AUGUSTA, Maine — A bill that would limit presidential ability to create a north woods national monument in Maine will get its first hearing on Wednesday, officials said Tuesday.
A looming snowstorm might force a postponement, but the Joint Standing Committee on State and Local Government is due to hear the bill offered by Gov. Paul LePage and sponsored by State Rep. Stephen Stanley, D-Medway, at the Cross Building, Room 214, at 9 a.m.
LePage’s bill would require landowners transferring property to the federal government to insert a “reverter” clause in the deed that would put the property back in the original owner’s hands if it was designated a national monument.
“I think the reason we like it is that it stops this monument thing dead in its tracks if it passes,” said Bob Meyers, executive director of the Maine Snowmobile Association, on Tuesday. “We’re trying to protect the sovereignty of the people of Maine.”
The Maine Forest Products Council and Sportsman’s Alliance of Maine are among the groups that will attend, testify or have sent letters in support of Stanley’s bill, Meyers said.
The Natural Resources Council is among several pro-monument groups that will attend to oppose it, said David Farmer, spokesman for leading national park and monument proponent Lucas St. Clair.
Farmer has said that the bill’s legality is questionable.
“The governor is using all the power of the executive branch to do anything he can to stop private landowners from doing what they want with their own property,” Farmer said Tuesday.
St. Clair has been working since 2012 to help his mother, Roxanne Quimby, donate about 87,500 acres of family-owned land to the National Park Service for the creation of a national park this year. He switched to lobbying for a national monument about four months ago, saying a monument had a greater chance of success and could be a stepping stone to a park.
Millinocket businesswoman Marsha Donahue, a monument supporter, and John Raymond, a monument opponent and former Millinocket Town Council member, said they had considered attending the hearing but declined partly due to expected weather conditions.
The National Weather Service issued a winter storm warning for far northern sections of Aroostook County, effective 1 a.m. Wednesday. Those areas could see up to 14 inches of snow. Areas farther south could see up to 6 inches or icy road conditions caused by rainfall.
The meeting will be broadcast live at maine.gov, the committee’s clerk said.