MILLINOCKET, Maine — As many as 5,200 people dialed in to a telephone town hall event on the proposed 150,000 acre-national park and recreation area on Wednesday night, making it the largest event North Woods park proponents have ever hosted, organizers said Thursday.
“We are really impressed with the number of people who took time out to call in and listen. We had hundreds of folks who wanted to ask a question,” said David Farmer, former spokesman for Gov. John Baldacci and present representative for leading park advocate Lucas St. Clair.
Farmer said, however, that not all 5,200 callers listened to the entire hourlong presentation. The more likely number representing those who listened to the program all the way through is probably 1,000 or fewer, he said.
“People would call in, listen for a little while, and we can’t really tell for how long they stayed on,” Farmer said.
The proposal includes a 75,000-acre national park and a 75,000-acre recreation area that would be located east of Baxter State Park on land owned by the family of entrepreneur Roxanne Quimby and St. Clair, her son, by 2016, the National Park Service‘s 100-year anniversary.
Proponents said a park would generate 400 to 1,000 jobs, be maintained by $40 million in private endowments, diversify a Katahdin region economy devastated by the closure of two paper mills, be heavily controlled by local leaders and coexist with existing industries. They say that the park service would draw worldwide tourist support and that the recreation area would guarantee continued if not improved sportsmen’s access in the region.
Opponents have said they fear a park would bring more federal authority into Maine, cramp the state’s forest products industries with tighter air-quality restrictions, generate only low-paying jobs, restrict sportsmen’s access to the Katahdin region and eventually morph into a 3.2-million-acre park plan offered in the 1990s.
They also express skepticism about the positive economic benefits that proponents say the park would create, doubt that the land is attractive enough for a park or that the federal government would heed local concerns. Proponents have said that initial land reviews by the park service have been very favorable and the endowments would pay for park maintenance.
The telephone town hall event featured many detailed and lengthy answers. Some callers sounded like they opposed the park and wouldn’t change their minds, but many seemed interested in hearing out St. Clair.
One caller who identified herself as Nancy from East Millinocket asked St. Clair to address “the apprehension, distrust and basic fear of the federal government” among many local residents.
St. Clair said that was the most common question he gets.
While there “can be challenges working with federal agencies,” federal laws can address residents’ concerns to create “a park where we don’t have to fear” federal oversight, he said. The park service also has an “incredible track record managing and enhancing the crown jewels of our democracy,” he added.
“The beauty of the legislative process is that we can make laws that can become guarantees,” St. Clair said.
Another caller asked why St. Clair hadn’t considered creating a national forest instead of another national park, given that those often also are working forests. Maine, St. Clair said, already has many working forests and a national forest. The park service does all that national forests do, plus it allows “historical interpretation” of lands, their uses and the people who populate or populated them.
The park service brings “the history of that place alive,” St. Clair said. “There is no other place [in Maine] except Acadia [National Park] that really does that.”
Katahdin Area Chamber of Commerce President Gail Fanjoy hosted the telephone town hall event, which also featured Ben Alexander, an economist who discussed the assumptions made with the park’s economic impact estimates.
Fanjoy said she found the work challenging but fun.
“Just being in the thick of it behind the scenes was very frenetic and chaotic. I had a lot of duties other than saying what I said. There were a lot of screens to look at,” Fanjoy said. “It was very frenetic but kind of fun, and the feedback I received so far has been great. I would do it again.”