Over the past four years, Plum Creek has doggedly pursued a massive development around Moosehead Lake. In late September, Maine’s Land Use Regulation Commission cast a preliminary vote in support of a revised plan, and Plum Creek has accepted the proposed changes. Although a final vote is still months away, now is a good time to review five lessons learned from the Plum Creek saga and consider their implications for the future.

Lesson One: Maine’s experience with Plum Creek has taught us that the new owners of Maine’s North Woods operate completely differently from the timber barons of the past. For most of the past 100 years, Maine’s vast forests were owned by companies such as Great Northern, International Paper and Boise Cascade, which opposed selling land for real estate, preferring an unbroken forest for timber operations. This history helps explain why Maine still has the largest intact forests in the entire eastern United States.

But Maine’s traditional timber companies are now mostly gone, replaced by a new breed of investment firms and real estate investment trusts, such as Plum Creek, Timbervest, GMO and Brascan. These new firms actively seek opportunities to convert forests into seasonal homes, resorts, golf courses, marinas – or whatever yields the highest profit for distant and generally unknown investors.

Lesson Two: Plum Creek opposed changes in its plan every step of the way, using heavy-handed tactics rarely seen in Maine. Although Plum Creek bought land zoned for forestry, the company made it quite clear that a failure by LURC to approve a rezoning would invite a worse fate: Plum Creek would exploit every loophole in LURC regulations to create “trophy homes” and dispersed development that would make us regret not having approved its plan.

On the side, Plum Creek negotiated a private $35 million land conservation deal. The company maneuvered to make the conservation sale contingent on LURC approval of its development permit. This put enormous pressure on LURC to approve Plum Creek’s development plan.

Lesson Three: Improvements were made in Plum Creek’s plan because people spoke up. People who cherish the Moosehead Lake region demanded changes, with an eloquence and determination that could not be ignored. Plum Creek was forced back to the drawing board three times.

Because people spoke out, significant improvements were achieved. The number of shorefront lots was cut in half; development on remote ponds and some high-priority wildlife areas was dropped; special places like Prong Pond, the western shore of Brassua Lake and the northwest shore of Moosehead Lake were spared; many loopholes in Plum Creek’s proposed conservation easement were removed; and the amount of donated conservation was increased.

But what never changed were the overall scale of the project (975 house lots and 1,050 resort units) and Plum Creek’s demand for a resort at Lily Bay. Although letters to LURC in opposition to Lily Bay development outnumbered letters in support by 1,517 to 7, the commission acceded to Plum Creek’s threat, delivered in September as the final words of their lead attorney: “Without Lily Bay, there is no plan.”

Lesson Four: The process resulted in an improved plan, but not a good plan. Plum Creek’s initial proposal was so outrageously unacceptable that it created a warped view of what a desired outcome should look like. Plum Creek’s April 2005 plan had a pitiful amount of proposed conservation and a shocking scheme for house lots across the entire landscape, leaving some people now thinking: “Well, at least they didn’t get away with that.” That is the wrong standard.

A better plan would be scaled back, with development concentrated near existing communities and no resort development at Lily Bay. A better plan would require Plum Creek to prove to Maine people that it can be trusted not to wreck the Moosehead Lake region, perhaps through a phased approach involving development at Moose Bay, just outside Greenville, first – as a demonstration that Plum Creek actually cares about creating house lots that might attract families with children to the area.

Lesson Five: A final lesson might be found in the recent bankruptcy of the Yellowstone Club in Montana, a private ski area for millionaires created from a Plum Creek land sale. This is a warning about the potential implications of placing the fate of the Moosehead Lake region in the hands of a company that may not be around in 10 years, having moved on after extracting as much value out of Maine as possible.

From these lessons we need to understand that we live in a time when the fate of Maine’s North Woods is as uncertain as ever, and Maine is not yet in a position to ensure that what makes the North Woods so unique – including public access, wildlife habitat, vast unbroken landscapes and remote character – will be preserved for future generations. If we fail to grasp the new context, we will be forced to relearn these lessons, when Plum Creek returns for development on its remaining 500,000 acres, or when the next new landowner decides to extract maximum real estate value from its Maine lands.

Brownie Carson is executive director of the Natural Resources Council of Maine.