Social Networking Site Pushes Petition for a "Maine North Woods" National Park
A petition drive is under way to build support for a new national park in northern Maine. Photo by Restore the North Woods.
In a refreshing change from business as usual, there's a growing groundswell of citizen support for a new national park to be anchored in the north woods of Maine.
This is refreshing because oftentimes it seems that a member of Congress, responding to a relatively small constituency, introduces legislation to add a unit to the National Park System. Well, the folks behind the movement to "Restore the North Woods" of Maine have taken to Facebook to drive a petition for the envisioned national park. Before they forward the petition to Congress, they hope to have millions of signatures from across the country.
If created as envisioned the proposed "Maine North Woods National Park" would be bigger than Yellowstone National Park, and just smaller than Death Valley National Park, at 3.2 million acres.
The Maine Woods wilderness of the mid-1800s made such a deep impression on Henry David Thoreau that he envisioned it becoming a “national preserve.” Today, thanks to a unique convergence of events, we have a second chance to realize Thoreau’s vision by creating a new Maine Woods National Park and Preserve.Although the primeval forest has been diminished by a century of logging and is threatened by development through massive land sales, the 10-million acre heart of the Maine Woods still survives as the greatest undeveloped region east of the Rockies. If the people of Maine and America act soon, we can restore this magnificent landscape to health and build a sustainable way of life for the people of this region.
The proposed park, which would envelop the Moosehead-Katahdin region of Maine, would "restore native wildlife and ecosystems, protect the headwaters of Maine’s major rivers, provide wilderness recreation on an Alaskan scale, diversify the boom-and-bust local economy, shift control from corporations back to the public," say those behind the movement.
The area would be rife with recreational opportunities, from paddling mazes of lakes and rivers to climbing mountains, fishing, hiking, and backcountry skiing. Hunting also would be allowed in portions, under the proposal. Protected by this suggested park would be moose, bear, lynx, possibly wolves, and even fisheries important to Atlantic salmon.
Part of the concern of those pushing for the national park is that the Plum Creek Timber Company envisions sprawling developments of second homes in the region that would be devastating to the natural environment in the Moosehead Lake region.
As for the petition, the language is quite simple and to the point:
The U.S. Congress authorize the National Park Service to conduct a study of the feasibility of creating a new National Park & Preserve in the Moosehead-Katahdin region of Maine. This study should assess the feasibility of creating a park and preserve, consider a range of alternative actions, be conducted in cooperation with other government agencies, and ensure broad public participation.
At last check there were 1,751 signatures on the petition. Why don't you drop by the site and add your name?
Comments
Lloyd S. (not verified)
I tried to sign the online petition, but you have to have or create a Facebook account to do it, and I don't want one.
Kurt Repanshek
Hmmm, that's definitely a problem. Perhaps we should offer the petition here at the Traveler....
RangerLady (not verified)
I would sign that petition in a heartbeat. Sometimes the NPCA gets petitions like that going. How about we also include Blackwater Falls National Park in that petition. That's a beautiful area and I would love to see it preserved. I know that has been talked about for a long time as well..
Kurt Repanshek
Blackwater Falls? You mean the one in West Virginia that's a state park?
Anonymous (not verified)
I have been retired 23 yrs and have traveled across the US many times with 4wd and a camper. I find national forests much more people friendly than national parks.
A national forest can have great environment friendly camp grounds, allow for local residents activities ,and prevent huge controversial housing developments without the restrictions and operating costs that a national park must have.
Some one with the necessary clout should be looking at this alternative
Frank_C
I believe this quote ("national preserve") has been taken entirely out of context.
First, remember Thoreau probably wouldn't advocate federal land management. (He wrote in Civil Disobedience: I HEARTILY ACCEPT the motto, — "That government is best which governs least"; and I should like to see it acted up to more rapidly and systematically. Carried out, it finally amounts to this, which also I believe, — "That government is best which governs not at all...".)
Then review The Maine Woods. Search for "preserve"; the results are enlightening.
Thoreau writes on page 105: "These are not the artificial forests of an English king, -- a royal preserve merely. Here [ in the Maine wilderness] prevail no forest laws but those of nature."
Here Thoreau looks down on a preserve as being inferior to true wilderness where no laws, except natural laws, exist.
Thoreau again references royal preserves in the passage from which some selectively pull the phrase "national preserve". Here's the entire passage from page 205:
Thoreau again alludes to royal English reserves, and treats them disdainfully. He references the Revolution against State ownership of land and envisions reserves as being truly free places, where humans' laws and governance do not encroach. It's the opposite of civilized; it's truly wild.
The "national preserves" Thoreau envisioned are not those ruled and regulated by the federal government. They were places where no law or government existed, except natural law.
I really wish the left would stop hijacking Thoreau's libertarian words and phrases for their statist ends.
Anonymous (not verified)
Seriously Frank, give it a rest....
Jimi Whitten (not verified)
I signed and invited ALL my fiends to sign - I hope you see fit to do the same.
RangerLady (not verified)
Blackwater Falls is a state park but a lot of the area surrounding it is National Forest. The USFS was underfire a few years ago for wanting to clear-cut parts of that forest which holds several endangered species.
Maria (not verified)
Frank -- you're forgetting that Thoreau wasn't around when strip malls and clear-cutting were ELIMINATING the lands that he held so sacred. I'd like to see him let Walden Pond be bulldozed instead of protected.....
It's not for a king -- it's for the entire nation to enjoy when it's protected.
And you want to talk wild? It's not "wild" when it's being CUT DOWN.
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