One week before two towns vote on whether they would support a proposed national park in the Katahdin region, opponents of the plan were raising concerns about the park’s actual size and who owns the land touted for its creation.
One of those opponents was Peter Triandafillou, vice president of Huber Resources Corp., who said his company hasn’t sold any land to be used for a proposed national park, so he was surprised to see about 6,200 acres of its holdings on a park proponent’s map within the proposal’s 150,000-acre boundaries.
“Anybody can draw a line on a map. But from my perspective, I am not pleased about being included in a project that I am not a part of and don’t necessarily favor,” Triandafillou, whose land management company grows trees for the forest products industry, said. “It would be highly disruptive to my business to have a large federal presence [a national park] right there. Parks and that industrial business really don’t mix all that well.”
Triandafillou’s concern is at the heart of two looming, nonbinding town votes and a debate over the future of the region. Namely, how big would the park be, based on the land its proponents actually own, and how would neighboring stakeholders be affected if it comes to pass, especially if it is smaller than planned?
The 150,000-acre figure used to describe the park and recreation area by proponents actually is the upper limit of its size, not an actual measure of land in hand for it, they said. Meanwhile, park opponents said park advocates are misleading the public by overstating the amount of land available to be donated to the federal government for the project.
Leading park proponent Lucas St. Clair, through his company Elliotsville Plantation Inc., owns about 87,500 acres within the proposed park and recreation area boundaries, both sides agree. That’s about 66,000 acres within the park area and 21,500 in the multi-use recreational zone. The land is situated east of Baxter State Park.
Park opponents are citing press releases and other data the company typically provide that describe the project as 150,000 acres as disingenuous.
“What’s disturbing is that Lucas and company have been acting all along as if they own this [150,000 acres of] land,” said Bob Meyers, executive director of the Maine Snowmobile Association, one of several organizations opposing the park. “There’s quite a bit of due diligence that hasn’t been done [on the proposal] and instead we’re treated to a lot of happy talk.
“All of their promotional material talks about a 75,000-acre park and a 75,000-acre recreation area. Their ownership doesn’t equal that, and no amount of spin will change it,” Meyers added.
St. Clair spokesman David Farmer dismissed the notion the plan has been misrepresented. He called it an “attempt to distract people from the job creation opportunities in the region” offered by the park. Proponents cite a study commissioned by EPI showing that about 400 to 1,000 jobs could be created if the plan were to become reality.
The argument between park supporters and opponents over acreage EPI presently owns shows how the park controversy is heating up. It comes in the countdown to nonbinding park referendums in Medway and East Millinocket on June 23 and June 25, respectively.
The Natural Resources Council of Maine had volunteers go door to door, lobbying for the park Saturday in East Millinocket and Medway. Park opponents will hold an anti-park rally Thursday in Medway, hours before the first formal debate on the park starts at 6 p.m. at Schenck High School in East Millinocket.
Set for 1 p.m. at the Gateway Inn off Route 157, the rally will feature business representatives, Maine Forest Service Director Doug Denico and speakers from several groups, who will discuss how the park is a job killer, according to Ted O’Meara, spokesman for the Maine Woods Coalition.
The debate will feature St. Clair and Kristen Brengel from the National Parks Conservation Association debating park opponents Meyers and Patrick Strauch, executive director of the Maine Forest Products Council. The son of entrepreneur Roxanne Quimby, St. Clair assumed her role as leading park proponent in December 2012.
The argument over acreage also illustrates both sides’ different approaches to the proposal.
St. Clair’s campaign has approached the park proposal as a kind of concept plan pitched to a potential investor, vague on many details but in his view rich in potential. Park opponents want details more often found during planning board reviews and say the lack of them illustrates the unrealistic nature of the proposal.
St. Clair’s organization has said the details typically available in a finished plan — what roads the park would use, what communities will benefit most, exactly how many jobs would be created — would be fleshed out in the federal bill needed to create a park.
Park opponents call this an evasion, and the delegation — the people who would be writing the legislation creating the park — largely remains silent. U.S. Rep. Bruce Poliquin and U.S. Sen. Susan Collins, both Republicans, said Wednesday they continue to monitor the park debate. U.S. Sen. Angus King, I-Maine, remains “genuinely undecided” on the issue, a spokesman said.
King effectively resurrected the debate when he asked Millinocket officials for their requirements of a park, should legislation be drafted. Millinocket officials, who oppose the park, disclosed King’s request on Feb. 7.
The 150,000-acre limit or boundary is a response to King’s request and to concerns expressed by East Millinocket and Medway officials — and park opponents — the park might morph into a 3.2 million-acre park proposal offered in the 1990s.
Farmer said park “growth would only be if they say they [landowners] want to sell the property” maxing out at 150,000 acres.
Farmer also said he believes the park and recreation area would generate the same economic benefits at its present size as it would at 150,000 acres.
Land within the 150,000-acre boundaries includes some property owned by the state’s largest forest-products industry firms. Maine Revenue Services lists Prentiss & Carlisle, Gardner Land Management, Webber Timberlands and Huber among the companies owning land in or adjoining the two zones.
Meyers doubted they all would agree to sell their land and expressed fears the park service eventually would force them to sell. Triandafillou said he had no intention of selling Huber’s land. Like many park opponents, he feared the park would do harm to his business by bringing with it increased federal regulations.
“It limits options,” Triandafillou said. “You can argue that a park would be a willing seller and buyer of land. But once you draw a line around [a park], it could have a negative impact. It will certainly be a deterrent to further [forest products industry] development.”
Proponents have said the park and recreation area could co-exist well with existing industries and be significantly influenced by an advisory board consisting of local representatives.
Triandafillou, who runs a wood merchandising and handling facility near the proposed park, said he can see the park restricting his ability to run logging trucks from his lands. To gain access to Millinocket, Triandafillou said, St. Clair or the National Park Service would have to expand the park’s right of way over his property from logging trucks only to all forms of traffic.
Farmer disagreed that the park service would restrict logging-truck traffic and that Huber owns the only land a road into Millinocket could take. He said he knows of many examples of logging operations around the country that “go right up to park boundaries.”
“When in close proximity to a park, if you propose a significant industrial development, you know there are going to be all kinds of people who wouldn’t have shown up before who are going to come and protest it,” Triandafillou said.
Triandafillou said he believes that, with its proximity to the Golden Road, rail lines, hydroelectric generation facilities and Interstate 95, Millinocket and the Katahdin region remain “a strategic place that could probably be redeveloped for value-added manufacturing.”
“It is within a day’s drive of some of the largest markets on the planet,” he said.