Nearly 1,000 new houses and two resorts, as Plum Creek Timber Co. allows for in a rezoning request for more than 400,000 acres it owns, would naturally add money to the Moosehead Lake area economy. To get that economic benefit – and Maine has long grappled with ways to boost rural economies – the question is how best to get more people here while protecting the natural resources that enticed them in the first place. Maine, Vacationland and the nation’s second-home capital, doesn’t really know.

The most stunning finding in an economic analysis of the proposal by Professor Charles Colgan has nothing to do with Plum Creek. “Unfortunately, there are no measures in Maine of the number of visitors to the region currently, nor is there any current data on the spending patterns of hiking, fishing, hunting, hunting or snowmobiling visitors. In fact, the general field of recreational use and spending patters is very poorly understood in most of Maine,” he writes to explain why his estimates of tourist spending are highly speculative.

This is appalling since tourism is the state’s leading industry. Worse, the governor and other state leaders have convened summits and commissioned reports on ecotourism, but that state still has little idea of what this encompasses and what it might mean to the state.

The Plum Creek proposal forces this discussion onto the fast track, whether the state is ready or not. It also highlights the need for policy-makers to broaden their horizons.

In his study, Professor Colgan gathers data from Maine and other states on the spending patterns of hikers, snowmobilers, hunters, anglers and other recreationists. People who partake in these activities may visit some aspect of the development proposed by Plum Creek.

However, a different brand of visitor is likely to come to the proposed resorts and spend much more money than the tourists in Professor Colgan’s analysis. At a resort recently built on former Plum Creek land in Washington, overnight packages start at $185. At similar facilities, visitors spend extra money to go on guided fly-fishing trips, horseback rides or even hikes.

If locals and state officials want a lot more money spent in the Moosehead region, it needs these people.

The Plum Creek proposal, which includes 975 house lots scattered from Lily Bay to Long Pond, goes well beyond ecotourism. It also includes land for industrial development, hiking and snowmobile trails and conservation easements and working forest designation for more than 380,000 acres of Plum Creek land.

The larger issue is meshing Maine’s desire to encourage more people to spend more money in the region, whether they just visit or live there. To do this, local residents and state officials need to know where the region is now and where it wants to go. To clarify the situation, the state needs to quickly assess what resources are the most important in bringing visitors and new residents to the region. It must then decide how best to protect and capitalize on those resources.