Leading opponents of the proposed national park and recreation area in the Katahdin region on Tuesday asked the family foundation pushing the park proposal to abandon its efforts.
In a letter to Roxanne Quimby and her son, Lucas St. Clair, the Maine Woods Coalition called on the pair to “apply your substantial land holdings and financial resources to more realistic and meaningful economic development in the region.”
As for specifics around “more realistic and meaningful economic development in the region,” the letter was silent.
This highlights the major problem for the Katahdin region and for those who oppose a national park because they fear it would have a detrimental effect on the area’s economy: They have little to show for a “realistic and meaningful economic development” strategy.
We agree that the debate around the region’s economic future should go beyond a singular focus on a national park to the exclusion of all else. Whether Quimby and St. Clair continue to push their park proposal or drop it, Katahdin-region leaders need to guide residents through serious conversations about their area’s future.
As the Maine Woods Coalition letter points out, “the Millinocket area still has one of the best locations for wood manufacturing in the region, including millions of acres of forest land, a vast private road network, hydropower, and rail and highway access.”
What’s lacking is a strategy to translate those assets into meaningful economic development in the absence of the paper mills that drove the region’s economy for decades. The towns of Millinocket, East Millinocket and Medway collaborate little to provide services; they do even less in the way of planning for the future.
They can’t count on a large employer setting up shop and hiring hundreds of residents.
What they can do is take steps to rebrand and market their region as a tourist destination for nature lovers or as a region that’s home to some of the best wood craftsmanship in the nation. They can pool whatever resources they can muster — they might even consider asking Quimby and St. Clair to contribute — to support small businesses focused on innovative wood products or tourism with seed grants and research and development allowances.
The region’s economy is more likely to grow in small increments than in giant leaps. An economic development strategy needs to reflect that likelihood.
Perhaps, in actually sketching out an economic development vision for the area, residents will discover a park fits into their plans. Maybe they’ll discover it doesn’t.
Either way, it’s fruitless to expend energy on defeating a park proposal when that time is better spent developing an economic vision.
