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The Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument was created a decade ago when then-President Barack Obama signed an executive order. The 85,563 acres for the monument were given to the federal government, along with an endowment to maintain the monument, by Roxanne Quimby and her family.
When Quimby began buying land in Maine’s woods — often from timber companies — and proposed first a national park and then the monument, she was often met with vitriol and venom.
A decade after the monument’s official designation, that anger has largely subsided. It is, in part, a testament to the benefits — economic and otherwise — that the conserved land has brought to a region that has been hit hard by the shuttering of paper mills and the accompanying loss of jobs. The monument, of course, is not a panacea or replacement for those longtime economic engines. But it does showcase and encourage visitors to explore the woods and waters and history and culture that helped shape the state’s history for centuries.
It has already brought new people to the region and spurred additional land conservation and recreational opportunities. It has also provided a needed model for collaboration with Indigenous communities, particularly when federal reserves include traditional Indigenous homelands. The monument’s new Tekαkαpimək Contact Station, for example, introduces visitors to the landscape through the lens of the area’s Indigenous people, the Wabanaki nations.
One of the strongest endorsements of the monument are plans, which have passed in the U.S. Senate and await further action in the U.S. House, to allow the federal government to acquire additional land for the preserve, namely to allow an additional access road from Millinocket.
The bill was sponsored by Sen. Angus King and co-sponsored by Sen. Susan Collins. Before the monument’s designation, only Rep. Chellie Pingree publicly supported its creation.
That bill, which could help spur additional economic activity in the Millinocket area, should be passed and signed into law.
The monument also won praise from Ryan Zinke, secretary of the Interior Department during the first Trump administration. Zinke toured the monument in 2017 when the administration was considering scaling back numerous national monuments. He ultimately did not recommend shrinking the new Maine monument, but he did suggest management changes to encourage traditional uses, such as fishing and hunting. Both are allowed in the monument, although hunting is restricted to a portion of the land.
“I’m an optimist,” Zinke said during the June 2017 visit. “You talk to all sides and you find that everyone loves the land. Everyone wants access, everyone loves traditional use.”
The love for the land may be growing. Visitation to the monument is relatively small, but may be growing. Annual visits have averaged about 38,000 people over the past six years. However, visits this June were nearly double those in June of last year.
The visitors spend an estimated $2.7 million a year in the Katahdin region, according to National Park Service analysis. That’s a small fraction of the economic impact of Acadia National Park, but it can be an important addition to the region.
Ten years after its creation, we harken back to the executive order that designated the monument.
“Katahdin Woods and Waters’s daytime scenery is awe-inspiring, from the breadth of its mountain-studded landscape, to the channels of its free-flowing streams with their rapids, falls, and quiet water, to its vantages for viewing the Mount Katahdin massif, the ‘greatest mountain.’ The area’s night skies rival this experience, glittering with stars and planets and occasional displays of the aurora borealis, in this area of the country known for its dark sky,” the document signed to honor the 100th anniversary of the National Park System said.
“Katahdin Woods and Waters is an exceptional example of the rich and storied Maine Woods, enhanced by its location in a larger protected landscape, and thus would be a valuable addition to the nation’s natural, historical, and cultural heritage conserved and enjoyed in the National Park System,” it continued.
Ten years later, it has indeed proven to be a valuable addition to the country’s portfolio of protected and treasured lands.
