After digging in its heels over the management of the Allagash Wilderness Waterway, the state appears to have softened its stance in its battle with environmentalists over John’s Bridge and Churchill Dam.

Access to the 92-mile northern Maine river has been a major sticking point, with environmental groups demanding fewer access points and sportsmen wanting more.

In a draft agreement with the National Park Service, the Maine Department of Conservation has offered to close down one access point and relocate another at John’s Bridge, which has become a symbol of the controversy over the meaning of the word “wilderness.” The fight over access largely has centered on the area around the bridge, which crosses the waterway between Eagle and Churchill lakes.

Two years ago, the state proposed to build a parking lot, road and trail to the water at the long-closed access point. After several meetings, the Land Use Regulation Commission approved the plan.

The Natural Resources Council of Maine, the state’s largest environmental group, challenged the decision in court, but the state’s position ultimately was upheld.

Now, as part of the draft agreement with the park service, the state is committing itself to redesign the John’s Bridge launch to keep the road and parking lot outside the 500-foot restricted zone that lines both sides of the river. That means that those who want to put boats into the water would have to walk more than 500 feet – albeit with the aid of a dolly – to haul their canoes, versus 150 feet under the original state plan.

The draft agreement is meant to mitigate the fact that the state rebuilt a dam on Churchill Lake, near the center of the waterway, without a federal permit. Because the Allagash is part of the national wild and scenic rivers system, any proposed projects requiring a permit from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers necessitate a review by the park service. Such a review never took place, because the state never applied for the permit.

Ken Olson, the man who alerted the park service to the fact the dam had been rebuilt without a permit, praised most of the terms of the draft Friday. The most positive development, he said, is that the state for the first time publicly has acknowledged that the National Wild and Scenic Rivers Act pertains to the Allagash.

That signals “a change of tone in the Department of Conservation,” said Olson, who founded a group, Allagash Partners, to advocate management of the waterway more closely mirroring what he believes was the intent of lawmakers who created the wilderness designation.

While the draft largely has satisfied environmentalists, it has angered some sportsmen.

“We’re basically trying to scuttle the agreement,” said George Smith, director of the Sportsman’s Alliance of Maine. To do so, he has scheduled a meeting with the governor and contacted legislators and members of the state’s congressional delegation.

The alliance is upset, Smith said, because the efforts to address the Churchill Dam violations should not have affected other spots on the waterway such as John’s Bridge.

Forcing people to carry their canoes 600 feet will result in people illegally launching their boats from John’s Bridge, the practice the state was trying to stop when it devised its launch plan.

Smith also is upset by what he views as federal intrusion into the management of the Allagash. He already has ordered bumper stickers saying: “Keep the feds out of the Allagash.”

Cathy Johnson of NRCM praised the agreement. “It’s the first step in making good on promises that were made in 1970,” she said.

That’s the year the Allagash was added to the national wild and scenic river system as a state-managed waterway. Under the terms of the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act, the Allagash was supposed to remain “generally inaccessible except by trail.”

Since that time, environmentalists contend, motor vehicle access points have proliferated from two to 14.

To add insult to injury, environmentalists contend, the state has acted as if the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act does not exist. They expressed pleasure at seeing references to the act in the draft agreement, which has yet to be signed by both parties.

Dawn Gallagher, deputy conservation commissioner, said the state tried to balance the interests of the parties involved while keeping the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act in mind in its turnaround on John’s Bridge.

Gallagher said it was significant that the park service, through the draft, now has recognized that the new John’s Bridge launch site can be built. The park service could have said that no new access point could be built there.

She said the agreement did not represent a shift in state policy.

In addition to the changes at John’s Bridge to which it has given preliminary agreement, the conservation department has said it will block motorized access to the Bissonette Bridge, north of Churchill Lake. The bridge itself now is closed, but was used by some to gain access to the waterway. The state agreed to exclude vehicles from what now will be turned into a pedestrian trail to the waterway.

At Churchill Dam, the state has given preliminary agreement to relocating the parking lot so it will not be visible from the waterway or the dam. It also has said it will plant vegetation to create a more natural setting.

Troubling to sportsmen but pleasing to environmentalists, the draft also calls for a review of the controversial 1999 management plan that now governs the Allagash.

Conservationists say the management plan put too much emphasis on easy access, while sportsmen say the plan gives too much to paddlers and not enough to fishermen and others who use only a small portion of the waterway.

Gallagher said the review will focus primarily on the access issue, with her department endeavoring to develop different standards for trail and motor vehicle access. Under the terms of the agreement, the state will set “an appropriate limit to the number of road access points.”

Gallagher said she could not speculate on whether the number of access points would be decreased.

As for the fear that the federal government is expanding its oversight of the Allagash, Gallagher said the National Park Service has had the authority to review the waterway’s management since 1966, when it was established. The Churchill snafu simply brought that oversight to the forefront, she said.

While the state soon hopes to sign a final agreement with the park service, the draft agreement will be reviewed later this month by the Allagash Advisory Committee, a group of citizens that advises the conservation department.

The department also plans to hold a public hearing on the agreement in early January 2002.

When the agreement is signed, the state hopes the park service will advise the Army Corps of Engineers to issue the permit for the new dam after the fact.