As “consumers” of the outdoors, we have it pretty good here in Maine. We are able to enjoy the use of privately owned land in most of the state (often for free), which is in stark contrast to many other areas of the country where sportsmen and recreational users are greeted with gates and no-trespassing signs.

We have been able to drive in ever-increasing numbers (thanks to hundreds of private woods roads) through vast tracts of undeveloped land in pursuit of game, hobbies or special interests.

But this comes at a cost. Someone has to maintain the roads and pick up after the slobs who leave behind trash, tear up campsites or drive through brooks and streams.

Champion International Corp., which owns 915,000 acres bound roughly by Route 2 and Route 9 east as far as Dennysville and Edmunds, north to Hersey and west to Katahdin Iron Works, is looking at ways of keeping the tradition of public access to its lands. At the same time, the corporation is trying to figure out a way to promote responsible use and collect some money to offset the expense of an ever-growing number of recreational users.

“The tradition of public recreational use of large tracts of private forest land in Maine is unique in the United States,” said Joel Swanton, manager of forest policy and forest resources. “In the past, Champion has taken a hands-off approach to public use of company lands, as long as those uses didn’t interfere with each other, damage the resource or interfere with forest management activities. That approach is no longer sufficient,” Swanton says.

Increasing public use of the company’s lands is beginning to have a negative environmental impact on the resource, the quality of user experiences and the company’s maintenance budget. Swanton points out that there are 70 million people in the Northeast within a day’s drive of Champion’s lands, and the company’s 2,000-mile-plus road network makes much of it accessible to recreational users. “I guarantee you that we have members of the public using our lands 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. In addition, the state of Maine actively promotes recreational use of private lands by the public.”

Swanton cites damage to roads from inappropriate vehicle use (such as driving on gravel roads during mud season), overuse and damage to campsites and damage to critical fish habitat. “In short, public overuse and abuse is spoiling the very resource that attracts us there in the first place,” Swanton says.

Adding to the company’s maintenance budget is the fact that the state chose not to renew leases on campsites at Deer Lake, Cranberry Lake, Sabao Lake and on the Machias River, so in addition to loss of lease money, the company now must maintain these sites.

How to deal with recreational use of its lands is something the corporation has been wrestling with for the past six to eight years through a redesign of its land management plan.

The company is committed to sustainable forest management standards, and in drawing up its Sustainable Forestry Initiative policy in the mid-1990s it considered not only basic forest sustainability, wildlife habitat protection and water quality preservation, but traditional public use of the resource.

What it has come up with is a new program called Champion Stewards which will “enlist the support and assistance of the public in increasing the level of stewardship of public recreational use on Champion lands.”

Of the program Swanton says: “If we can encourage stewardship it will be easier to maintain [campsites and other publicly used areas] … Voluntary adherence to our public use policies will help us protect the resource for the benefit of both current and future generations. We’d like to establish a partnership with our users to help develop and maintain a high level of stewardship ethic on our land by the using public. We believe most users share our concern for the future of our resource. We hope that they will help educate the other users about the importance of stewardship.”

The program officially was rolled out at last weekend’s sportsmen’s show in Orono.

Membership in the program costs $20, for which you will receive regular mailings from the company, a Champion public use map and a vehicle decal. What the company gets is the beginning of a user database and mailing list through which it can communicate with those who use their land. Swanton says that since he’s begun spreading the word about Champion Stewards the response has been good.

At the outset this will be a voluntary program since there are no manned checkpoints on Champion land. Access, even in mud season, has been free for all. But the company has begun to gate some roads in sensitive areas and a wider use of gates may be in the not-too-distant future. Other gates have been installed in conjunction with the Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife to prevent vehicle access to some sensitive fisheries. The gates near Great Pond, for example, have been set up to keep vehicles away from King and Rift ponds at certain times of the year to protect the fishery. You can park near the gates and walk to these ponds, but for many the gate is incentive enough to find another pond more easily accessible by vehicle.

In other places, gates may be open with notices posted asking drivers voluntarily to stay off soft roads during mud season. Based on compliance the company will decide whether to lock or leave open these gates.

I hope the company’s stewardship program works, but the cynic in me says it won’t. I won’t be surprised if Champion adopts a gate and fee system like that used by North Maine Woods Inc. or Great Northern Paper Co. in the West Branch area, or ultimately they simply adopt a locked gate system like you see in western parts of this state around the Rangeley region and in New Hampshire (where you can walk in).

Having to pay a small fee for camping in Maine’s woods shouldn’t be too hard to swallow. Well, maybe a little for some, since up to now camping on Champion land has been free. But elsewhere spending a night on someone’s land costs you anywhere from $4 to more than $30 at some private campgrounds.

And there can’t be anyone out there who can say they haven’t seen the writing on the wall. Having visited a fair number of remote campsites on public and private lands in this state in the past I can tell you it’s not hard to find evidence of abuse — from trash filled fire rings to live tree cutting to campsite and trail sprawl to beer cans on lake bottoms. Some people just don’t get it, and they’re the ones causing the damage for which we’ll all pay.

Jeff Strout’s column is published on Thursdays. He can be reached at 990-8202 or by e-mail at jstrout@bangornews.infi.net.