounding Katahdin Lake to Baxter State Park, fulfilling Gov. Baxter’s vision for the park. The original deal encompassed 6,000 acres, all of which the Baxter Park Authority intended to manage as sanctuary, which meant no hunting. It also included money to buy good hunting land elsewhere.

The Sportsman’s Alliance of Maine convinced several lawmakers to oppose the deal if hunting were not allowed everywhere on the parcel. A compromise was reached, with the southern 4,000 acres around the lake going to Baxter and 2,000 acres in the north to be managed by the Bureau of Parks and Lands for hunting and other recreational uses. This arrangement was approved by the Legislature this spring.

Earlier this month, the state learned that conservationist Roxanne Quimby had purchased 25,000 acres south of the Katahdin Lake parcel. She bought the land, says her science director Bart DeWolf, because she knew the state couldn’t and developers were eager to acquire it.

Because Ms. Quimby has forbidden motorized access on her other acreage, sportsmen believe this purchase will make it impossible to get to the new state land north of Katahdin Lake. Mr. DeWolf says no decisions will be made until the land’s resources are inventoried and a stewardship plan developed. In the meantime, things will remain as they are.

The current debate highlights two issues. First, the focus on the 2,000-acre parcel needs to be broadened to consider recreational opportunities in the Millinocket area. If more access is needed, it should be sought regionally, not just on the Quimby land, something the original deal contemplated and that the governor’s working group on the acquisition of land for multiple uses is now trying to accomplish.

Second, the state tried repeatedly to buy the land that Ms. Quimby acquired. Because Republican resistance to state borrowing has left the Land for Maine’s Future program with a fraction of the money needed to fund projects already under way, there was no state money for such a purchase. If Ms. Quimby had not stepped in and developers had bought the land, the access debate might have ended there. Now, at least, it is continuing.

The state now has an option to buy 8,000 acres next to Ms. Quimby’s land but doesn’t have the funds for this either. This land could be used for roads and trails to access the area near Katahdin Lake or, perhaps better, to initiate a swap with Ms. Quimby that could substantially increase the amount of land in the area for hunting and motorized recreation. Neither is a possibility if the state doesn’t own it.

Sportsmen must more actively encourage Republican lawmakers to support a large bond issue to replenish LMF or they should launch a private fundraising campaign like the conservation group Trust for Public Land did to complete the Katahdin Lake purchase.

Increasing access is a worthy goal. Criticizing private land deals or interfering with public ones won’t accomplish it.