For the past 10 years, I have fought against a national park in the Katahdin area. I was concerned that federal control of land effectively would prohibit the operation of the mills or other industrial businesses that might come to the area. I feared that if we didn’t hang on to what we loved, it would be taken from us.
These days, there are no mills in operation nor any rational belief that the last standing mill will ever run again.
This has caused me to reconsider the entire issue based on where we are today. I now believe a national park could be a viable asset for economic development in the area, if it is done right.
I still have reservations on a few points.
The recent issue with Alaska being blindsided by a proposal to ban energy exploration on 12 million acres of land that has been designated as a wilderness gives me pause and concern with federal control in Maine and in the Katahdin area.
President Barack Obama presented this proposal with no word or consultation with Alaska state leaders or residents.
As with the Alaskans and many Mainers, I am uncomfortable with decisions being made for our area by people who know little or nothing of what their decisions will do to the people living in the area or to their livelihoods.
I believe the people whose lives are most impacted by decisions should, at the very least, have a say or be involved with the process.
Meanwhile, the national park issue has fractured our community in a way that it will not heal until the park issue is resolved.
Seeking solutions, I learned of U.S. Rep. Rob Bishop’s Public Lands Initiative for his state, Utah. Bishop listened to business owners who told him their businesses depended on recreation assets on public lands. They would like to have a voice in the decision process, they told him. You can imagine business owners dependent on Acadia National Park here in Maine expressing a similar desire during the 2013 government shutdown.
A similar bill has been proposed within Utah by state Rep. Steve Eliason. It would allow a transfer of management of the Bureau of Land Management’s Little Sahara Recreation Area to Utah State Parks.
I have also learned that the secretary of interior has the authority to delegate management.
We keep hearing how a national park could be an economic engine for the area, and I believe it could be — if it’s done right.
We have a lot of work to do here in the Katahdin area, but until this national park issue is settled once and for all, we won’t have the unity needed to be successful.
The region and the people living here have been on an emotional and economic rollercoaster for too long. We have been kicked around and put down in the media so often that it will take time to shed the negative shadow that has hovered over the area and show what we are made of.
We have lived a more removed life than some, and what used to be community spirit — under the Great Northern Paper Co. order — alienated us from the rest of the world without us even realizing it.
Well, it is no longer community spirit; it is seen, sometimes rightly so, as attitude. Now that we know how others see us, we can either work on improving how we interact with new residents, businesses and visitors, or we can watch the towns die.
We have trusted, and we have been taken advantage of. Bitterness and finger-pointing will not change or fix that, nor will hateful bashing from others.
Perhaps legislation with wording that includes an agreement to permanently allow Katahdin-area towns and their residents dependent on public lands a voice in managing the lands that affect their lives directly could ease concerns and encourage a middle ground.
Everyone living or doing business in the Katahdin area has the opportunity to help resolve this gridlock holding back economic development and unity by making a choice based on the current situation, not the past.
One way or the other, please stand up and be counted so we can have direction on moving forward as united communities. If we can find a middle ground, we all will thrive.
Kathy Gagnon lives in Medway. She was born and raised in Millinocket.