So if Ken Olson, head of Allagash Partners (the latest in a litany of so-called citizen groups designed to stymie public access to the Allagash Wilderness Waterway), is to be believed the state had better act quickly to mitigate the effects of Churchill Dam. But – and it’s a big but – it should do so without legislative oversight or public scrutiny.

After all, since his aim is to quickly shut out all but a few of the Allagash’s current recreational users, a comprehensive public airing of mitigation strategies might prove to be an irritating

little snag. We certainly can’t allow representational government to get in the way of any plan to create a private playground for Olson and his cohorts.

Olson’s Sept. 3 commentary in the Bangor Daily News illustrates this point nicely: “… legislative involvement [in the mitigation process] will only politicize what should be serious, efficient, short-lived negotiations – the Allagash isn’t the West Bank of the Jordan.”

Ah, but what Olson ignores is the simple fact that only in oppressive regions of the world are such weighty decisions made off the cuff by a select few and without the benefit of scrutiny by the appropriate governing bodies and the public. One must question the agenda

of any group that advocates an end-run around the citizenry or the bodies elected to represent it.

And speaking of public scrutiny and oversight, where was Olson or any of his “return to the wild” crowd when Churchill Dam was proposed, funded through referendum or under construction? Wouldn’t his concerns about the “adverse effect” of the dam been timely prior to its being built?

Plainly speaking, Churchill Dam has become the red herring of the current debate over whether to increase, decrease or maintain current levels of access to the Allagash Wilderness Waterway. It’s very telling that Olson and his supporters aren’t advocating for the removal of the dams at Telos and Chamberlain so as to restore not only the Allagash’s wild character but also its natural direction of water flow.

In their effort to portray state management of the Allagash as reckless, Olson and others have latched on to Churchill Dam as a means to whip up a fury over their perceived mismanagement of the waterway.

The larger issue, and one which Olson is unlikely to sign his name to in any newspaper, is really about who will be allowed to make use of the waterway. Olson and others hope to include within any mitigation plan that the state might offer a ban on day use, limitation of access points, and probably a ban on all motors within the boundaries of the Allagash.

Lost in the effort by Olson and others to ban day use, outboard motors and limit access is the real impact of such actions. If implemented, these measures will effectively shove out most of the sportsmen and outdoor enthusiasts who have lived on or near the Allagash for years. It is these people who have been stewards of the waterway for years and will remain so long after Olson has renamed his friends group to keep step with the next item on his agenda.

Unlike Olson, I spent my childhood and young adulthood either fishing or camping on the Allagash or serving as one of its rangers. And also unlike Olson, my father, both grandfathers and most of my uncles spent all or part of their lives on the Allagash as guides, wardens or forest and park rangers.

These men, like many who spent their lives on the Allagash, love the waterway and certainly don’t advocate its exploitation. And unlike Olson and his cohorts, they don’t have the luxury of dedicating a week or more to make use of the “one access point – one exit point” plan now touted by some residents of the Other Maine and points south. Day use and motors grant traditional Allagash enthusiasts the flexibility to enjoy a segment of the wilderness from which they have derived both a livelihood and an appreciation for nature.

For all of Olson’s heated rhetoric about Churchill Dam and the supposed mismanagement of the Allagash he cannot hide his true goal: an Allagash Wilderness Waterway designed for and made available to a select few. And now that some Washington bureaucrat has managed to board a plane bound for Maine and spout off a few comments about a concrete dam, Olson believes he has the ammunition for just such an exclusionary vision.

He just doesn’t want you or me to know about it until it’s all said and done. Wait a minute … isn’t a lack of timely notice supposedly at the heart of Olson’s beef with Churchill Dam? It would seem hypocrisy is just another annoying little snag on the way to a private playground for the few.

Shawn O’Leary, a graduate student at the University of Chicago’s Irving B. Harris School for Public Policy Studies, is a native of Allagash and a former NEWS reporter and Allagash Wilderness Waterway ranger. He currently works for the Environmental Law and Policy Center in Chicago.