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The US National Park Service (NPS) has opened a new park in the vast central interior of Maine. Last Wednesday President Obama designated the Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument on 87,000 acres of land (by comparison, Acadia National Park, located on an island off the coast of Maine, is 49,000 acres). The park land consists of what appears to be three discontiguous pieces, the largest of which borders Baxter State Park (home of Mt. Katahdin, the northern terminus of the Appalachian Trail) on its western side, and the upper reaches of the Penobscot River on the eastern side.
The park is already open to the public.
The land was donated to the US government by Roxanne Quimby, co-founder of Burt's Bees personal care products company. Quimby, a conservationist, spent decades using the proceeds from her business fortune to buy up Maine forest land; her work was controversial because she placed them off limits to loggers, snowmobilers and hunters. Quimby sold her stake in Burt's Bees to Clorox in 2007.
The new park is controversial in central Maine as well. It is a monument rather than a national park, chiefly because creating a National Park requires an act of Congress, while a national monument can be created by executive order. Obama noted, however, that Acadia National Park was originally established as a national monument as well (in 1916; it became a national park three years later).
There was, and remains, substantial local opposition to the bestowing of the land to the NPS, for a mixture of economic and emotional reasons; in particular, the land is now permanently unavailable for commercial logging, and perhaps for rights-of-way by loggers. Prices of nearby real estate may increase, making the economics more difficult for timber companies. Quimby, the donor, was controversial, as already mentioned, as was the unilateral action by Obama in designating the monument. Some fear the imposition of new air pollution controls on local paper mills. There is distrust of the NPS and fear of the emergence of a bureaucracy that will clash with local values.
But the initial harsh reaction seems to have scaled back a bit. Promises have been made to allow access to hunters, snowmobiles, and all terrain vehicles; logging access is probably another long discussion.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by tisI on Tuesday August 30 2016, @03:09PM
Both benign actions done for the good of the country.
Not all that bad considering the last losers we had: 1) started 2 wars and couldn't finish them. 2) Squandered away all national wealth then bankrupted the country. 3) became a convicted war criminal and found guilty of crimes against humanity.
No, "Bama" has done just fine considering the turd he was handed by the republicans when he took office.
"Suppose you were an idiot...and suppose you were a member of Congress...but I repeat myself."
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 31 2016, @12:04AM
1) started 2 wars and couldn't finish them.
Apparently we're 16 years into Bush's term, because we currently have troops in more countries than in 2008
2) Squandered away all national wealth then bankrupted the country.
The National Debt doubled in the last 8 years. You can blame some of it on the last guy, but only a partisan hack would accept no blame for this.
3) became a convicted war criminal and found guilty of crimes against humanity.
By who? Fucking Malaysia? Yeah, that counts. Maybe you want to be a little more worried about the current putt-stop in office, who just handed $400 million in unmarked cash directly to terrorists, then lied about it being a ransom, even though both Iran and the hostages themselves say that it was.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 31 2016, @03:07PM
Maybe you want to be a little more worried about the current putt-stop in office, who just handed $400 million in unmarked cash directly to terrorists, then lied about it being a ransom, even though both Iran and the hostages themselves say that it was.
1) If you ever pay off kidnappers you try to keep it quiet otherwise that will just encourage other people to kidnap more people.
2) I believe the money went to Iran, not terrorists. Iran are as guilty of terrorism as much as the USA are, if not less. They may have slightly worse religious nuts than the USA but they're actually better than the USA's great pal Saudi Arabia.