Baldacci names members to new Allagash panel

Gov. John Baldacci recently announced the membership of a new advisory council charged with helping calm the politically tumultuous waters surrounding the Allagash Wilderness Waterway.

Last winter, a task force on the Allagash recommended that the governor create a seven-member advisory council that will work with staff in the Department of Conservation to develop and implement long-range, strategic plans for the scenic waterway.

The purpose of the advisory council is also to provide additional oversight of waterway management and be more responsive to the public in order to quell some of the long-standing disputes over access to and use of the Allagash.

Three members of last year’s task force also will serve on the newly formed Allagash Wilderness Waterway Advisory Council.

They are: Don Nicoll, a longtime Allagash user and former chief of staff to the late U.S. Sen. Edmund Muskie, who will represent the general public; Anthony Hourihan, regional manager of Irving Woodlands in Maine, representing commercial landowners; and Don Hudson, president of the Chewonki Foundation, representing wilderness recreation interests.

The other members of the panel named so far are: Dick Walters of Trout Unlimited, representing fisheries and wildlife conservation interests; Don Cyr of Mount Carmel Historical Society, representing cultural and historic preservation interests; and Janet McMahon, an ecologist with experience in natural resources planning and management.

The seventh and final member will be appointed by the National Park Service, which has a role in managing the Allagash because of its status as a federally recognized wild and scenic river.

“The Allagash is a great state treasure,” Baldacci said in a statement. “It is our duty to preserve and protect it for future generations. I am certain that the advisory council will open a new chapter of cooperation in our ongoing efforts to strengthen the waterway.”

The council is also expected to review some of the other recommendations of the earlier task force, including the creation of a waterway superintendent position.

Legislation creating the advisory council also established a dedicated fund known as the “Allagash Wilderness Waterway Permanent Endowment Fund” to accept money and gifts in trust for capital and other projects in the waterway. The bill, LD 1419, also elevated the Allagash to its own separate section within the Bureau of Parks and Lands.