Volunteers dedicate time, lives to Plum Creek review

AUGUSTA – Chris Smith is not a lawyer, and neither are any of the other like-minded individuals behind the group called Native Forest Network-Gulf of Maine.

But since the first week of December, Smith and her colleagues have played the part of pro bono lawyers as they cross-examined witnesses testifying in support of Plum Creek’s development plan.

The Native Forest Network members – all of them volunteers – grilled Plum Creek officials and their experts on the potential environmental impacts of the company’s housing and resort plan for the Moosehead Lake region.

“This proves to me I can have a voice in the process without having a law degree,” said Smith, a 27-year-old Sangerville resident who quit her job to attend the Plum Creek hearings.

The Land Use Regulation Commission heard about 200 hours of testimony on Plum Creek’s controversial plan for 975 house lots and two resorts in the Moosehead region.

The vast majority of that time was spent during four weeks of technical hearings attended by dozens of officially recognized intervening parties. The technical hearings typically ran from 8 or 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. or later, Monday through Friday.

Intervenors ran the gamut from environmental groups such as the Natural Resources Council of Maine and Maine Audubon to those with a pro-business bend, like the Maine State Chamber of Commerce and the Coalition to Preserve and Grow Northern Maine.

Most intervening groups were represented by lawyers, legal advisers or paid staff. But a handful were represented by volunteers willing to give up a day, a week and, in a few cases, an entire month sitting through a regulatory review.

The Moosehead Region Futures Committee, another group that has been critical of Plum Creek’s development plan, had at least three representatives at all 18 technical hearings. The committee, which has a core group of about 10 people from the Moosehead area, was formed in 2005 in response to Plum Creek’s first development plan for the region.

Group president Jim Glavine said the 200 or so hours spent at the technical hearings pales in comparison to the time members spent studying Plum Creek’s plan, gathering feedback and preparing written testimony for LURC.

The committee paid one member about 10 hours per week, but she regularly put in a 40-hour week or more, Glavine said. All other members, including Glavine, were volunteers.

“I guess we would have to say when we took the job that we knew it was going to take some time,” said Glavine, who runs an Internet-based business out of his Beaver Cove home. “But the degree that was necessary really exceeded anything that we anticipated.”

Glavine estimated that representatives of the Moosehead Region Futures Committee cross-examined 90 percent of the panels during the technical hearings, while some members were cross-examined themselves as panelists.

Most members had never participated in a regulatory review process before – much less one this large.

“It was exciting and fun and, in the end, I know that we all feel like we made a contribution,” Glavine said.

Both the Moosehead Futures group and Native Forest Network raised issues that were explored further by the full commission. And while not all of the groups’ lines of questioning were allowed by the commission, they appeared to grow more comfortable with the process as the hearings progressed.

Like many Native Forest Network members, Aaron Kniseley of Portland stayed with friends in the area so he could attend the hearings. And he plans to stay involved as the review moves forward.

“People have made it a priority enough to move their lives around to be here,” Kniseley said.

kmiller@bangordailynews.net

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