An Allagash Wilderness Waterway advisory council will provide a needed forum for airing, and in some instances resolving disagreements while allowing the waterway to be managed without the distractions and delays caused by trying to accommodate differing views of how the 92-mile river should be run.

Earlier this year, a working group created by the governor to seek ways to calm the controversy surrounding the waterway’s management recommended that an advisory council be created. The group would hear public concerns and recommend ways for addressing them to the Allagash’s superintendent.

This is the centerpiece of LD 1419, a bill sponsored by Sen. John Martin, D-Eagle Lake, that would make the council and some other recommendations reality. A public hearing before the Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry Committee is scheduled for Wednesday.

There have been advisory councils and stakeholder groups for the Allagash before. However, they all included waterway managers or Department of Conservation officials, which meant policy decisions became paralyzed by disagreement among the group’s other members. By separating the advisory council from the waterway’s management, its day-to-day operations won’t be hampered by deliberations on issues such as how many access points there should be or what bridges should be repaired. It also has the advantage of removing the Department of Conservation and governor as scapegoats for unpopular decisions on the Allagash.

Appointing advisory council members who do not represent groups on one side or the other of the Allagash debate is key to ensuring it is a help rather than a hindrance. A past advisory committee tried to balance wilderness advocates against the interests of timber companies and Allagash area residents. Most meetings were spent arguing without progress. That group’s significant accomplishment – an agreement on access and management – ultimately collapsed and was superseded by legislation that is now being challenged in court.

Other recommendations that are included in LD 1419, such as boosting the Allagash’s status by making it a special region with the Bureau of Parks and Lands, are premature. The first step is to create the advisory committee. If it works well, other changes may not be necessary.

The Allagash working group’s report makes it clear that such a council won’t end controversy. Creating a forum of debate and discussion, away from the waterway’s day-to-day management, will help ensure that the waterway does not remain bogged down in endless debate over what it is supposed to be.